That mammoth amount of cash that the state provided to steer buyers to the dormant new construction market has dwindled to only $12 million. May proved to be a boon for buyers taking advantage of the tax credit as buyers claimed approximately $30 million. The California Franchise Tax Board speculates that the $100 million fund will be “wiped out by August 2009 and the incentive will not be extended.”

Buildings such as San Francisco’s Arterra (which is on target to receive a LEED Silver up from LEED-NC which we previously had been informed) does offer some unique Green attributes.

Don’t get too bent out of shape if the tax credit disappears as a good agent should be able to negotiate more than a $10K credit (and maybe more sustainable offerings) if you play your cards right.

Although only in prototype stage, this new machine may be able to save up to 90% of water compared to a conventional machine and will also cut carbon emissions. Created by Xeros, this machine replaces the old school idea of cleaning clothes. The technology goes with full on chemistry advances by replacing the majority of the water with reusable nylon polymer beads, the machine can clean clothes in less time than traditional machines, and we see these waterless wonders then you can thank Professor Stephen Burkinshaw, from the University of Leeds who made the discovery that certain types of polymer beads could be used for cleaning.

We’re even more impressed that these machines will use significantly less detergent than normally required, and that the electricity savings can be increased further by reducing the need to tumble dry, assuming that all the happy homemakers out there don’t already hang their clothes on a line and dry them the old fashioned way.

No, we haven’t taken this new “waterless” bad boy for a spin (yet) but we’re impressed that Xeros commissioned an independent Life Cycle Assessment from URS Corporation. The report found that the process has the potential to display a significantly smaller carbon footprint than that of a conventional wash.

Xeros aims to have a commercially viable product in production by the end of 2010. Although we hate to get too lathered up about this “potential” it does seem like a product that we can get fired up about. Hopefully this won’t be a full load of greenwashing because we don’t want to be taken for a spin.

Now if only this washer can do something about those missing socks.

On the creatively intriguing side, we walked into the Icynene Inc. display booth only knowing that they create their Icynene LD-R-50 spray foam insulation partially from Castor oil. Honestly, we didn’t exactly know the origin of Castor oil. Castor oil comes from Castor beans (not true beans from Castor plant) and don’t serve a normal food source, so not food for insulation here. Castor crops don’t require pesticides or fungicides or even water to grow and are rapidly renewable. For this insulation, they use 15 eight percent castor oil (and unfortunately 85 92 percent polyglycol, which in our eyes is like using B15 B8 biodiesel. Fifteen Eight percent is better than zero percent but still a long way to go. This product helps eliminate dust, pollen and contains no VOCs as it is water blown. Most traditional cellulose insulation comes from 80% newspaper (up to100% post-consumer recycled) and 20% binders and fire-retardants, commonly borax, boric acid, sulfuric acid, ammonium sulfates and/or other chemical compounds. Smell the goodness.

One of the most disappointing aspects of PCBC would be the continual greenwashing that some organizations and companies wish to convey to the public and trade. The SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) had booth and lots of literature about how they which on the surface seems on the track to be doing the right thing with their Green certification but if you check below the tree cover it might not seem so verdant.

Most Green people would be disillusioned with the fact that SFI finds its roots firmly planted with the lumber companies which of course offers no value. Then they somewhat cleaned up their legitimacy a few years ago by creating third party certification, publicly available standards and a more transparent process.

We met the Director of Green Building for SFI at the PCBC booth where he did the hard sell offering such info that they continue to push the USGBC to include SFI certified wood in the LEED standard. To us, it seems like a lot of lobbying and less to do with the legitimacy of the certification.

When it comes down to it, the SFI wants people to think that they reign superior or even equal to FSC certification but take a look at some of the comparisons where SFI allows:

-use of genetically modified trees

- logging close to rivers and streams that harms water supplies

-use of toxic chemicals while FSC does not allow these in the forests.

And we can go on and on but as they say a picture is worth a thousand words so check out the SFI versus FSC forest land photo courtesy of heartofgreen.

‘nuff said.

For those in America who have yet to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Fast Food Nation or even The Jungle, the new docu pic Food, Inc. smoothly stirs the boiling pot of food production controversy while allowing those not familiar with the dark secrets of the food production industry to enjoy a film in bite size nuggets.

With Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser a co-producers and Omnivore’s Dilemma writer Michael Pollen one of the consultants (in addition to being on-screen participants) the film offers a solid, well presented structure that offers not only scary, gut wrenching even stomach turning scenes in meatpacking plants, chicken coops and but offers a silver lining into the future of food.

Producer/Director Robert Kenner weaves the film through the various food landscapes from the cramped chicken coops of Maryland to the aerial CAFO vistas to the open grasslands of Polyface Farms. Inside one of the chicken coops live chickens that wallow in their own filth and barely have room to move. Factory farm shots show downer cows being uplifted by forklifts to be transported to the slaughterhouse. The film makes a point of showing people how dangerous and unregulated our food system remains.

Besides showing the torturously nauseating animal conditions, the film doesn’t forget the human factor and the social justice issues. Food, Inc. follows undocumented factory farm workers being arrested while making the point that the huge company that they work for should be the ones under the squad car lights. Kenner also captures the human element in the case of one California family that must decide between fast food hamburgers and broccoli as a result of economic hardship. (Guess which they choose?) Food, Inc displays the bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, and even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but also shows the new strains of e coli—and the deadly results.

But the film is not all about “dishonest food” and the “ugly truth” as Kenner captures lively footage of environmentally progressive owners such as Stonyfield Farms’ Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms’ Joe Salatin who both proudly declare and demonstrate how food can be produced honestly and without a wall of secrecy. Like The Wizard of Oz, Food, Inc. reveals that cow behind the curtain.

Already this docu pic has several large food conglomerates just a tad worried with companies like Monsanto and the American Meat Institute creating their own websites in response to the film. It’s curious why it took till now to get a response from these food giants because according to the filmmakers representatives from Monsanto, Tyson, Perdue and Smithfield, declined to be interviewed for the movie.

Food, Inc. comes off less like a documentary and more like a food based 1984 where the food conglomerates act like Big Brother. Parts of this film appear to be as scary as any recent horror film. But consider, most horror films are works of fiction while this film deals with stuff that sits on your dinner plate.

David de Rothschild seeks to change the perception of plastic. He has created a plastic love boat named the Plastiki which he discussed in depth in a presentation/lecture a couple nights ago at San Francisco’s Academy of Sciences. De Rothschild plans to sail his boat, made almost entirely from reused plastic bottles, from Pier 31 in San Francisco, through the Great Eastern Garbage Patch to Sydney, Australia.

De Rothschild’s presentation came off as anything but dull and preachy. What else can we say when he begins the lecture with a video of many bovine tailpipes creating various amounts of various colored excrement. Rothschild’s point being not to gross the audience out (which he did to some degree) but to educate people that all the cow “tailpipes” create more CO2 than the tailpipes for all cars and trucks.

The casually attired, highly educated and hyper frenzied De Rothschild never wasted a moment or a word as he pointed out various that fact that there are 300 terms for “sustainability” and that his project and much of his thinking attributes to Buckminster Fuller. De Rothschild takes Fullers words, “Do more with less” to heart and thus the creation of the boat made from the plastic bottles.

De Rothschild, admittedly could have spoken for hours, mostly seeks to educate the world that people should find value in the omnipresent plastic – even if it means pulling a Kon-Tiki or Waterworld to get his point across.

San Francisco’s zany Bay to Breakers race brings out not only world class runners but crazy costumes as well. Some companies took advantage of the crazy and healthy atmosphere to promote various items (energy drinks, anti pain patches) but we had to question the Foster Farms “Say No to Plumping” race team.

Sure, everyone seemed to enjoy having their photo taken with the plump Foster Farms chickens but the brightly colored 16-person Foster Farms race team seemed bent on raising awareness of a little-known food fact: “plumped” or saltwater-injected chicken that costs consumers their health and money.

Instead of plumping maybe consumers and Bay to Breakers racers should be more concerned with eating chicken that isn’t organic, isn’t free-range and isn’t raised humanely. Foster Farms claims that they do not add hormones, steroids, or artificial enhancers. Okay but they don’t say whether or not the chicken is truly free-range or all natural.

This whole “Plumping” thing seemed to scream for everyone to be an aware consumer as far as economics go but aren’t missing the boat to promote health as well? It won’t do any good to save a buck or two on chicken (or any other meat for that matter) if you come down with some disease because of how a company raises the chickens . Maybe next year, maybe we’ll see some organic, pastured chickens run the race.

The EcoMap gives San Franciscans the ability to see the collective results of their individual footprint but also offers up nifty comparison of other zip codes so we can all spy on how Pac Heights compares to Potrero Hill. How many of the Marina crowd pours CO2 into the air from transportation, energy and waste versus their Russian Hill neighbors? With this map it’s easy to check out the various carbon footprints of the various ‘hoods.

The EcoMap gives people incentives to improve as it displays progress toward meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals. It also serves up healthy does of useful, locally available tools and resources for anyone wishing to reduce their carbon footprint.

EcoMap amasses information on a neighborhood level, organized by zip codes through Discover Your City’s Neighborhoods and Take Climate Actions, both of which offer interesting and useful info to educate and motivate (not to mention how to spy on our neighbors’ carbon footprint.

This pilot project brings together the resources and efforts of Cisco and the City and County of San Francisco. And of course SF Mayor Gavin Newsom likes to mention that, “Cities are the world’s major source of greenhouse gas emissions, consuming 75 percent of the world’s energy,” so he’s practically beaming that SF represents the first city in the world to launch an EcoMap that can reverse that trend.

We pretty excited to see full blown release. And we’d like to eventually see more complete data for other cities and zip codes which squarely reside behind the green eight ball. I don’t know how sustainable the 90210 is but here’s hoping that the 94117 rocks the sustainable world.