There’s no getting around it, skyscrapers consume a ton of energy. But at the same time, with a little innovation, they’re well positioned to offset their environmental footprint. For instance, the owners of the Empire State Building announced a $20 million investment in improving the energy efficiency of the skyscraper. And right on the heals of that announcement, the owners of Chicago’s Sears Tower announced a $350 Million investment in not only improving energy efficiency, but also generating green energy.

Fast Company reports: “Sears Tower, now on track to become the tallest building to receive LEED certification, will receive a laundry list of upgrades designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture over the next five years: solar panels and wind turbines on the roof, up to 35,000 square feet of roof gardens, an energy-efficient lighting control system, insulation improvements, new plumbing systems, and a green learning center on the ground floor. The renovation is expected to create 3,600 jobs. Much of the cost of the retrofit, financed through grants, private investments, government cash, and debt financing, will be offset by energy savings.”

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The good folks at Cool Hunting posted an interview with the creators of “A Clearing in the Streets.” It’s a fantastic read. The temporary installation by Julie Farris and Sarah Wayland-Smith suggests innovative ways to spread awareness about greening our cities. As CH describes: “Their work arrives at a moment when both public demand and municipal support for greening the city appear to be at an all time high. Still, grand public projects, like the High Line, often take years to come to fruition. Without a doubt, landscape designers such as Farris and Wayland-Smith stand to play an immediate, increasing role in shaping the experience of city living through small-scale installations.” You can visit the mini-garden of indigenous vegetation in New York City’s Collect Pond Park. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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Ranking high on anyone’s list of most livable cities, Copenhagen comes up with another reason to love it. They’ve installed a cyclist counter in front of city hall displaying two numbers. One displays the total number of passing cyclists for the day. The other shows the total number of passing cyclists for the year. In hopes of encouraging more people to get on their bikes, Copenhagen is giving away a sweet Biomega Bike to the 500,000th cyclist. We wonder if people will post up around the counter with their bikes as the number approaches 500,000!

Copenhagenize reports on how the counter system works: “There is a ‘sensor line’ in the asphalt on the bike lane a few metres in front of the counter which registers the cyclists. There is a SIM-card in the counters so the information is automatically sent to the City of Copenhagen’s Center for Traffic. The counter only registers cyclists on this side of the street, not the far side, so you can double the numbers up to see how many cyclists use both directions.” (via Treehugger.) Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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Twitter is everywhere. And while some debate the need to tell people “what you’re doing right now,” there are fascinating aspects demonstrating the social network’s biggest strength – it’s ability to connect. City’s are harnessing this strength and using it to improve their community services.

For instance, San Francisco is one of the first cities to implement a City-Wide 311 twitter program. As stated in their press release: “In an effort to foster more civic collaboration and connectivity with constituents, Mayor Newsom today announced a first of its kind application that allows citizens to access the City’s 311 Call Center through Twitter, a social networking service. Instead of making a phone call, members of the public can send a short message called a “tweet” to alert the city about a pothole, or simply find out about the City’s green initiatives. ‘I’m very excited that San Francisco is the first major City to roll out an application of this magnitude on Twitter,’ said Newsom. ‘We are changing the way cities connect with their government.’” Click Read More for additional information.

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Technology meets sanitation in Switzerland. Lausanne’s transparent bathroom is getting lots of attention. We’ve seen variations of this idea in restaurants and hotels, but we’ve never seen one placed in a public setting. The bathroom uses liquid crystal glass to create a solid-to-transparent effect based on electric tension. When you enter the bathroom, inside there is a button that instantly frosts the glass so no one can see in. It’s a fun alternative to the usual fare of portable bathrooms. Click Read More for additional information, photos and video.

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One of the best ways to see a city is to ride a bike through it. If you’re in New York City this summer be sure to take advantage of their Bike Around Downtown Program. For the entire summer they’re offering free bike rentals. All you have to do is visit their site and sign up for a time slot. We’d love to see other cities adopt the program. It’s likely that this will be a big win for the city and tourists alike. Click Read More for the details.

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While reading Boing Boing, we recently came across this brilliant collection of freeway exchanges. The amount of civic engineering that goes into making a left or right turn while traveling 55 + miles per hour is mind boggling. There’s all sorts of techniques applied.

From the Freeway Gallery: “This is a photo gallery of strange and striking freeway interchange configurations, including ones like the volleyball, the double trumpet, and the turbine. Many are as, or more, visually interesting than the cloverleaf. Learning all the different varieties makes one feel a bit like a birdwatcher when driving on the interstate. ‘Oh, there’s a classic diamond! And there’s a clovermill!” Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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