Championing the
Changemakers

The easiest energy savings come from little changes in our behavior that don't cause any hardship--or even result in ancillary benefits. Such is the case with reducing the amount of time spent... Read more

These shorts were filmed at West Coast Green; for more like them, see revision.tv.

As a follow-on to The Great Passivhaus Face-off, take a look at this commentary from a couple years ago in the wake of a visit to Passivhaus examples in Germany by a couple well-informed British authors and researchers — The Passive House: thoughts and reflections. It begins, "There were a couple of moments when the PassivHaus study tour... Read more

A little over a year ago I reported on the efforts of a local organization, Brattleboro Thermal Utility (BTU), to develop a wood-chip-fired "combined heat and power" (CHP) plant for the town. In that column I reported that BTU, on whose board I sit, was trying to identify a company to carry out a preliminary feasibility study for the project;... Read more

Last week, we took a look at how to save energy and water with clothes washing. This week we'll turn our attention to drying, which accounts for approximately 6% of all household electricity consumption in the U.S.

The two are closely related... Read more

Two guys were walking down the hall. Professional-looking guys, architectorial. One of them said to the other, "It's called, um, energy... recovery ventilator." BAM! That's what it's about. Yeah, there's greenwash, there's cynicism, there's impatience. But there's also people finding their way forward. We're all spread out along the learning... Read more

I normally post the Top-10 green building products list just as Alex is starting the presentation. And this year, I just totally spaced it out.

I seem to be on the chemical redlist circuit this month. Last night at GreenBuild I attended Perkins + Will's panel-and-schmooze event to discuss their brand new precautionary list of 25 chemicals that P+W wants to see out of building products. They've created a publicly available website with their avoid list and you can view the list by... Read more