December 13, 2010 World's Greenest Nation? Vatican City has most solar power installed per capita. Full Article
December 7, 2010 Representatives of the renewable energy industries are scrambling to salvage what they say is a crucial federal incentive that has helped keep them afloat during the worst of the recession. Full Article
November 30, 2010 Where does that Starbucks cup go? Full Article
November 19, 2010 The value of new construction starts edged up 2% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $413.8 billion, it was reported by McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. Much of the upward push was provided by nonbuilding construction, comprised of public works and electric utilities, with an added lift coming from modest growth for housing. Full Article
November 8, 2010 Texas officials step up their efforts to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate the state’s carbon dioxide emissions, the highest in the nation. The attorney general, Greg Abbott, has filed seven lawsuits against the agency in the last nine months related to climate rules and other environmental controls. Full Article
November 5, 2010Environmental advocates and backers of the House climate change measure have been scrambling this week to dodge the blame for the drubbing that Democrats took in the midterm elections. They have produced various spreadsheets and analyses showing that House members who voted for the 2009 climate bill sponsored by Henry A. Waxman of California and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts were just as likely to keep their seats as those who voted against it. Full Article
November 5, 2010 Environmentalists have a special affinity for maps. Whether terrestrial or marine, the environment and its ills are tied to a geography that can be expressed in a rectilinear scale. As science progresses, so do the maps. Witness the latest effort from the state of Massachusetts. Full Article
November 3, 2010 With many eyes on how Tuesday’s elections will affect Congressional action on climate and energy issues, a new report points out that the battle over greenhouse gas emissions has been raging quietly on another front: the courts. Full Article
November 3, 2010 The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has launched a new Center for Green Schools, headquartered at its offices in Washington, D.C., to further its efforts to give access to green schools to all students within a generation. Manufacturing giant United Technologies is financing the center with a multi-year, multimillion-dollar commitment. Full Article
November 2, 2010 Landlords will face fines of up to $8,000 for renting energy-inefficient properties under a new British law. Previous efforts to encourage private landlords to better insulate their properties and take other efficiency measures have largely met with failure. Full Article
November 2010 MAXXI: Zaha Hadid taps into Rome's past while creating its most contemporary building in decades. Full Article
November 2010 Towering Green Ambitions: A Manhattan skyscaper wraps a package of tightly coordinated technologies inside a faceted glass skin. Full Article
November 2010 Green is the New Black: Eco-pioneers build a culture of green commerce in real estate, development, and construction. Full Article
October 31, 2010 Months after federal cap-and-trade legislation died in the Senate and days before California voters will decide on a fiercely fought ballot initiative to deep-freeze the state’s global-warming-prevention law, state regulators released hundreds of pages of rules on Friday for how the law is to be applied, industry by industry. Full Article
October 29, 2010 Construction Market to Increase 8% in 2011, Says McGraw-Hill Construction Outlook Report. Full Article
October 29, 2010 A prototype of the Suncatcher at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico gives a rough idea of the sheer scale of Tessera’s proposed Calico project in the California desert. Full Article
October 28, 2010 Exactly how many architects in the U.S. are unemployed? Full Article
October 25, 2010 Is Energy Efficiency Blue, Red or Both? Full Article
October 24, 2010 Calculating Commitment to the Climate: There was a surge of optimism at the Copenhagen climate conference, when the U.S. secretary of state, Hillarty Rodham Clinton, backed an international aid package worth hundreds of billions of dollars to help poor countries counter threats like rising seas and desertification. Full Article
October 23, 2010 A plan to construct a $1.6 million solar plant at a desert high school and build windmill parts locally were announced Friday at the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership's 2010 Summit, “Climate for Success.” Full Article
October 22, 2010 The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and its founders have been named as defendants in a class action lawsuit filed in federal court. Filed on behalf of mechanical systems designer Henry Gifford, owner of Gifford Fuel Saving, the lawsuit was stamped on October 8, 2010, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Full Article
October 22, 2010 Next week select members of the United States Green Building Council will begin casting ballots on whether to overhaul how the organization awards sustainability credits for wood products. If adopted, the standards would fundamentally alter the organization’s approach to rating forestry products.Full Article
October 21, 2010 Energy Commission Granted Stay by Court of Appeal...Full Article
October 20, 2010 Tidal Power: The Next Wave? Over the next few years, we can expect to see huge advances in our ability to harness power from the ocean’s waves and tides, a new report from IHS Emerging Energy Research, a Cambridge, Mass., consulting firm, predicts. Full Article
October 19, 2010 A company that secured a Department of Energy grant to pursue a breakthrough idea in the manufacture of solar cells plans to announce on Tuesday that it has raised $20 million to commercialize its technique, which it says will reduce the price of solar panels by 40 percent. Full Article
October 18, 2010 New construction starts in September retreated 7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $405.2 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. Full Article
October 18, 2010 The greenest U.S. company? Dell tops 'Newsweek' list...Full Article
October 13, 2010 A solar job census tallied 93,000 solar power industry jobs in the United States as of August, and it projects industry job growth of 26 percent in 2011. Full Article
October 13, 2010 As China advances, solar start-ups strategize: Over the last two years, Chinese solar panel makers like Suntech and Yingli Green Energy have moved aggressively into the United States and now supply about 40 percent of the California market...Full Article
October 13, 2010 As development marches on throughout the world, the footprints of the Earth’s inhabitants grow ever larger. Think carbon footprint, only with multiple dimensions. Full Article
October 12, 2010 Gorgeous LEED platinum townhouses completed in San Francisco park. Full Article
October 12, 2010 In Washington, a climate proposal beyond cap and trade. Full Article
October 12, 2010 Silicon Valley's solar innovators retool to catch up to China. Full Article
October 2010 Green to the (Structural) Core: A home for environmental and social action is true to the legacy of its namesake. Full Article
October 2010 A Green City Rises: Inspired by precedents from around the world, New Songdo City emerges...Full Article
October 1, 2010 Has the green tech recovery stalled? Global venture capital investment in green technology companies fell 30 percent, to $1.53 billion, in the third quarter of 2010, according to a preliminary report issued Friday by the Cleantech Group, a San Francisco-based research and consulting firm. Full Article
October 1,2010 It’s no news to most people that renewable energy sources like wind and solar power have their off-moments, or off-days. A potential remedy was just signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, whose governorship has long had a greenish tinge. Full Article
October 1, 2010 A 1000 MW parabolic trough solar power plant will be built in Blythe, California, with the first 250 MW going online in 2013. The plant’s developers received approval from the California Energy Commission to build; the developers are still finalizing financial backing for the project. Full Article
Octoboer 2010 Best Friends: Symbiosis helps on Philadelphia office building achieve LEED Platinum. Full Article
Septemeber 30, 2010 Rammed earth meets river-tide in Tacoma, WA's beautiful new Tidal Resonance Chamber, an experimental pavilion for sound conceived by artist-architect Rober Horner. Constructed using sustainable materials and methods, the structure provides a contemplative, tactile and sensory space for experiencing the rhythms and cycles of the river as it filters urban noise out -- while at the same time, filling and emptying itself of the river's ever-changing flows. Full Article
September 29, 2010 The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday said it has formally committed $1 billion in federal stimulus money to the recently retooled FutureGen clean-coal project, beating a deadline to use the money or lose it and kicking off years of further work that could finally see the project completed. Full Article
September 25, 2010 Over the objections of several environmental groups concerned about the impact on native plants and the desert tortoise, the California Energy Commission on Wednesday gave Oakland-based BrightSource Energy approval to build a 370-megawatt solar thermal power plant in California's portion of the Mojave Desert. Full Article
September 2010 Hot in Cleveland? Talk to most architects in Ohio and they’ll tell you it’s a pretty conservative place. But while design innovation may be a hard sell for local architects, the state has had an astonishing track record in the last decade for giving cutting-edge foreign architects their first shot at building on American soil, arguably more so than more “forward-thinking” locales on either coast. Full Article
September 2010 Soon after Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate, News Corporation (News Corp.), acquired Dow Jones in late 2007, STUDIOS was hired to create a new home for the subsidiary’s New York area—based print, online, and wire services divisions on five contiguous floors in a 45-story office tower in Midtown Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center, where the parent company had long been the prime tenant. Full Article
September 20, 2010 Green buildings may present special challenges for firefighters because of new technologies, building materials, and building techniques. That’s the concern Fire Safety and Green Buildings—Bridging the Gap, a new website at www.GreenBuildingFireSafety.org developed by the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM); a handbook on the topic has also been released. Full Article
September 20, 2010 Google released SketchUp 8 on September 1, 2010, with a number of notable enhancements, many of which will make SketchUp more useful as a sustainable design tool. Full Article
September 17, 2010 California regulators have licensed what is for the moment the world’s largest solar thermal power plant, a 1,000-megawatt complex called the Blythe Solare Power Project to be built in the Mojave Desert. Full Article
September 16, 2010 Civil engineers and other researchers working under a $90,000 National Science Foundation grant are studying the Great Inca Road of South America for clues to help modern society build roads, bridges and other infrastructure that last longer and have a less harmful impact on the environment. Full Article
September 15, 2010 At Shanghai Expo, Finnish Pavilion Provides a Stunning Green Model. Full Article
September 8, 2010 A process for providing precedent-setting rulings to project teams using the LEED rating system is under development at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The resulting “LEED Interpretations” process is to be unveiled in the Fall of 2010. Full Article
September 2010 It's a Wrap: A second skin improves a Brentwood home's performance, and its design cred. Full Article
Septemeber 7, 2010 Recycled pallets, or skids, are becoming the basis for a whole new genre of architecture. And for good reason: they are sustainable, recycled, and make use of discarded packaging. Full Article
September 3, 2010 An oil rig caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, forcing workers to dive overboard to escape the flames, and sending chills through a region just beginning to recover from one of the worst oil spills in history. Full Article
September 2, 2010 After Pacific Gas & Electric, the giant California utility, began installing smart meters in the state’s Central Valley, the company was swamped with complaints from residents that their utility bills had increased. Full Article
September 1, 2010 HONG KONG — ‘‘Do your feeble breathing skills let you down? Does standing up tire you out?’’ The answer: Buy a breath or two of ‘‘Fresh Air’’ — the ‘‘revolutionary new product’’ that lets you experience breathing ‘‘like the rest of the world does.’’ Full Article
August 31, 2010 Many homeowners who participate in a program that let them repay the cost of solar panels and other energy improvements through an annual surcharge on their property taxes must pay off the loans before they can refinance their mortgages, two government-chartered mortgage companies said on Tuesday. Full Article
August 19, 2010 Buying an Energy Efficient AC system complete with one's very own tax credit might make the purchasing process easier as well as ease one's conscience about their carbon footprint. Full Article
August 18, 2010 When it comes to saving energy, many Americans seem to get it --- and at the same time they don't get it at all. Full Article
August 16, 2010 For eco-conscious homeowners who have considered a solar system for their rooftops but have found the cost and complexity daunting, Clarian Power thinks it has an idea. The Seatlle-based clean tech start-up is developing a "plug-and-play" solar appliance...Full Article
August 10, 2010 Congress focuses on whether the Environmental Protection Agency should go where no federal regulators have gone before and regulate greenhouse gases. But the agency did something more prosaic on Monday, albeit something it has not done effectively for the last 15 years or so: it put more than 100 cement kilns on notice that they will have to spend almost $1 billion annually to clean up the pollution they put into the atmosphere. Full Article
August 5, 2010 As my colleagues Campbell Robertson, Justin Gillis and I reported on reaction, scientific and otherwise, to a government report on the fate of the oil in the gulf, it emerged that the Obama administration faced something of a credibility gap in conveying its findings to some gulf residents, environmental groups and even scientists. Full Article
August 3, 2010 The head of the new federal agency for regulating offshore drilling would like to lift the moratorium on deep-water offshore drilling as soon as the agency is “comfortable” that enough safety improvements are in place, he told reporters on Tuesday. Full Article
July 28, 2010 With a cap on carbon dioxide an apparent nonstarter in the Senate these days, some clean energy and climate advocates have shifted their sights to a scaled-back but still ambitious goal: passage of a national renewable energy standard. Full Article
July 26, 2010 The Plastiki, a boat made of bottles that set sail from San Francisco in March, glided past the Sydney Opera House at midday local time Monday in a grand finale to a voyage intended to highlight the problem of plastic waste. Full Article
July 26, 2010 A company with a different approach to the electric car battery problem got a small boost recently when the Patent Office said it would issue a patent on its concept: using a storage device called a capacitor in conjunction with a traditional battery. Full Article
July 21, 2010 Since he took over as energy secretary last year, Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, has urged Americans to help cool the planet by painting their roofs a lighter color that reflects sunlight. Full Article
July 14, 2010 Part of the fine print in solar power systems is that whatever wattage number is quoted, it is usually "peak watts," or the amount of electricity that the panel would deliver when the sun is directly overhead. For the rest of the daylight hours, the output is lower; a graph showing minute-by-minute production resembles a sharp mountain peak. Full Article
July 7, 2010 Attention, Ikea shoppers: if you can't imagine life without the warm glow of incandescent light bulbs, the time to stock up is now. On Aug. 1, the Swedish retailer will begin phasing out the bulbs in its North American stores, with the intention of eliminating them entirely by Jan. 1, 2011. The move comes ahead of new federal energy-efficiency standards for light bulbs that will make many incandescent bulbs obsolete. Full Article
July 2010 Thanks to geography, Antonio Di Oronzo, founder of the six-year-old design firm bluarch, has developed an expertise in nightclubs...When Bakhshi tapped him again to design Greenhouse, the first LEED-Certified nightclub, Di Oronzo followed his personal rules as well as those of the U.S. Green Building Council. Full Article
June 24, 2010 The ubiquitous 40- and 60-watt incandescent light bulbs are supposed to be in their last few years of existence; a phase-out of incandescents mandated by the federal government begins next year with the 100-watt model and works its way down to the smaller bulbs in 2014. Full Article
June 21, 2010 P.G.&E. Corporation, the California utility holding company, has created a $100 million tax-equity fund to finance residential solar installations by SunRun, a San Francisco start-up that leases photovoltaic arrays to homeowners. Full Article
June 8, 2010 The Department of Energy estimates that commercial and residential buildings consume 40 percent of our nation's energy. Most of this energy is used for heating and cooling, but much of it is wasted because of leaky walls and window. Adding proper insulation can help, but increasing the windows' ability to control the flow of heat in and out of the building is the most effective improvement... Full Article
June 4, 2010 Who has power in the high, sunny expanse of southern Colorado's rural San Luis Valley?...it's something of a trick question, complicated by the many shades of meaning that the word "power" conveys - from electrical to political to financial. And the story of the valley and its wrestling match/debate over a big power line project encompasses them all. Full Article
June 2010 Team Spirit: A Thorough House Renovation Gets Green with a Little Help from a Lot of Friends. Full Article
May 26, 2010 In another visit intended to showcase a recipient of economic stimulus dollars, President Obama toured a solar panel plant on Wednesday in Fremont, Calif. He took the opportunity to contrast the potential of clean energy with the environmental perils of fossil fuels, reflected in what he called a "heartbreaking" oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Full Article
May 24, 2010 Houston may be working frantically to clean up the oil spill, but Dallas is focusing on a different kind of energy this week: wind. Full Article
May 20, 2010 Mountaintop wind turbines produce most of their energy at night, when electricity demand and prices are low. That limits revenue and makes it hard for utility companies to meet state goals for high percentages of renewable energy. Batteries could solve the problem, but they have always been too expensive. Full Article
May 18, 2010 The oil is flowing in the Gulf of Mexico, and the hearings are flowing at the United States Senate. Full Article
May 12, 2010 Senators John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, presented their long-delayed proposal to address global warming and energy Wednesday afternoon. They are calling it the American Power Act. Full Article
May 3, 2010 For decades tire companies and would-be entrepreneurs have been searching for a way to process discarded tires by using a technology known as pyrolysis. Such a solution is considered the holy grail of tire recycling. Full Article
April 29, 2010 The USGBC officially launched its LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) rating systems. Full Article
April 15, 2010 Getting energy-efficient design into school construction can be tough, but the Gen7 modular-classroom building from American Modular Systems, Manteca, Calif., fits many of the latest energy-efficiency advances into one package, bringing the cutting edge of green technologies to modular school construction. Full Article
April 9, 2010 The American housing market remained in the doldrums in 2009 and automakers sputtered along, but the wind industry continued to boom, according to a report released Thursday. A record 10,010 megawatts of new wind capacity was installed in the U.S. last year, accounting for 39 percent of new electrical generation... Full Article
April 9, 2010 According to the World Health Organization, 1.2 billion people - or almost 1 out of 5 people in the world - are without access to safe drinking water. And even in areas with access, 70 percent of water withdrawn from fresh groundwater sources is used for agriculture. Full Article
April 8, 2010 A Silicon Valley company said on Wednesday that it had raised $10 million to bring to market a novel way of making thin-film solar cells. Full Article
April 1, 2010 The Obama administration on Thursday released new energy efficiency standards for water heaters and other appliances that it said would save consumers $10 billion over 30 years while cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Full Article
March 30, 2010 Kaiser Permanente, the biggest nonprofit health maintenance organization in the country, is going solar. Full Article
March 26, 2010 Water accounts for an astonishing percentage of electricity use --- 19 percent in California, for example --- partly because of all the energy needed to pump it. Can people be persuaded to change the hours that they use water, and thereby reduce their water utility's electricity costs? Full Article
March 24, 2010 Los Angeles and Washington took the top spots in the United States Environmental Protection Agency's ranking of cities with the most energy efficient buildings. Full Article
March 23, 2010 Smart water meters are taking off in California, according to a forthcoming report from the California Energy Commission. More than half of the state's water utilities have some smart meters in their service areas... Full Article
March 19, 2010 Developed in partnership with The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and ASTM International, the IGCC had been anticipated to provide competition to Standard 189 --- the code-ready green building standard modeled on LEED that was launched in January... Full Article
March 17, 2010 California regulators on Wednesday recommended that the state's first new big solar power plant in nearly two decades be approved after a two-and-half-year review of its environmental impact on the Mojave Desert. Full Article
March 12, 2010 The Los Angeles Department of Public Works has approved an ordinance that would require the capture and reuse of stormwater by new homes, large developments, and certain redevelopments in the city. Full Article
March 8, 2010 One of the stickiest points in international climate change negotiations is how to account for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions produced to make goods that are then sold for export. Should the producing country be held to account for those emissions? Or does the consuming country bear some responsibility for counting those emissions? Full Article
March 2, 2010 Mobile photovoltaic (PV) generators consist of PV panels, charge controllers, lead-acid batteries, and inverters mounted on easy-to-tow trailers. They offer an environmentally responsible, silent alternative to the diesel or gasoline generators typically used for construction jobsites, lighting, or other off-grid power requirements. Full Article
February 18, 2010 Virginia's attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, filed a petition Tuesday asking the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its finding that global warming poses a threat to people. Full Article
February 10, 2010 Funds from the $787 billion stimulus package and other federal assistance kept growth in the renewable energy sector strong in 2009, a trend that will probably persist as federal investment continues to pay off over the coming year, industry leaders said in a teleconference Tuesday. Full Article
February 9, 2010 Kevin Clayton, the chief executive of Clayton Homes, a modular home manufacturer based in Maryville, Tenn., predicted last year that his company's "i-house" --- a solar modular home --- would command 10 percent of its profits. Full Article
February 5, 2010 In a unanimous January 2010 decision, the California Building Standards Commission approved "Calgreen" as the first mandatory statewide green construction code to be adopted in the United States. Full Article
February 3, 2010 Measuring greenhouse gases locally. Full Article
January 29, 2010 Overcoming the Ugly Factor in Building-Integrated Solar Design. Full Article