Championing the
Changemakers

Power corrupts, and wind power corrupts pristine ridgelines. Maybe it doesn't have to.

Wind faces fierce opposition in Vermont; this Searsburg operation is the only existing project.

I've always assumed that opponents of wind power were just displaying a faux-green kind of NIMBYism. If these protestors really cared about the... 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.

... Read more

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?

Is our fear of nuclear power misplaced? Maybe polka-dotted pj's are a more realistic threat.

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

I'll be looking for some open vistas and contemplative time on my upcoming bike trip--priming the pump for work I'll be focusing on during the rest of an eight-month sabbatical. Photo: Horst Hammerschmidt. Click on image to enlarge.

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.

The entryway to the St. Mary's Cathedral in Tokyo features concrete, glass, and steel, and... Read more

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.

David Orr

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

Oil and gas prices have diverged dramatically in the past few years. Graph: New York Times. Click on image to enlarge.

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 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

Applegate Insulation has just introduced a new cotton batt insulation: Mr. Insulate. Photo: Applegate Insulation. Click on image to enlarge.

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

A pedestrian-friendly streetscape in Annapolis, Maryland. Photo: Dan Burden. Click on image to enlarge.

We spend a lot of time and money making our homes more energy efficient. Whether adding insulation, upgrading windows, replacing incandescent light bulbs, or replacing appliances, efforts we make to use less energy save us money and help... Read more

Froling pellet boilers from Austria represent state-of-the-art in biomass combustion. Photo: Froling. Click on image to enlarge.

Froling is a leading Austrian manufacturer of wood-burning heating equipment. The company's cordwood and pellet boilers distributed in North America by Tarm Biomass (previously BioHeat USA), in Lyme, New Hampshire... Read more

Direct-gain passive-solar design was used extensively at the Cob Hill CoHousing project in Hartland, Vermont. A majority of the windows face south, with overhangs and window blinds that help block unwanted sun in the summer. Photo: Alex Wilson. Click on image to enlarge.

Over the past two weeks I've written about two relatively obscure passive... Read more

The European Union announced last week that it is banning HBCD (hexabromocyclododecane), the brominated flame retardant used in polystyrene building insulation. The ban will take effect by mid-2015 and be implemented through the European Union's REACH program (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals).

HBCD... Read more

A Trombe wall retrofit workshop that I was leading in the late-1970s in New Mexico. To this simple frame, a layer of glazing was added, and sunlight would heat up the dark-painted wall. Photo: Alex Wilson. Click on image to enlarge.

Last week I wrote about sunspaces and how they can be used to deliver passive solar heat to our homes. Another... Read more

The 2030 Challenge for Products aims to reduce the embodied carbon of building materials 50% by 2030. Graphic: Architecture 2030. Click on image to enlarge.

All right, it's not a product. But the 2030 Challenge for Products, announced today by Ed Mazria's organization, Architecture 2030, BuildingGreen, and others, promises to make a lot of... Read more

A solar greenhouse workshop from the late-1970s. Photo: Alex Wilson. Click on image to enlarge.

Way back in the late 1970s, I worked for the New Mexico Solar Energy Association in Santa Fe. I ran the Workshop Program, leading a crew of three or four like-mined idealists teaching mostly low-income New Mexicans about solar energy through hands-... Read more

This screen capture from the webinar shows how each piece of the matrix is filled in in the Assessment Tool. Here, you can see the three associators (relative efficacy, benefit duration, and benefit control) and their respective options.

The USGBC recently hosted an “Introduction to LEED Rating System Weightings Process” webcast detailing... Read more