Green Building Law Update

Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business

Tag Archives: Stuart Kaplow

Net Zero Pledge Standards for Business Released at COP27

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

Green Hushing versus Confidentiality

By Stuart Kaplow on November 13, 2022 Posted in Environmental, ESG, greenwashing

There is a new answer to the philosophical question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear, does it make a sound?” The answer has depended upon your definition of sound. If you define sound as our perceptions of vibrations that travel through air (vibrations from a falling tree), … 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

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

Net Zero Risks as a Source of Opportunity

By Stuart Kaplow on October 23, 2022 Posted in Energy, Environmental, ESG

Calculating net zero is ill defined, unregulated and complex. Businesses making a net zero pledge like, “we will be net zero by 2030” risk a charge that they are greenwashing and misleading consumers. It is one thing when government leaders make an ESG claim: In 2009 the King of Bhutan proclaimed his Himalayan country was … Continue Reading

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

By Stuart Kaplow on October 9, 2022 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 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

California Appeals Board Gender Diversity Loss

By Stuart Kaplow on September 25, 2022 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 September 11, 2022 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 September 4, 2022 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

179D Tax Deduction made Bigger and Better

By Stuart Kaplow on August 28, 2022 Posted in City, Codes and Regulations, Energy, Green Building

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has been much talked about in the 14 days since it was signed by President Biden, but little has been said about the provisions that modified the 179D energy efficient commercial buildings federal tax deduction making it bigger and better. Section 13303 of HR 5376 – The Inflation Reduction … Continue Reading

Do Something about Slavery in Your Business Supply Chain

By Stuart Kaplow on July 31, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, Solar Panel

Slavery exists in 2022. There is simply no morally defensible reason for not doing everything in our power to end modern slavery. U.S. Customs and Border Protection describes in a May 17, 2022 update, that at any given time, “an estimated 40.3 million people are in modern slavery.” That “means there are 5.4 victims of … Continue Reading

New Greenwashing Case is Troubling to Future of ESG

By Stuart Kaplow on July 24, 2022 Posted in greenwashing

On July 6, FossielVrij NL filed a greenwashing lawsuit in the Amsterdam District Court against Dutch airline KLM. The overseas litigation is troubling because at its core the theory of the case is apocalyptic environmentalism, the belief that unless humans drastically reduce consumption population growth and affluence will overwhelm our planet. In this instance that … Continue Reading

Phase 1 Standard for All Appropriate Inquiries in Limbo

By Stuart Kaplow on July 17, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental, Federal

It is hugely significant that the Phase l Environmental Site Assessment standard is in limbo because that assessment is conducted in the vast majority of the 5.6 million commercial real estate transactions each year in the United States (i.e., including for a real estate purchaser to avoid liability under the Superfund law). The U.S. Environmental … 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

Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to be Enforced June 21

By Stuart Kaplow on June 12, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, Federal, Solar Panel

Congress passed, and on December 23, 2021 President Biden signed into law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The new law that will be enforced beginning June 21, 2022 has implications for imported cotton and tomatoes and most significantly for solar panels. The Act, codified at 22 U.S.C. §6901, establishes a rebuttable presumption that any … 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

SEC Charges Mining Company with Misleading Investors in its ESG Disclosures

By Stuart Kaplow on May 29, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month charged Vale S.A., a publicly traded Brazilian mining company and one of the world’s largest iron ore producers, with making false and misleading claims about the safety of the Brumadinho dam including through its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures. According to the SEC’s complaint, for years, … Continue Reading

SEC Extends Comment Period for Proposed Rules on ESG Related Disclosures

By Stuart Kaplow on May 22, 2022 Posted in ESG, GHG, Sustainability

On October 7, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reopened the public comment periods, for 14 days from the day the notice is published in the Federal Register, for 11 of its rulemaking releases, some of them viewed as controversial including the rule discussed in this blog post, due to a technical glitch that … 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

You Should Comment on the SEC’s Transformative Proposed ESG Rule

By Stuart Kaplow on April 24, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Federal, GHG

Note, after this was posted, the SEC extended the public comment period on the proposed rulemaking to enhance and standardize climate related disclosures from the originally scheduled close date of May 20, 2022 until June 17, 2022. We posted some weeks ago when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a long awaited proposed new … Continue Reading