Sacramento Airport's Environmentally Sustainable Terminal B

UC Davis Renewable Energy Anaerobic Digester

The UC Davis Renewable Energy Anaerobic Digester turns food waste into renewable biogas. The facility can handle 50 tons of organic waste per day. A three-stage thermophilic anaerobic digestion system is used with a total working volume of 450,000 gallons. The facility has four California Air Resources Board approved 200 kW microturbines and a 125 kW Rankine-cycle engine-generator for converting waste heat from the microturbines into additional electricity. Approximately 690 kW of the electrical generation capacity is provided by biogas generated at the facility with an additional 235 kW of capacity from landfill gas.

UC Davis Solar Farm

UC Davis solar farm. The 16.3 megawatt SunPower solar power plant generates 14 percent of UC Davis' electricity, reducing the university's carbon footprint by 9 percent. The largest solar power farm on a university campus in the nation sits on 62 acres on the south end of campus.

Electric bus at SEJ conference

Zero emissions electric bus parked outside of Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Sacramento. Chinese electric bus and electric truck maker BYD Auto is planning a major expansion in California. The Lancaster manufacturing plant will grow to 37,000 square metres, increase its employees from 300 to 1,000, and turn out 1,000 vehicles a year.

Santa Monica Bike Share

The Los Angeles region is behind other cities when it comes to bike sharing, but the City of Angels is starting to catch up, with Metro's downtown bike sharing program and Santa Monica's Breeze bike sharing scheme. Long Beach also has a bike sharing program called Long Beach Bike Share.

L.A. Metro - Little Tokyo/Arts District

Leichtag Foundation's Coastal Roots Farm

Sustainable farming is growing in the United States and around the world and the Leichtag Foundation's Coastal Roots Farm in Encinitas, California is an excellent example of the movement to regenerative agriculture.

Sacramento light rail

Cities must make public transportation clean, safe, reliable, technologically advanced and affordable. Otherwise, neglected rail and bus systems lead to divisions between the haves and have-nots and gain the reputation for crime, mentally unstable and homeless people, dirty trains and buses, not being reliable and other maladies that Sacramento and other transit systems in the United States have to deal with because of decades of disinvestment in public transit in favor of the private automobile and the streets and highways that are used by private cars and trucks.

Sacramento Net Zero Community

At the recent Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Sacramento we toured a demonstration project for a net zero community. The homes are powered by rooftop solar panels and include an energy storage unit on the side of the homes along with energy efficiency features and access to public transport and electric vehicle charging stations.

Here are photos:

Green cars at Society of Environmental Journalists conference

I got the chance to test drive some of the greenest cars on the market at the recent Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Sacramento -- from the fully electric zero emissions Nissan Leaf to the hydrogen fuel cell Toyota Mirai. These low emissions and zero emissions vehicles are not the future, but the now. The transition to sustainable transportation has begun!

Photos:

Riding L.A. Metro Expo Line Phase 2 from Culver City to Santa Monica

On a recent visit to Los Angeles I finally got the chance to ride the L.A. Metro Expo Line light rail extension from Culver City to Santa Monica. Now Angelenos can enjoy a one seat ride from downtown Los Angeles to downtown Santa Monica. Passengers can relax while looking out the window at the scenery going by instead of the stress of sitting in traffic on the 10 freeway.

Josh Fox climate change movie screening at D.C. Environmental Film Festival

Biking Brooklyn

World Trade Center Transportation Hub

Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center in Silver Spring, Maryland

DC Streetcar grand opening

Pictures and video from the launch of DC Streetcar -- the first time in 54 years that streetcars are operating in the nation's capital. The new line runs from Union Station, through the H Street NE corridor, down Benning Road to its final destination at Oklahoma Avenue. There are plans to extend the streetcar line east to the Benning Road Metro station and west to Georgetown via K Street NW.

New D.C. United stadium will be LEED Gold

Great news soccer fans in the nation's capital! The new D.C. United stadium that will be built at Buzzard Point in Southwest Washington will be LEED Gold certified, the highest sustainability standard from the U.S. Green Building Council. More details on how the new stadium will be one of the most environmentally friendly stadiums in the country from the application for review and approval of a consolidated planned unit development:

L.A. Union Station improvements

On a recent train ride from San Diego to Los Angeles I was very impressed by the improvements being made to Union Station. There are new signs and video boards strategically placed around the station to make it easier for passengers to find their gates and transfer from Amtrak or Metrolink to the L.A. Metro rail and bus system.

ElectroBike

At the Sherman Oaks Galleria I took an electric bike for a test ride and it was awesome. E-bikes are really the future of urban transportation. The company is called ElectroBike and they have a wide selection of electric bicycles to meet your needs and preferences.

L.A. Metro Purple Line Extension and other improvement projects

On a recent visit to Los Angeles I was pleasantly surprised to see construction taking place on the L.A. Metro Purple Line Subway Extension that will bring underground heavy rail mass transit to Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills, Century City and Westwood.

Los Angeles River Revitalization

On a recent visit to Los Angeles I walked along a recently revitalized stretch of the Los Angeles river in Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley. The L.A. River Corporation is currently in the midst of a major project to revitalize the entire 51 miles of the urban river pathway. The aim is to "create a thriving environment, better transportation options, more public green space, smarter water conservation, a vibrant arts and culture corridor, and a whole new way for neighbors to interact with each other and nature."

Los Angeles LED street lights

In 2013 Los Angeles completed the world's largest LED (light emitting diode) street light replacement project, replacing more than 140,000 streetlight fixtures across the city. According to L.A.'s Bureau of Street Lighting, the switch has resulted in a 63.1 percent reduction in energy use and carbon emissions have been reduced by 47,583 metric tons a year.

Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC)

On a recent train ride from San Diego to Los Angeles on Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner, I saw the new Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC). The station is the proposed eastern terminus of a future streetcar system, is a proposed stop along the high-speed rail line currently under construction in California's Central Valley and is the southern terminus for a proposed maglev line from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Riding L.A. Metro

Photos and videos of a recent trip to Los Angeles where I hopped on the city's excellent public transit system that is improving and expanding every day.

San Diego bike sharing: DecoBike

San Diego recently joined thousands of other cities around the world with bike sharing programs. DecoBike San Diego launched February of last year with 80 rental stations and plans to eventually expand the city network to 180 stations. Will car-crazy San Diegans embrace bike sharing? While usage has been slow to start, if other cities are any indication, bike sharing will become more popular and be a game changer in terms of creating a bicycling culture and adding more bicycle infrastructure to make biking in San Diego safer and more enjoyable.

Torrey Pines State Beach and Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve

San Diego solar boom

Solar energy is soaring in Southern California -- surging past wind and hydro as the Golden State's top renewable energy source. On a recent visit to San Diego I was amazed at all the new rooftop solar. It seemed like every other home had solar panels on the roof, a noticeable difference from the last time I went out West a few years ago. It makes sense that San Diego would be the epicenter of America's solar boom given how much sunshine the region is blessed with all year round.

NYC's new 34th Street – Hudson Yards subway station

New York City recently celebrated the opening of the 7 line extension to Manhattan's rapidly developing Far West Side. The impressive new 34th Street – Hudson Yards station is spacious and clean and features wide platforms, bright lighting, easy to understand signage, colorful art and overall a sleek and modern look.

Riding D.C. Metro's new 7000 series train

I recently got the chance to ride in Metro's new 7000 series train cars and they are most certainly a clean break from the past. New design, new features, new technology. If this is the future of our currently beyond dysfunctional rapid rail system, then perhaps there is hope after all that Metro can get their act together and really become a world-class subway system instead of the pathetic mess it is in today.