The Commonwealth of Virginia requires that new construction and renovation of state government buildings be green. And now Virginia has become the latest government to mandate an alternative compliance path for green building that includes the International Green Construction Code.
Green building is not new in Virginia. In fact the first
As of January 1, 2014, 60 and 40 watt incandescent bulbs will no longer be manufactured or sold in the United States. Retailers will sell out what is on their shelves and not restock incandescents. George W. Bush signed the phase-out, which was called for by The Energy Independence and National Security Act, in 2007. The bill also
Boasting a savings of 12% whole house energy consumption savings it is tempting to immediately order new highly insulated windows for the whole house. But before you do, consider the payback. Sure, you will be snug as a bug inside the house but according to the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), it
Transport for London (TfL) has agreed on a new energy efficient lighting program to help reduce the cost of lighting the TfL Road Network (TLRN). It is one of the largest ‘invest to save’ strategic road lighting projects ever undertaken in the UK with the hopes of lowering operating costs and improving reliability.
Energy efficiency awareness undoubtedly leads to money saved in the long run for consumers. The less energy used, the less homeowners have to spend on utilities that help them find comfort while working and relaxing. Although there are many factors to consider when converting homes into eco-friendly, energy efficient ones, an often
Americans spend thousands of dollars on their energy bills each year, contributing not only to increased financial pressure, but also to greater carbon emissions. While heating and lighting are the biggest contributors to high energy bills, electronic devices are starting to take an even bigger chunk out of household expenses. With people buying up
Global carbon dioxide emissions grew last year at about half the rate of the past decade, possibly signaling a permanent slowdown of CO2 emissions, says a new report from the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency and the European Commission’s Joint Research Center.
A previous post discussed a recent court decision giving the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a big win and holding that Lights of America (LOA) violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by making false claims about LED lamps replacing certain wattage incandescent lamps and about the lifetime of the company’s LED lamps.
There are a lot of benefits to using natural gas as an alternative fuel source.
• Natural gas is cleaner than coal and oil, producing less environmental pollutants.
• It can reduce the risk of smog, acid rain and greenhouse gas emissions.
• It’s efficient – about 90% of natural gas produced is delivered as useful energy, compared to 30% of
What will Australia’s carbon emissions policies look like come end of 2013?
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama released a National Climate Action Plan signalling the US had entered a deliberate new phase in global emissions reduction by taking a commercially and socially driven approach, enabling “climate action” on a domestic and international level.
This week, the French government unveiled a new series of efforts due to tackle the lack of thermal renovations in French buildings.
As I found out while writing my Master’s Thesis years ago, there are no less than twenty million housings to be weatherized in France. This would lead to
Softbank, a Japanese telecommunications and internet company, recently formed a joint venture with U.S. fuel cell maker Bloom Energy to sell electricity from Bloom’s natural gas fuel cells in Japan.
A theme of this Greentech Media article about the JV is that Japan is “energy-poor” after the almost
This is the second in a two-part series on the water-energy nexus and this post focuses on the City of San Diego. The previous post, discussed the energy and greenhouse gases associated with moving water in the state of California. Generally, the water-energy nexus refers to how energy is consumed and embedded within the water use cycle. A common
According to International Energy Outlook 2013 (IEO2013) which was released this week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), world energy consumption is projected to increase by 56 percent over the next three decades!
This projected increase is mainly due to the growth