Environmentally Friendly WorldGBC International Congress

WorldGBC International Congress
The WorldGBC International Congress in July was "an unbelievable execution of a world class event with less than two months to prepare," as noted by WorldGBC Chair Kevin Hydes.

Kevin Hydes’ and that of the Clinton Climate Initiative’s Rob Bennett were two of the many important presentations from the Congress that were reported in my recent www.iGreenBuild.com article.

Kevin Hydes later issued a call to action in his thank-you message to participants:
"These are unusual times as our earth suffers the stress of a century of abuse. Our organization needs to find unique solutions to meet our destiny and create the real impact on carbon reduction that the planet needs for its survival."

It is a call to action for us all.

Green Building Thought For The Weekend

Are you going green this weekend? Home improvement project? Yard work? Vacation? Whatever you do this Saturday and Sunday and whether you are eco friendly or not, pick up a piece of trash from your local park or beach, buy a green friendly product for your house improvement project or turn the lights off in the five star resort room you are sleeping in (before you grab a cool drink by the pool!).

I'm going surfing now and will no doubt have a handful of plastic and paper on my way back from the Pacific.

Cheers....Matt

What Will Create Positive Change In Green Building?

What are the weak signals that could spur momentous changes in the green building world? Here are a few that occur to Jerry Yudelson of Yudelson Consulting and iGreenBuild.com's Sr. Editor.

1. The trend in venture capital to focus on renewable energy, carbon mitigation and energy efficiency technologies (these grabbed almost 10 percent of all new venture money last year). This could mean that concept-busting innovations might be coming a lot sooner than you think. Consider solar powered roofing systems that deliver electricity at 10 cents or less per kilowatt-hour and what that could do to building design and zero-net-energy homes and buildings.


2. The availability of software, sensors and intelligent networks that make buildings so smart they can identify their problems and come up with fixes, so that we can achieve these 50 to 90 percent reductions in energy use that are part of every scenario for controlling global warming.


3. The continuing trend to cheapen and miniaturize communications technologies, along with an increasingly mobile workforce, means that we can make buildings half the size we think we need and still accommodate workforce and productivity needs.


4. LED lighting is moving rapidly to replace even compact fluorescents, with half the power consumption. This will allow the further downsizing of mechanical HVAC systems, opening the way for new HVAC technologies to serve buildings' needs.


5. Nano-technologies will revolutionize every aspect of building technology, from self-cleaning windows (no more guys suddenly materializing outside your windows ladies, watching you put on makeup at 10 a.m. in your office!), to self-cleaning façades, windows with R-10 values (instead of R-2 now), wall paints that insulate and so on.


6. Building information modeling that will enable integrated design to happen in real time, so that you could know the energy use of every possible building design change in minutes, instead of weeks.

New Issue Of The iGreenBuild.com Newsletter Is Published

We're done clicking, typing, copying and pasting and the latest issue of iGreenBuild.com has been published to our green building and eco friendly subscribers. if you haven't received it or simply don't have a subscription you can sign up for it here.

This issue covers a number of sustainable building and environmentally friendly living topics. We've published articles about Live Earth, the 2007 International Green Building Conference, building green for less, Project Frog high performance modular schools, green cleaning, news and more.

National Wildlife Federation Talks Global Warming With Students

ClimateClassroom.org helps educate children about global climate change in accurate, developmentally appropriate, and hopeful ways. Sections designed for parents and K-12 educators provide talking points, attractive visuals, instructional guidelines, and helpful resource links for investigating the topic with children. An additional section for school-age children offers quality learning experiences and realistic suggestions for becoming part of the global-warming solution.

Visit www.ClimateClassroom.org