BuildingGreen Report

Blog Post

July 22, 2008
America's buildings are no small contributor to our environmental difficulties and energy use... but they're far from the biggest part of the problem. The enemy is us — the choices we make individually and as a society. America's building envelopes are getting better and tighter, our heating and cooling systems are getting more efficient, but... Read more

Blog Post

July 21, 2008
In a few days I'll be leaving for the fifth annual Natural Building Colloquium East in Bath, NY. I go every year. So does David Eisenberg and a bunch of other people that I really like.

Is it anything like them green conferences?

No. It is nothing like them.

(Most of the quotes in this article were gathered at the first colloquium... Read more

Blog Post

July 19, 2008
"In spite of persistent claims to the contrary from green advocates, 86% of respondents believe that it costs more to build a green building — and not just by a little." — High Perceived Cost of Green Persists, Says Survey (January 1, 2008) "The report, the most exhaustive cost-benefit analysis of green building ever undertaken, found that... Read more

Blog Post

July 18, 2008

I have a little treat for Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 users: the BuildingGreen.com Search Plugin. With the plugin installed, you can search BuildingGreen.com directly from the search bar in the top right corner of your browser. In the course of a day, I often have to reference a few case studies. The search plugin allows me to get to the... Read more

Blog Post

July 18, 2008
Sunil Somalwar, a physics professor at Rutgers University, presents the following argument at the Better World Club site: Let us conservatively say that a Prius goes 40 miles on a gallon of gasoline. After taking into account the 20 lbs CO2 released by burning a gallon of gasoline, 40mpg amounts to two miles per pound of CO2 emission. On the... Read more

Blog Post

July 17, 2008
Oh, we've written about lawns over the years. And so have other people. The current New Yorker has a great article about lawns — looking backward, forward, and around. A couple juicy excerpts: The greener, purer lawns that the chemical treatments made possible were, as monocultures, more vulnerable to pests, and when grubs attacked the... Read more

Blog Post

July 17, 2008
How can LEED hope to transform the building industry in an environmental mold if, to highlight the achievements of buildings, it relies on outmoded stores of value whose extraction and use does vast environmental and social harm: Silver, Gold and Platinum? Those, of course, are the three top tiers of achievement for green buildings in the LEED... Read more

Blog Post

July 17, 2008

Twice each month, BuildingGreen publishes an email news bulletin with current news and product information briefs. Sign up here — it's free. We will never share or sell your email address, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

Read the current bulletin

Blog Post

July 13, 2008
Common-sense steps can cool your home and reduce the need for air conditioning.

I'll admit it. I dread this hot, sticky weather. Give me a cool autumn-like breeze any day, even if it means wearing a sweater in July. But I also hate using a lot of energy, including electricity for air conditioning. So, what are our options for staying... Read more

Blog Post

July 7, 2008
The price of crude oil is reaching historic high levels.

As I write this, crude oil has hit another all-time record price, above $145 per barrel. Heating oil is over $4.50 per gallon today, with some local pre-buy contracts above $4.70 per gallon--almost double my pre-buy price last winter ($2.60/gallon). It doesn't take a math degree to... Read more

Blog Post

July 6, 2008

Over at the New American Village blog:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the Emotional and Economic bonds which have connected them with a destructive Energy Policy, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should chart a New Course. We hold these truths to be self-... Read more

Blog Post

July 1, 2008

Excerpted from a post titled "The Unclear Origins of Oil" on Kevin Kelly's CT2 (Conceptual Trends and Current Topics) blog:

Crude oil is almost $140 per barrel. By now you'd think we would know where it comes from. The conventional wisdom is that oil descends from algae from eons ago. Lots and lots of algae. Unimaginable mounds of dead... Read more

Blog Post

July 1, 2008
Excerpts from a BuildingGreen press release that's being distributed today: Some heating fuels that used to be quite affordable, such as heating oil, have risen in price dramatically, making competing energy sources such as electricity relatively less expensive. In parts of the Northeast and Upper Midwest, even the most expensive form of... Read more

Blog Post

June 30, 2008

Twice each month, BuildingGreen publishes an email news bulletin with current news and product information briefs. Sign up here — it's free. We will never share or sell your email address, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

Read the current bulletin

Blog Post

June 30, 2008
There are a number of easy ways to weatherize your home for the winter and help reduce energy costs.

It seems odd to be thinking about next winter's heating already, but a lot of us are. While the pre-buy contracts for heating oil last winter were for about $2.25 per gallon, it looks like the price this coming winter will be double that, and... Read more

Blog Post

June 29, 2008

On June 20, a briefing about straw-bale construction organized by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) was held in the Russell Senate Office Building. Laura Bartels (President of GreenWeaver Inc. and member of the Builders Without Borders Building Team), Sandy Wiggins (immediate past Chairman of the Board of the USGBC), Bob... Read more

Blog Post

June 27, 2008
In researching Forbo's Marmoleum Composition Tile (MCT) for the July issue of EBN, I found out that the product wasn't actually all that new. We had first covered the idea of it in 1998: "Forbo Industries also has some exciting new developments. The company is introducing a new linoleum tile this December that will be thinner (2.0 mm) and priced... Read more

News Analysis

June 27, 2008
The Waterless Company has introduced a new version of its pioneering waterless urinal, using 30% soy resin in place of a portion of the petrochemical resin typically used.

Noting the potential water savings of a waterless urinal, Niki Bradley, marketing director for Waterless, said, “We wanted to develop a more sustainable, environmentally... Read more

News Brief

June 27, 2008

According to a recent report by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), rising utility costs have led to increased overall operating costs even as energy consumption has dropped. The report, “Benchmarks V: Annual Facility Costs,” pulls data from over 1,000 survey responses from IFMA members.

Operating costs have risen 10%... Read more

News Brief

June 27, 2008

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) first released LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EB) in November 2007. The reference guide for the system is due out in June 2008, and, as of July 1, all projects seeking certification must register under the new version.

Among the many changes are the addition of a green... Read more