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 [...]
Q: What’s wee, made of straw bale, and awesome?
A: The ModCell Straw-Bale Pre-Fab home!
File this under “better late than never”… I just learned about this house and knew I had to talk about it here because it embodies many of the things that I love in one tidy, very livable package. Observe:
It’s a house, which is great, since I love house design;
It’s made [...]
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 mandatory [...]
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 Building Policy in a Changing Economic Environment
The title of this post is taken from a report recently released by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), which I found through my daily Department of Energy update. The report can be found on this AIA’s Local Leaders in Sustainability Web page, which also has some great links to case studies done over the [...]
iGreen at GreenBuild: How the Web Empowers Designers to Build Sustainably
I’m pleased to announce – albeit after the fact – that I participated on a “virtual” panel discussion at the GreenBuild conference today. Which is to say, while GreenBuild is happening in Phoenix, Arizona, I sat on the panel, via my Web cam, in Portland, Oregon, and chatted with some illustrious Internet friends who were [...]
…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 [...]
Green housing round-up!
I’ve been collecting links to interesting articles about green housing and design lately, almost all via Treehugger, and I finally have a break in the action where I can repost them and shine a light on what I think are some worthwhile endeavors. Have a look!
GE recently introduced a Net-Zero Energy Home, which uses a [...]
Is the Stimulus stimulating?
Today on GreenBiz.com, their contributor Sarah Terry-Cobo published a terrific piece called Mapping the Path of Stimulus Funding that takes a look at where the billions of dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) are going in this country. Even better, they made a map! Who doesn’t like maps? Have a look [...]
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