Image: Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

While there is no shortage of hot air swirling around various plans to harness wind energy to power our homes and businesses, a group of United States governors has hammered out a plan and is ready to take it all the way to the top.

On Tuesday, Iowa Governor Chet Culver and Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri released Great Expectations: U.S. Wind Energy Development, the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition’s 2010 Recommendations. Culver and Carcieri are the chair and vice chair of the 29-state organization, which is attempting to shape a national policy to make wind power both viable and cost-effective.

The group formed over a year ago and began work on recommendations in December. The next step: Lobbying efforts to get a bill into Congress and on to President Barack Obama’s desk as soon as possible.

“We need all the clean and cost-effective resources we can generate. And we will only get there if we work together,” Culver said during a press conference called in conjunction with the report’s release. “Continued uncertainty will potentially cause the nation to surrender the industry to other countries. If China gets the job of supplying the U.S. wind industry, (jobs) could be lost forever.

“The good news is that we have increased wind generation dramatically over the past few years, but continued growth hinges on a more stable market. Given the immense advantages wind power provides to industry, consumers and the environment, it is clear that Congress must pass a strong federal renewable electricity policy so investors, developers and state policy makers are working together to achieve a common goal.”

Among the recommendations in the report:

• Adopt a renewable electricity standard (Known as  a RES, it sets benchmarks for the nation to reach a certain level of clean energy production by specific dates. Many believe that having a strong RES is the only way that clean energy technology can promise lenders and investors a measure of security, to show that the industry will not be buffeted by politics in the coming years.)
• Develop new interstate electric transmission system infrastructure as needed to provide access to premier renewable energy resources both on-shore and offshore
• Fully support coastal, deep water, and offshore wind energy technology and transmission research and development
• Streamline permitting processes for both offshore and on-shore wind energy development projects
• Expand the U.S. Department of Energy’s work with the states and the wind industry to accelerate innovation
• Extend the Treasury Department Grant Program in lieu of the Investment Tax Credit — providing immediate capital, and adopt a long-term renewable energy production tax credit with provisions to broaden the pool of eligible investors

“These recommendations could not be more timely,” Carcieri said. “Congressional action on the energy bill seems to have stalled. It is our hope that these recommendations — and the national bipartisan consensus they represent — will advance the energy deliberations now under way in Congress.”

While Washington leaders debate whether the stimulus money has done enough for the economy, Wisconsin has latched onto money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to kick start a wind turbine blade manufacturing plant in Wisconsin Rapids, a small city in the center of the state. The new factory is expected to be the most advanced in North America and employ more than 600 people.

The Energy Composites Corp. (ECC) facility will be built with the help of $238 million in municipal tax-free bonds from a pool of money (the state’s Recovery Zone Facility pool) created with federal stimulus dollars.

While the financial arrangements took several steps, including new legislation introduced by Sen. Julie Lass, D-Stevens Point, and supported by several other state legislators — the desired outcome is a straightforward effort by the state to capture manufacturing for the fast growing commercial wind energy sector.

“Tax-free bonds are a critical component of our financing plan for the 535,000 square foot plant,” noted Sam Fairchild, Energy Composites’ CEO, in a statement. “Development costs for our new factory are too large for traditional Industrial Development financing programs, and the Recovery Zone Bond program, which expires at the end of 2010, is precisely the right solution at precisely the right time.

“Senator Lassa recognized how critical tax-free financing is to our business model, and she moved with great agility and grace to ensure that we are eligible for this Federal program within a time frame that allows us to site the project in Wisconsin Rapids. For her diligence, foresight and confidence, we are most grateful.”

The 535,000 s.f. plant will be capable of making wind blades 65 meters in length that can supply both onshore and offshore wind farms, and will be build with “a maximum range of flexibility in production design” to be able to accomodate technological advances. The facility will partner with Mid-state Technical College, where prospective employees can get training in blade fabrication.

ECC’s founder and president Jamie Mancl, called the jobs that will be created “non-exportable” and thanked everyone involved from Lassa to Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Mary Jo Carson and many others for working beyond expectations to pave the way for the innovative project.

Fairchild said he expects the new plant to be in full production in the first quarter of 2011, in time to fill increasing demand for wind turbine blades.

Specifically, the company hopes to be a supplier for offshore wind operations in the Great Lakes region, said Adrian Williams, head of ECC’s WindFiber(TM) Division.  “…We believe that we will be in the right place at the right time.”

ECC already operates an automated 73,000 s.f. manufacturing facility in Wisconsin Rapids, WI, that creates “advanced composite materials” for a variety of clean-tech applications that touch on several industries, from wind to power plant operations. According to a corporate release, the company designs and engineers: wind energy system components, flue gas desulfurization for power plants, infrastructure for bio-fuel storage and processing, infrastructure for managing waste water and drinking water storage, advanced municipal utilities infrastructure, and caustic material storage and handling systems for the petrochemical, mining and the pulp and paper industries.

Legislators wrestling with health care reform, job concerns and a spiraling federal deficit have another group vying for their attention in Washington this week.  Thanks to a hastily thrown-together coalition, it’s Clean Energy Week, with environmental activists and business leaders descending on Capitol Hill to press for money for more and better green initiatives.

An unlikely catalyst for that change: The jobs bill, which many hope will include more green items than normal. As the week began, the Senate was considering a proposal to deploy $11 billion of the potential jobs bill for efficiency measures. Creation of a Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA) and a Green Bank also were part of the discussion.

Reed Hundt, co-chairman of the Coalition for the Green Bank, says the clean energy movement has been presented with a rare opportunity, however strange the bedfellows in some cases may be.

“We never expected, six months ago, that we’d be talking about the jobs bill as the bus we’d be getting on right now,” he said. “And in no way does it mean that we don’t need comprehensive energy legislation.

“It just means that if we can get a couple of passengers on the bus right now, let’s do it, because if we do get these expenditures and these lending authorities created, they will further demonstrate the relative ease of implementing all these other measures.”

With unemployment still hovering at about 10 percent nationally, environmental groups are touting the link between good, sustainable policy and good business. Hundt estimates that $2 billion in low-cost loans to utilities and other potentially green operations could stimulate up to $40 billion in total spending. That, in turn, could create up to 400,000 new jobs, he said.

More than 100 organizations and groups have banded together for Clean Energy Week, the brainchild of American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) President Michael  Eckhart and Jeff Anderson, co-founder and executive director of Clean Economy Network. When the two met for breakfast about three weeks ago, they noted that the Renewable Energy Technology Conference (RETECH), expected to attract more then 2,500 attendees, already was scheduled for Washington this week. That, plus budget discussions on Capitol Hill, created a perfect opportunity, as Eckhart put it, to “create a bit of noise” about clean energy.

“The purpose of Clean Energy Week is to get center stage with the Congress among the three, four, five, six major agendas our government has before it today,” he said. “It’s time to make decisions about these policies, to put these policies in place in order to put the nation in motion.

“It’s not just for us and our agenda. This is good for the country.”

The group, which planned 15 related events for the week, stated three major objectives:

• Engage Congress and the Administration to take action now.
• Educate industry and government on the practical applications for clean energy that are economically viable and will create jobs.
• Seek to encourage greater investment in clean energy and energy efficiency technology.

In addition to mobilizing environmental groups, Clean Energy Week organizers also have enlisted the business community. About 120 CEOs from across the country will stage a “fly-in lobby day” to knock on the doors of their respective representatives.

“With so many national imperatives competing, we believe the drumbeat for passage of clean energy policy must be strong, it must be consistent, and it must come from every corner of the United States,” said Kateri Callahan, President of the Alliance to Save Energy.

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

A new organization of hundreds of American businesses is demanding comprehensive action by Congress on federal clean energy and climate legislation in the wake of the recent Copenhagen climate change summit.

In its first six weeks, the American Businesses for Clean Energy (ABCE) said it has grown from just 19 members to include over 800 businesses as of today. ABCE is a diverse coalition of businesses that support Congressional action to pass clean energy and climate legislation that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The organization is largely made up of small Main Street businesses, clean tech and green businesses, but it also includes major names such as Gap Inc, DB Climate Change Advisors (Deutsche Bank Group), and power companies FPL Group and New York Power Authority.

“The rapid increase in business flocking to ABCE sends a strong signal to Congress of the strong support for meaningful and effective legislation that will drive clean technology innovation, create jobs, and address the threat of global climate change,” ABCE spokesperson Christopher Van Atten said in a statement. “With all of the business interest in the proceedings at Copenhagen and the increasing focus on climate change, we expect to see an additional surge in our membership over the holiday period and into January. Frankly, we have been overwhelmed by the interest in the American Businesses for Clean Energy.”

Among the new members is Serious Materials, Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company that manufactures energy-efficient building materials. The company’s CEO was named “Entrepreneur of the Year for 2009″ by Inc. magazine. Other new members include: The Saunders Hotel Group, a Boston-based hotel management firm with properties throughout the Northeast; and Recycled Energy Development, a Westmont, Ill.-based developer of industrial cogeneration projects.

“The Saunders Hotel Group is proud to be a member of ABCE as we celebrate our 20th year since pioneering urban ecotourism,” Tedd Saunders, chief sustainability officer of The Saunders Hotel Group and president of EcoLogical Solutions Inc., said in a statement. “We are one of the many hundreds of mainstream companies actively sending a message to Congress that American businesses are eager for strong federal climate policy that will create good jobs and strengthen our economy while avoiding the worst consequences of the looming climate crisis. Putting a price on carbon will finally send a clear signal to businesses and industry to invest in a more sustainable future for the benefit of our citizens and economy.”

A full list of member companies is available at the American Businesses for Clean Energy web site.

The Associated Press-Stanford University Poll found that 40 percent of Americans said that action to slow global warming would create jobs, and 46 percent said it would “boost the economy.”

Less than one-third of respondents felt that controlling climate change would hurt the economy.

Republicans opposed to a national climate bill have argued that curbing global warming will be expensive, raise energy costs and hurt the U.S. economy. A delegation of these climate action opponents plans to visit the Copenhagen Climate Conference in Denmark this week.

The AP’s story about the poll quoted one responder as saying that the Republicans “are wrong.” Under climate action, Americans will shift to new jobs, the Seattle man said.

Another man, from Connecticut, told the AP that he saw a green revolution as promising jobs for those in need of work.

“I don’t know if anybody has looked around lately, but the economy is dead,” said Jake Berglund, a home-improvement contractor from Portland, Conn. “We are in a sinking ship, and Obama has bought us enough life rafts to keep on going. But we need to figure out how to build a new boat when we are still on the water.”

But while those polled were mostly in favor of green jobs, they were not as enthusiastic about a carbon cap-and-trade market, if it meant their energy bills would be higher.

A majority of those polled, 59 percent, said they would not support a cap-and-trade system if it meant they would have to pay $10 extra a month for electricity.

As international climate treaty negotiations continue in Copenhagen amid debate over the potential economic impact of new standards, a new report shows that the costs for small business operating under California’s landmark climate law (AB 32) can be measured in pennies.

Border Gill in Santa Monica

Conducted by leading economists and released by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the report found that AB 32 policies will only increase the percent of small business revenue spent on energy by only 0.3 percentage points–from 1.4 to 1.7 percent–in 2020. In a case study of one small business — Border Grill restaurant — the report fond AB 32 will cost diners 3 cents extra per $20 meal in 2020.

The peer reviewed analysis, The Economic Impact of AB 32 on California Small Businesses, used data on the cost characteristics of small businesses to estimate the economic impacts of AB 32 and was commissioned by UCS and conducted by The Brattle Group, an international economic consulting firm.

“Our report finds that the incremental cost impact of AB 32 on the average California small business will be relatively small and definitely manageable,” Jurgen Weiss of The Brattle Group and co-author of the report, said in a statement. “The AB 32 cost impact pales in comparison to the effect of inflation over ten years, and falls well within the range of historic cost variation most small businesses face everyday regardless of climate policy.”

The Brattle Group projected the likely changes in electricity, natural gas, and gasoline prices due to the major AB 32 policies: cap and trade (which puts a price on carbon), a 33 percent renewable energy standard, increased energy efficiency measures, and a low-carbon fuel standard.

Others report highlights included:

• Most small businesses will not be directly regulated under AB 32, therefore AB 32 policies will only impact them indirectly to the extent that these policies cause energy prices for electricity, natural gas and transportation to change.
• The average small business spends less than 1.5 percent of revenues on energy-related costs. So any increase in the price of energy will have a modest financial impact.
• Increases projected in electricity, gas and transportation fuel costs due to AB 32 are lower than recent increases in the same rates caused by factors wholly unrelated to environmental regulations
• Increased costs of other products used by small business — such as food, supplies and services — that result from higher energy prices also will have only a modest impact on small business.

The report, released last week, includes a case study of Border Grill, a Santa Monica-based Mexican restaurant. The report’s authors said restaurants are more energy intensive than the average small business and represent the largest share of employment in any small business category – 10 percent of total statewide employment. After auditing five years of the restaurant’s electricity and gas bills, The Brattle Group developed a 10-year business projection based on historical data, and used this projection, along with macro-economic assessment of change in energy prices, to develop the case study results.

According to the report, in 2020, Border Grill will be spending 2 percent of its revenue on energy. By investing in a robust set of efficient appliances, vehicles, and other equipment, the restaurant will be able to use even less energy and improve its productivity and competitiveness.

Border Grill is known for serving only sustainable seafood, as part of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program. It also uses organic long-grain rice, beans, and coffee, and developed a program called “Good for the Planet, Good for You,” that gives guests the opportunity to choose dishes made with at least 80 percent plant-based ingredients.

Over the last eight years, green construction has created 2.4 million jobs and contributed $173 billion to the US economy. It is estimated that in the next four years, despite an unstable economy, both numbers will more than triple, according to a new study from the U.S. Green Building Council and Booz Allen Hamilton.

The study reports that green building will support 7.9 million U.S. jobs, adding $554 billion into the American economy, including $396 billion in wages.

“The study demonstrates that investing in green buildings contributes significantly to our nation’s wealth while creating jobs in a range of occupations, from carpenters to cost estimators,” said Gary Rahl, Officer, Global Government Market, Booz Allen Hamilton.

The report was released this week at USGBC’s annual GreenBuild International Conference & Expo. “Our goal is for the phrase ‘green building’ to become obsolete, by making all building and retrofits green – and transforming every job in our industry into a green job,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chairman of USGBC in a statement. “This study validates the work that the 25,000 people gathered here at Greenbuild, and every member of our movement, do every day.”

The report factored in everyone involved in green construction from the design architects, to the laborers, and even the truck drivers that deliver the materials.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

When the Greenbuild Expo 2009 landed in Phoenix Nov. 9 with 30,000 participants, the circus came to town for Mick Dalrymple. He runs the a.k.a. Green Eco-Friendly Building Center, the Phoenix area’s first store of its kind.

Phoenix Convention Center

Dalrymple also sits on the national board of the U.S. Green Building Council, the organizer of Greenbuild Expo and International Conference, which this year (its eighth) has packed 1,800 exhibitors into the recently expanded Phoenix Convention Center.

An electrical engineer, former Hollywood filmmaker and graduate of the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Dalrymple first came to green building as a way out of an oil-based U.S. national security policy. He would give talks on how green building could lead to energy independence, and when people complained they couldn’t find where to buy these mysterious carbon-neutral products, he opened a store.

Dalrymple has enthusiasm and some concern for the abundant new green technologies and materials on hand.

Just as former Vice President Al Gore cautioned the green builders at an opening celebration Wednesday night, Dalrymple warned against “greenwashing” – selling something as green that isn’t.

“The business has become more mainstream and a lot of the traditional channels are starting to be populated with ‘light’ green materials. They may be better, but nowhere near what is possible, or they may use toxins or child labor to produce it,” Dalrymple said, noting that the maze of certifications in the industry sometimes can lead to more, rather than less confusion. He also mentions the small percentage of recycled materials in some so-called recycled products: “Why not recycle more? I want to see more things recycled—pecan shells or pistachio shells—stuff people normally think of as waste. Why is it waste?”

Dalrymple also has some idea of where the wild things are at the jam-packed Greenbuild Expo 2009.

• LED residential lighting
  

“I’ve been waiting five years for the next step in LED. I think this will be the year of the LED. I have a background in film and I just love lights,” Dalrymple said.

Cree's Indoor Recessed Light

He may be right. LEDs (light-emitting diodes), traditionally the light on your clock radio—use less energy, live eons longer, dosn’t emit heat, work with a dimmer switch and don’t contain the mercury of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Until now, LED fixtures have been too expensive and didn’t look “warm” enough for household use. New technology has improved the products and brought the price down. The life of an LED can be 50,000 hours (or more than 5 years if you left it on around the clock).

Cree LED Lighting, a growing green company based in North Carolina, is working to improve the quality and price of LEDs. Cree offers “Cree True White Technology,” to deliver warm color and very high efficiency. Its LR6 LED uses 12 watts to deliver the equivalent of a 65watt incandescent. LR6 and other fixtures can be retrofitted into existing recessed lighting hook-ups, last about 12 years in homes and cost under $100.

RAB Lighting’s outdoor LPack, made for over garage doors and pathway lighting, uses about 13 Watts to light the equivalent of a 55 watt incandescent for 50,000 hours; at $140, it comes in a cool aluminum housing that looks sort of like an over-sized Blackberry.

• Composite Flooring.

“Shredded bamboo is now made into flooring that has patterns and looks fabulous. And the popularity of cork flooring is growing, almost replacing bamboo,” Dalrymple said.

A fast-growing grass, bamboo is a renewable resource, but for optimal environmental imprint, it shouldn’t be harvested before 5.5 years and should come from the hardy moso species. Ask questions when shopping. Some manufacturers use formaldehyde for bonding—but they don’t have to.

Teragren Flooring doesn’t use formaldehyde and offers an array of Floorscore-certified (a third-party certification by Scientific Certification Systems) bamboo flooring; this year Teregren sells water and bacteria-resistant countertops and cork for showers, in addition to flooring.

Teragren's shower cork

Cork flooring isn’t exactly new – Frank Lloyd Wright used it in his 1936 masterpiece Fallingwater with good reason. It’s a natural insulator, is silent and reduces jostling of the joints and spine when you walk on it. The best cork comes from the Mediterranean. A softer version grows in China, but the durable stuff is firm and a by-product of the wine-cork industry in Portugal and Italy.

Both Expanko and Sustainable Flooring show gorgeous samples of Mediterranean cork tile and mosaic cork tile. Expanko provided the new floors when Fallingwater was restored.

With flooring, comes the danger that what adheres it may be manufactured with formaldehyde and other toxins. A new product from Smith & Fong Plyboo, SoyBond, is formaldehyde-free, made from soybeans for use with bamboo. Plyboo also makes a line of nontoxic plywood.

• Certification and label help.

With the mainstreaming of green building, new green labels abound at Greenbuild Expo — and at every home improvement store. But which ones mean anything? Dalrymple says keep in mind that a third-party rating, like Green Seal for paints, cleaners and other products, is likely to be more dependable than the “green this or green that” labels created in the marketing departments of home improvement companies. A growing legion of online help is available to sift out the scientific from the marketing messages.

Ecolabelling is a tool for anyone. It’s a nonprofit that tries to compile data on every green label in the world and tells you what the label is worth.

The so-called “Amazon.com of green building products,” Buildingease helps designers, contractors and others search for certified green products. Click on “3″ to find legitimate third-party green product ratings. It’s a one-stop portal for researching, rating and buying green building products at the lowest price.

Mick Dalyrmple, owner a.k.a. Green

The newest entry in online aid is GreenKonnect, a search engine built for the green building industry. The Beta version bowed at Greenbuild Expo. Watch for the actual launch. Utilizing a database of LEED-certified building projects and green products used in LEED buildings, site organizers hope to become a first stop for architects, engineers and contractors planning projects for LEED certification or other types. It will be free to everyone at first. Later, manufacturers will pay, based on product sales.

Thousand of products and so little time. A solid two day’s of looking is on display at Greenbuild Expo. For detailed listings, visit the Greenbuild website.

Then, if you plan to transition into a green home, start small, says Dalrymple. “Buy a few low energy bulbs. See how you like it. Pretty soon you’ll be opening a green products store and wondering: why did I do that?”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

A field monitor checks a gas meter for leaks. (Photo: Department of Energy)

From Green Right Now Reports

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell announced today that the first installment of $123 million in federal Recovery funds for weatherization will begin to be released Nov. 2, part of $253 million that the state will use for this purpose.

The Governor said the funding represents an unprecedented level of investment that will help to create new, “green” jobs, save money for struggling families, and stimulate local economic activity as weatherization agencies buy required material, vehicles and equipment.

“The weatherization program stimulates the economy in several ways,” Gov. Rendell said in a statement. “It saves money on energy bills for people who need it the most, and keeps those dollars circulating in local communities because families will be able to spend more on food, clothing and other necessities. It also will create new jobs in the growing ‘green’ economic development sector.”

Pennsylvania’s allocation of $253 million for weatherization from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is the fourth largest in the nation; only New York, Texas and Ohio received more. The money will be paid over three years.

In Ohio, the $266.8 million Recovery grant from the Weatherization Program is allowing the state to boost the energy efficiency of more than 32,000 homes. Adding insulation, sealing leaks and modernizing heating and air conditioning equipment will reduce energy costs for Ohio homeowners by an average of 24 percent. In general, the Weatherization Program allows for an investment of up to $6,500 per home in energy efficiency upgrades and is available to homeowners making approximately $44,000 a year for a family of four. The Department of has recognized Ohio as a leader in the weatherization program with 951 homes completed in July 2009.

Ohio allocated funds from the grant to local community agencies and other public and not-for-profit organizations. In addition, 54 independent contractors were hired to supplement existing contractors. It is estimated that by completion of the project at the end of March, 2012, 590 new positions will be created and 487 jobs retained.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has awarded $288 million in federal stimulus funding to 66 cities, counties, and eligible nonprofit organizations across the state to weatherize the homes of an estimated 40,000 low income Texans. Overall, the state received $326.9 in weatherization funds, the balance of which TDHCA will award in 2010.

The Recovery Act provided approximately $314 million more in funds than what Texas typically administers each year for weatherization activities. By comparison, the state annually weatherizes approximately 3,700 homes using current funding levels of approximately $13 million.

Though the economy remains weak and the unemployment rate is still high, a new report released by the Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Initiative cites the job creation potential of green collar jobs in the Chicago region.

The report highlights numerous policy opportunities – including climate legislation, additional resources for environmental programs, and changes to environmental standards – that may help spur the development of new green collar jobs throughout Chicagoland. The specific occupations most likely to experience significant growth are energy efficiency measure installers and auditors, primarily in response to the projected increase in the number of residential retrofits expected to be completed in the coming years.

“Both the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Illinois Capital Bill contain significant investments in environmental programs, including expansion of the Weatherization Assistance Program and Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant, improving building energy efficiency, and developing sustainable transportation,” Paige Finnegan of e-One and a member of the Initiative Steering Committee, said in a statement.

Chicagoland is well positioned to respond to these opportunities by training new workers and providing supplemental training to the existing workforce. The region already has a strong workforce development and training infrastructure, a track record of developing successful industry-specific initiatives, experience in green curriculum development, and an extensive network of workforce development and training providers on which to draw.

Jennifer Keeling, of the Chicago Jobs Council and director of the Initiative, said “the Chicago area has significant experience and resources on which to build. The region has developed successful sector-focused workforce development strategies in the past, and can draw on its extensive network of community-based training providers, community colleges, and other training organizations to respond to these new opportunities. What will be critical is to ensure that the trainings developed in response to these emerging green collar jobs are accessible to a range of job-seekers, including those with low skill levels.”

Though the Chicagoland region already has a strong foundation, to fully realize the potential of the expanding green economy and green collar job opportunities, the Initiative recommends: prioritizing collaboration and partnerships, creating a process for ongoing standardization of curriculum for green training programs, ensuring comprehensive workforce strategies to engage low-skill workers, establishing a standard weatherization process, promoting the development of integrated green workforce and economic development strategies, and establishing minimum common building standards.