Championing the
Changemakers

American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers at the University of British Columbia looked at hundreds of neighborhoods around San Diego and Seattle, assigning them scores based on factors that included parks, walkability, and access to stores selling fresh fruits and vegetables within a half-mile. (The presence of fast-food restaurants... Read more

According to Allen Post, AIA, of Perkins+Will, more than 7.5 million children are being taught in mobile classrooms in the U.S. While most of these estimated 300,000 classroom units are designed for temporary use, the actual average use exceeds five years, according to Post, and that provides an opportunity for a hybrid solution. Unlike most... Read more

The Lancet shows air pollution contributing to an increasing number of deaths worldwide, with 3.2 million premature deaths in 2010 attributable to outdoor air pollution. Part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, the article tracks changes in risk factors since 1990. While communicable diseases and... Read more

Treating wastewater for onsite use could take a burden off our aging infrastructure while creating high-quality water that won’t contaminate local watersheds (as septic systems can), but capturing and treating wastewater for reuse is tricky. For example, reusing graywater from bathing and washing clothes requires separating it from blackwater... Read more

Have we been focusing on the wrong water-efficiency measures all along? Even though low-flow and low-flush fixtures have become common over the years, fewer project teams have been aware of the water savings that could be realized by looking at cooling towers, commercial kitchen equipment, medical equipment, and even municipal steam systems.... Read more

In the only study of its kind to date, the design of classrooms and schools has been found to have significant impact on student performance over the course of a year. Published in January 2013 in Building and Environment, the study found six design parameters—such as color and light—that particularly harm or help individual... Read more

Our wastewater infrastructure is largely invisible and little understood. Most of us never question the wisdom of polluting pristine drinking water, losing valuable nitrogen and irreplaceable phosphorus in the process, just so we can make our poop disappear. Our own waste is a classic SEP—Somebody Else’s Problem.

The result? “Aging... Read more

A think tank and lobbying group called the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) has requested nine years’ worth of emails between the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), creator of the LEED rating... Read more

Despite the chilly (seasonable) weather, work is progressing on the renovation/rebuild of our house in Dummerston. Last week, the three... Read more

Photo Credit: NESEA.org screen capture

It’s always fun and educational to connect with friends and colleagues from afar at Greenbuild, AIA Convention, and the Living Futures “Unconference,” but the... Read more

Woods Hole Research Center. Sidwell Friends School. Vancouver Convention Center.... Read more

The EBN article “Verifying Performance with Building Enclosure Commissioning” (Dec. 2012) is an excellent start in proclaiming the virtues of building enclosure commissioning (BECx) and its contribution to total-building commissioning (TBCx... Read more

Before the holidays I wrote a blog on how to save energy in the home by changing our behavior. This week we’ll take a look at some... Read more

By Asad Syrkett

When Perkins+Will purchased the building at 1315 Peachtree Street that would come to house its Atlanta branch's new office, it was "all post-tension concrete, which is gorgeous. And we loved it," effuses Paula Vaughan, codirector of sustainability at the firm's Atlanta arm. But large swaths of the building were left... Read more

After a turbulent decade of delays and redesigns, the team behind the Edith Green–Wendell Wyatt (EGWW) Federal Building is more than ready for its opening, scheduled for May 1, 2013; so are the federal agencies that will be calling it home. Design architect James Cutler of Cutler Anderson Architects and executive architect SERA began designing... Read more

With snow... Read more

In a survey of thousands of shoppers leaving supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, and bars, researchers for the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium asked customers about their spending per trip and trips per month, concluding that for all but supermarkets, cyclists spent the same amount or less per visit compared... Read more