Whenever we reduce water use, we also save energy. In fact, several of the most cost-effective energy saving strategies -- projects with the quickest "payback" -- are water conservation improvements that reduce hot water use. I'll cover some of these strategies here, but first I want to explain why even reducing our cold water use saves energy.
Paul Hawken gave the commencement address for the University of Portland earlier this month, and it's making the rounds. Deservedly. Its message is as good for the building industry — for anybody living, for that matter — as it was for those graduating seniors. Here it is.
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Read the current bulletinChristian Kornevall, the director of the Energy Efficiency in Buildings project of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), sent the following in response to my May 9th post titled "4 Years + 15 Million Dollars = Ol
On Friday we rolled out a new look for the BuildingGreen Case Study page. As you can see in the image above, we added a map component that uses Google Maps to show the locations of the case studies. In addition, you can download an auto-updating version of the case study set into Google Earth a number of the buildings can be viewed as 3D models. Below is the Rocky Mountain Institute office in Snowmass.
A design competition for professionals and students, the Lifecycle Building Challenge is sponsored by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the American Institute of Architects, and West Coast Green. The competition is focused on design for adaptability, material reuse, and minimizing lifecycle impacts from products.
Registration and participation is free. Submission deadline is August 30 2009.
Who could be more qualified than one of the principal authors of LEED for Homes to provide insight on the best ways to make the program work?
In a typical home, the refrigerator accounts for about 8% of the total annual energy expense, according to 2005 data from the U.S. Department of Energy. While this energy consumption for food storage is significant, it's far less than it was a few decades ago. In the mid-1970s, an average new refrigerator used about 1,800 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, making it the single most expensive energy load in many homes.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development website says that its new study, Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Transforming the Market, is "the most rigorous study ever conducted on the subject."
Even though there are extant and occupied earthen homes scattered throughout the northern states and Canada from the mid-19th century, raw earth as a building material is overlooked in most of the USA.
From the website of The Carbon Neutral Curriculum Materials Project:
The long-time-coming "BSR/ASHRAE/USGBC/IESNA Standard 189.1P, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings" is open for public review until June 15, 2009. From the forward:
