Sunday, March 15, 2009

The International Sustainability Council

The ISC http://thesustainabilitycouncil.org/ is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing understanding of the relationships among environmental, social and economic systems for the mutual benefit of people and the environment today and for future generations. In a nutshell that means that the ISC advocates sustainable development that is based in the ISC Principles of Sustainability and we will accomplish this through the Sustainability Campaign.

This will be achieved by forging partnerships with governmental agencies, universities, businesses and not-for-profit organizations that will result in the development of an accepted set of Principles of Sustainability. In addition activities supported will be continuing research, education and the production of various forms of educational and literary works that will be used as the basis of the creation of sustainable demonstration projects that are connected to the various aspects of sustainable community planning, development and management.

Mission Statement

Promote the ISC Principles of Sustainability as an advocate for Sustainable Development. To serve as a clearing house of research and information connected to sustainability and to create partnerships between universities, businesses, governmental agencies and not-for-profit organizations and to serve as a catalyst for moving toward a more sustainable society.

Vision Statement

We visualize a more sustainable society and Planet Earth that will result from a coordinated approach to creating positive partnerships with others who embrace the ISC Principles of Sustainability and take actions that are based in improving the quality of life, the quality of the environment in ways that make economic sense.

Friday, March 6, 2009

DOE & HUD Team Up to Support Weatherization

DOE and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced last week a major partnership designed to streamline and coordinate federal weatherization efforts. DOE and HUD have created a high-level interagency task force to leverage roughly $16 billion in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to spur growth in the home energy efficiency industry in the United States. HUD's funding includes $4.5 billion to renovate and upgrade public and tribal housing and $250 million for energy retrofits of privately owned, federally assisted housing, while DOE's funding includes $5 billion for weatherization assistance; $3.2 billion for new block grants that states, local governments, and tribal governments can use to retrofit homes; $3.1 billion for the State Energy Program; and more.
The new interagency task force will coordinate the expenditure of the new funds in local communities and will develop guidelines and specifications for retrofitting public housing and privately owned, federally subsidized rental properties. The task force will also evaluate home energy disclosure and audit standards and develop new financing tools for home energy efficiency efforts. In addition, the task force will lead a government-wide effort to develop a common baseline for measuring home energy use and documenting gains from energy efficiency improvements. See the DOE press release.