Floodplain Management for Modern Times, Part 3: Risk Rating 2.0
In our last floodplain guide blog, we discussed FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). One problem with the NFIP that took a long time to address was rate determination. The NFIP has used the same methodology to set rates since shortly after the establishment...
Floodplain Management for Modern Times, Part 2: Flood Insurance
How can you protect your home from floods? The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administers a program called the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The NFIP was established with the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (NFIA). The NFIP is delivered to...
Floodplain Management for Modern Times, Part 1: An Introduction
Humans cannot survive without water, yet it can also be one of the most powerful and destructive forces on earth. Flooding is a danger to not only roadways, homes, and commercial buildings, but also to human life. Why do we live or build in areas that are known...
Energy Star Scores for Vehicle Dealerships
Anyone who has bought a major appliance in the past 30 years is undoubtedly well aware of the Energy Star rating system. What began as a humble undertaking to promote more efficient lighting systems in commercial and industrial buildings blossomed into the rating...
Your Guide to Creating Sustainable Operations, Part Four: Battery Storage Systems and Final Thoughts
What happens to the energy that a solar panel array generates? Obviously, it can be used to power a facility or be fed back to the grid. However, organizations could find that the panels generate more electricity than they need at a given time of the day. In that...
Your Guide to Creating Sustainable Operations, Part Three: Solar Panel Arrays
Many organizations have a lot of unused vacant land or roof space. If this is the case at your facility, you may be unsure of how to utilize it all. “Why not install a solar panel array?” This is the obvious choice for many. Land is usually a resource, but unused land...
Your Guide to Creating Sustainable Operations, Part Two: Getting Started
The energy needed to operate large facilities, whether water/wastewater treatment operations, manufacturing plants, or maintenance facilities, can be costly. With the price of traditional fuel increasing and the ultimate goal of eliminating use of fossil fuels,...
Renewable Energy Tax Credit Application Deadline Approaching
In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act led to the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit (48C) Program. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, 48C was expanded. Qualified organizations nationwide now have access to $10 billion in tax credits...
Energy Benchmarking Reports in New York City
In 2009, New York City passed Local Law 84 (LL84), which requires owners of buildings that meet certain criteria to report annually on their property's energy and water use. The law was passed to determine how much energy and water is consumed by the City’s buildings...
Your Guide to Creating Sustainable Operations, Part One: Deploying Green Technologies
Municipal entities and business leaders alike understand that, increasingly, people are expecting them to implement sustainable tools and technologies across their facilities to combat climate change. The government has set far-reaching goals through laws such as the...