Championing the
Changemakers

It’s easy to see how operating buildings emits greenhouse gases. Just as real but harder to see is how buying and installing building materials, products, and appliances causes emissions. Embodied carbon is a measure of the carbon emitted into the atmosphere in order to produce any of these things

Carbon is frequently used as... Read more

The structure comprises the most massive and permanent elements in a building. Structural choices have a major effect on a building’s environmental impact, and the structure is nearly impossible to alter once the design process is under way. Yet unlike mechanical engineers, who are increasingly invited to the table early in a green... Read more

Knauf Insulation, the manufacturer of EcoBatt, is suing competitor CertainTeed for patent infringement. CertainTeed’s undyed Sustainable Insulation, introduced in 2010, has the same mottled brown look as EcoBatt, introduced in 2008. EcoBatt’s color comes from its biobased Ecose binder, which U.S. patent documents suggest is sugar-based and... Read more

By the time this issue reaches you, I should be wending my way eastward on a bicycle through the desert Southwest. It’s a fitting way to start a sabbatical I think—surrounded by broad vistas, exploring a part of the country I don’t see much of, and traveling only as fast as my legs can carry me. This trip will launch an eight-month sabbatical,... Read more

Topically applied stain and dirt repellents have been used on commercial carpets as standard practice for decades. They help repel oily dirt and liquids, and protect the carpet fibers from coffee spills and other abuse, but the long-term health and environmental impacts of these chemicals are unknown (for more, see “The Chemicals on Our Carpets... Read more

Fifty percent of corporate real estate executives were willing to pay higher rent for green office space in 2010—up 13% from 2009—according to the fourth annual international Sustainability Survey conducted by CoreNet Global and Jones Lang LaSalle. That number jumps to 73% when you add executives who said they would pay more if the cost were... Read more

Feeling bombarded with confusing information about measures of radiation? We sort out the millisieverts from the becquerels.

What is the measure of the time between slipping on a peel and hitting the pavement?

One bananosecond.

What is the ratio of an igloo’s circumference to its diameter?

Eskimo pi.

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Risk perception is irrational and does not respond well to data. Can we make the leap from science to persuasion without leaving the facts behind?

As news began to trickle out of Japan about the impending meltdown at a nuclear plant, I knew... Read more

Looking for clean renewables in the pie chart of post-Fukushima global energy consumption? Try under “Other.”

Two parents—identified by the caption—have their backs to the camera, ten feet away. The father is standing, and the mother crouching, both looking into what looks like a tangled pile of debris, but which we are told is... Read more

In the June issue of Environmental Building News last year, we published one of those slap-in-the-face, wake-up-call articles that forces people to rethink conventional wisdom. Most of us had long thought that more insulation was almost always better in saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. After all, the more insulation... Read more

I got my first pair of cross-country skis back in the '70s. A pair of Bonna wood skis from Norway. They were beautiful skis, but you had to torch pine tar into the base to protect them from moisture. My current skis, Madshus "Nanosonic Carbons", are also Norwegian...but that's about all those two pairs of skis have in common. The wood... Read more

Next week I'm starting an eight-month sabbatical. It's made possible by the Hanley Award that I received last... Read more

When the Modernists declared that form follows function, did they really intend for the built environment to look so ... dreary? Maybe beauty is an essential building function--not just something for the interior designer to work out at the end.

Market-based solutions only get us so far: we need policies, too, and fast. David Orr stares political reality right in the eye, and refuses to back down.

When David Orr began his keynote speech on full-spectrum sustainability at the Building Energy conference yesterday, I was sitting in my car at a dead stop near the Harvard... Read more

Natural gas has been in the news a lot recently.

On the economics side, we are seeing a fascinating divergence of petroleum and natural gas prices. For decades, oil and gas prices have tracked pretty closely--natural... Read more

A new online scoring tool should make the complex LEED for Homes rating system more accessible for both builders and homeowners. The Web-based application allows users to explore and compare a variety of green building options starting very early in the design process. Designed by BuildingGreen (publisher of BuildingGreen.com) for the U.S.... Read more

A new LEED for Homes tool can help designers get the jump on certification--and is great for homeowners too.

A new online scoring tool should make the complex LEED for Homes rating system more accessible for both builders and homeowners. The Web-based application allows users to explore and compare a variety of green building... Read more

Over the years, there have been as many as three cotton insulation manufacturers, but for the last several years there has only been one: Bonded Logic, which makes UltraTouch batt insulation, along with... Read more