Mayor Newsom Proposes United Nations Global Warming Center at San Francisco's Hunters Point Shipyard

KACO's CEO Peter Flachsmann was asked to speak at a mayoral press conference at San Francisco's city hall about the development of a new Clean Tech Center featuring a United Nations West Coast Headquarters.




On July 30th Mayor Gavin Newsom unveiled a proposal to locate a UN center focused on global warming and green technology at the former Hunter Point Shipyard. The proposed center would be part of the United Nations "Global Compact" and would be focused on promoting sustainable and clean technologies. A UN Global Compact Center would likely include a clean tech business incubator, offices of the UN Global Compact, and a retreat / conference center to facilitate the exchange of sustainability best practices and other innovations related to combating global warming.

"Locating the UN Global Compact Center in San Francisco will reinforce our city's commitment to global justice and sustainability," said Mayor Newsom. "Once completed, the UN center can serve as an anchor for other sustainable businesses at the Shipyard in much the same way that the University of California and the Stem Cell Institute have anchored Mission Bay's burgeoning biotech and life sciences cluster."

After years of planning and voter approval last June, the Hunters Point Shipyard and the adjacent Candlestick Point are slated to be revitalized as a vibrant new development of over 10,000 new homes - more than 32% of which will be offered at below market rates, over 300 acres of new parks, a major new retail and arts center, and over 2,000,000 square feet of commercial space destined to serve as the largest cluster of green technology companies and institutions on the western seaboard. All told, the project is expected to generate over 10,000 permanent new jobs and more than 2,000 construction jobs per year for over 15 years.

Source: Hunters Point Community

"We are excited to partner with the City of San Francisco to work towards securing a center for the UN Global Compact in San Francisco," said Gavin Power, the Deputy Director of the UN Global Compact. "California, in general, and San Francisco, in particular, has been at the forefront of environmental sustainability and justice for many years and all of the right ingredients are here - including the technological and academic institutions as well as the financial and entrepreneurial resources - to have a UN green tech center at the Hunters Point Shipyard really make a difference."

"Locating a UN green tech center on the Shipyard is a great opportunity for this community to overcome the Shipyard's legacy of environmental injustice," said Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who represents the Bayview and Hunters Point. "For decades, the Shipyard has been both an economic and an environmental blight on the surrounding community. To have this site transformed into a center for green collar jobs and a place where the environmental problems of the future may be solved would be sweet justice indeed."

Please visit the website of the Hunters Point Community for more information!

"Environmental justice entails not just having the Shipyard cleaned up, but also revitalizing the Shipyard to create jobs and parks and affordable housing," said Dr. Veronica Hunnicut, Chair of the Mayor's Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee.

Next steps will include working with the UN to refine the proposal and to develop an advisory board to help guide project development and fund raising efforts.
Source: www.sfgov.org

KACO will definitely follow and support this incredibly important project. We will keep you updated on the progress!

Boots on the Roof - literally!

KACO is always excited to get to know new industry partners and friends! The company we're about to introduce to you is very special and more than noteworthy. We are extraordinarily impressed by Boots on the Roof from Fremont, CA.

Boots on the Roof is the premier Wind and Solar training provider in the US, with the mission of training the next wave of renewable energy contractors, engineers, architects, sales professionals and business entrepreneurs. KACO appreciates this mission statement since we think that Boots on the Roof is exactly the kind of training company this industry needs.

You will find the various courses they offer here: Boots on the Roof courses

The training facility in Fremont is absolutely state of the art. The many classrooms are incredibly well equipped and the spaces and equipment they provide for the hands-on training are simply top notch! While walking through their facility, we all were immediately convinced that this is the way to go if you consider becoming a solar contractor, installer or sales person.

Boots on the Roof not only takes care of their students while they are joining the courses by providing transportation, hotel rooms and a fantastic lunch area so the students can completely focus on the classes - They actually take it a step further by organizing an "Alumni-Network" on the internet where former students can communicate with each other to exchange news, ideas, requests etc.

Please check out their information on the following links:

Boots on the Roof Website
Boots on the Roof on Twitter

If you are currently considering to an education in the field of renewable energy, KACO highly recommends this company.

Buildaroo video about KACO recorded at Intersolar

Check out this awesome Buildaroo video about KACO!

New & Noteworthy

You should get to know Buildaroo if you don't know them yet. Buildaroo.com is a startup based in Berkeley, CA with a mission to make buying and building green both fun and easy.

They are currently focusing on producing video interviews of green building products, device providers and regulatory agencies. But over the next few weeks they will be rolling out updates to allow you to search for sustainable building products & professionals, education and news.

Buildaroo on Twitter
KACO on Twitter

KACO's Net Zero Emissions Manufacturing

KACO has for a long while been stressing the importance of high quality manufacturing processes in the production of our inverters. Now we'd like to showcase the tireless dedication of our German management and owner to the principles of carbon reduction and sustainable manufacturing techniques. KACO has been a leader in the PV inverter field for many years and as an industry leader has found it necessary to provide guidance to other manufacturers that have not yet realized that in the business of solar according to KACO president Ralf Hofmann

"it's not just about what you do - but how you do it"

KACO has redesigned all of the manufaturing facilities to ensure proper implementation of sustainability oriented manufacturing principles. All manufacturing takes place in Germany, where we have direct control over the environmental impact of our operations. The president of KACO has commented that it is of utmost importance to him and to the company that KACO provide clean energy producing products made from clean energy.

The employees at KACO in Germany are encouraged to ride public transportation whenever possible and are given free train tickets for personal use if they ride public transportation on business trips. The group has been given a fleet of bicycles and small electric cars to travel between our separated facilities, located within the same town. Tree planting days near the factories are common place to help capture local CO2 emissions.


Components for the inverters are sourced from the most environmentally ethical of business partners. KACO insists on using PV and a combined heat and power facility to provide the warm water and the electricity they consume. KACO uses no fossil fuel or nuclear generated energy to make their inverters. The onsite PV system now generate over 350,000 kWh of electricity annually.


This has made KACO one of the few manufacturers on the planet that can rightly claim a net zero carbon footprint for their business operations.

KACO US operates out of San Francisco's Presidio near the Golden Gate bridge and is officially a "San Francisco Green Certified Business". After facility tours and many weeks of collaboration with SF Environment our office is now proven to be one of the greenest in the Bay Area.


We've also brought online a 22kW system on the Grass Valley facility using four of our 3601xi inverters, a 1502xi inverter and two of our 2502xi inverters. We are now producing solar energy with KACO inverters on our own facility. This is something that KACO US is extremely happy to share with you and we hope that you will share this with your partners and friends.