chicago

energy efficiency

The Alliance to Save Energy’s Commission on National Energy Policy agree that one of the keys to increasing energy efficiency in the United States is growing the market for energy efficiency financing.[read more]

Multifamily housing is often seen as one of the most difficult markets to serve for energy retrofits. Besides barriers specific to the market, such as split incentives between owners and renters, low availability of capital (especially for buildings that provide homes for low- and moderate-income families), and building systems for which...[read more]

First Chicago gets Rahm Emanuel, now electric cars. Well, at least an electric car infrastructure. In a move that indicates electric cars won’t just be a phenomenon of Greater Portlandia, utility Exelon and the city will roll out 280 charging stations across Chicagoland by year’s end. Two stations will even be solar-powered. It’s part...[read more]

 Editor's Note: Siemens Corporation is the enabling sponsor of The Energy Collective.It wasn’t the ominous storm clouds, or the periodic power failures or the tornado warnings that brought the crowds together under the 30ft high/70ft. wide dome in Chicago last week. Nature may have provided an additional interactive demo, but the...[read more]

The ins and outs of tomorrow’s energy grid will be tested on an unprecedented scale in Chicago. Local utility ComEd, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, will use $5 million in Recovery Act funding to institute the program, which will initially outfit 8,000 homes with advanced smart meters in order to test how well consumers manage...[read more]

Chicago artist Joe Baldwin just received approval to deploy his conceptual project, mobile garden, on the city’s mass transit rail system. Image taken from themobilegarden.org The idea is to configure a Chicago Transit Authority rail car into a mobile garden, which would visualize the possibilities for enhancing green space in the...[read more]

News about green efforts across the retail sector has been prolific of late- see our recent posts about discussion at ICSC and Greenbuild, as well as important news from PNC Bank. So, it’s not entirely surprising that the world’s largest commercial building, which is home to an extensive number of retailers, recently made some green...[read more]

The first Gold certified LEED-H home in Illinois is built from the renovation of an old neighborhood tavern.  The 3,800 square foot building is used by the owners as both a residence and as the offices of their company:  Smog Veil Records.  The label has adopted an "eco-friendly" set of principles, and the owners felt...[read more]