The recently completed Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB) Pilot House is a family home capable of producing nearly three times as much energy as is required to power it. The additional energy can be fed back into the grid, or used to charge an electric car. The ZEB house was built using a number of sustainable […]

Recent elections, in which Republicans made big gains in Congress and statehouses across the country, portends huge business opportunities for green building. Most of today’s elected conservatives believe that a voluntary, non-mandatory approach to environmental protection is the best hope for stewardship of our planet. And that’s the same belief that has led to the […]

The Federal Trade Commission made public that it sent letters to 15 businesses last month warning that their biodegradable claims may be deceptive. “If marketers don’t have reliable scientific evidence for their claims, they shouldn’t make them,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Claims that products are environmentally friendly influence […]

According to the Turner Construction’s 2014 Green Building Market Barometer, interest in alternative green building rating systems, such as Green Globes and Energy Star, has surged 250 percent in the past two years. Additionally, for the first time in the report’s history, more than half of building executives surveyed reported that sustainability practices impacted their […]

If you want to keep birds and other critters out of a PVC vent pipe, you could have your dog guard the pipe, but there is a better way, according to Mike Simonsen of Black Diamond, Washington. In looking for a more practical solution, he quickly learned that the hardware store doesn’t sell a product […]

David Orr, the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College, also directs the Oberlin Project — a cooperative sustainability effort between the school and the city, sponsored by the Clinton Climate Initiative Global Project. Orr and 250 Oberlin students designed the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, an all-electric […]

Many property owners and investors do not see the value in smart buildings, so Jones Lang LaSalle created a list that discredits the top 10 smart building myths. One such myth is that smart building technologies are expensive. Smart building technology investments typically pay for themselves within one or two years by delivering energy savings […]

According to Malaysia’s Energy, Green Technology and Water Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid, the government has always encouraged developers to build green buildings, which have long-term benefits. At present, all states in the country had buildings which were environment-friendly and attained the Green Building Index (GBI). "Some buildings have the silver, gold and platinum […]

Thanks partly to LEED and Energy Star requirements, green building in the US continues to grow. Despite those advances in green building, not everyone is a supporter of bureaucratic, point-based systems. Steve Mouzon is an architect, author, blogger, and LEED-AP. His blog post titled “The Anti-LEED—A Fast, Friendly, and Free Green Rating System” outlines his […]

The emerging consensus about the U.S. housing market is that it has yet to recover from the 2008-2009 downturn. Prior to that slump, homebuilders typically built around one million single-family homes annually. But according to Credit Suisse, that figure has averaged around 500,000 since then. It’s projected to rise to 635,000 this year. So what’s […]