Georgians Aren't Water Hogs - Apparently we're not guzzling as much water as you may have thought. I think that 1.8 percent is misleading though. The sprinklers in my neighborhood didn't kick in until the beginning of July. Now, I'm seeing the sprinklers on while it's raining which leads me to believe it's back to the old mentality. Georgia Public Broadcasting

Atlantans Could Save $21.2 Billion by 2020 - A McKinsey & Company report cited by Consumer Reports indicates that Americans can save $1.2 trillion by 2020 with effective investments in energy efficiency. Wow! That translates into $4000 for every man woman and child in the US. Atlantans would collectively save about $21.2 billion. That could pay for almost 10 Beltlines.. It could even come close to paying for that crazy tunnel under Atlanta that some of our wise leaders in the capitol have discussed. Consumer Reports

Atlanta Ranks Highly on Outside Magazine's Top Cities - This year's rankings of best cities ranked Atlanta #3 overall behind Colorado Springs and Seattle. Their criteria were pretty thorough so I can feel comfortable that the proper level of research was done. I would tend to agree with the ranking given the sheer volume of activities within 2-3 hours of the heart of the city. The article mentions fishing, mountain biking, cliff jumping, boating and hiking as positives for the area. Outside Magazine

Beltline Gets Bond Issuance Approval - The Atlanta City Council granted approval for the Beltline to issue $267 million in bonds to fund the project. The plan is to issue $145M - $165M in October. Developer interest will ultimately decide the amount that is issued in October. It's great to see this project moving forward. Creative Loafing

Georgia Tech Makes the Honor Roll - The Princeton Review has named Georgia Tech to its Green College Honor Roll.  Georgia Tech is the only university in the region to make the list and strikingly absent is Emory University which has more LEED certified buildings than any campus in the nation. MNN

Suniva May Go Public - The Norcross based solar company is considering going public.  They have raised $75M in private funding and are looking for more. The company has obtained over $1 billion in orders. Atlanta Business Chronicle

Atlanta Ranks 33rd in Sustainability - The NRDC recently released rankings of the most sustainable cities in the US.  The west coast came out on top with Seattle winning the #1 spot and San Francisco and Portland close behind.  Roswell was 23rd on the smaller cities list.  Creative Loafing

Help For Our Right Whales - New technology may help ships avoid collisions with whales.  This will help the dwindling population of right whales that breed off the coast of Georgia.  TreeHugger

They'll Call it HotterLanta Soon - I hate the silly name of Hot-Lanta that our city picked up in the 90s but it is appropriate now and will be later this century if predictions are correct.  A report released recently on the potential impacts of global warming states that average temperatures in the 2080s will likely be 4.5 to 9 degrees hotter.  Macon.com

Study: Use mass transit, save more than $9,000 a year - AJC

I could definitely use $9k a year. I don't think this will work out too well for those of us living in Alpharetta though.

Greenhaven Home by Pace Home Builders Open to the Public July 10th - Greenhaven Home

I love the idea and the Greenhaven home has ALL of the bells, whistles and certifications to make it a green home. However, I just can't fully buy into the 5k - 7k square foot green home. That's just gigantic. The builder says they are building what buyers are demanding but it just doesn't seem green.

Atlanta ranks as Southeast’s No. 4 city - Atlanta Business Chronicle

This isn't so much green as it is interesting. Study authored by NC professor ranks Atlanta fourth out of nine cities in the southeast on factors affecting economic growth. Atlanta is behind Raleigh-Durham, Austin and Charlotte (hmmmm).

Commuter buses' idling causes stir - AJC

Maybe we wouldn't have this issue if the two big counties to the north of the city had had the foresight to become part of MARTA years ago.