Energy Efficiency Bill Would Encourage Vendors to Bid on Projects

Lawmakers are trying to craft fixes to a program to help local and state governments save taxpayer money by reducing how much energy they use. But whether the changes go far enough is a matter of dispute -- even among the proposal's proponents.

The bill (S-1753) aims to overhaul the Energy Savings Improvement Program, which advocates say could save hundreds of millions of dollars for governments if impediments discouraging energy companies from participating in the effort were removed.

Without giving these companies more flexibility in deciding who actually performs the energy efficiency work, they will never invest in long-term contracts that guarantee energy savings, according to some who have followed the bill through the legislature.

The original law, approved more than three years ago, was designed to allow government entities to enter into performance-based contracts with energy service companies, enabling them to cut energy use without any capital expenditures. The agencies pay off the projects over a 15- to 20-year period through the energy savings they capture, which can run as much as 25 percent.

Among other things, the bill moving through the legislature, would eliminate a requirement that state contracts be awarded to the lowest bidder. Instead, it would allow contracts to be awarded on a basis of best value, a standard that would allow New Jersey to award deals based on which bids provide the greatest energy savings.

“There are literally hundreds of millions of dollars of projects that can be done,’’ said Steve Goldenberg, an energy lawyer who has been pushing for changes in the law.

According to studies the typical U.S. family spends about $1,900 a year on utility bills, a large portion of which is waste. Homeowners lose an estimated $40 of every $100 spent on heating and cooling to leakage alone.

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(Excerpt of article posted by Tom Johnson, March 27, 2012 in  the Energy & Environment news section of NJ Spotlight. NOT AFFILIATED WITH LAMBOO INC.)

Economic and environmental concerns are forcing dramatic changes in regulation in governments all across the world in how resources are used and managed. Weaknesses in the current system are being exposed leading to debate on how to build a sustainable future for our society. Rising energy costs combined with decreasing resources and devastating climate changes are creating a need for more efficient processes. Through the rapidly renewable resource of bamboo, Lamboo is creating energy efficient systems and products to meet future demand. Every aspect of bamboo makes it ideal for a future where sustainability and performance must both be maintained.

For questions regarding Lamboo or our products please visit our

website at www.lamboo.us or contact us at info@lamboo.us

"MAKING INNOVATIVE THINKING A STANDARD" - Lamboo Incorporated

Blog by: Dustin Dennison

International Interest Grows in Green-Building Certification

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Last month, the new U.S. Embassy compound in Madagascar, which includes high-efficiency windows and low-flow toilets, received certification as a green building. Taipei 101, one of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, also earned a green stamp of approval recently, as did the Seoul Finance Center in South Korea.

As companies and governments look to burnish their environmental credentials around the world, many are devoting extra time and money to certifying their buildings as green. The buildings in Madagascar, Taipei and Seoul are among those that have turned to a U.S.-based process called LEED, short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which offers third-party verification. Other green-building standards, like the British-based BREEAM and DGNB in Germany, are also spreading outside their home countries.

Green-building certification is “becoming accepted as a badge of genuine quality,” said Raphael Sperry, a senior consultant with Simon & Associates Green Building Consultants in San Francisco, who is LEED-accredited in his profession. International tenants in particular, he noted, may seek out buildings with recognized green stamps, which should mean low bills for energy and water and a pleasant working environment.

Scot Horst, the senior vice president for LEED at the U.S. Green Building Council, the Washington-based group that administers the certification program, cited a “dramatic uptick” in international interest.

      Read entire article

 (Excerpt taken from The New York Times Green Column Author Kate Galbraith  March 2012)

Reports are published everyday that reinforce the importance of sustainable development and how critical of an era we live in today. In order to build a better future there must be better practices put in to place that will benefit society while limiting environmental impact. Lamboo technologies is answering this call with engineered laminated bamboo materials, a product that is rapidly renewable and incredibly strong and durable. Lamboo strives to be a leading innovator in sustainable products with certifications like LEED credits to meet future design needs. 

For questions regarding Lamboo or our products please visit our

website at www.lamboo.us or contact us at info@lamboo.us

"MAKING INNOVATIVE THINKING A STANDARD" - Lamboo Incorporated

Blog by: Dustin Dennison

Lamboo & Arnold Companies

Lamboo is proud to partner with Arnold Companies to offer products through our Lamboo® Design™ Series. The Arnold Companies represent four independent contract furniture manufacturers that have been serving the design and corporate community since 1962. Arnold companies offer a highly versatile line of quality products with applications ideal for our engineered laminated bamboo materials.

Their primary products include:

• Conference room furniture
• Cabinets
• Desks
• Commercial
• Residential
• Reception desks
• Workstations 
• Modular courtroom furniture
• Library furniture
• Shelving
• Circulation desks
• Bookcases
  
  

Lamboo is committed to maintaining the level of high excellence that is synonymous with Arnold Companies products, with the rapidly renewable resource of bamboo. The engineered components will ensure that Arnold products are not only long lasting and durable but pleasing to the eye as well.

For questions regarding Lamboo or our products please visit our
website at www.lamboo.us or contact us at info@lamboo.us

"MAKING INNOVATIVE THINKING A STANDARD" - Lamboo Incorporated

'Peak timber' concerns in tropics

Current tropical timber practices are not sustainable and nations should consider the "implications of 'peak timber'", a study has suggested.

A team of researchers says the standard cutting cycle of 30-40 years is too short to allow trees to grow to a volume required by commercial loggers.
As a result, they add, the pressure to harvest primary forests will continue, leading to ongoing deforestation.
The findings have been published in the journal Biological Conservation.
The scientists used logging on the Solomon Islands as an example because it was, in some respects, "a microcosm of the challenges facing sustainable forest management in the tropics".
They said the industry had been a major source of government revenue for a number of years.
Yet, they added: "For nearly a decade, the nation had been warned that the volume of timber annually harvested from native forests was too high and, if unchecked, that timber stocks would be seriously depleted by 2012.
"In 2009, the Central Bank of the Solomon Islands asserted that (the) exhaustion of timber stocks had arrived even earlier that predicted and its economic consequences were likely to be severe."

 

(Tropical timber production exceeds forests' ability to replace the felled trees, the study says)

Pushing the limit

The team - made up by Dr Phil Shearman and Jane Bryan from the Australian National University, and Prof William Laurance from James Cook University, Australia - said the trajectory of the country's timber production (a rapid increase in production, followed by a peak and then a decline) was akin to the 'Hubbert curve', which has been observed in the exploitation of non-renewable resources, such as oil.
"It is occurring in the Solomons because timber extraction has occurred at a rate far in excess of the capacity of the forests to regenerate commercial timber stocks," they wrote.
The researchers suggested that there were three main factors that made it difficult to find examples of sustainable forestry in the tropics:

• Low level of marketable timber production - many tree species having unsuitable wood properties, and the slow growth rate of commercially viable specimens is another factor
• Collateral damage - while logging in the tropics tends to focus on a small fraction of the trees, many others are damaged or killed as a result of the network of access roads to the area being logged
• Second-wave clearance - the "labyrinths of logging roads have opened up vast swaths... for colonisation, hunting, illegal mining and other destructive activities"

As well as these factors, the problem of illegal logging was also threatening primary forest cover in many nations.

(Deforestation accounts for up to 20% of annual greenhouse gas emissions from human activities)

The team concluded with a stark warning: "Unless something fundamental changes... we believe that logged tropical forests will continue to be over-harvested and, far too frequently, cleared afterwards, leading to an inevitable global decline in native timber supplies.
"It has become common these days to speak of 'peak oil'. In the tropics, we assert, we should also begin to seriously consider the implications of 'peak timber'."

(Excerpt from BBC News reporter Mark Kinver)

The environmental and economic challenges brought about by the production of timber is something that cannot be ignored. The exhaustion of natural resources such as timber leaves a void that needs to be addressed with sustainable alternatives. 

Bamboo, reaching maturity in 4 years and not requiring replanting is one of options that will be ever increasingly looked upon as timber resources decline.

For questions regarding Lamboo or our products please visit our
website at www.lamboo.us or contact us at info@lamboo.us

"MAKING INNOVATIVE THINKING A STANDARD" - Lamboo Incorporated