By Paula Melton

The overall energy efficiency of domestic portland cement manufacture has increased 13% over a ten-year period, according to a report prepared for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by economists at Duke University.

The decrease in total source energy, researchers wrote, is “equivalent to an annual reduction... Read more

Conventional hot-water recirculation pumps—a standard appliance in hotels, multifamily residential buildings, and other commercial buildings with high demand for domestic hot water—were never supposed to save energy. These devices are installed to get hot water to the tap quickly to keep tenants and hotel guests happy. If they prevented some... Read more

Multifamily buildings are inherently green, thanks to the way they support denser, transit-friendly communities. No one makes that point more strongly than developer Jonathan Rose, who refuses to build anything on a site that wasn’t previously developed. But, Rose argues, that’s not enough. “Climate issues, biodiversity issues, energy... Read more

Water moves in, on, and through buildings in four ways, which we’ll discuss in order of the quantities involved; this order helps us set water management priorities.

1. Bulk water—rain, runoff, and other flows—is driven primarily by gravity but also by wind and pressure differences. Bulk water on the exterior of a building is managed by... Read more

First Solar CdTe thin-film technology combines solid efficiency and good low-light performance with low manufacturing costs, helping make the company one of the world's largest PV producers. Photo credit: First Solar Manufacturers have made incremental increases in PV efficiency over the years but the basic technology found in today's modules... Read more

Most of the greenwashing we see falls into one of these nine types. Here are tips on how to spot them.

I am going to go out on a limb here, but I would bet that sometime in the last 24 hours you have received a marketing message centered around how "green," how "environmentally friendly," or (if it's really serious), how "sustainable... Read more

Designers and builders often consider bodily comfort when creating living spaces and mechanical systems, but we should not neglect psychological comfort--our perceptions have a measurable effect on our sense of physical comfort.

[Editor's note: Robert Riversong, a Vermont builder, continues his 10-part series of articles taking design... Read more

Environmental features can add considerable value to a building. But in real estate, a higher perceived value often fails to translate into a higher appraised value, complicating financial transactions and limiting incentives for owners to invest in green. The Appraisal Institute (AI), the most prominent U.S. membership organization of... Read more

How to use the GreenSpec product guide--even if it doesn't list the product you need.

I hate shopping. I'll do the grocery shopping, but when it comes to new appliances, home improvement, clothes--really anything else--I tell the shopper in the household what it is we need and he then spends the hours wading through specs, Consumer Reports,... Read more

ISO 50001 could help bring the promise of sustainable design to fruition by focusing on energy tracking and outcomes.

The impending release of the ISO 50001 energy management standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has kept financial experts, global energy and carbon trackers, and executives at major... Read more

USGBC wants to increase product transparency through certifications, but will its members buy the idea that approved standards are not being endorsed?

In its newly released Pilot Credit 43, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has created a new incentive for product manufacturers to obtain third-party certification of their... Read more

New report on carcinogens cements the consensus view on key building material ingredients, while toeing a line on fiberglass insulation.

In its long-delayed 12th Report on Carcinogens, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has finally classified formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen. The... Read more

  If you're looking to renovate a bathroom and save some water and energy in the process, check out some of these standout products from our GreenSpec Directory.

Saving water and energy with low-flow showerheads

Showers use up a lot of water, accounting for about 17% of all indoor residential water use, and old, inefficient... Read more

Competing standards for building product emissions represent one of the most confusing areas in green product certifications, and relief may not be on the way. A highly anticipated effort faces questions following a joint June 3, 2011 announcement from NSF International and Greenguard Environmental Institute (GEI) that the two would... Read more

What do you do when a green product doesn't live up to expectations? Here at BuildingGreen, we really want to see green building products succeed in the marketplace, and make it easy for professionals to find the best of the best.

But when we see something substandard, we feel it's important to point it out. To win the... Read more

Our clothing is our second "skin" and our home's envelope is our third "skin." Each must be semi-permeable and able to breathe. This puts my philosophy of building at odds with much of the so-called "green" building movement, which relies heavily on non-breathing, non-natural and ecologically harmful plastic.

[Editor's note: Robert... Read more

 

As I've said before, windows are a silent but very high-tech part of our buildings. The advances in glazing in the last 30 years have been phenomenal. Will windows keep getting better and better with no end in sight?

In recent years, an increasing number of window manufacturers have been combining and refining the features... Read more

Recycling, and recycled content are good, right? Yes, but with some products you must look beyond that to decide if a product is truly green.

In a recent webcast on green building product certifications, I gave a counterintuitive example of greenwashing: a "recycled steel cabinet." Based on the number of questions I got about this, I... Read more

By Emily CatacchioStormwater detention basins reduce stormwater runoff, but they also take up a lot of space. At the Peddie boarding high school in East Windsor Township, New Jersey, ground-mounted solar collectors are being installed in one such basin to make more productive use of it. Peddie previously installed a rooftop photovoltaic (PV)... Read more

Researchers at the University of Texas–Austin have found that multi-species lawns of native grasses require fewer inputs—such as watering and mowing—than traditional monocultures to maintain a lush, weed-resistant lawn. Researchers, led by Mark Simmons, Ph.D., director of the center’s Ecosystem Design Group, compared one native and one non-... Read more