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.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Monday, August 06, 2007
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
Visit www.ClimateClassroom.org
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Solar Legislation Needs Your Support
From Aaron Hall of Borrego Solar Systems
I sent out an email a couple of days ago encouraging you to support legislation that will increase the fuel economy standards and set a minimum target of renewable energy production.
This email is specifically for solar and deals with the most important legislation for solar in our country's history. Together our support brought on state legislation, now we can help the entire nation!
Specifically the bill contains the following provisions for solar:
Eight year extension of the 30% commercial solar tax credits (Section 48)
Removal of the $2,000 cap on the residential tax credits
Ability to take the tax credits against the alternative minimum tax
What I am urging you to do is to contact your congressional rep and let him or her know that you feel it is paramount that this legislation passes in order to ensure long term success of the solar industry in our country, which will result in solar power being competitive with fossil fuels, even when you don't take in to account all of the external costs of these conventional energies associated with wars, climate change, dependence on foreign energy, pollution, etc. If you are in the solar industry, let them know and remind them of the jobs that solar creates in their area.
To find contact info for your congressional rep, enter your zip code here. Then go ahead and call him/her. It helps! If you are so inclined, send them a fax as well. My congressman Duncan Hunter (East San Diego) currently is not on board so he especially needs some encouragement from his constituents.The vote will take place very soon, potentially today or tomorrow.
Thanks!
The bill# is HR2776
I sent out an email a couple of days ago encouraging you to support legislation that will increase the fuel economy standards and set a minimum target of renewable energy production.
This email is specifically for solar and deals with the most important legislation for solar in our country's history. Together our support brought on state legislation, now we can help the entire nation!
Specifically the bill contains the following provisions for solar:
Eight year extension of the 30% commercial solar tax credits (Section 48)
Removal of the $2,000 cap on the residential tax credits
Ability to take the tax credits against the alternative minimum tax
What I am urging you to do is to contact your congressional rep and let him or her know that you feel it is paramount that this legislation passes in order to ensure long term success of the solar industry in our country, which will result in solar power being competitive with fossil fuels, even when you don't take in to account all of the external costs of these conventional energies associated with wars, climate change, dependence on foreign energy, pollution, etc. If you are in the solar industry, let them know and remind them of the jobs that solar creates in their area.
To find contact info for your congressional rep, enter your zip code here. Then go ahead and call him/her. It helps! If you are so inclined, send them a fax as well. My congressman Duncan Hunter (East San Diego) currently is not on board so he especially needs some encouragement from his constituents.The vote will take place very soon, potentially today or tomorrow.
Thanks!
The bill# is HR2776
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
What's In The Latest GreenSage?
I just received the latest issue of GreenSage and recommend you do the same. GreenSage is one of the original online sources for 'Green' information, products and services and their eNewsletter is just a tease for the green building product information on their web site.
Here's what I found in this weeks issue:
1. Water water every where
2. Wind Power 2007
3. Fuelin' Woes
4. New Evidence in War on Toxins
5. Compare Green Vegetative Roofs With Conventional
Visit www.greensage.com and sign up for this publication today.
Here's what I found in this weeks issue:
1. Water water every where
2. Wind Power 2007
3. Fuelin' Woes
4. New Evidence in War on Toxins
5. Compare Green Vegetative Roofs With Conventional
Visit www.greensage.com and sign up for this publication today.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Green Building Experts Syndicate
iGreenBuild.com has a new way for green building enthusiasts, eco friendly people, architects, contractors and other professionals to receive timely information about sustainable building practices and environmentally conscious building products right on their desktop, within their browser or by email. Call it really simple syndication or RSS, click on a simple link and you are on your way to becoming really knowledgeable about environmentally friendly building.
"At first I was puzzled with the RSS concept but the further I read about this method of sending readers our content the easier the implementation on our web sites and blogs got, " said Matt Banes iGreenBuild's founder.
"It took me one minute to subscribe to our blog GreenCentric.com and now I can see any editorial updates to that blog right in my Google browser," commented Elizabeth Crane, one of iGreenBuild.com's editors.
Subscribing to an RSS feed involves very little. In fact, once you subscribe it's almost magic how the information you want starts appearing in a small window in your browser or, for those of you tech-savvy followers, right in your custom RSS reader. It's like having a ticker or small TV on your desktop.
Visit www.iGreenBuild.blogspot.com or www.GreenCentric.com and look to the upper right corner of these pages. You have an option to receive updates via email or enable the feed for your browser. iGreenBuild.com and its parent company GBM Marketing, Inc. plan on syndicating each of the firms twelve blogs and four web sites in the near future.
"At first I was puzzled with the RSS concept but the further I read about this method of sending readers our content the easier the implementation on our web sites and blogs got, " said Matt Banes iGreenBuild's founder.
"It took me one minute to subscribe to our blog GreenCentric.com and now I can see any editorial updates to that blog right in my Google browser," commented Elizabeth Crane, one of iGreenBuild.com's editors.
Subscribing to an RSS feed involves very little. In fact, once you subscribe it's almost magic how the information you want starts appearing in a small window in your browser or, for those of you tech-savvy followers, right in your custom RSS reader. It's like having a ticker or small TV on your desktop.
Visit www.iGreenBuild.blogspot.com or www.GreenCentric.com and look to the upper right corner of these pages. You have an option to receive updates via email or enable the feed for your browser. iGreenBuild.com and its parent company GBM Marketing, Inc. plan on syndicating each of the firms twelve blogs and four web sites in the near future.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Green Building For Renovation Projects Is A Challenge
While it is increasingly true that buildings being built now are incorporating ecologically friendly aspects into their buildings, the problem of how to "green" existing buildings remains.
In Canada, 90 percent of buildings are existing properties (the other 10 percent are new construction). Given the enormous concerns about GHG emissions and energy consumption related to climate change, as well as the logic of using green building measures like daylighting to reduce employee costs via productivity gains, it is vital to find a way to green existing buildings which bypasses some of the major challenges.
Read the full article from Green Syndicated Columnist Sonja Persram here.
In Canada, 90 percent of buildings are existing properties (the other 10 percent are new construction). Given the enormous concerns about GHG emissions and energy consumption related to climate change, as well as the logic of using green building measures like daylighting to reduce employee costs via productivity gains, it is vital to find a way to green existing buildings which bypasses some of the major challenges.
Read the full article from Green Syndicated Columnist Sonja Persram here.Thursday, June 21, 2007
Hawaii Department Of Education Goes Green
The U.S. Green Building Council presented the Hawaii State Department of Education with its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification award for the DOE's innovative "green design" of the Waipahu Intermediate School cafeteria. The LEED award was presented at the school.
The cafeteria is only the sixth LEED-certified project in Hawaii and the first DOE project of its kind. The LEED rating system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council and is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings.
Primary sustainable achievements and design features of the cafeteria include: 100 percent daylighting of the dining area; 65 percent reduction in irrigation water consumption; and effective natural ventilation. The school saves $3,000 per year due to a 15 percent reduction in annual energy consumption. Construction used locally manufactured materials and materials with recycled content, and 88 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills.
"The Waipahu Intermediate cafeteria will be our LEED model for future public schools built in our state," said Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto. "Our department worked diligently to attain LEED certification and we are proud of this major facilities milestone."
Ferraro Choi and Associates, Ltd., designed the 19,175-square-foot cafeteria, and Okada Trucking Co., Ltd., was the general contractor. The facility was completed in April 2006 and can accommodate 750 students during each meal shift. Total design and construction costs were approximately $5.8 million.
New schools and facilities will follow Waipahu Intermediate's "LEED." House Bill 2175 HD2 SD1 CD1, passed by the 2006 Hawaii State Legislature and signed into law as Act 96, directs all state agencies to implement energy efficiency and environmental standards such as LEED for new state facilities. For example, upcoming schools such as Ewa Makai Middle and Wailuku II Elementary will be seeking LEED certification.
The cafeteria is only the sixth LEED-certified project in Hawaii and the first DOE project of its kind. The LEED rating system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council and is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings.
Primary sustainable achievements and design features of the cafeteria include: 100 percent daylighting of the dining area; 65 percent reduction in irrigation water consumption; and effective natural ventilation. The school saves $3,000 per year due to a 15 percent reduction in annual energy consumption. Construction used locally manufactured materials and materials with recycled content, and 88 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills.
"The Waipahu Intermediate cafeteria will be our LEED model for future public schools built in our state," said Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto. "Our department worked diligently to attain LEED certification and we are proud of this major facilities milestone."
Ferraro Choi and Associates, Ltd., designed the 19,175-square-foot cafeteria, and Okada Trucking Co., Ltd., was the general contractor. The facility was completed in April 2006 and can accommodate 750 students during each meal shift. Total design and construction costs were approximately $5.8 million.
New schools and facilities will follow Waipahu Intermediate's "LEED." House Bill 2175 HD2 SD1 CD1, passed by the 2006 Hawaii State Legislature and signed into law as Act 96, directs all state agencies to implement energy efficiency and environmental standards such as LEED for new state facilities. For example, upcoming schools such as Ewa Makai Middle and Wailuku II Elementary will be seeking LEED certification.
IBM Goes Green With Energy Saving Project in 2007
Big Blue has another nickname: "Big Green." In a presentation earlier this year, IBM unveiled its "Project Big Green," a $1-billion-a-year effort to make data centers worldwide more energy-efficient, cost-effective and greener overall.
The company also announced, as part of this plan, that it would use the latest hardware, software and services to double the computing capacity of its data centers worldwide by 2010, without increasing its power consumption.
The project comes as individuals, governments are businesses alike are increasingly concerned about climate change, and seeking to implement new strategies to stem the worst of its effects. Energy use, as a major generator of greenhouse gases worldwide, is an important place to focus efforts, and IBM today said it was putting the entire weight of its company behind this project.
"There are times when we need to mobilize the entire company, as we did with the internet, with e-commerce, and others," said Mike Daniels, IBM's senior vice president of Global Technology Services. "We think this is one of those times, and we have reallocated $1b around these initiatives."
The company's strategy is to offer a "road map" to green data centers. There are five steps to the program: Diagnose, Build, Virtualize, Manage and Cool, and IBM today outlined each of those in its presentation.
The first step in reaching energy efficiency is to know where a company is starting from. To that end, IBM has developed a tool and set metrics by which companies can measure their power consumption across their IT operations. IBM will also assess clients' energy efficiency to determine the most important first steps to take.
As part of the Build aspect of the plan, IBM has created Mobile Measurement Technology to provide a three-dimensional map of temperatures in data centers, again with the goal of showing what areas need the most urgent attention. When Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility company, implemented MMT at three data centers in Northern California, it accurately visualized hot spots, air leakage and other inefficiencies across their 40,000 square feet of data center space in a few days, as opposed to a few weeks if they had been surveyed by hand.
IBM also unveiled a tool that provides a virtual representation of energy needs in data centers. One of IBM's chief engineers, Donna Dillenberger, showed the program off at the presentation, and said that it can be used to help plot when your data centers will have the highest energy demand and how making small tweaks to performance can increase or decrease energy needs. This can give companies the ability to accurately forecast their power needs.
Virtualizing IT infrastructure can allow companies to dramatically cut down on both their hardware and energy needs. Companies using IBM's mainframe or its new BladeCenter server, can use nearly 100 percent of a server's capacity, and cut down power use by as much as 50 percent.
IBM is encouraging companies to take advantage of power management software as an easy way to drop electricity usage. IBM estimated that if all the country's data centers simply set their servers to go to sleep when they're not in use, the country could save 5.4 billion kilowatt hours per year, enough electricity to heat 370,000 homes for a winter.
Finally, the fifth stage of IBM's road map involves cooling world's data centers. One new service the company has created, the IBM Data Center Stored Cooling Solution, was put in use in a data center in Quebec, which was able to save 45 percent of its cooling costs.
The company will also promote its Rear Door Heat eXchanger, product, which use chilled water to dissipate systems' heat by as much as 60 percent.
The company also announced, as part of this plan, that it would use the latest hardware, software and services to double the computing capacity of its data centers worldwide by 2010, without increasing its power consumption.
The project comes as individuals, governments are businesses alike are increasingly concerned about climate change, and seeking to implement new strategies to stem the worst of its effects. Energy use, as a major generator of greenhouse gases worldwide, is an important place to focus efforts, and IBM today said it was putting the entire weight of its company behind this project.
"There are times when we need to mobilize the entire company, as we did with the internet, with e-commerce, and others," said Mike Daniels, IBM's senior vice president of Global Technology Services. "We think this is one of those times, and we have reallocated $1b around these initiatives."
The company's strategy is to offer a "road map" to green data centers. There are five steps to the program: Diagnose, Build, Virtualize, Manage and Cool, and IBM today outlined each of those in its presentation.
The first step in reaching energy efficiency is to know where a company is starting from. To that end, IBM has developed a tool and set metrics by which companies can measure their power consumption across their IT operations. IBM will also assess clients' energy efficiency to determine the most important first steps to take.
As part of the Build aspect of the plan, IBM has created Mobile Measurement Technology to provide a three-dimensional map of temperatures in data centers, again with the goal of showing what areas need the most urgent attention. When Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility company, implemented MMT at three data centers in Northern California, it accurately visualized hot spots, air leakage and other inefficiencies across their 40,000 square feet of data center space in a few days, as opposed to a few weeks if they had been surveyed by hand.
IBM also unveiled a tool that provides a virtual representation of energy needs in data centers. One of IBM's chief engineers, Donna Dillenberger, showed the program off at the presentation, and said that it can be used to help plot when your data centers will have the highest energy demand and how making small tweaks to performance can increase or decrease energy needs. This can give companies the ability to accurately forecast their power needs.
Virtualizing IT infrastructure can allow companies to dramatically cut down on both their hardware and energy needs. Companies using IBM's mainframe or its new BladeCenter server, can use nearly 100 percent of a server's capacity, and cut down power use by as much as 50 percent.
IBM is encouraging companies to take advantage of power management software as an easy way to drop electricity usage. IBM estimated that if all the country's data centers simply set their servers to go to sleep when they're not in use, the country could save 5.4 billion kilowatt hours per year, enough electricity to heat 370,000 homes for a winter.
Finally, the fifth stage of IBM's road map involves cooling world's data centers. One new service the company has created, the IBM Data Center Stored Cooling Solution, was put in use in a data center in Quebec, which was able to save 45 percent of its cooling costs.
The company will also promote its Rear Door Heat eXchanger, product, which use chilled water to dissipate systems' heat by as much as 60 percent.
Green Development Grows in Brooklyn
Bright City development group and broker Aguayo & Huebener announced the opening of sales for 5one5 Condominiums, a new development based on sustainable building practices and located in Brooklyn's Park Slope South neighborhood. The building, 515 5th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, had its first Open House on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22, 2007.
Read the full article here.
Read the full article here.
Ask the Green Architect: Fluorescent Bulbs
Read this very helpful article by Eric Corey Freed and learn the answer to questions concerning mercury in fluorescent bulbs, environmentally friendly disposal of bulbs and alternatives to these products.
Read the full article here.
Eric Corey Freed is a Green Syndicated Columnist at iGreenBuild.com and a regular contributor to the site's enewsletter.
Read the full article here.
Eric Corey Freed is a Green Syndicated Columnist at iGreenBuild.com and a regular contributor to the site's enewsletter.
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