News

This year, California became the first state to adopt strict federal lighting efficiency standards that effectively ban the sale of incandescent bulbs. These standards are part of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), originally called the Clean Energy Act, that is due to go into effect nationwide in 2020. California adopted the... Read more

It’s 10 o’clock at night on September 20, 2017. Rain is seeping through the windows of architect Adriana Bultrón-Rodríguez’s third-floor apartment in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The building has just gotten its power back after Hurricane Irma.

But now, Hurricane Maria has come calling.

Bultrón-Rodríguez and her husband try to stay... Read more

The numbers don’t lie. To keep global warming at tolerable levels, the building industry has to change—radically and rapidly. That’s the message of a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Global Status Report 2017 sounds a red alert: “near-zero-energy, zero-emissions buildings need to become the... Read more

BuildingGreen interviewed designers from several leading sustainable design firms to learn what sustainable design literacy means, what it looks like, and how the best firms are supporting increased knowledge—and action. The research resulted in our feature article Sustainable Design Literacy: A Foundation for Transformed Practice.... Read more

As a trusted, independent information source for over 30 years, BuildingGreen carries no advertising in... Read more

Could moving to a new office help you sleep better? A quarter of the employees at the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) claim that better lighting during the day at their new workplace improved their sleep quality at night.

These findings and more are part of a new report from ASID about how office design affects indoor... Read more

“Cowpower” is a viable energy source here in Vermont, where dairy farms capture methane—a powerful greenhouse gas—from decomposing waste and use it as fuel. It may sound quirky, but it works. Landfills and municipal water-treatment facilities also use this “anaerobic digestion” (AD) process to generate energy and reduce solid waste.

AD... Read more

New York City will soon require posting of energy use “grades” near building entrances.

The new law builds on an existing transparency regulation—a “benchmarking and disclosure” law passed in 2009 that applies to all privately owned buildings larger than 25,000 ft2 and to City-owned buildings larger than 10,000 ft2. The existing... Read more

“Think in terms of being evolutionary, not revolutionary,” says Mike Steffen, AIA, director of innovation at Walsh Construction. He’s learned that when it comes to building high-performance projects, the best strategy is to focus on fundamental principles rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

This is one reason why the Passive House... Read more

President Trump has imposed 30% tariffs on solar cells and panels manufactured in other countries, following the recommendation of the United States International Trade Commission (USITC).

When the president signed the action imposing the trade barriers he said, “…our workers are going to have lots of really great jobs with products... Read more

President Trump has until later this month to respond to recommendations from the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) to impose tariffs on solar equipment manufactured in other countries.

Companies in China manufacture 60% of the world’s solar cells, according to the International Energy Agency.

The case before... Read more

Julie Paquette has been Director of Energy Management at Yale University for about 6 years. That means the buck stops at Paquette’s desk for the energy consumption of over 400 buildings on campus. Yale has a pretty sophisticated approach to energy, including the Yale Facilities Energy Explorer, an energy dashboard system that shows... Read more

How much more efficient can HVAC, lighting, and other building systems get?

Not much more while still remaining cost effective, according to a recent report from the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE). In the face of these diminishing returns, claims the report, the best way to coax our buildings to save more energy is through systems... Read more

Portland cement, the major binding agent in concrete, is one of the single largest emitters of greenhouse gases. But thanks to lobbying by industry groups, you won’t find concrete in California’s new carbon legislation, the Buy Clean California Act.

The law requires contractors to get environmental product declarations (EPDs) for... Read more

Every year we walk the Greenbuild Expo floor, looking at products and talking with manufacturers to find out what is new in the green building products world. This year’s show added vendors from the ArchitectureBoston Expo (ABX), but we found some gems on both floors, including electrochromic glazing, pelletized wool insulation, and cold-... Read more

The net-zero-energy building market has come a long way since the first commercial projects to target net zero were constructed nearly two decades ago. They include the Oberlin College Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies in 2000 and the Audubon Center at Debs Park in Los Angeles, which earned a LEED Platinum rating in 2003.... Read more

You can learn a lot by simply talking to people. That’s the idea behind a new take on the value of speaking directly with occupants to understand the impact of design. In the paper “Oh behave! Survey stories and lessons learned from building occupants in high-performance buildings,” Julia Day, assistant professor at Washington State University... Read more

In re-reading the feature article I wrote this time last year for The BuildingGreen Report after President Trump was elected, 20 Ways to Advance Sustainability in the Next Four Years, I was reminded of just how optimistic—indeed quixotic—I can be. Perhaps it is this serial optimism that has allowed me to keep at it some 40 years after I first... Read more

When President Trump backpedaled the United States out of the Paris Accord last year, the New Buildings Institute (NBI) was in the midst of designing new provisions for energy codes that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.

At the time, NBI was developing energy code strategies for 12 cities from the Zero Cities Project... Read more

Typical pins on moisture meters are ½ inch long, meaning you can only determine moisture content by weight near the surface of building assemblies and materials (including wood, gypsum wallboard, and concrete). But I often find myself needing to assess moisture content of first condensing surfaces in walls and ceilings or well below... Read more