Ideas from elsewhere: The Environment

California and New England:
On-bill Financing

In this practice, utilities (often with some state government subsidy) offer a business a no-interest loan to pay for upgrades in the energy efficiency of the business' operations.
The utility then claims the amount on the monthly savings on the business' bill as its loan payment, until the principal is paid off. PennFuture and other advocates are trying to figure out ways on-bill financing could also work for residential customers.

Portland, Ore., Baltimore and other cities:
Home Deconstruction and Recycling

Instead of demolishing old buildings with a wrecking ball and carting the debris off to landfills, deconstruction uses work crews to dismantle them with an eye to preserving and reusing building materials. Some nonprofits use deconstruction as a way to train ex-offenders or other unemployed people for jobs in the building trades. A nonprofit organization in Baltimore, The Loading Dock, runs a building materials store that offers products recycled from deconstruction projects. For more information, see www.loadingdock.org, www.redo.org, or www.ilsr.org.

Chicago: The Green Exchange

Chicago has done as much as any city to prod and coax builders to adhere to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards of the U.S. Green Building Council. So it would figure that the nation's first "green" mall, built according to LEED standards and designed as a gathering place for "green" businesses and organizations, would be proposed in Chicago. The Green Exchange is scheduled to open next year. Go to: www.greenexchange.com