Burning Torch has long been a pioneer in recycling clothing. Karyn has been buying up old cashmere sweaters, having them cleaned, sorted, cut up and re-sewn into new sweaters here in Los Angeles for many years. Over the years, she has expanded her recycled offerings to include army fatigues and even beaded antique gowns, to great effect. She also has some organic cotton pieces. One might think I’m biased because I occasionally freelance for her, but I freelance only for the designers whose clothes I want to wear. Those employee discounts can go a long way.

Your Daily Thread, a blog focused on the greener side of LA, recently profiled Karyn here.

The details of the sale are as follows:

Luxurious cashmere!
Beautiful leathers, silks and knits!
Stock up for the Holidays!

Friday, November 20, 10 am to 7 pm
Saturday, November 21, 10 am to 3 pm
1738 Cordova Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Exit 10 Fwy. at Vermont. North on Vermont. Left on Cordova.
Additional parking lot located just east of us, signs will direct you.

Every person who brings a donation for our holiday food drive will receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win an amazing Burning Torch gift basket overflowing with goodies!

Any non-perishable goods or unopened personal care items are accepted.
Benefiting the LA Regional Food Bank.

Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and cash only

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn making remarks at the US unveiling of the Nissan LEAF.
(Photo: Nick Chambers)

Back on the campaign trail last year, President Obama set a goal of having 1 million plug-in hybrid and electric cars on US roads by 2015. Since the campaign promise, the Obama administration has made available billions of dollars for the development of plug-in hybrids, electric cars, and smart energy grids—mostly for the ultimate goal of actually reaching 1 million plug-ins on the road by 2015.

Last Friday, at the Los Angeles unveiling of the upcoming Nissan LEAF electric car, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn indicated that the president’s goal of 1 million electric cars was quite obtainable, in fact he said that number will be easily surpassed.

Read more of this story »

This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

Read more of this story »

The Nissan LEAF promises to be the first affordable all-electric car on the market when it hits showrooms around this time next year. With a target price in the $25,000 range it is affordable, anti-petrol, and kinda cute too. The production model makes its North American debut next month in Los Angeles. It will be the first chance for the American public to see this car in person. [ed. note: Gas 2.0 will be there for the unveiling in L.A.]

After making its debut, Nissan will take the LEAF on a countrywide tour, giving the denizens of 22 cities a chance to sit and drive an important part of our electric future.

Read more of this story »

The biggest limitation on electric cars, as we know, are the batteries. They take hours to charge, and cannot travel nearly as far as gas-powered engines. So while California may be the center of the “green movement,” traveling the almost 400 miles between Los Angeles and San Francisco is impossible on electric power. Until now.

SolarCity has announced an EV charging corridor spanning the 382 miles between LA and San Fran featuring four stations, with a fifth station opening in October.

Read more of this story »

A new report ranks ten leading world cities on their greenhouse gas emissions. It also examines how and why the emissions differ.

As the report says, over 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Leading cities of the world, global cities, are the places where greenhouse gas emissions really need to be cut. The greenest city from the study is Barcelona and the worst is Denver.

Read more of this story »

Occidental Petroleum Corporation announced they have made the largest natural gas and oil discovery in California for 35 years.

The current assessment shows there could be between 150 million and 250 million gross barrels of oil equivalent. The discovery was made in Kern County, north of Los Angeles 130 miles. About two thirds of the discovery is believed to be natural gas. Energy analyst Fadel Gheit remarked: “Occidental’s reserves as of the end of last year were about 3 billion barrels. Even if you take the low end of their estimate, it’s a very meaningful find.”

Read more of this story »

The new flick 500 Days of Summer, which generated much buzz as the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, rolls out in limited release today. Lot’s of people are talking about it as a romantic comedy meets Memento which in film terms means that those with ADD or short attention spans might be confused by this rambunctious romantic romp. But for us, the buzz doesn’t just lie in the zigzagging sex talk but rather in the architecture talk. Even more specifically in the Green architecture talk.

Read more of this story »

Last July, the City & County of San Francisco launched the first local solar energy incentive program in the nation, The results are in, and, the program is an unequivocal success.

In the year since our solar energy incentive program GoSolarSF launched, we have seen a 450% increase in applications for solar installations in San Francisco over the previous year, from 200 to 850. And despite the current recession, 56 applicants met our low-income standards and will receive incentive payments.

Read more of this story »

Los Angeles’ Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced that his city will not buy electricity produced in coal fired fired power plants from 2020 instead the city will switch to cleaner energy sources to fulfill its power demands.

California has no coal-fired power plants and Los Angeles will stop buying coal generated power that it buys from other states. The 40 percent power that comes from coal-fired power plants will be taken from power plants running on cleaner sources like natural gas, nuclear energy and hydro power. This is in addition to the city’s energy efficiency plans under which it seeks to reduce energy consumption by 1 percent every year for the next ten years.

Los Angeles has set a great example for the big cities which are busy economic centers with huge energy demands. Energy consumption in rapidly growing cities of the developing countries is growing at astronomical rates. Usually the simple solution is to produce more energy, set up coal-fired power plants since coal is easily available and cheap. However, long term solutions to this energy problem are often overlooked. Countries eying faster economic growth must explore such alternatives and work to develop them as they hold the key to the problem of not just energy consumption but rising carbon emissions and climate change as well.

Read more of this story »

LA County Sheriffs stuck driving Crown Vics are about to be left feeling tragically un-hip. Their Board of Sups just approved a deal with BMW to lease 17 fully electric MINI Coopers.

Approved on Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will lease the MINI Es for only $10 a month. With a market lease rate of $850, automaker BMW offered up the bargain price in exchange for deputy’s feedback.

Read more of this story »

By the middle of next year, the nine campuses that make up the nation’s largest community college system plan to be completely energy self-sufficient.

It’s a huge step, and it will begin saving money immediately.

The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) started down this path in 2001, the year voters approved the first part of $5.7 billion in bond funding to renovate the campuses.

The LACCD Board of Trustees was thinking about much-needed modernization work and its first new construction in 35 years, but it was also thinking ahead. It passed a sustainable building policy mandating that all new buildings that use 50% or more of bond funding be LEED certified. The board had previously developed a renewable energy plan that aimed for a minimum 10% renewable energy standard.

At the time, the trustees were afraid that anything beyond that would be too costly, says Larry Eisenberg, executive director of Facilities, Planning and Development for the LACCD.

The system’s chancellor and the implementation team saw greater potential, though.

Read more of this story »

Liz Thompson recently introduced us to Further Soap, a biodegradable soap crafted from glycerin left behind in the bio-fuel making process.  She shares the fascinating story of a husband and wife team who find a way to transform grease from Los Angeles restaurants into automobile bio-diesel and eventually into Bergamot-scented hand soap.

If you thought this “perfect sustainable circle” couldn’t possible get any better…it just did.  For each bottle of Further Soap you purchase on Wednesday April 22, you will receive one bottle free. And you don’t even have to pay for shipping!

Read more of this story »

A few look particularly interesting, like the Soyjoy-sponsored Battle of the Chefs: Eco-cuisine. Each chef is charged with creating three different soy-based dishes on site, with the winner scooping up a $15,000 prize package (wanna bet there’s a lot of soy products in it?) There’s even a celebrity judge (Julianna Moore) – it is LA after all – to taste the well-known chefs’ concoctions. The best news is that you can to, if you go to the event on the 22nd.

Read more of this story »

For small businesses, like mine, and nonprofits, it might be tough to get in on the action unless you’re prepared to work as a government contractor, which requires jumping through many hoops. But, if you are willing/able to do so, check out Grants.gov, a searchable listing of what’s available.

Read more of this story »

There’s a new Loft Community popping up and it’s really exciting. Live/work spaces are automatically desirable to anyone with kids. The day I became a mother there was an intense need to be near my kids, to keep them close. I didn’t realize how sustainable my decision to stay home was. I’d fogotten about commutes, dry cleaning and pantyhose within moments of changing my first diaper.

Read more of this story »

That’s the amount that the California Budget Project expects the State and its residents to receive. The goal is the creation of 400,000 jobs, many of them “green jobs”. The funding comes none too soon, since California’s unemployment rate hit 10.5% in February.

But how will that money be spent in Los Angeles? The Green LA Coalition and the Liberty Hill Foundation seek to answer that question on Friday, April 3rd at “The Federal Stimulus: What it means for Los Angeles and the Environment”.

Read more of this story »

A new report from the World Wildlife Fund indicates that non-manufacturing companies could cut their carbon footprint in half by allowing telework. With more and more companies looking to reduce their eco-impact, a shift towards telecommuting would be a big step forward.

But what about all of those meetings?

Read more of this story »

Announced by Gov. Schwarzenegger last week, the program provides for 1,000 youth, ages 16-24, to be enrolled. They will learn 21st century skills in energy and technical fields, while continuing their education and giving back through community service. The Green Corps will be housed within CaliforniaVolunteers, which (thankfully) already has experience in administering similar job corps programs.

Though this program will provide opportunities for these kids that they might not get elsewhere, it’s really a drop in the bucket as far as the number of workers needed for green jobs. The NRDC recently reported that between 52,000 and 114,000 new workers will be needed by 2010 to fill jobs created by green investments. Let’s hope that’s true!

Photo credit: Office of the Governor

Financing Model is Key to Success

LACCD’s financing model is an important piece of the puzzle: It will allow the colleges to make the conversion to renewable energy without investing any money up front.

Banks are investing the capital, and the LACCD has agreed to pay back the loan with every kilowatt-hour by buying electricity out of the campus system for the next 25 years. Their rate for electricity will still be less than what they were paying the utilities, even with the capital cost, maintenance cost and bank profit margin rolled in.

The banks have the additional bonus of monetizing the depreciation of the equipment through tax write-offs, along with taking advantage of federal, state, local and utility incentives.

Eisenberg says that any entity, public or private, can do the same thing.

The LACCD is using a similar financing model for its energy efficiency measures, from which it hopes will reduce energy use by 15% to 20%.

Each campus has an ESCO (Energy Saving Company) that won the job in a bidding process. Among the nine campuses, there are five different companies including Chevron, Siemens and Ameresco. The ESCOs come in and do an investment-grade audit, recommending retrofits and other efficiency measures. They cover the cost of the upgrades, and the LACCD pays them back out of the energy savings achieved. The ESCOs guarantee a minimum amount of energy savings, so there’s almost no risk.

Community Colleges Leading the Way

“It’s interesting because people never thought of community colleges as being terribly innovative or cutting edge,” says Eisenberg. “We’ve demonstrated that we are. No one else is where we are in terms of renewables and financing. It’s made people stand up and take notice.”

The community college system has received recognition, and even signed a partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative. It was also one of the first educational institutions to join the Climate Registry and the first community college district in the nation to report their greenhouse gases in accordance with the protocol set by the Registry.

“It goes back to the board of trustees in 2002,” Eisenberg adds. “They knew that someone needed to be first and provide a model that others can follow and that’s what this project is doing. It’s a model showing the technology and financing mechanism that anyone can use. It will hopefully lead to a rapid expansion of this technology across California and the U.S.“

The project has other benefits, as well, that go to the heart of its mission, as Eisenberg explains:

“It’s attracting students that want to learn about the technology and how to implement it. At the end of the day, we’re a learning institution and the more students we can train, the more of them will go out across the United States and implement this technology.”

Clark sees similar micro and macro importance to the project.

“The LACCD sees sustainable campuses as a key in the community for demonstrating how this can be done for other building complexes like shopping malls, office buildings, housing units, etc. and thus educating students, faculty and staff on the installation, operation and maintenance of renewable energy systems.

“Some scholars call this ‘The Third Industrial Revolution’, or how we – people all over the world – must change dramatically from ‘The Second Industrial Revolution’ that was totally dependent on fossil fuels, into an era that stops violating our environment.”

Image credit: Los Angeles Community College District

See also:

Start-Ups Rise to Push Solar on College Campuses

Interview with Nobel Prize Winner Woodrow Clark

Universities Start Tailoring Degrees to Green Jobs

Born from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, World Water Day has a different theme every year. This year’s focus is on transboundary waters: sharing water, sharing opportunities.

Read more of this story »