Industry News

ATLANTA, Ga. -- The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers and nine other design, building, professional, energy and standards groups are forming a consortium to partner with the U.S. Department of Energy in its efforts to bring high-performance commercial buildings to market.

ASHRAE said the other groups that make up the steering committee for the High-Performance Commercial Green Building Partnership include the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, American Institute of Architects, Alliance to Save Energy, Building Owners and Managers Association, International Code Council, Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, National Association of State Energy Officials, National Electrical Manufacturers Association and the U.S. Green Building Council

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With generous funding from a state grant, 3R Roofing has partnered with Boulder County and Asphalt Specialties in Erie, CO to create a road using recycled asphalt tear off shingles (RAS) in 2009. As a percentage of the hot mix asphalt (HMA) in the road composition, the use of RAS will greatly reduce C02 emissions associated with the virgin binder it will replace. Thousands of tons of shingles will be diverted from landfills and cost savings may be $1,000 per mile of road or more!  With CDOT oversight, the successful completion of this road will put Colorado in position to be a leader in green house gas reduction and the innovative use of RAS.  Please contact 3R Roofing for more information on how you can contribute to this RAS project.

January 5th, 2009

There are scores of different terms for something that many of us refer to as sustainability. These terms include corporate responsibility, sustainable development, corporate citizenship, environmental sustainability, corporate sustainability and green business. For these terms, there are literally hundreds of different definitions. So where do we find some guidance on how to make sustainability operational for an organization? Such an organization might be an individual, a family, neighborhood, community or local business. All corporations consist of local businesses of their own and their supply chain. For those of you working with the corporation perspective, we should be able to roll up this simple definition to help you out.

In desperation, everyone has a default position: "Use the Brundtland Commission definition!" We all know what this is by now. It's a durable definition because it is flexible and open to interpretation. However, it literally begs the question asked here. People will always need food, water, energy and shelter to survive. Yet, to thrive will certainly take more than that. We should not presume to know beyond our own most basic needs what future generations will need to thrive. We can presume that they will value having choice just as we have had choices now and in the past. Because values, politics and our understanding of the Earth and its systems are still evolving, notions of what is sustainable will never be static or sure.

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January 7th, 2009

Last month the U.S. Green Building Council released a three-page report (PDF) with statistics on the state of green buildings in America.

Jetson Green says the authors of the report seem to have attempted optimism about progress in gaining market share for green building.

The report said that over 4.2 billion square feet of commercial building space is involved with the LEED green building certification and that according to McGraw Hill Green Building Smart Market Report 2006, about 10 percent of commercial construction starts are expected to be green by 2010.

According to the USGBC, $464 million worth of construction registers with LEED every business day and there are LEED projects in all 50 states and 69 countries.

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January 2nd, 2009

Smart meters now represent 4.7% of installed meters in the U.S., up from 1% in 2006, according to a new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) report on demand response and advanced metering programs.

The report charts the expansion of these energy-saving programs and progress on overcoming regulatory and financial hurdles.

However, it also points to continuing obstacles, such as the limited number of retail customers on time-based rates, restrictions on customer access to meter data and the scale of financial investment necessary to deploy enabling technologies during an economic downturn.

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December 1, 2008

BuildingGreen, LLC, publisher of Environmental Building News (EBN) and the GreenSpec Directory, announced its seventh annual Top-10 Green Building Products during the 2008 Greenbuild Expo in Boston. The list recognizes the most exciting products added to GreenSpec or covered in EBN in the last year.

To read an overview of the products, click here.

A detailed announcement and full product listings are available at here.

What's the best way to give Americans of all socioeconomic backgrounds a tangible stake in fighting for issues like global warming?

Easy: Make it their livelihood. Every day, about 135 million people go to work in the U.S. Imagine what would happen if millions of those jobs — plus new ones created for people who are currently unemployed — were in fields like renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and green building.

Our two crucial concerns about survival — the environment and making a living — would be combined. A person's commitment to their job would also be their commitment to the planet.

Right now, there's a great opportunity not only to make America's economy stronger by making it greener, but to make Americans living in poverty part of a revitalized middle class. The first thing we have to do is provide the training that will turn 20th century blue-collar jobs into secure 21st-century green-collar jobs.

Learn more.

December 19, 2008

Ever feel like you're going around in circles and not doing anyone much good? Royal Boon Edam Group Holding B.V. of the Netherlands has found a use for that wasted energy. It's created the world's first revolving door that generates energy with every turn.

Boon Edam developed its door for the Driebergen-Zeist railway station in the Netherlands, which was recently revamped by the green architecture and design firm RAU. The refurbished station that serves about 8,500 commuters daily includes a restaurant, a tourist and visitor information center and Boon Edam's door, which leads to the cafe.

Boon Edam is a world leader in what it calls entrance technology — manual and automatic revolving doors, security doors and portals, pedestrian security lanes (think public transportation entry aisles), turnstiles, access gates and high-impact vehicle barriers.

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Published November 25, 2008

Low-income people who live in old or flimsy housing are becoming prime targets for cities and groups intent on slashing energy use.

Recent efforts to cut energy consumption in the home have focused on new construction, often in more affluent areas and public buildings. Now, community organizations and cities that have embraced the green effort are homing in on low-income houses and apartments to reduce emissions and help poor people lower their utility bills.

"That area is getting a lot more attention now," says Tom Deyo, senior adviser for Green Strategies at NeighborWorks America, a non-profit that promotes homeownership and affordable housing through more than 230 local organizations.

It launched a website this month designed to help create greener and healthier housing and neighborhoods.

In several cities, public and private funds and services are teaming to give low-income households free energy audits, compact fluorescent (CF) light bulbs, insulation and other energy-saving devices and tips:

*On Oct. 1, groups working with Greenprint Denver -- Mayor John Hickenlooper's climate initiative -- went door-to-door through the low-income Sunnyside neighborhood.

"We looked at utility data and found it was the highest energy-using neighborhood with the lowest income," says Michele Moss Weingarden, Greenprint director. The homes are older and poor residents or seniors on fixed incomes can't always afford the insulation and appliance upgrades available, she says.

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Published December 4, 2008

BOSTON, Mass. -- As the end of the year approaches, a raft of studies and reports are being released affirming the benefits and resilience of green building despite turbulent economic times.

In a wide-ranging 218-page report, the Continental Automated Buildings Association examines bright green buildings, the term CABA has coined for the intersection of smart buildings equipped with sophisticated controls systems and high-performance environmentally efficient structures. The result, the study said, is intelligent, green and profitable buildings.

CABA conducted the research with Frost & Sullivan, a global consultancy firm specializing in growth partnerships. Together they chart the development of eco-friendly buildings and smart structures, look at green building rating and certification systems, review the technology that made smart buildings possible and explore the impacts and benefits of the convergence of the two. Along the way, the researchers also provide case studies of nine bright green building projects in the U.S., Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Researchers said their work shows that bright green buildings will "provide a tangible and significant return on investment." The building industry anticipates rapid growth in the area, and "ultimately, the implementation of intelligent technologies will cost less than traditional technologies, because lifetime operating costs are significantly lower and labor costs are also likely to drop significantly," CABA said in announcing the study results.

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