BuildingGreen Report

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September 2, 2008
I was down in Orlando last week — land of asphalt, ChemLawns, and Mickey Mouse. As is typical in that part of the world, it was too hot outside and too cold inside. In one of the mammoth Disney hotels, I was participating for two days in the Tenth Anniversary Annual Meeting of an organization called FLASH. FLASH is the Federal Alliance for Safe... Read more

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September 1, 2008
Rigid boardstock insulation.

In this final installment about insulation we'll take a look at the family of rigid boardstock materials. Unlike fiberous or spray-foam insulation that is installed in wall or ceiling cavities between the studs, rafters, or joists, boardstock insulation is applied either on the interior or exterior surface,... Read more

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August 28, 2008
"Water shortages are expected to become more and more common in the coming decades. A 2003 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office reported that 36 states are likely to experience water shortages by 2013." "Water use in and around buildings, from both public water supplies and well water, accounts for about 47 billion gallons (180 billion l... Read more

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August 28, 2008
Greg Kats of the venture capital firm Good Energies has argued for a while now that a company's carbon emissions can have a material impact on its financial performance, and by failing to disclose that risk the company may be liable to shareholder action. That argument was used to explain part of the appeal to corporations of green (low-carbon-... Read more

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August 27, 2008
A wind turbine ad on the New York Times homepage! Sure, Web ads are relatively cheap, but it still looks like a sign that alternative energy is hitting the big time. And the day after this ad ran, the Times ran a page 1 story (in print as well as on the Web) about wind power, exploring concerns that while some say wind could provide as much as... Read more

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August 26, 2008
As a key component in polycarbonate plastics such as those used for reusable water bottles, baby bottles, canned-food liners, and some building materials, bisphenol-A (BPA) has become the new chemical to fear. Despite that, I had to track down a paper from the Transactions of the Wessex Institute on research conducted at Dresden University to... Read more

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August 25, 2008
Talk about appropriate technology. They cooperate with nature on all levels — the design, the materials, the function... and gorgeous to look at besides. How would we build something like this today? This is very sexy stuff, even if it's all about pigeon poop. Click the image for a high-res narrated slideshow (or here for low-res.) From Jadid... Read more

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August 25, 2008
Installing Air Krete foam insulation.

In recent columns, we've looked at cellulose insulation as well as fiberglass and other batt insulation The other option for filling wall and ceiling cavities is foam insulation that is sprayed into the cavity. There are several such materials that are used for this application, all installed by... Read more

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August 24, 2008
Finding an energy-efficient air purifier technology that actually works can be a tricky proposition. Most purifiers use ionizers that generate ozone or have HEPA and carbon filters that require inefficient fans that run constantly. Oh sure, you could try to keep toxins out of the house in the first place, but if you should find yourself living... Read more

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August 21, 2008

This press release just came through; sounds like it will be a pretty great resource. It's not up yet though — check it out in a few days.

The Natural Environment Research Council — the UK's leading organisation that funds research into the environmental sciences — is launching an online version of its award-winning magazine, Planet... Read more

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August 21, 2008
Across the nation a teardown epidemic is wiping out historic neighborhoods one house at a time. As older homes are demolished and replaced with dramatically larger, out-of-scale new structures, the historic character of the existing neighborhood is changed forever. Neighborhood livability is diminished as trees are removed, backyards are... Read more

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August 19, 2008
The U.S. Green Building Council has announced that LEED 2009 is open for a second public comment period, from now until September 2, 2008. LEED 2009, according to USGBC's update, is "a new version of the rating system that delivers against key environmental and human health impacts" (emphasis added). Forgive my tendency for flip comments about... Read more

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Although not as green as cellulose, batt insulation makes sense under certain conditions.

August 18, 2008

Last week's column addressed cellulose insulation, which is the greenest and one of the most effective insulation materials available. But it isn't always practical or affordable to install cellulose. To insulate walls with cellulose, it's usually necessary to hire an insulation contractor, and if the job is very small--bumping out and... Read more

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August 15, 2008
Here's a fun exercise that a group of architects, designers, and others completed today as part of the Designing for a Living World symposium that I'm attending, hosted by Interface at Shelburne Farms in Vermont. It's a little thing I call... "Headlines from the Future." Here's the deal. Take these ten topics: Oceans Agriculture Energy Poverty... Read more

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August 14, 2008
In my years as chair of LEED's Materials & Resources Technical Advisory Group (MR-TAG) I've gotten lots of questions and comments about interesting interpretations and claims from product manufacturers. Most manufacturers are sincere in their efforts to understand the credit requirements and present their products in a positive light.... Read more

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August 12, 2008
BuildingGreen recently cleared out about 75 shelf-feet of periodicals -- Architecture and PanelWorld and Ecological Restoration and Mold and Moisture Management and lots more. The recycling area outside the office was getting overcrowded with them and we still had more to remove. Then I remembered that our neighbor, Steve Benson, at J.S Benson... Read more

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August 11, 2008
Workers blowing cellulose insulation onto a wall.

Insulation is our number-one line of defense against high heating costs, and my favorite type of insulation is cellulose. Along with its effectiveness at slowing heat flow, cellulose insulation is a green product--made mostly out of an abundant waste product: old newspaper.

Most... Read more

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August 5, 2008
7/1/09 Update: The LEED AP exam has significantly changed, and the following sample exam has not been updated to reflect this. By the way, if you are looking to learn about the LEED 2009 rating systems, there's no better tool out there than our own LEEDuser.com. Eighty multiple choice questions, a score range of 125–200, a passing score of 170.... Read more

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August 4, 2008
SNOW ON THE ROOF IS A GOOD THING. It proves that the new insulation does exactly what it should--it keeps the heat inside the house..

There is no component of a home more important in minimizing energy costs than insulation. Insulation is the material used in walls, ceilings, roofs, and foundations that slows the flow of heat.

Most... Read more

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August 1, 2008
A: Mini-splits and variable-refrigerant-flow multi-splits. It's not that mini-splits and their multi-split kin aren't available in the U.S. at all. Daikin, Mitsubishi, and Sanyo all sell products here, along with a few other manufacturers. It's that this cooling technology (which uses an air-source heat pump and can provide significant heating... Read more