It often surprises people to learn that with today's water-conserving dishwashers and typical practices for hand-washing, properly filled automated dishwashers use less water and energy. If you wash dishes by hand and leave the water running when washing or rinsing, hand-washing almost certainly uses more water. Even if you try to be miserly... Read more

Who could be more qualified than one of the principal authors of LEED for Homes to provide insight on the best ways to make the program work?

In a typical home, the refrigerator accounts for about 8% of the total annual energy expense, according to 2005 data from the U.S. Department of Energy. While this energy consumption for food storage is significant, it's far less than it was a few decades ago. In the mid-1970s, an average new refrigerator used about 1,800 kilowatt-hours (kWh)... Read more

I get a lot of questions about energy. Electricity consumption factors into many of them. Why are electric bills so high? How can I tell when it's time to replace a refrigerator? Most of us have electric meters on our houses, but these measure your total household electricity use. To... Read more

From the USGBC:

For the EBN feature article this month I spent weeks learning about building-integrated wind. I'm a huge fan of wind energy in general, and the idea of putting wind turbines on top of buildings — or actually integrating them into the architecture of buildings — was really appealing. Why not generate the energy right where it's needed, and by... Read more

By Russell Fortmeyer

Melbourne’s Council House 2 is as much a political act as it is architecture. You don’t build what is widely considered Australia’s most sustainable building, routinely lavished with international awards and praise, and not expect at least some criticism, some hand-wringing, and perhaps some latent jealousy... Read more

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Mayor Phil Gordon is on a mission to make Phoenix, Arizona, the first carbon-neutral city in the U.S. In a State of the State address in March 2009, he laid out a 17-point plan to achieve this goal (see below). His plan includes energy conservation, renewable energy generation, mass transit, urban planning, agriculture incentives, and water... Read more

Beginning in the 1970s, PBDEs were widely used as flame retardants in... Read more