HOME STAR: This is kind of a big deal
There are several energy and climate bills floating around in the Congress right now, including the Kerry/Boxer (or Kerry/Graham/Lieberman) Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (which has been in the works since – but not because – I thanked them here) ; the Bingaman/Murkowski American Clean Energy Leadership Act, or ACELA; the Cantwell/Collins CLEAR [...]
Want to get a home energy rating?
…Well if so, let me know, because I’m at a conference with several hundred home energy raters this week! First of all, you may want to know what a “home energy rating” consists of. The funny thing is, there’s actually LOTS of home energy ratings. There’s the HERS, which is given by ResNet, which is [...]
Unplug, or the Polar Bear Gets it
AKA, the Greenlite at Dartmouth University energy saving program. First, go to Greenlite’s home page here. What do you see? Do you see a happy polar bear, playing with a butterfly? Perhaps he’s taking a nap next to his “friends”, the baby seal and the baby polar bear… Or, maybe you see a polar bear [...]
America’s Greenest Building Code
Last week, the California Building Standards Commission unanimously adopted the first-in-the-nation mandatory Green Building Standards Code, also known as “CALGREEN”. The new standards take effect starting January 1, 2011 and will require all new buildings in the state to be more energy efficient and environmentally responsible. The new CALGREEN code will require: a 20 percent [...]
Top 9 of 2009
Today is the last day of 2009, or, if you take the long view, the last day of the first decade of the new millenium. There are many outlets devoting copious amounts of coverage to what a miserable year 2009 was, as well as giving plenty of room to “Top 10″ lists of the last [...]
Green Day Forum
Today I’m at the Earth Advantage Institute’s Green Day Forum in Portland. I’m surrounded by impassioned and brilliant green building professionals from all aspects of the industry. For instance, I’ve already met builders and realtors who came to educate themselves and I got some literature from one of the only certified energy efficient mortgage lenders [...]
Colorado: “Neon” Green
While Portland is working towards being the greenest city in the country, and California is known for incorporating energy efficiency into its building codes, the real net-zero capital of the United States might soon be Colorado. The Centennial State is no stranger to energy efficiency and renewable energy: the University of Colorado won the Solar [...]
…and I dropped the blogging ball! More about the Solar Decathlon…
Sorry for going on hiatus after my last post from DC about the Solar Decathlon. The truth of the matter is that the weather was 100% miserable the entire time I was there, and I had not the time nor the space to blog: my hands were numb and it was raining, thus making it [...]
The AIA Awards and Carbon Neutrality
The American Institute of Architects, or the AIA, is the national association for professional architects in the United States. Each year, local chapters of the AIA give out awards to projects or firms in their jurisdiction for exemplary design. Well, MOST of the chapters give out awards for exemplary design. Yet another reason why I [...]
Weatherization: not just a long, fancy word
I love it when the topic of weatherization comes up in political debates or speeches. To me, it means that the people in charge are actually paying attention and realize that buildings need to be more energy efficient. But, what exactly IS weatherization? First the definition: Dictionary.com says that weatherization is the process of making [...]
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