After a series of public hearings, the Cambridge City Council adopted the stretch energy code on December 21st. The stretch code is about 30% more efficient than the baseline building code and has different requirements for both the residential and commercial sectors. Visit the city’s website to learn more about the stretch code, which includes a summary table that outlines the new requirements.…
On Monday, as another step in leading by example, the Obama administration initiated a government-wide suggestion box for ideas to green the executive branch. For two weeks federal employees will have the opportunity to submit and vote on ideas which will then be referred to committee.…
If any of our readers have the opportunity to build on a vacant lot, we recommend they visit this page at the Jetson Green website.
This week, they are featuring a story on David Schmit, a Minneapolis photographer who decided he wanted a home in the suburbs with the design features of his downtown rental loft.…
Want to know a quick, relatively easy way to reduce global climate change? Paint your rooftops white. Yes, it’s true.The way rooftops—as well as roadways are currently constructed (using dark asphalt and color scheme) creates a feedback loop of heat absorption in the atmosphere. Dark colors absorb heat, meaning less is reflected back into space. It’s a dangerous cycle. According to Professor Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, white roofs could be a relatively inexpensive way to cut carbon, but are also doable with immediate results. In fact, Dr.…
Wood Ant Hill
The current green revolution looks to renewable energy and green products to replace the polluting industries of the modern era. What is often left out of the discussion is our relationship with the living biosphere and how our technology much revolutionize itself to not just being low-carbon, but operate under the principles of how nature organizes itself. Janine Benyus, a scientist and founder of the company Biomimicry Guild, has been looking to nature to develop technologies that maximize efficiency prinicples inherent in the natural world. This new movement, labeled biomimicry, asks homo sapiens sapiens to tap into the intellengence of nature in our design principles. The natural world is not seen as a dumb organic machine, but rather a dynamic force that intelligently adapts to environmental changes to produce rhobust living ecosystems.…
Fenway Park is home to the Green Monster, but it’s the LEED-certified Nationals Stadium in Washington D.C. that is the true green monster.
As National Geographic’s Green Guide points out, the Washington Nationals aren’t the only sports team building green.
The new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field (New York Mets), on the other hand, passed on the option to build sustainable venues, even though they were able to spend $1.5 billion and $900 million respectively to build their new stadia. The green upgrades in Nationals Park, by contrast, cost but $2 million.
The state is upgrading the state energy code as part of the Green Communities Act. On May 12, the Massachusetts Board of Building Regulations and Standards (BBRS) approved the stretch code as an optional amendment to the 7th edition Massachusetts Building Code 780 CMR.…
This past Saturday was World Population Day, but I do not know anyone who was celebrating. It is a daunting subject for the many people aware of the problems regarding future population growth.…
Despite the fact that it is one of the largest steps taken forward in alternative energy history, Abu Dhabi’s city of Masdar is still a relatively unknown subject to most people. Set into motion in 2006, the Masdar initiative is expected to provide the world with the first zero-carbon, zero-waste city, and serve as an international breeding ground for sustainable technology.…
If you’ve got time and bandwidth to kill, you might want to check out TechTV. In the spirit of OpenCourseWare, MIT hosts videos of various guest lectures and conferences. For instance, Energy forecast for the rest of the century.…
