With the holiday season upon us (yet no snow on the ground here in Vermont since the freak October storm that knocked out power across the Northeast) and the Durban climate deal still largely symbolic, I thought some... Read more

People living off the grid using photovoltaics (PV) or other renewable energy to generate power typically depend on maintaining banks of lead-acid batteries and carefully managing the amount of energy they store and use as... Read more

During my six-week bike ride last spring, I covered nearly 2,000 miles, most of it over land that hadn't seen a drop of rain since the previous fall; some of those areas--mostly in Texas--still haven't gotten significant precipitation. Farmers in... Read more

After presenting this webcast this week to a full house, Alex Wilson is bringing it back next week with an encore performance!

To help professionals make the best design and material choices for their specific projects (and... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced on December 7, 2011 that, for the first time in its history, the cumulative square footage of buildings certified under its LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) program is greater than LEED-certified new construction. LEED-EBOM certification has risen... Read more

The Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS) will no longer give its blessing to projects incorporating spray polyurethane foam insulation (SPF) that uses blowing agents with high contribution to global warming, according to executive director Katrin Klingenberg.

“It does not make any sense at all to use them if one of the major... Read more

Low-flow faucets and other water-saving fixtures have become a standard water-saving feature in public bathrooms. Unfortunately, it turns out that drying your hands uses a lot more water than washing them--anywhere from 18 to 70... Read more

Back in March I reported that I would be taking leave from this blog as I embarked on an eight-month sabbatical. With support from the Hanley Award I received last year, I was able to take an unpaid leave from BuildingGreen, Inc., for some rejuvenation, reflection, research... Read more

How many apps does it take to change a light bulb?

Apps can't actually do that yet: you still have to climb on a chair and balance precariously while holding a handful of glass. However, the winner of best overall app in the... Read more

We invite you to test your knowledge with this quiz that we came up with covering key questions around when our building products are green, and when they're being greenwashed.

Stumped? We work... Read more

A victim of a hepatitis E infection she picked up unknowingly in Brazil, Genevive Bjorn's liver rebelled against her one night in Hawaii. Her body almost shut down on her, but with help from the hospital, a battery of tests, her watchful boyfriend at her side, and a diet of nothing but rice porridge, she squeaked through.

This... Read more

Preliminary data from a number of sources suggests a correlation between heavy traffic and cognitive and behavioral health, according to a report in the

Wall Street Journal titled “The Hidden Toll of Traffic Jams.”

The Powerhouse shingle is designed to be installed by roofers... Read more

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified a municipal wastewater treatment plant as a source of antibiotic resistance genes found in the Duluth-Superior Harbor.

Although the plant boasts an advanced treatment step that removes large quantities of bacteria, the researchers typically found quantities of three different... Read more

Though some LED lighting still suffers from many of the problems that plagued early fluorescents, including poor color rendering, inconsistent dimming, questionable quality, and high first costs, the technology has been advancing rapidly. In some applications, LED lighting now provides better energy performance, has a longer lifespan,... Read more

General Electric (GE) has announced plans to build a new solar panel factory in Aurora, Colorado, not far from its recently acquired thin-film solar technology company, PrimeStar Solar. The plant will feature cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaics (PV), originally developed by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.... Read more

The term “reclaimed wood” is used all the time, but it means different things in different settings. Some types of reclaimed wood count as “salvaged materials” that contribute to points in LEED and help comply with green building codes while others do not.

For most builders and designers, “reclaimed wood” is lumber extracted from old... Read more

Researchers at Canada’s National Wildlife Research Centre and multiple Canadian universities have detected what may be traces of second-generation brominated flame retardants in gulls’ eggs from colonies across the Great Lakes. The substances were found in higher levels in an industrial area.

Health hazards of certain polybrominated... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) have agreed to create a common platform for benchmarking the energy performance of commercial buildings.

The new platform will expand the EPA Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool already widely used throughout the U.S. to include Canadian weather... Read more

Honeywell has introduced two new blowing agents that could dramatically reduce the global warming potential (GWP) of a variety of foam insulation types. Marketed under the brand name Solstice, they are designed to be “drop-in” substitutes for blowing agents currently used to manufacture insulation for both buildings and appliances, including... Read more