The Weitz Company is one of the oldest contractors in America – it was founded in 1855 – and the Iowa-based company is also one of the largest. In 2007, it garnered $352 million in revenue from green building projects, making it the 17th largest in the U.S. And that was officially before it entered the green market. One of its current projects is the Noyce Center at Grinnell College. It's named for Robert Noyce, the Intel founder and Grinnell alum that got temporarily booted from the school for stealing a pig.

Thus, what Weitz likes is probably a good indicator of what might find favor in the market as more builders go green and LEED.

So what is it installing? Solar hot water heaters. The payback can be as short as two to three years, says Aaron Bilyeu,   PV panels, by contrast, can take 12 to 15 years in some states to achieve payback. (Bilyeu spoke at a webinar we held earlier in the day.)

"We are reccommending [solar hot water] on all of our projects," he said. Additionally, Weitz is big on ground source heat pumps and low flow toilets.

The company has also mined gains in trying to reduce trash and waste on projects by recycling and reusing materials. On some projects, waste is down 75 percent or more, which reduces dumpster fees. During the building of a new headquarters for the Gallup organization, it actually garnered revenue from selling recycled construction materials.

All politics are local. So is the progress in greentech.

Federal and state Renewable Portfolio Standards, federal loans and stimulus packages are vitally important programs.

But progress in greening our cities is going to come from local efforts as much as from on high. We take a quick look at some city-based green initiatives.

San Jose, Calif. considers itself the capital of Silicon Valley, and wants to be the global center of greentech innovation. The city and its Mayor, Chuck Reed, have initiated one of the nation's most aggressive green initiatives – the Green Vision program with a 15-year goal that includes:

1. Creating 25,000 cleantech jobs

2. Reducing per capita energy use by 50 percent

3. Receiving 100 percent of its electrical power from clean renewable sources

4. Building or retrofitting 50 million square feet of green buildings

5. Diverting 100 percent of waste from landfills

6. Recycling or reusing 100 percent of its wastewater (100 million gallons per day)

7. Ensuring that 100 percent of its public fleet vehicles run on alternative fuels

8. Planting 100,000 new trees

9. Replacing 100 percent of its streetlights with smart, zero emission lighting

San Jose calls itself the capital of Silicon Valley but Palo Alto, Calif. could arguably assume the mantle of its' heart (against the protestations of Mountain View and Menlo Park). Palo Alto is the home of Stanford University, Packard's garage (of Hewlett Packard fame), Facebook, and a lot of Venture Capital firms. Steve Jobs of Apple and Larry Page of Google call it home.

Palo Alto can also lay claim to be one of the nation's greenest cities.

In June 2008, Palo Alto adopted mandatory green-building requirements for residential and commercial development -- one of the most stringent green building ordinances in the nation.

New buildings and remodels in Palo Alto must meet standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council or the Build It Green organization. Expect some public pushback since the green requirements can add from $2,000 to $10,000 to the cost of a home and 2 percent to 5 percent to the cost of a commercial project, according to a city report.

Palo Alto also has

• A climate protection plan addressing CO2 emissions and water
• A program for less-toxic pest control
• Proposed stringent ordinances on construction and demolition debris, a major source of landfill material, waste, and toxics.
• The "greenest" congressional office. Anna Eshoo, a high-powered Congressperson, recently unveiled the very first congressional office in the nation to go maximum green. Eshoo's office has installed a 1.6 kilowatts photovoltaic system and 100 percent of the electricity used by the office is obtained from renewable sources. The office has made profound green modifications to its' lighting, water, heating, cooling, materials, waste stream and the transit habits of its' employees.

Palo Alto has some competition from its neighbor/rival across the Bay – the Republic of Berkeley, Calif. 

Late last year, Berkeley's city council approved a plan to offer city-backed loans to building owners who install PV systems. The loans, up to $20,000 each, would be paid off as part of the owners' property-tax bills. This type of program could eliminate the biggest obstacle to solar deployments – the large upfront cost.

If this program succeeds, it could be expanded to finance other energy-efficiency efforts such as installing double-glazed windows or thermal insulation.

How about tiny Greensburg, Kan.? After being decimated by an F-5 tornado that leveled the city and left few homes standing, the survivors launched a plan to resurrect their town as the greenest city in America. All public buildings are to conform to LEED platinum standards.

Now, two years after the disaster, Greensburg's new homes are almost 50 percent more energy-efficient due to energy-saving windows, improved insulation, efficient heating, etc.

The people of Greensburg are pioneering the greening of a municipality, in one of the reddest states, no less.

Gainesville, Fla. is the first U.S. city with Feed-in-Tariffs.

In the first such program in the country, The Gainesville City Commission has approved a solar feed-in tariff for residential and business customers served by the Gainesville Regional Utilities in Florida. Wrote Ucilia Wang:

"Under the program, owners of solar energy systems would sell the electricity to the utilities at $0.32 per kilowatt-hour under a 20-year contract. The rate, which is higher than the price for conventional power, will remain for the first two years of the program. ... The program is modeled after the successful one in Germany, which has become the largest solar market in the world."

Other cities with claims on "the greenest" include:

Austin, Texas: Austin Energy, the city's municipally owned utility, plans to grow the renewables' portion of Austin's energy portfolio to 30 percent by 2020 and to build solar power's share to 100MW by 2020.

Boulder, Colo.: The city has resolved to become a zero-waste community.

Burlington, Vt.: More than one-third of energy used in the city comes from renewable resources, an impressive figure for the frosty Northeast.

Madison, Wis.: A bike-friendly city with an extensive recycling program that claims more than 90 percent participation.

New York City: High-density populations like NYC use fewer resources per capita. New Yorkers use of public transport dwarfs that of any other city.

Portland, Ore.: Portland is bike friendly, has set an urban growth limit to protect 25 million acres of open space, and recycles more than half of the city's trash.

San Francisco: More than half the city's residents use public or alternative transportation to get to work.

Please forgive the slightly California-centric selection in this list. Feel free to comment and let us know your choice for greenest city.

Officials and startup execs from Australia and in particular the state of Victoria are making a swing through the high-tech centers of the U.S. this month. Australia has already minted a few interesting green startups: Ausra, the solar thermal company, and Ioteq, which purifies water for food processors with iodine, come to mind. In the U.S. the difficulty has sometimes been distance. VCs want the companies to move here before they will invest and some of the startups (Ausra excluded) don't necessarily want to move.

Still, it will likely be one of the more active regions for greentech in the future. University laboratories have an extensive history in areas such as solar. (The technology behind Suntech actually came out of the University of New South Wales.) Additionally, because of its heavy sunshine, big waves and severe drought, Australia will be a large end market for green equipment.

So what's interesting on tour?

Zeobond: The company makes cement that is 100 percent fly ash. Most of the time, fly ash cement from other companies only contains 15 percent to 18 percent fly ash, says Peter Duxson, business development manager for Zeobond. "We went the whole way," he said. The technology for doing this has actually been around since the 1940s, but hasn't been brought to scale, he said. The company will start small – try to sell cement for roadway projects and things like that – and attack skyscrapers later. That's the reverse strategy of some other cement companies like iCrete, but it's also safer. Sidewalks tend to cost less than large buildings. 

Overall, the greenhouse gas emissions in making Zeobond cement are 80 percent lower than normal. It will also only sell for a slight, declining premium, he claimed. Price could be a tough barrier without carbon taxes.

Aqua Diagnostics: It makes water quality monitoring tools for dairies and food processors. In some jurisidictions, food processors and industrialsts get fined if their waste water contains too much waste. AD's machines can dynamically test water but without the noxious chemicals (mercury, etc.) found in current systems. The units are also portable and reasonably priced.

Aquatain: Sort of like Eleanor of Aquitane but spelled differently. A silicon membrane to prevent evaporation. Victoria has had strict rules on residential watering for the past four years and similar regs are coming to the U.S. A big market.

Ceramic Fuel Cell: A solid oxide fuel cell. The SOFC market has been around as long as the electronic book, and has progressed at about the same rate. But it may happen.

The Solar Energy Center at the University of Central Florida will kick off a 12-week online course on building zero-energy homes, or, I suppose, retrofitting your existing one. Courses cover things like water heaters, windows, HVAC, plug loads, etc. You can register here.

Nuts and bolts information like this is going to increasingly become important. Architects and building professionals often say that energy efficiency for the most part revolves around design choices and appliances. In Europe, there are already 10,000 examples of the "PassivHaus," zero-energy homes for cold climates with relatively small heaters. Amory Lovins, the celebrated head of the Rocky Mountain Institute, lives in a house in the Rockies with no heating system. It stays warm because of "superwindows" and good insulation. (Sustainable Spaces did an energy audit on my house. They said I could put a dent in my bills just by sealing the 1931-era heating duct.)

Zero-energy homes also don't necessarily cost more than regular homes. But that depends on how you build. If you have to educate your contractor, it might cost 25 percent more. So if you're interested, tune in.

Steven Strong and Luke McKneally of Solar Design Associates spoke at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) show in San Francisco this week about moving, “toward carbon neutral green design with renewable energy.” Strong is a solar zealot and a pioneer in installing solar heating and power on homes and buildings as well as making these structures more energy efficient.

He began his career as an engineer working on the Trans Alaskan Pipeline from 1973 to 1974, which he likened to being, “like a kid in a candy store for a young engineer.” But sobered by the oil scares precipitated by the Yom Kippur War, he went back to architecture school and started his solar design firm.

He has an absolutely impressive portfolio of solar installations to his credit. Here is a quick tour of some of his work.

The Mountain Conservation Center in Northern New Hampshire

In a solar starved environment of 8,765 Degree Days (that’s not good) – Strong helped design a 7,000 square foot carbon neutral facility, powered exclusively by solar with back up provided by a dead fall-fueled wood boiler. The building is optimized for winter production and also uses solar thermal. At the end of the year they are negative 490 kWh – in other words, “The utility pays them.” Strong adds, “If this can be accomplished in Northern New England – it can be done most anywhere.”

The Lewis Environmental Center at Oberlin College

A net zero energy building built in partnership with William McDonough + Partners. The environmental studies building includes an organic water purifying system, a solar cell roof, and passive solar heating.

The Carlisle House

Strong’s firm helped build the first solar residence connected to the grid – the Carlisle House in 1980. Strong admits that “the house looks like a large solar array behind which a living space has been organized.” Realize that this was done with solar panels with a conversion efficiency of 7 percent. The building has super-insulated walls and ceilings.

Tiger Woods Learning Center, Anaheim Calif.

Incorporating thin-film curtain wall with varied transparency -- the structure is sloped and curved requiring BIPV modules of differing size and shape.

Discovery Center, Santa Ana, Calif.

Built in partnership with extreme architects, Arquitectonica, the entire South face of this big cube is thin film photovoltaics. The installation crew was committed to the project and they did not miss a single electrical connection.

The Solaire, Battery Park City, NYC

And despite his solar zealotry, Strong insists that, “The building needs to be worthy of a solar investment.” The dessert part is solar. It’s hard to see designers getting excited about enhanced insulation levels or variable speed motor drives, low emissivity coatings on glazings. They can’t see these things and architects get very little direct credit for that. But they can see solar.”

(The above picture is of a multi-family dwelling BIPV.)

Strong’s website shows many more of his award winning and trail-blazing installations.

I’ll leave you with a few more of his thoughts…

“Why aren’t we building PV arrays on freeway sound barriers? They are near the urban core, they have good foundations, the grid crosses the highway, and it’s is a very good use of land.”

“Solar should be the last resort. Why do architects want to go straight to the dessert? There are hundreds of other strategies to make buildings perform.”

"The success formula for zero energy buildings is efficiency + efficiency + more efficiency + conservation and then adding renewables."