Green Building Law Update

Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business

Tag Archives: Kaplow

EPA (Finally) Finalizes Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Rule

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental
On December 15, 2022, EPA took final action to amend the All Appropriate Inquiries Rule to reference ASTM International’s E1527-21 “Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process” and allow for its use to satisfy the requirements for conducting all appropriate inquiries under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, … Continue Reading

FTC Seeks Public Input on Update to Green Guides for Environmental Claims

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental, Federal, greenwashing
The Federal Trade Commission announced last Wednesday that it is seeking public comment on updates and changes to the Green Guides for the Use of Environmental Claims. In an era when charges of greenwashing and green hushing are proliferating across social media while at the same time governments are mandating ESG including environmental disclosures by businesses, … Continue Reading

Maryland is the First State to Regulate Carbon

By Stuart Kaplow on 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

Government Proposes Federal Contractors and Their Suppliers Disclose GHG Emissions

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Federal, greenhouse gas
The Federal government is proposing the Federal Supplier Climate Risks and Resilience Rule, which will require major Federal contractors publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate related financial risks and set emissions reduction targets. The implications of this reach far beyond only Federal contractors impacting nearly every sector of the US economy, as contractors calculate … Continue Reading

Low Embodied Carbon Concrete is Here

By Stuart Kaplow on 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

The “Social Cost of Carbon” is Back

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, ESG, GHG, greenhouse gas
On November 11, 2022, shortly after this blog was posted EPA proposed a rule to regulate emissions of methane. While the proposed rule is itself worthy of discussion, readers of this blog may be particularly interested in a key technical feature of the announcement, that EPA has introduced a new approach to estimating the social cost … Continue Reading

Selling the Sun: Sale of a House with Solar Panels is Fraught with Peril

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental, ESG, Green Building, Solar Panel
  There are more than 3 Million houses in the U.S. with solar panels installed on the roof.  The Inflation Protection Act of 2022 extended the 30% federal tax credit for residential solar panels through 2034 which is predicted to more than triple that number of solar installations. And as those houses are each year … Continue Reading

SEC Longstanding Disclosure Related to Climate Change Remains

By Stuart Kaplow on 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

California Appeals Board Gender Diversity Loss

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in ESG, State
Last month, the California Secretary of State appealed the decision by a California Superior Court striking down as unconstitutional California’s board diversity law, which required all publicly traded companies headquartered in the State to include a minimum number of female directors. In 2018, Women on Boards (Senate Bill 826) was signed into law to advance … Continue Reading

EPA Proposes Designating PFAS as Hazardous

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental, ESG, Federal
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to designate two of the most widely used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as the “Superfund” law. The proposal applies to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), including their salts and structural isomers, actually, a group of … Continue Reading

UN Human Rights Assessment of Uyghurs by China Drives ESG

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in ESG
We have blogged repeatedly that “the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor” is a key element, if not singularly the most important principle of a business’s practices. That point was driven home with the release last Wednesday, by The United Nations Human Rights Office assessment of human rights concerns in China’s Xinjiang … Continue Reading
LexBlog