greendesigncollective/blog*

Bundling up your house

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about insulation lately.  Part of that is because of HOME STAR, which provides incentives for homeowners if they choose to upgrade the insulation in their house, among other things.  My explanation of HOME STAR inevitably leads to explaining some of the measures available for incentives, and insulation [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 (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 [...]

The 29 most important pages of the Waxman-Markey climate bill

Ed Mazria is a bit of a legend in the Architecture and design community.  He’s been in practice forever; he wrote a big, fat book all about energy-saving passive design in the 70’s entitled The Passive Solar Energy Book; and he’s the driving force behind the organization known as Architecture 2030.   Basically, when Ed talks, [...]

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