Green Building Law Update

Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business

Archives: Climate Change

Maryland is the First State to Regulate Carbon

By Stuart Kaplow on December 11, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, GHG

Maryland has enacted the most rigorous state law in the country reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and otherwise addressing ESG stewardship including climate change. Businesses can and should treat this as the greatest responsibility and opportunity of our time. Literally resetting the trajectory of Maryland’s economy, making sweeping changes to the Old Line State’s already … Continue Reading

Net Zero Pledge Standards for Business Released at COP27

By Stuart Kaplow on November 27, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, ESG, GHG

Much has been written in the media about the just concluded UN Climate Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, most of it focusing on the agreement to agree on reparations or more correctly stated, on providing “loss and damage” funding in the future for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters. But the biggest takeaway for … Continue Reading

Low Embodied Carbon Concrete is Here

By Stuart Kaplow on November 20, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, ESG, GHG, State

The golden opportunity in ESG may be in concrete. Embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with materials’ manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal. In a building, there is “upfront” embodied carbon in construction and then operational carbon largely from energy consumption. Embodied carbon is particularly important because it contributes more climate changing … Continue Reading

Scope 4 GHG Emissions

By Stuart Kaplow on November 6, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, ESG, GHG, Green Building, Green Washing

Scope 4 greenhouse gas emissions are not new. They date to 2013 when the Greenhouse Gas Protocol identified “avoided emissions” as emission reductions that occur outside of a product’s lifecycle or value chain, but as a result of the use of that product. It was actually a decade ago that the GHG Protocol released “a survey to … Continue Reading

The “Social Cost of Carbon” is Back

By Stuart Kaplow on October 30, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, ESG, GHG, greenhouse gas

After this blog was posted, on September 21, 2023 the Biden Administration approved the recommendation of the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, directing federal government agencies to consider the social cost of greenhouse gases in federal procurement. On November 11, 2022, shortly after this blog was posted EPA proposed a rule … Continue Reading

SEC Longstanding Disclosure Related to Climate Change Remains

By Stuart Kaplow on October 2, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, ESG, Federal

Whilst much of the popular media is all but obsessed with the March 21, 2022, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed ESG Rules to Enhance and Standardize Climate-Related Disclosures that will among other matters require companies for the first time to disclose greenhouse gas emission data, we continue to work with companies in complying with … Continue Reading

Supreme Court Rules Against EPA Reining in Power of Agencies

By Stuart Kaplow on June 30, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, Federal, GHG, greenhouse gas

In a decision that will rein in agency power across the federal government, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that Congress did not clearly authorize the EPA to adopt broad rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric utility power plants. Specifically, the high court held, “Congress did not grant EPA in Section 111(d) of … Continue Reading

SEC Alleges BNY Mellon made ESG Misstatements and Omissions

By Stuart Kaplow on June 26, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, ESG, Federal

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. with misstatements and omissions about ESG considerations for certain mutual funds that it managed. To settle the charges, on May 23, 2022, BNY Mellon Investment Adviser agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty. The SEC’s order finds that, from July 2018 to September 2021, BNY … Continue Reading

Glossary of Greenhouse Gas Terms

By Stuart Kaplow on June 5, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, GHG, greenhouse gas

With proposed federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions by the Securities and Exchange Commission requiring GHG disclosure and new state statutes, including a new Maryland law that requires not only disclosure, but also a mandated reduction in GHG emissions, a greater appreciation of the subject of GHG appears in order. This short glossary is an … Continue Reading

A Quick Science Refresher on Greenhouse Gas

By Stuart Kaplow on May 1, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, Federal, GHG, State

With the federal government and state of Maryland each having announced within days of each other, the mandated disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we have received, maybe not surprising, many calls in the last two weeks inquiring “what are GHGs?” and “what are Scope 3 GHG emissions (.. which are proposed to be a … Continue Reading

The UK Sets the Scene for Mandatory ESG Laws in the Western World

By Stuart Kaplow on February 13, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, ESG

As we in the U.S. await action by the federal government on mandatory ESG laws, the United Kingdom has become the first European Union country to enact mandatory ESG disclosure laws. These new reporting requirements are of import beyond the shores of Great Britain in that they portend what government mandates are to come across … Continue Reading

ESG is an Opportunity for Commercial Landlords

By Stuart Kaplow on February 6, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, ESG, Green Building, Green Globes, LEED

There is a concomitant issue of whether the California legislature should be setting environmental policy that governs the country?… Continue Reading

Department of Labor Proposes to Remove Barriers to Considering ESG in Plan Management

By Stuart Kaplow on November 1, 2021 Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, ESG

ESG has become such a large component of my law practice that I am now collaborating with a fabulous group attorneys in ESG Legal Solutions, LLC, a new non-law consulting firm. Nancy Hudes and I are now publishing a new blog at www.ESGLegalSolutions.com (.. yes, this blog will continue). This post originally appeared in that blog. If … Continue Reading

Supreme Court to Hear Climate Change Regulation Case

By Stuart Kaplow on October 30, 2021 Posted in Climate Change, ESG, GHG, Paris Accord

If there was any question that the judiciary was a coequal and political branch of government, last Friday after President Biden was wheels up to attend the COP26 Glasgow climate conference, the Supreme Court agreed to review the Environmental Protections Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. This litigation over the EPA’s scope of authority … Continue Reading

IPCC Fanning the Flames of ESG

By Stuart Kaplow on August 15, 2021 Posted in Climate Change, Environmental, ESG, GRESB, Sustainability

Maryland to Commit to World Economic Forum’s One Trillion Trees Initiative Tree Planting

By Stuart Kaplow on May 23, 2021 Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, Environmental

The Maryland legislature has enacted and the Governor is expected to sign legislation that will take effect on June 1, 2021 establishing aggressive state tree planting goals and a host of other initiatives rooted in trees, all in an effort to respond to climate change. While other significant climate change legislation failed to pass in … Continue Reading

Green Buildings are Subsidizing Conventional Buildings Stymying Climate Progress

By Stuart Kaplow on April 4, 2021 Posted in Climate Change, Green Building, LEED

Green building bonds, which are higher rated and could provide cheaper capital for green building projects, can correct the current market that prices mortgages, green building or nongreen, the same, stimulating the economy and repairing the planet. The financial value of green buildings is well documented, from commanding higher rents, greater occupancy rates, and increased … Continue Reading

SEC to Update Required Climate Related Disclosures

By Stuart Kaplow on February 28, 2021 Posted in Climate Change, ESG, Federal

On February 24, acting chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Allison Herren Lee, offered insight into the future direction of mandatory climate change disclosures and new ESG regulation, when she directed the Division of Corporation Finance to enhance its focus on climate related disclosure in public company filings. The Commission provided guidance in … Continue Reading

Companies are Preparing for ESG Disclosure Rules

By Stuart Kaplow on January 24, 2021 Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations

Public companies in the U.S. find themselves at a dynamic time of emergent environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) disclosures. New appointees in the Biden Administration, from the SEC and the Labor Department to the top White House economic advisor, all signal mandatory ESG disclosures. The idea of ESG began in 2004 with a United Nations … Continue Reading

Carbon Tax Proposed in Portland will be First in the Nation

By Stuart Kaplow on December 6, 2020 Posted in Climate Change, Green Globes, LEED, Local Government

The City of Portland is proposing a carbon tax that would be the first of its kind anywhere in the country. Given the increased emphasis on climate change by the incoming Biden Administration the proposed ordinance should be on your required reading list. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions are changing the climate. Energy … Continue Reading

Supreme Court to decide Climate Change Case

By Stuart Kaplow on October 11, 2020 Posted in Climate Change, Environmental

While this week the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett begins in earnest before the Senate Judiciary Committee, last week the U.S. Supreme Court granted BP’s petition for a writ of certiorari in BP P.L.C. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, a much watched climate change case. In 2017, a number of state and … Continue Reading

SEC Alters Environmental Disclosure Requirements for First Time in 30 Years But

By Stuart Kaplow on September 20, 2020 Posted in Climate Change, Federal

A final rule the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted on August 26, 2020 and effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register may be more significant for what is not in the rule. The rule is silent on ESG disclosures, including nary a mention of climate risk, but as described below the results … Continue Reading

EPA Proposes First Greenhouse Gas Emissions Limits for Aircraft

By Stuart Kaplow on July 26, 2020 Posted in Climate Change, Environmental, Federal

Last Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency proposed greenhouse gas emissions standards for airplanes used in commercial aviation and large business jets. “This standard is the first time the U.S. has ever proposed regulating greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft,” according to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. And as much as I have railed against more and regressive environmental … Continue Reading