Championing the
Changemakers

A new trade group seeks to replicate the success of LEED for those in the institutional procurement arena. New guidance and incentives from the Sustainable Purchasing Council (SPC) will encourage institutional buyers to incorporate green products into their procurement policies.

The group says it will promote cost-effective sustainable... Read more

When ventilation rates were up to code, children missed fewer days of school in a two-year study, and illness patterns implicate our building products.

LBNL’s findings, which were published in the journal Indoor Air, also suggest that indoor pollutants may be at the heart of the elevated absences. Although other scientists have shown that... Read more

A new study finds that light pollution limits nesting areas for endangered sea turtles. Two species of endangered sea turtles in the Mediterranean were more likely to choose nesting areas under increasingly hard-to-find dark skies, according to new research published in the journal Biological Conservation. Light pollution has long been known to... Read more

New federal rules would mirror California standards and address concerns about third-party testing. In the first significant regulatory move restricting toxic chemicals in years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed two federal rules for regulating formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products—including domestic... Read more

EBies honor the people behind this year’s most impressive performance improvements in existing buildings.

Urban Green Council recently revealed the winners of the second annual EBie awards as participants—building operators, engineers, and facility managers—walked the green carpet and made acceptance speeches. The celebration, humorously... Read more

After 20 years of green initiatives, The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio has seen energy savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars and can boast that its 101-year-old Beaux Arts building recently went off the grid—in a temperate climate.

First steps

Carol Bintz, the building’s chief operating officer, said the projects “started slow,”... Read more

A leading voice on life-cycle assessment offers a call to action for responsible use of LCA for sustainable design.

It was nice to see your recent piece, “Whole-Building Life-Cycle Assessment: Taking the Measure of a Green Building,” and I appreciated the thoughtful quotes from some leading-edge practitioners out there. You rightfully are... Read more

A new program called Declare provides a database of building products with at least 99% of their ingredients fully disclosed. Introduced early in 2013 by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), this free and publicly accessible tool included only about 30 products by late June—but it’s growing rapidly, according to ILFI’s... Read more

If you’ve ever held a Styrofoam cup comfortably in your hand, only to scorch your tongue sipping the piping-hot coffee inside, you know that plastic foam is a really good insulator. It’s also lightweight, generally impervious to moisture, relatively cheap, and strong.

With all that in its favor, it would take some effort to... Read more

Whether it’s a passing train, a rumbling air-handling unit, or a coworker’s takeout order, unwanted sounds can disrupt work and learning; persistent noise can even affect our health. In schools and conference rooms, poor acoustics prevent people from hearing teachers and presenters.

Design strategies can optimize acoustic performance,... Read more

We’ve come a long way from the early Tyvek housewrap; our experience with the German Pro Clima Solitex weather-resistive barrier Pro Clima Solitex weather-resistive barrier installed on our home. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

I remember years ago—I hate to remember how many; it must have been around 1982... Read more

If buildings lose power or heating fuel, how hot is too hot and how cold is too cold? An elderly woman in New York City trying to keep cool without air conditioning—though with an electric fan.

Photo Credit: David Goodman - from the Buildings Resiliency Task Force Report

Over the past five months, the New York City... Read more

The 18-kW photovoltaic array on our barn roof is nearing completion The first PV panels being installed on our barn roof. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

When we started planning the rebuild of our house and the rest of the farm in West Dummerston, Vermont my wife and I knew that we wanted to produce all of... Read more

The latest version of Green Globes for New Construction focuses on novel ways to measure energy performance, but details are hard to come by.

There seems to be a lot to like about the new Green Globes for New Construction, which was apparently launched earlier this week.

I say “seems to” and “apparently” because, despite repeated... Read more

This week’s Slow Living Summit celebrates local food, local economies, sustainability, and resilience. The Slow Living Summit is happening June 5-7 in Brattleboro.Image Credit: Strolling of the Heifers

For the past three years the Slow Living Summit has been an important ancillary event to the Strolling of the Heifers... Read more

Efficiency could lead to almost-flat energy demand through 2040 despite new construction—but there’s some fine print. The building sector is set to use far less energy in the next three decades than previously thought, according to the 2013 Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Driven... Read more

Homeowners blame manufacturers for alleged damage to their health and homes.

Federal lawsuits against a number of manufacturers and installers of the insulation have been filed throughout the U.S., according to Scott Gibson at the website GreenBuildingAdvisor.com, with homeowners claiming they have been forced out of their homes due to health... Read more

With state-by-state and national searches, the Advanced Energy Tracker keeps tabs on energy policy.

A new database developed by researchers at Colorado State University, the Advanced Energy Legislation Tracker (AEL Tracker), serves as a clearinghouse for energy-policy information in all 50 U.S. States. The group’s website also provides... Read more

EPA gets kudos from Harvard for turning contaminated land into clean energy. Landfills, decommissioned mines, and Superfund sites are being put to good use through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative. Now the program has received top honors from Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic... Read more

Smart economic policies go hand in hand with smart growth, according to an advocacy group. Each year, the U.S. government invests $450 billion in real estate. What do taxpayers get for their money? Sprawl, income inequality, and withering downtowns, according to a new report.

The excluded middle class“There are a couple of uneven impacts,”... Read more