Green Buildings and Operational Efficiency

Pike Research is out with a new report that explores potential growth in the market for energy storage in commercial buildings, and the indication is that all the pieces are in place for growth. Having an uninterrupted energy supply has always been an issue for some sectors, for example in health care facilities and data [...]

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Back in 2009, Volvo Trucks in North America joined 31 other companies in a ten-year energy efficiency challenge issued by the U.S. Department of Energy, and it looks like Volvo has beaten everyone else to the punch. The company has announced that it is the first to meet the energy efficiency goal of a 25 [...]

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GM grabbed the spotlight in the sustainable vehicle field last year when its newly launched gas-electric Chevy Volt was named Motor Trend’s North American Car of the Year, and the company has been taking some solid steps to back up its green cred by improving conservation programs at its facilities. GM already has a landfill-free [...]

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Something impressive is developing on the green building front in Belgium. And it has nothing to do with LEED or some grandiose skyscraper. It’s a home that does much more than house people. It will enable more people to own their own homes, while increasing their self reliance, and reducing the impact they and their [...]

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By David Jaber Facility assessments (investigating a building’s energy, water, material usage and waste, similar to LEED O+M or other facility greening audits) can provide significant value in multiple ways. For one, when done at multiple facilities of a similar type, assessments allow us to benchmark across these similar facilities in the hopes of identifying [...]

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Late last month at the Dwell on Design 2011 conference in Los Angeles, CA, we had the chance to chat with William McDonough, author of Cradle to Cradle.  We covered an array of topics, ranging from inspirational architecture to Arnold Schwarzenegger (out of all people), and from an open source type of model for Cradle [...]

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By: Tim Eyre, Extra Space Storage The robust global environmentalism movement has impacted virtually all aspects of American life. And while green building practices have been utilized in single family construction for some time now, developers in the multi-family sector have only recently started taking notice, recognizing that the added cost of implementing eco-friendly design [...]

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A technology revolution is taking place in lighting that will be as dramatic as the displacement of rotary dialed phones with smart phones. The impacts of this lighting revolution will be lower electric bills, reduced emissions, smart buildings that automatically respond to human activity and most critically, American jobs! Today, 22% of America’s electricity bill [...]

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Over the weekend, the Modern Living Showhouse was unveiled during the Dwell on Design 2011 show in Los Angeles.  The Showhouse integrates aesthetic design and sustainability unified in the creation process. Walking into the Showhouse, the design, though modern in style, doesn’t shout “sustainability” to the untrained eye.  But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. [...]

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Rolling up to the Earthships world headquarters in Taos, New Mexico is like stumbling upon an alien planet – a striking, stark desert backdrop with funky colorful bounds dotting the landscape– which as you get closer you soon realize are actual people’s houses. An Earthship is a thermal mass, passive solar home that allows one [...]

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Call it serendipity. But when the Tides NonProfit Centers Network set out in 2004 to provide education and resources for the creation and operation of quality nonprofit workspaces across North America, they did not realize the kinds of synergistic benefits that would accrue from the co-location of nonprofit organizations. We’ll take a look at a [...]

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HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced this week that their agencies launched a grant program that will help build more sustainably-built and transit-friendly communities.

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Every time gas prices go up, local food gets another shot to make its breakthrough to the mainstream. At $4 a gallon, when food in a supermarket travels an average 1,500 miles to get to the store, local food becomes more economically competitive. Still, no matter how high gas prices go, local food is still [...]

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Have you ever wondered what your toaster would say to you if it could talk? According to Peter Hartwell, an HP technologist, it will soon talk and it will say “if you clean me, I will be 20% more efficient.” Your refrigerator will also tell you what’s in it, what’s spoiling and maybe what you [...]

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By Becky Eisen, MBA Student at the University of Maryland, Smith School of Business; President, Smith Net Impact Chapter As Leslie Lammers put the finishing touches on Organic Eggs Not Created Equal, Says New Scorecard, I spent the day at the Just Means Certification, Consumption and Change Conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC, listening [...]

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Today, GE unveiled their new combined cycle FlexEfficiency 50 power plant, a dramatic new power generation technology that is intended to create a bridge to the future. This technology will use natural gas to form a smooth transition from today’s coal plants to tomorrow’s renewables while allowing for the continuous uptake of a growing number [...]

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Lowe’s has continued to work on quality of life issues that have been part of the company’s philosophy for over sixty years. Its 2010 corporate social responsibility (CSR) report zeros in on three high-level focal points: workplace, community, and the environment.

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In the unassuming rural community of Putney, Vermont, students and faculty at the Putney School are proud of their new field house. Not only does the new building expand the opportunities for the students at the private high school, it’s also the only net-zero school building in the country, and one of only a handful [...]

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The General Motors (GM) Orion Assembly Plant in Orion, Michigan, will begin manufacturing the Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano this fall, and when it does, 40 percent of the plant’s power will come from landfill gas. Using landfill gas will save GM $1.1 million a year in energy costs plus it will reduce greenhouse gas [...]

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By Ronald C. Weston, AIA, LEED AP The sustainable design and green building movement have made tremendous advances over the past decade to the point that virtually every building project today employs some level of green design.  And yet despite the bar being raised significantly there remains resistance in the public and private sectors to [...]

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Ed Note: The following is a re-post of one of our most popular GRI articles from last year to help promote our upcoming GRI Certified Reporting workshop taking place June 2-3 at the fabulous David Brower center in Berkeley, CA. Please share this invitation with anyone in your company who is seeking a deeper understanding [...]

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Earlier this month, the Obama Administration under the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) launched the advisory committee on voluntary foriegn aid (ACVFA).  On that list advisors was none other than Cameron Sinclair, a person who has revolutionized the way we think and speak about people and architectural spaces, and actually acts and implements [...]

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As awareness around peak water rises, business opportunities and partnerships continue to grow. GE Ecomagination developed a water treatment technology for DuPont that has resulted in an estimated $175,000 in savings. The technology reduces chloride concentration for intake cooling water, which has nearly doubled the system’s efficiency, allowing it to reduce 20% of the water [...]

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By now it’s become widely accepted that green roofs can help reduce heating and cooling costs for buildings, and evidence is mounting that they can provide tangible benefits in other areas as well. The latest piece of information comes from New York, for a green roof constructed by ConEdison, the city’s electric utility. The study, [...]

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By Elizabeth Smyth Nowadays there seems to be a professional for every niche and this holds true for the lighting market too. Certified Sustainable Lighting Consultants (CSLC) are the first, and only, sustainability certification for lighting professionals. CSLC certification is provided by the International Association of Lighting Management Companies as evidence that lighting professionals understand [...]

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This post is part of a blogging series by economics students at the Presidio Graduate School’s MBA program. You can follow along here. By Joey Christiano Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is a mechanism that allows renewable energy, water conservation, and energy efficiency projects to be financed at reasonable rates. PACE works by attaching [...]

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Pursuant to President Obama’s Executive Order on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance, the Federal Government just released its first-ever comprehensive Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory, which measures GHG emissions associated with its 2010 operations. The targets include: Reduce direct emissions such as those from fuels and buildings 28% by 2020 Reduce indirect emissions 13% by 2020, like those [...]

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As companies race to catch-up to greenhouse gas emissions reporting and reductions, technologies to ease the process are flourishing. CloudApps has developed a desktop engagement tool that connects corporate goals and policies with everyday employee actions. Sustainable Momentum or SuMo, is a sustainability dashboard the measures employee sustainability actions, and compares that information by department, [...]

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Earth Day is over for this year, but what is arguably more important than the day itself is the day after – and the day after that (and the day after that…). Earth Day serves as the rallying cry calling for the sustained action that drives progressive environmental trends. I spoke last week with Emma Stewart, [...]

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You may have noticed something new in the toothpaste aisle, and it’s not an even more elaborate toothbrush. Tom’s of Maine recently changed the tube your toothpaste comes in from the much loved, and apparently, much maligned aluminum tube to a more mainstream plastic laminate. The aluminum toothpaste tube was the original environmental packaging and [...]

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