green building

The Kilbarrack Fire Station Carbon Neutral Project began life not solely as a response to climate change and energy efficiency, but also as an exercise in social cohesion and community responsibility.[read more]

Our friends at Energy Savvy continue to be great visual communicators of the benefits of energy efficiency. Yesterday we stumbled across this great infographic that provides a powerful visual demonstration of the economics, as well as the job-creating potential, of residential energy efficiency vs. building nuclear power plants....[read more]

If the Government is keen on reducing the carbon emissions from the domestic sector, it should ideally target efforts at the community level rather than individual households, according to a study of British Gas' Green Streets programme by the IPPR.Not only are there efficiencies in scale at this level, there is also the knock-on benefit...[read more]

     On May 12, 2011 the Energy Savings & Industrial Competitiveness Act (ESICA) of 2011 was introduced by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D. N.H.) and Rob Portman (R. OH). The Act creates a national strategy to increase use of energy efficiency technologies through a national model energy code, enhanced appliance...[read more]

In its latest energy roadmap, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says dramatic energy savings could be achieved rapidly if policies which promote energy efficient heating and cooling technologies are adopted. It is estimated that buildings -- residential, commercial, and public -- account for one-third of the globe's total final...[read more]

If you're in energy, you've heard it before: 40% of US carbon emissions come from buildings. Everything that uses electricity- HVAC, lighting, appliances, etc- adds to this burden. To cut down on buildings' share of emissions, we have a collective challenge to transition to low carbon forms of energy. And trust me, that sounds great; we...[read more]

Last week for World Water Day (March 22nd, 2011), I participated in an exclusive webinar about how global cities are dealing with the challenge of managing their most essential resource. Listen to the audio at Sustainable Cities Collective (length 01:01:06)    or download here   Panelists included Dr. Paul Bowen...[read more]

[Disclosure:  IBM sponsored this interviews and paid T&E for this blogger to attend Pulse.]”I had a chat with IBM’s Dave Bartlett while we were both at at Pulse 2011 about the state of Smarter Buildings and Smarter Cities today and their possibilities. Here’s a transcription of our conversation: Tom Raftery: Hi everyone! Welcome...[read more]

My generation (I’m 19) has been getting a lot of flack these days. We are resistant to entering the “real world”, hesitant to settle down, and spend way too much time on “the internets”. Are we simply unmotivated, or is there logic to our laziness? Where some see our so called “prolonged childhood” as nothing but a bad thing, I see...[read more]

Last week my favorite southern city earned its nickname, “Hotlanta,” as the place was simply sizzling with one of the hottest topics these days: Smart Grid. It was the second stop in the six-cities-in-six-months tour that (in full disclosure) my company, Siemens, has been sponsoring. The goal of this tour is to educate the...[read more]

The UK's coalition government headed by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg have handed out swift cuts to the department of Energy and Climate Change to the tune of £85 million as part of their goal to cut 6 billion in government spending over the next two years. This will...[read more]

I don’t usually like talking about windows because when homeowners choose how to spend their hard earned money on efficiency, new windows are one of the worst choices. But today is different, because today in DC, the Department of Energy is kicking off their long awaited Volume Purchase Program (VPP) for super efficient windows that...[read more]

While many cleantech companies require very large amounts of capital in order to get to market, there is a quiet group of cleantech companies bucking that trend.  Companies like Heartland Biocomposites (Green Building Materials), RealTech (Water Testing) and TerraLUX  (LED Lighting) all built significant and growing businesses...[read more]

I recently returned from Beijing, where NRDC and the Energy Foundation sponsored the “China US Building Energy Efficiency Evaluation and Labeling Summit” to talk about lessons learned in energy labeling of buildings in the US and China.  The Summit featured the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) and...[read more]

Strasbourg, 18 May 2010. On Tuesday MEPs approved the EU’s new energy efficiency legislation for buildings, which will help consumers to cut their energy bills and the EU as a whole to hit its climate change target of using 20% less energy in ten years’ time. Member States will have to alter their building codes so that all new...[read more]