The Riverdale NetZero Project in Alberta, one of Canada's first net zero energy houses (and it's a duplex, too), has a website. And on this website, there's a large (10MB), 98-slide presentation chock full of enlightening and thought-provoking stuff ranging from what "net zero energy" means, to how they did it.

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ADAM NIEMAN / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY "Left: All the water in the world (1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc. Right: All the air in the atmosphere (5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a ball at sea-level density. Shown on the same scale as the Earth."

— blog.phiffer.org

The following is from the good folks at Architecture 2030. Yes, it's simple. Even simplistic. But the point, I think, is just to start. If you're sympatico, just put on some blue for Earth Day. Easy. And then, as long as you're started, make that phone call.
7/1/09 Update: The LEED AP exam has significantly changed, and the following sample exam has not been updated to reflect this. Please use the information if it's helpful--but no guarantees of anything. And by the way, if you are looking to learn about the LEED 2009 rating systems, there's no better tool out there than our own LEEDuser.com.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said "I have a dream," not "I have a nightmare." Tell me why my life is going to be better in a world where we are dealing with climate change. Solitaire Townsend offered that thought as one of four people presenting at the opening public forum for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association BuildingEnergy08 conference last night.

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The current issue of Environmental Building News reports that PV prices have been going up, reversing the declining cost trend of previous years. Seems to be due to a combination of demand exceeding supply coupled with polysilicon shortages.

There are a growing number of green-product retailers, both online and in storefronts. We list some of those with a specialty focus in GreenSpec, but there are so many more popping up all the time. I visited one last weekend that's quite something — Home Green Home, in Ithaca, NY.

I'm in Ithaca, NY, this weekend at the third annual meeting of Natural Builders Northeast (NBNe), an association of professional natural building practitioners.

7/1/09 Update: If you're looking to keep up to date on LEED 2009 and related issues, I want to recommend checking out our own LEEDuser.com, which was recently launched. For firms or individuals contemplating the new LEED AP CMP system, I particularly recommend this article!

The title of this post is taken from a question we received about the source of recycled rubber used for a parking-bumper and speed-bump manufacturer. It motivated me to do some digging to get a better understanding of the scrap tire industry. As it turns out, it's actually kind of fascinating. The following is unverified single-pass research, and any thoughts, additions, or corrections are welcome.

The braking mechanism on a large wind turbine failed in high winds (the second such occurrence in Denmark last week), leading to the spectacular failure in this video clip. There has been a rash of reported breakdowns in the last two months of turbines manufactured by Vestas, which has a 28% market share and 33,500 units deployed worldwide, according to its website.

Jerelyn Wilson — who has the inadequate title of "Outreach Director" for BuildingGreen — came down the hall and into my office a few minutes ago, bright-eyed and holding the current issue of YES! magazine in front of her, folded open. "Have you seen this?!" she asked, holding it out for me: