By Brent EhrlichNearly 7 billion gallons of water are used in the U.S annually for outdoor residential applications, primarily for landscape irrigation, with up to 50% of this wasted due to overwatering, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These numbers stand in stark contrast to the droughts that have devastated much of the U.S... Read more

By Paula MeltonGlobal warming could unravel the delicate chemical fabric of Earth’s protective ozone layer, according to preliminary research conducted at Harvard University. A projected increase in strong summer storms, which can send water vapor deep into the stratosphere, is behind the newly discovered risk; this “convectively injected” vapor... Read more

By Erin WeaverA project in Eastport, Maine, will soon become the first commercial tidal power plant in the U.S. Three of the state’s electric utilities have 20-year contracts with the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) to purchase electricity generated by the Cobscook Bay project at an inlet of the Bay of Fundy.

ORPC will operate five cross-... Read more

By Paula MeltonDisruption: it can be a way of life in developing economies, as massive blackouts across India recently demonstrated. But when Rohan Parikh, head of green initiatives at Bangalore-based Infosys, uses the word “disruption,” he means something completely different.

“It had to be unreasonable; it had to be a paradigm shift,” says... Read more

In just about every climate in which we live and build, the number one job of any building envelope or enclosure is environmental separation. Keeping water, air, and heat in or out of buildings can make them more resource-efficient, durable, and safer for occupants. Lots of building products offer some help with that, but without... Read more

Vapor retarders are meant to protect our building assemblies from getting wet, but they can also slow drying. When humidity levels differ drastically between indoors and outdoors, vapor diffusion can result, sending water vapor into wall cavities and other building assemblies. A dedicated vapor retarder manages this “vapor drive.”

But... Read more

Big wind is getting bigger, but can we save the tax credits that help it grow? Also, how to read palms skylines, and new Passive House partnerships. Remind yourself why you want to save the planet by looking at Lloyd Alter's vacation pictures.Photo Credit: Lloyd Alter

By Paula Melton

This is what a treehugger looks like

Ever... Read more

An update on getting the global warming potential (GWP) out of insulation materials. Today's closed-cell SPF has a global warming potential of 1,430, but if producers adopt new HFO blowing agents, it will drop to close to zero. Click to enlarge.

Photo Credit: John Straube

I’ve been pretty vocal about a big... Read more

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

The silicone found in many window caulks is not much of a health risk to onsite workers, but the chemicals used to produce silicon are coming under greater scrutiny. Photo: ArmaCo Construction

As discussed throughout... Read more

Refrigerators keep our food cold, but foam insulation that boosts their efficiency paradoxically contributes to global warming: the chemicals typically used as blowing agents to make this insulation can have global warming potential (GWP) hundreds of times that of CO2. Whirlpool Corporation will start producing refrigerators that use... Read more

Following in Maine’s footsteps, the State of Georgia has effectively banned LEED certification for State building projects.

Governor Nathan Deal’s executive order, echoing language used by Maine Governor Paul LePage, requires green building standards that equally recognize three forestry standards—the Sustainable Forestry... Read more

Will we wake up about climate change when the blackouts begin? Also, what does historic preservation mean in a city without any history? Hot, dry summers are a recipe for (power) failure.Photo Credit: Union of Concerned Scientists

Power, power everywhere (but then what will we drink?)

Our power grid is a voracious water hog, as... Read more

With new oil discoveries and more effective extraction methods, the world is probably many decades away from peak oil. A "Hubbert Curve" of world oil production, showing the peak in this decade, which was widely predicted just a few years ago. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Energy Watch Group, UK.

I first wrote about... Read more

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

In the U.S., we tend to put a lot of faith in caulks, tapes, and wet-applied sealants. But in Europe it’s a different story.

Some Gaskets can be used in place of tapes or liquid sealants, mainly as part of... Read more

A beautiful map of amazing places, why FSC is still best wood certification, and the scary story of why you should still make your own file backups. My kids scrambled up the granite hill known as the South Bubble for the fourth or fifth time last week in Acadia National Park. Acadia is the only National Park we've been to, but after seeing the... Read more

When I bought the house in West Dummerston, Vermont, where my wife and I have lived for the past thirty years, one of the first things I did was fix the drainage problems that were dumping water into our basement….

Or so I thought. Let me explain.

When I moved into the 1780s house there was a hill on... Read more

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

Mounted on the roof at NIST, this "weathering engine" tests sealant durability Photo: National Institute of Standards and Technology

Durability, or service life, is critical to the overall performance of liquid caulk... Read more

Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) use a fraction of the energy of incandescent bulbs, but a new study finds that minor damage makes their UV emissions dangerously high at close range.

Researchers at Stony Brook University in New York sought to follow up on European research that had found prolonged exposure at close range (less... Read more

Introducing all-natural expanded cork boardstock insulation to the North American market. Expanded cork insulation is available up to 12 inches thick and can be used much like polyiso. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Amorim Isolamentos

I’m always on the hunt for the latest, most interesting, and most environmentally... Read more

By Erin WeaverThe city of Sydney, Australia, has increased bike ridership by 82% in just two years as part of its Sustainable Sydney 2030 plans. Two years ago, the city had bicycling rates below the national average, with only 0.8% of work trips made by bike; Sydney 2030 calls for 10% of trips to be by bike in 2030, and this year that number... Read more