World’s Largest Solar Project Planned for Saharan Desert
from Inhabitat
If just 0.3 percent of the Saharan Desert was used for a concentrating solar plant, it would produce enough power to provide all of Europe with clean renewable energy. That is why 20 blue chip German companies are gathering together next month to discuss plans and investments to create such a massive project. Both the meeting and project are being promoted by the Desertec Foundation, which is proposing to erect 100 GW of concentrating solar power plants throughout Northern Africa. More

Videoconferencing Helps Companies Cut Travel Costs
from USA TODAY
Ben Weinberger, chief information officer of a law firm, typically travels about 25 times a year visiting colleagues around the country to make sure their information technology systems are working properly. His employer, Lathrop & Gage, has 11 offices and 300 attorneys. But Weinberger estimates he will travel only once this year to each office, relying instead on videoconferencing from the main office in Kansas City. More

The Green Mandate for Commercial Real Estate
from Contract Magazine
Green building standards may not seem to be on the front burner of commercial real estate as much this year as last, simply because very little new development is breaking ground these days. Yet think and planning and policy shifts regarding sustainable real estate go on, anticipating the day when development will begin again. More

Mind Your BlackBerry or Mind Your Manners
from The New York Times
As Web-enabled smartphones have become standard on the belts and in the totes of executives, people in meetings are increasingly caving in to temptation to check e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, even ESPN.com. But a spirited debate about etiquette has broken out. Traditionalists say the use of BlackBerrys and iPhones in meetings is as gauche as ordering out for pizza. Techno-evangelists insist that to ignore real-time text messages in a need-it-yesterday world is to invite peril. More

Representing more than 600 million square feet, Operations and Maintenance Benchmarks
from GreenerBuildings
In April, former President Bill Clinton, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Chief Scientist Amory Lovins, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Empire State Building owner Tony Malkin, along with project partners Jones Lang LaSalle and Johnson Controls Inc. announced an audacious plan to reduce the energy use of the Empire State Building by 38 percent, and save US$4.4 million annually in the process. The plan was the result of a 12-month study, which included intensive building measurements, energy and financial modeling, and tenant engagement. More

U.S. Cities May Have to be Bulldozed in Order to Survive
from Telegraph
Dozens of U.S. cities may have entire neighborhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline. More

Why Your Cubicle Moonlights as a Therapist’s Couch
from The Wall Street Journal
We rely on good jobs for our sense of wellbeing. Today, young people are routed into employment that has scant relationship to their aspirations. The losses of pay and opportunity are serious, but my concern goes beyond work as a source of income or even of achievement to work as it shapes our identity. Who we are in our solitary moments and in our close relationships is a product of who we are on the job. Increasingly, it’s the workplace, as much as the home, that provides lessons about how to face personal challenges. More

The Clean Energy Economy is Poised for Explosive Growth
from Examiner
A report released this month from The Pew Charitable Trust shows that the clean energy economy is poised for explosive growth. The report highlights investments being made today in clean energy that will drive future growth. More

Dubai Development May be Down, but It's Not Out
from Los Angeles Times
If a city can be spectacularly quiet, this waterfront city-state has certainly qualified in recent months. Hundreds of abandoned construction cranes languish above Dubai's gated communities and beach-side developments and, most dramatically, up and down Sheikh Zayed Road, its high-rise spine. According to a recent estimate in the Middle East Economic Digest, projects worth a staggering US$335 billion in the United Arab Emirates—of which Dubai, with a population of about 2 million, is the largest member—are stalled or have been canceled outright. More

Green Building Retrofits Represent a Potential US$400 Billion Market
from Environmental Leader
Boosted in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will provide significant funding for renovations to federal building, the total potential market for major green renovations in the commercial building sector is approximately US$400 billion, according to a new study by Pike Research. Although currently a relatively small market, the market researcher forecasts that comprehensive efficiency retrofits will more than triple in annual revenue to US$6.6 billion by 2013. More