Resilient Design Can’t Wait: Top 5 Stories, Hurricane Sandy Edition

From the most shocking photos to the most piercing analysis, we look at some of the best Sandy coverage this week.

Read more »

Masonry Heaters

One of the cleanest and most efficient ways to burn wood is provided by high-mass masonry heaters. A Tulikivi masonry heater made of soapstone with an integral bake oven and bench.Photo Credit: Tulikivi

Read more »

How to Prevent Your Worst Building Assembly Fears from Coming True

Expensive callbacks and lawsuits can result when you don’t attend to the assembly details.

Read more »

Getting a Stone from Blood: Top 5 Stories, Halloween Edition

A flying saucer lands on Grand Central Station, buildings are reclaimed after heinous murders, and we gape in horror at global warming skepticism. Close encounters of the baffling kind.Photo Credit: SOM Historic preservation abducted by aliens

Read more »

NSF’s Fly Ash Ruling and Post-Consumer Alchemy

Since when are coal-burning power plants “consumers”? A look at NSF’s dubious recycling definitions. BioCel carpet backing replaces petroleum-based polymers with those made from soybeans and contains Celceram fly ash as recycled content.Photo Credit: United Textile

Read more »

Heating With Wood Pellets

What to like and what not to like about pellet stoves and pellet boilers. Our Quadrafire pellet stove, which we can operate even during a power outage. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

Read more »

How Many Bikes Really Fit on that Rack?

Sometimes bikers have to improvise where to leave their bikes, but many common bike racks may be worse than nothing. Bikers need wheel benders like a fish needs a bike lock.Photo Credit: forkergirl, October 28, 2002 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

Read more »

Why Fresh Air Helps You Think: Top 5 Stories This Week

Squeezing big box stores (and more people) into cities, living in a CO2 fog, and tallying up the value of green homes.

Read more »

LED and Power: Quality Matters

LED replacement lamps look super-efficient on payback charts and utility bills, but they may be sucking more power than you realize. LED replacement lamps like this one from Cree  have a high power factor; those intended for residential use often don't. Photo Credit: Cree, Inc.

Read more »

Heating With Wood Safely and Efficiently

Understanding wood stoves and wood heat so that you can educate your clients. Vermont Castings Encore-NC wood stove with an EPA emissions rating of 0.7 grams per hour. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Vermont Castings

Read more »

The Green Building Community Has Lost One of Its Pillars

Our friend and mentor, Malcolm Lewis, has passed away Malcolm Lewis will be sorely missed.Photo Credit: Harvey Mudd College

Read more »

The Most Moving Tree Story Ever Told: Top 5 Stories This Week

The Third World in U.S. cities, the greenest mile ever built in Chicago, and transplanting a really big tree in Texas. This historic oak tree is thriving in its new location after a Texas city moved it four months ago.Photo Credit: City of League City, Texas

Read more »

Good News and Bad News With the World Glut in Solar Panels

How China is affecting the world’s photovoltaic industry

Workers at a Suntech factory in China. Due to the glut in PV, Suntech has closed a quarter of it's manufacturing capacity.Photo Credit: Peter Parks, Getty Images for the New York Times

Read more »

Jailbreak Your Windows Instead of Buying Replacements: Top 5 Stories This Week

Healthy purchasing in Oregon, why unfixable windows are a waste of money, when driving was a war crime, and more. Can we bring back the days when car pooling was patriotic?Photo Credit: American Legion

Read more »

Free Webcast on Toxic Chemicals in Buildings: Now Available Online

Did you miss the live webcast? Get it here for free—and take a quiz for continuing education credits too. Guinea pigs everywhere want to know: do you know as much about toxic chemicals as a building professional should?

Read more »