Author name: Editorial Staff

July 8, 2016 By Richard G. “Bugs” Stevens, The Conversation New LED-based streetlights are whiter than traditional ones and contain more blue light, which can disrupt people’s circadian rhythms. meltedplastic/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND The American Medical Association (AMA) has just adopted an official policy statement about street lighting: cool it and dim it. The statement, adopted unanimously at the AMA’s annual

July 29, 2016 By Carl Smith Physicist and writer John Perlin is the author of Let it Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy. Lester Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute, has called the book “the solar bible.” In his introduction to the book, Amory Lovins, cofounder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, notes

August 5, 2016 International report confirms 2015 was Earth’s warmest year on record Source: NOAA A new State of the Climate report confirmed that 2015 surpassed 2014 as the warmest year since at least the mid-to-late 19th century. Last year’s record heat resulted from the combined influence of long-term global warming and one of the

April 8, 2016 By Carl Smith Juliet Christian-Smith is a climate scientist with the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), based in UCS’s Oakland office. Dr. Christian-Smith is the lead author of the book A Twenty-First Century U.S. Water Policy (Oxford Press 2012) and an editor of the journal Sustainability

October 5, 2014 By Carl Smith The non-profit New Buildings Institute (NBI) works with governments, utilities, energy efficiency advocates and building professionals to improve the energy performance of commercial buildings. Its funders and project partners include the Energy Foundation, U.S. Green Building Council, American Institute of Architects, U.S. Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, electric

June 6, 2016 The transportation sector accounts for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions in the state of California, accounting for 60 percent more emissions than the industrial sector. At 37 percent of total emissions, the contribution from the sector is well above the national average of 26 percent.  On a global level, fossil fuels burned for road, rail,

March 21, 2013 By Bob Graves In the world of building codes and standards zero net energy (ZNE) design and construction principles don’t get much notice. In fact, it’s so early in the evolution of ZNE buildings that it could be considered a stretch to call ZNE a standard. But this may be rapidly changing

July 31, 2015 By Paula Kehoe Director of Water Resources. San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Today, many Californians have a razor-sharp focus on water conservation and water supplies, in the wake of a drought that has amplified the scarcity of water.  At the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, we plan for our water future every

November 13, 2011 by Racquel Palmese You worked pro bono to help write AB 361, the Benefit Corporation bill, to create this new entity. What is the background of your work on this? I’m a lawyer, and before that I was an environmental activist. As a lawyer in private practice, I would try to focus