This competition provides an ideal platform for professional (and student) teams internationally to present their ideas and approaches to green hotel room interior design.

Read more of this story »

Green buildings have never been so popular, at least when it comes to public policy. Looking at the stimulus plan you see how a concept that until lately was relatively marginal suddenly becomes a significant policy tool, which is expected to stimulate the economy, lower energy consumption, create jobs and support the environment, all the same time.

But what does a green building or a green home actually means? well, for most of us it would be difficult to get into specifics as so few had the chance to experience it personally, but for Avrim and Vicki Topel know the answers.

They have built a green home (LEED Silver Certified) at Kennett Square, PA and they’re sharing their story in a new book entitled “Green Beginnings: The Story of How We Built Our Green & Sustainable Home“. This book is a valuable book for anyone interested in going green or building a green home. It is also part of a greater effort of the Topel’s experience to share their experience with others, which includes tours in the house and a documentary video. And last but not least, as we reported earlier, Eco-Libris is collaborating with the authors to plant trees for the copies sold of the book.

As we wanted to learn more about the authors’ experience and their book, we asked Avrim Topel to join us for an interview.

Read more of this story »

In the race for being certified as a ‘green’ building, LEED has been the certification of choice thus far, but some are not feeling so eager to obtain certification any more.

While the majority of builders and building owners support building green, the popularity of LEED certification has slipped a bit according to a recent survey conducted by Allen Matkins/CTG/Green Building Insider. The consensus from 900 design professionals, contractors, constructions planners and building owners was that 93.4% agreed that it is worth the time and effort to build green, but only 66.2% believe that obtaining LEED certification is worth the effort.

Has LEED lost the lead in the green building certification race?

Read more of this story »

While sustainability and energy efficiency often dominate the green building conversation, the issue that can have the most immediate impact on your family’s health is indoor air quality.  Green building programs seek to limit your family’s exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs, that exist in some building materials and furniture.  Continued exposure to these VOCs has caused health problems ranging from headaches and nausea to cancer.  Green building programs like the US Green Building Council’s LEED for Homes and LEED for New Construction encourage builders to eliminate these emissions whenever possible.

If building green comes at a slightly higher cost it is because many of these harmful chemicals are so widespread that finding products without them can be a challenge.  In fact, it is the presence of these chemicals in some products that makes them cheaper, as in wood products containing urea-formaldehyde.

Those looking to improve the indoor air quality of their current house can make several changes that will significantly reduce VOCs.

Some sources of harmful emissions in the home:

Read more of this story »

Read more of this story »

Disposable Cups

Starbucks stores use billions of cups annually. This requires enormous quantities of natural resources and energy before finding their way to landfills. Starbucks does however use cups that contain 10% post consumer recycled content.

Read more of this story »

Crystalline Tower Office Building in Manhattan

BofA’s new 2.1 million square foot, 54 story tower is being heralded as the world’s greenest skyscraper. This $1 billion glass, steel, and aluminum skyscraper will use significantly less water and energy, while providing a healthy indoor environment.

It features a passive solar design, the use of recycled and renewable materials, and work stations with individual climate controls. Natural elements include the use of rain water and a green roof reduces energy use for heating and cooling. A graywater system will reuse waste water from sinks to flush toilets. A 4.6 megawatt cogeneration plant will generate heat and electricity.

Read more of this story »

Formaldehyde came into the public consciousness this past Winter as trailers used for Hurricane Katrina victims were found to contain dangerous levels - click here for those findings.  Urea-formaldehyde is a volatile organic compound that has been linked to health issues ranging from persistent eye and skin irritation to asthma to, in extremely high levels, cancer.  It has been practically banned in Europe, Japan, and Canada.  The United States Green Building Council awards LEED credits for buildings that have eliminated added urea-formaldehyde.  The inclusion of the word “added” is due to the fact that small levels of formaldehyde occur naturally in wood.  Urea-formaldehyde is used in composite wood as a drying agent for glues and adhesives, significantly speeding up the manufacturing process of the composite wood.  For this reason, non-formaldehyde composite woods will come at a higher price.  Add in the increased demand due to the CARB rule and the current limited supply of formaldehyde-free composite wood and we could see increased prices across the board for composite wood products like furniture, cabinets, moldings and millwork, doors, and many other products. 

Read more of this story »

Data centers, the nerve centers for the computing world, use an estimated 2% of all energy used in the United States, and are also heavy users of water. At an AeA presentation I attended in May of this year, Microsoft’s Lewis Curtis shared the following:

• In 2006, U.S. data centers consumed 61 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 5.8 million U.S. households, costing companies $4.5 billion
• If this trend is unchecked, in 2011 data centers will use 100 billion kWh of energy at a cost of $7.4 billion, necessitating the building of 10 additional power plants

Attention has turned recently to how these centers can be made much more resource-efficient. Taking a leadership position in this effort is Advanced Data Centers (ADC) , who has just earned a LEED platinum certification for its data center in McClellan Park in Sacramento, California. ZDNet interviewed ADC’s Bob Seese on how the center achieved its LEED rating, summarized here:

• The center’s site has some of the lowest power costs in California
• ADC invested in its own electricity substation
• Rain water will be recaptured from roof runoff and used for landscaping, tower cooling, and some bathroom fixtures
• Outside air will be used for cooling 75 percent of the time — free
• 95 percent of construction debris will be recycled
• Non-toxic chemicals were used for finishes and adhesives
• Daylighting will be used for ambient lighting throughout the building.

Related Post: Cooling Data Centers Could Prevent Massive Electrical Waste

Doesn’t sound like your bank? That’s because it probably isn’t. The soon-to-be-new e3bank in Philadelphia is positioned to be the first green triple bottom line bank in New England.

From infrastructure to product and service offerings, everything the organization is involved with will be built upon the triple bottom line values of people, planet and prosperity. The bank is mobilized around a green economy and a sustainable environment, as well as supporting growing consumer and business demands around these issues.

“A commitment to the future is embedded in the DNA of e3bank,” chairman Sandy Wiggins said. “The financial industry has a large role to play in the societal shift to a sustainable world. The emerging green economy needs to be fueled by financial products and services specifically designed to accelerate its growth, and serviced by financial experts who ‘get it’ and who understand the urgency of this shift.”

Read more of this story »

Read more of this story »

Started in 2006 by Fireman’s Fund, a member of the United States Green Building council, green insurance protects owners of green commercial or residential buildings.  In the case of a loss, Fireman’s Fund would bring in a LEED-AP to oversee reconstruction of the building to its original LEED certification level, making sure that the building systems operate at peak performance and in alignment with one another.  If this seems like a no-brainer, consider submitting rebuilding plans to an insurance company that has no experience with green building.  Would you have to explain why every component of the building was built that way, rather than a less expensive non-green alternative? 

Read more of this story »

Those once-radical ideas have started to go mainstream. In 1993, Berkebile helped create a new group that wasn’t confined to architects: the U.S. Green Building Council. The inaugural meeting of the council fit into a conference room at AIA headquarters. Last November, more than 22,000 green-building advocates and entrepreneurs traveled to Chicago for the council’s annual conference.

Read a profile of Berkebile via: The Pitch

The Christman Construction offices in Lansing MI occupy roughly half of the 64,000 square foot building which was initially built in 1928. The project cost $12 million, and also benefited from brownfield credits as well as state and federal historic preservation tax credits.

Read more of this story »

Read more of this story »

But there is ample evidence that consumers are now driving a change in the market. The USGBC website has printed a report by CoStar Group which has found “that sustainable “green” buildings outperform their peer non-green assets in key areas such as occupancy, sale price and rental rates, sometimes by wide margins…. The results indicate a broader demand by property investors and tenants for buildings that have earned either LEED® certification or the Energy Star® label and strengthen the “business case” for green buildings, which proponents have increasingly cast as financially sound investments.” The report goes on to cite “constricted supply” as one reason for the premium prices associated with sustainable buildings, and many other experts have been making the case lately that consumers either cannot find the kind of sustainable housing that they are looking for, or cannot identify what makes a property sustainable.

Fortunately, The Cascadia Region Green Building Council and the Commercial Brokers Association (CBA) are about to provide a bridge between designers and consumers in the form of a new professional certification, Certified Green Broker®. Jason McLennan, CEO of Cascadia, says, “It is often the brokers and finance professionals, not the architects and builders, who directly interface with the end user: the owner, landlord, and/or tenant. Therefore they have great influence on how owners and users may perceive the affordability and overall value of green buildings.”

Read more of this story »

Designed to promote green building, alternative energy, and sustainable technologies and practices, the Expo brings together all members of the building and construction community. This includes architects, contractors, designers, government representatives, as well as the interested public. And really, aren’t we all interested these days?

Read more of this story »

Grand Rapids, Michigan is one of the greenest cities in the country, at least if you go by the number of LEED certified buildings it has. And now it adds to its distinction with the first LEED Gold certified art museum in the country.

Grand Rapids is tied with Pittsburgh and Washington at #5 on a list of cities with the most LEED certified buildings, surpassing even cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, New York. Grand Rapids also has embraced renewable energy for the city. A strong regional commitment to green building and support from philanthropist Peter Wege (who serves on the board of the designerly office furniture manufacturer Steelcase as well as the Grand Rapids Art Museum’s board) has helped Grand Rapids But Grand Rapids’ latest claim to green fame is that it is now the home to the first new construction LEED-certified art museum in the country.

Read more of this story »

Read more of this story »

Read more of this story »