Flashes: June 26, 2013

• Only in Chicago can politicians call Chicago a "capital for green jobs" by doing something other big cities have already done: require major buildings to benchmark their energy data.
• Do you think it's too much to ask the city to keep up with New York and also require major building owners to do a full scale energy audit of their buildings?  Or maybe to lead and require all major building owners to perform a retrocommissioning after 10 years, and recommission the building every other year?
• I only ask this because every other year I have to spend money to make sure that my car meets ever-increasing vehicle emission standards, and no one really seems to care how much that costs me.  Truthfully, I do not mind, because I know that the emissions monitoring protects the air and creates a better quality of life for me and my family.  Since buildings use 70% of the energy in the city, should we not require the same level of performance and monitoring from the owners of these buildings...especially since many of them put off necessary maintenance and repairs in order to improve their bottom lines?
• You know you're probably a little too focused on issues of resource use and environmental damage when one of the first things you think about after your hometown team hoists Lord Stanley's Cup is what the energy/carbon/water footprint of the Cup's journey this summer will be...having to go all over Canada, part of the US, over to Sweden and Slovakia.  Thankfully, the sports fan in me regained control and realized that there are bigger fish to fry.