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This case study describes a legal action brought by Global Legal Action on Climate Change (GLACC) against various Philippine government departments to enforce flood control laws in response to intensifying climate change.

A case study on the legal action Shrestha v. Office of the Prime Minister et al., in which the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered the government to enact new climate change legislation to meet domestic constitutional rights and international obligations under the Paris Agreement and UNFCCC.

This document is a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, provided by a coalition including Natural Justice and Forest Peoples Programme. It outlines the critical role of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in biodiversity conservation, highlighting successful local practices, systemic barriers such as 'fortress conservation' and non-recognition of land rights, and the increasing risks faced by environmental defenders.

This guide by Natural Justice explains the development and application of community protocols—codified rules and procedures used by communities to manage interactions with external actors, such as governments and investors. It details the facilitation process, guiding principles for empowerment, and strategies for using these protocols in advocacy, negotiation, and conflict resolution, particularly in the context of extractive industries.

This report by Natural Justice details trends in threats against environmental defenders in Africa from January 2022 to December 2024, based on data from the African Environmental Defenders Fund. It highlights a high prevalence of non-lethal attacks, particularly in East Africa, driven by extractive industries and government interests, and examines the specific gendered violence faced by women defenders.

This report by the Public Affairs Research Institute examines the Lephalale Local Municipality's efforts to transition into a post-apartheid city while grappling with a legacy of private land and infrastructure ownership. It details how the construction of the Medupi power station triggered a population boom that overwhelmed the municipality's limited capacity, leading to infrastructure failure and the growth of informal settlements. The document highlights the municipality's dependence on corporate entities like Exxaro and Eskom for basic services and the role of the Lephalale Development Forum (LDF) as a parallel, business-funded governance structure.

This report by the Public Affairs Research Institute examines land governance within the Ekurhuleni Municipality, detailing the legislative frameworks, institutional roles, and the systemic challenges associated with land acquisition and the management of informal settlements. It highlights the tension between municipal mandates and the realities of land invasions, environmental constraints like dolomitic land, and the role of civil society in mediating between the state and marginalized residents.

This report examines land-use management in the Lephalale Local Municipality, focusing on the challenges of a municipality that owns almost no land within its urban edge. It details the municipality's strategies for land acquisition, the provision of integrated human settlements, and the incremental introduction of land-use schemes in rural areas under traditional authorities, specifically the Seleka Traditional Authority. The document highlights the influence of major mining and energy companies, the impact of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA), and the complexities of intergovernmental relations.

This report by the Public Affairs Research Institute analyzes the financial and operational crisis facing South African municipal electricity distribution and proposes integrating existing rooftop solar PV and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) as a pathway to reduce bulk costs and improve reliability.

This case study details a deep energy retrofit of the Carol Avenue Apartments in Boston, a 33-unit affordable housing property built in 1910. The project, scheduled for completion in late 2024, focuses on eliminating on-site fossil fuel combustion through electrification, improving the building envelope from the interior to preserve a historic brick façade, and installing rooftop solar PV systems.

This case study details the planned zero-carbon deep energy retrofit of Hano Homes, a 20-apartment affordable housing property in Boston, MA. The project aims to achieve Phius certification by implementing a superinsulated exterior shell, transitioning to all-electric mechanical systems, and installing a rooftop solar array to reach net-zero energy operations.

This document provides a collection of lease excerpts from various Net Zero Energy (NZE) buildings, illustrating legal language used to manage energy budgets, submetering, recommissioning, and the recovery of capital improvements for energy efficiency.

This research paper by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) analyzes the gap in industrial electric productivity across the United States. It argues that while exogenous factors like electricity prices and state incentives play a role, the primary constraints are internal business barriers. By addressing these barriers through holistic design and policy support, the U.S. industrial sector could save 300,000 GWh annually.

This research paper by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) argues that Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is a superior financial tool compared to simple payback analysis for evaluating energy efficiency measures (EEMs) in building construction and retrofits. The authors advocate for a comprehensive four-step LCCA process—establishing a baseline, defining EEMs, calculating financial metrics, and bundling measures—to capture synergistic benefits and avoid sub-optimal design choices.

This report by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) examines how traditional building project delivery methods hinder sustainability and proposes that specific contracting stipulations, particularly through Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), can overcome these barriers to improve energy efficiency and project outcomes.

This report outlines the risks and needs of low-income (LI) and fixed-income (FI) electricity customers during the transition to a distributed energy resource (DER) and renewable electricity system. It identifies financial and social concerns, maps existing and unmet needs, and examines case studies to determine how these segments can be equitably integrated into a high-DER future.

The research paper "SENSE AND RESPONSE: A BIOCLIMATIC DIALOGUE OF PLACE" by Victor Olgyay explores the evolution of human interaction with the environment, from preindustrial symbiotic relationships to the ecological degradation caused by industrialization. The author advocates for a "performance based" regionalism in architecture that moves beyond reducing negative impacts toward a restorative approach, where buildings function as "ecological utilities" that actively provide ecosystem services and repair degraded landscapes.

The 'Greening the White House' project, initiated by the Clinton Administration in 1993, is a comprehensive energy and environmental retrofit of the White House complex and the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB). Led by an Inter-Governmental-Agency Team, the project employs a six-component strategy—audit, feasibility study, early actions, demonstration spaces, long-term initiatives, and technology transfer—to improve resource efficiency and environmental performance while respecting the historic and security requirements of the site.

This editorial by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute argues that the perceived inevitability of increased fossil fuel consumption is a flawed assumption. By applying engineering-economic analysis, the authors suggest that a 'least-cost energy strategy' focusing on energy efficiency and renewables can reduce fossil fuel reliance to nearly zero within half a century, effectively mitigating the CO2 problem through economic rationality rather than solely through climatic cost-benefit analyses.

This report chapter argues that the solution to global freshwater scarcity is not increasing supply through costly and environmentally damaging infrastructure, but radically increasing water productivity through efficiency and demand-side management across agriculture, landscaping, buildings, and industry.