A new study says the explosive growth of urban areas worldwide over the next two decades poses significant risks to human populations and the global environment, from the loss of agricultural land and wildlife habitat to increased vulnerability to the effects of climate change.
You probably weren’t on Cisco’s fourth quarter earnings call last Wednesday. And even if you were, there’s a good chance you would have missed Cisco’s Chief Operating Officer, Gary Moore, casually make the following statement:
“We communicated this week the decision to adjust
Yesterday, Judge Sands dismissed Henry Gifford’s suit against the USGBC. A copy of the Order is available here. In a major win for the USGBC, Judge Sands dismissed Gifford, et al’s Federal claims with prejudice, which means they cannot be brought again, Because the Federal claims were dismissed,
Utilities are often dismissed or ignored in most discussions of energy efficiency and green building I find this quite remarkable. First, many state laws mandate that utilities engage in energy efficiency efforts. Second, as utilities are directly connected to the energy consumer, utilities are often
I’m a transplant to New Orleans, and when you live some place like New Orleans, being a transplant matters. This is a town where people ask where you went to school, and they mean high school. A huge portion of the population lives on the block where they grew up, often in the very same house. People in
When it’s hot in the summer, we want our air conditioners blasting to keep us cool. And when winter brings shorter days and freezing temperatures, we want the heat and lights full on. Until spring – and daylight savings time – arrives. We don’t want to waste precious resources, but we do want to be comfortable!
Since the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced it wouldn’t be backing PACE loans for residential projects a year ago, the buzz around PACE financing has died down. However, many don’t realize that this development only slowed commercial PACE financing by a small measure. In
A white paper authored by Schneider Electric suggests that meeting greenhouse gas emissions targets will fail unless “Active Energy Efficiency” becomes compulsory. They define “Active Energy Efficiency” as “effecting permanent change through measurement, monitoring and control of energy
Describing a building as ‘green’ makes a lot of people cringe. The word is overused. And what does it mean exactly?
Serious efforts are underway to move away from the hype and offer a more specific analysis of a building’s energy performance. Think nutritional labels for food, except in kilowatt-hours instead of
One of the most under-discussed and under-valued aspects of green building law is regulatory enforcement. Most of the discussion among experts, myself included, tends to analyze new laws and new incentives as they develop. Frequently, these new legislative and regulatory initiatives pay little attention
When it comes to the green energy race, it’s not over until it’s over. Just look at the city of Denver.
For years the Mile High City was notorious for its brown cloud, a dirty layer of pollution that not only marred the city’s pristine mountain image, but also caused serious health problems.
Yesterday, the City of Kansas and the County of Wyndotte sued the General Services Administration for moving the EPA Region 7 headquarters from an older LEED building in the Kansas City central business district to a former Applebee’s headquarters in Lenexa, Kansas. The complaint is available here.
Johnson Controls is a sustainability veteran. Back in 1885 it invented the first electric room thermostat. These days it operates in 150 countries and employs 142,000 people whose main job is to create products, services and solutions to optimize energy and operational efficiencies of buildings.
In Stockholm, roughly 90 percent of the population lives within 300 meter proximity from a designated green area to allow for better quality of life, including recreation, water purification, enhanced biodiversity, ecology, and noise reduction. Stockholm’s main ambition is to be a totally fossil fuel-free city by the year 2050.