green building
Empire State Building Now With Energy Star
Energy Star for Commercial Buildings offers a good standard to work to if you are considering upgrading especially when combined with the commercial tax credit for energy efficient upgrades.
Resource Efficient Renovation
Working in the green building industry I knew I wanted three things out of this project: efficient fixtures, low-VOC substances and resource efficiency (that includes saving $).
Frustration, Misunderstanding and Delay – Oh, My!
To be honest, even for us in the field, it is sometime frustrating how slow the process goes at times.
Windows are meant to bring in light not water
There are two pressing problems with our existing building that are typical issues with many older homes – the windows and the insulation.
Although the exterior walls have cutting edge insulation for their time, there have been vast improvements on how the insulation meets the windows. In our home, the windows are set into exterior foam [...]
The One Place Smaller is Better
For the longest time we have been thinking about how to build a cost and resource efficient addition. The design inspiration we had came from two typical sources, This Old House and HGTV. Our idea was to build a completely separate building so we wouldn’t have to “touch” the existing structure. We could use share [...]
LED as lead to GREEN!
A major landmark in Madison Wisconsin has change in the last few months. Coyle Carpet One, LLC had an older sign and message center that spoke to drivers for the past 20 years. Now that sign and message center is greener! Most people measure the success of any business venture or investment buy the ROI. [...]
From the 70’s to the 2000’s
We live in a 1970’s designed home, built to incorporate the best building practices of its time including passive solar heating, 2” exterior foam insulation, and a small building footprint. Many things have changed since then in both our knowledge as well as in our lifestyles. And as a result, there are energy and resource [...]
They planted a tree for me!
As a traveling road warrior and a green consultant, the two worlds are often difficult to reconcile. As much as I love teach others how to be “green”, my carbon foot-print continues to grow.
This week, I flew to Phoenix to speak at the National Apartment Association at their Green Communities Conference. They were a great [...]
Not in my backyard
I came across a story over the weekend in Arrive – the official magazine of Amtrak. They were talking about the power of wind in the Northeast, and the vocal opposition it has been getting from some unlikely sources. For example, Martha’s Vineyard, normally seen in support of green initiatives, has been blocking a wind turbine [...]
Smithsonian Green Initiatives
I was very impressed by some of the initiatives being implemented by both the Smithsonian Museums and the National Park Service (NPS) in DC. Not only were they thinking about ways to improved their practices, they also communicated the what and why they were doing to the visitors in a straight forward manner.
At the Lincoln Memorial, a large portion of [...]
