green building
For a century, coal was king in the town of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. At one time, it had the largest underground coal mining operation in the world, but the last working mine was closed in 2001. In October, when the Newaberdeen Gardens Townhouse complex opens, two former mines will be put to good use -- their water will be used as a source of geothermal energy to power in-floor heating.
It’s hard to argue with the idea that energy efficiency is the most under-told part of America’s clean energy economy, despite the efforts to date of some pretty smart, committed people. We could go such a long way to cutting our use of the most destructive forms of energy and addressing global climate disruption if we just stopped wasting so much.
To the casual observer, energy efficiency means very little, that is until they see the cost savings associated with making tweaks to their homes and businesses. According to a new report, one energy retrofit may be more efficient than the rest.
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Solid-State Lighting Program, which operates under the auspices of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or EERE, released its second report on the country’s logistical fixed lighting architecture this January, updating the industry from its previous report in 2002.
Today, President Obama, joined by former President Bill Clinton, announced $4 billion in combined private and federal funds to be invested in upgrades to commercial buildings over the next two years.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that 25 percent of all single-family homes built in the United States in 2010 earned the EPA’s prestigious Energy Star certification. This is up from 21 percent in 2009.
The United States District Court in New York City has dismissed a suit filed against the U.S. Green Building Council, or USGBC, the nonprofit agency dedicated to sustainable buildings which developed the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) model of evaluation for “green” construction and retrofitting.
The United States, which has been lagging behind Europe – and, surprisingly, China – for most of the last decade in regard to building energy efficiency, has received a boost this week from the Institute for Market Transformation, or IMT, which issued a report that represents a comprehensive review of building energy efficiency measures to date. IMT is a nonprofit NGO vested in energy efficiency, “green” building, and environmental protection.
Greensburg, Kansas, used a moment of tragedy to become an icon of efficiency. But what will it take for other cities to go green? Can citizens be motivated to make efficiency upgrades without disaster?
