Championing the
Changemakers

The Air-Conditioning. Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) has for the first time created a standard to compare the efficiency of variable refrigerant flow (VRF) multi-split heating and cooling systems. The standard, AHRI 1230-2010, creates testing procedures for VRF multi-split systems, including those with variable-speed compressors. It... Read more

Is it time to end our love affair with the all-glass building? A lot of proponents of high-performance, green design certainly think so—while other respected architects, including some leading green designers and energy experts, argue that all-glass can work well if done right.

From Shanghai to Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt... Read more

North America's largest water heater manufacturer, A.O. Smith, is shaking up the water heating industry with its NEXT Hybrid gas-fired water heater that combines key features of both tankless and storage water heating technology.

About storage water heaters

As a refresher, storage water heaters have relatively small... Read more

Supported by industry and environmental groups alike, the U.S. Congress has passed a bill limiting the amount of formaldehyde in hardwood plywood, particleboard, and medium-density fiberboard.

Introduced in late 2009, the bill bases its formaldehyde thresholds on those developed and enacted by the California Air Resources Board (see “... Read more

Worldwide, the square footage of certified green building space will increase 780%, from approximately 6 billion square feet in 2010 to 53 billion square feet in 2020, predicts a new report from Pike Research.

Most of this space—80%—will be commercial, and will be certified under LEED in the U.S. or BREEAM in Europe; programs in China... Read more

Pressure-reducing valves, an element of EPA’s WaterSense® new homes specification, are green: they can save water, increase the service life of plumbing system components, and reduce risks of water leaks.What is a Pressure Reducing Valve (PRV)?PRVs have spring-loaded diaphragms that resist the incoming pressure of the water supply to a... Read more

While our homes and cars get most of the attention relative to energy savings, our materials stream also has a huge impact on energy use. Nationally, the U.S. generates about 236 million tons of municipal solid waste each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That works out to about 4 pounds of waste for every American... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that stand-alone data centers and those incorporated in buildings are eligible for an Energy Star rating.

Eligible centers must be in the top 25% of data centers in terms of energy efficiency as measured by power usage effectiveness (PUE). A common metric in data centers, PUE... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a draft assessment of the dangers of formaldehyde that finds that pregnant women, children, and asthmatics are particularly susceptible to the health effects of inhaling the chemical.

A new bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would require that insurance coverage be available for properties in locations prone to natural disasters such as hurricanes. Introduced by Democrat Ron Klein of Florida, the bill would primarily benefit that state, which has a fund subsidizing insurance for certain high-risk areas... Read more

GlassX, a new high-tech glazing from Europe with heat-storing phase-change material (PCM) has just been introduced in North America. This remarkable glazing was developed by the Swiss company GlassX AG over the past 15 years and is licensed to the international building products company Saint-Gobain (parent company to CertainTeed),... Read more

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson recently announced plans to mitigate environmental damage from sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). These overflows, which pose a variety of risks to public and environmental health, are caused when blockages, broken pipes, or excessive water hinder sanitary sewer flow, spewing... Read more

Energy Star has raised its standard for gas storage water heaters, increasing the minimum energy factor for the tank-style heaters from 0.62 to 0.67. The change will go into effect in September 2010 and will, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), result in water heaters that use 14% less energy than conventional models... Read more

This summer is a great time to get a good deal on a solar water heating or solar-electric (photovoltaic) system for your home. While I argued a few months ago in this column that the 30% federal solar tax credit has some flaws--key among them being that it's based on the dollar value rather than performance and that there's no cap on the cost... Read more

In the latest step of its controversial process to refine what passes for sustainably harvested forest products in its LEED rating systems, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has released new revisions of the policy, and opened a new public comment period. The fourth comment period runs through July 4, 2010.

Two camps, both... Read more

There's an exciting new hybrid solar collector from Turkey that combines photovoltaic (PV) power generation with solar water heating. The idea of combining PV and solar-thermal isn't new, but Solimpeks Solar Energy Corp. has taken the idea to a new level of sophistication with their Volther hybrid solar collector.

The beauty of... Read more

Hoping to make high-efficiency windows more affordable and to expand their market, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has created a bulk-purchasing program aimed at homeowners and builders in northern climates. It has arranged with over 30 manufacturers to list windows with insulation values of R-5 or better through a DOE website, www.... Read more

I'm sorry, but the irony is just too thick these days. We Americans are rightly upset with BP for the devastating spill in the Gulf that is wreaking ecological devastation on a mammoth scale. But as I watch the television news and read the daily coverage, I'm not hearing enough outrage at our petroleum-dependent lifestyles and the gas-guzzling... Read more

The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) has announced the launch of its pilot program, and 65% of the pilot projects involve redevelopment of brownfield sites rather than new development on “greenfield” sites. SITES has been in development since 2005 (see “Group to Create Rating System for Landscapes”), and is a joint project of the American... Read more