With its silvery metal panels and glass cladding, and a canted photovoltaic (PV) array that projects beyond the edges of the roof like the brim of a hat, the recently completed six-story Bullitt Center in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood doesn't at all resemble a Douglas-fir forest, admits Denis Hayes. Nevertheless, Hayes, who is president... Read more

This is part of an ongoing series. Read all the Sticky Business posts here.

My last post in this series on adhesives, sealants, and tapes ended with this line:

“We hope to follow up this baseline ideal... Read more

In my blog last week, I provided a little... Read more

Standard insulation—such as batts, boardstock, and spray foam—functions primarily by slowing down two out of the three modes of heat transfer: conduction and convection. Radiant barriers and reflective insulation function by reducing the third type: radiation. This can work, but there is a great deal of misinformation about these systems.... Read more

Residential clothes dryers account for an estimated 4% of annual U.S. household electricity use, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Yet these appliances continue to use standard tumble-dry, electric-resistance technology that is... Read more

“All models are wrong, but some are useful.”
– G.E.P. Box

Net-zero energy use is a difficult goal for most buildings—but it wasn’t nearly enough for the designers of the Center for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) at the University of British Columbia. First conceived of in 1999 as a regenerative design... Read more

2021 UPDATE: The original product review is from 2013. Stramit USA no longer exists. Similar technology is still used by a Delaware-based company called greenBuilt International Building Company. We have not reviewed that company’s claims, product, or legitimacy.

Despite their promise as a durable, rapidly renewable building material... Read more

Although the green building community likes to promote the health and productivity benefits of exposure to natural daylight, views of nature, and even pastoral landscape paintings, gathering... Read more

A Group Health clinic in Puyallup, Washington, has become the first building in the world to achieve LEED for Healthcare (LEED–HC) certification. The CollinsWoerman-designed outpatient medical center provides a relatively nontoxic indoor environment while also... Read more

A few weeks ago I spent a half day with my good friend Tedd Benson learning about his new company... Read more

“For a Resilient Rockaway” (FAR ROC) aims to create a mixed-use, mixed-income development at Arverne East, an oceanfront flood-hazard zone inundated by Hurricane Sandy.... Read more

With an outstanding 2013 line-up, the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment (AIA/COTE) Top Ten Green Projects continues in its role as the nation’s premier showcase of projects that marry good... Read more

Comparing data from 2008 and 2012, EIA reports that the portion of domestic energy... Read more

Getting back to our Dummerston, Vermont farmhouse this week, I’m reporting on our use of a relatively new product for air-... Read more

The Bertschi School’s 3,380 ft2 Living Building Science Wing, completed in February 2011, adds to a main building that was Washington’s first LEED Gold-certified elementary school in 2007. The new science wing serves students from preschool through fifth grade with a sustainability curriculum that incorporates real-time monitoring of... Read more

Solar-control window films are a more cost-effective retrofit option in warm climates than air sealing, ceiling insulation, or new HVAC units, an industry study claims.

Energy Analysis for Window Film Applications in New and... Read more

My blog last week about Kansas and efforts to outlaw any mention or promotion of sustainability... Read more