February 10, 2012   1-877-631-2845

You are here: Home / Archives for global warming

What is Geothermal Heating?

May 17, 2010 By 1 Comment
Volcano

According to some sources, our present decade is the last ten years we've got to stay ahead of the energy curve.  As such, when it comes to heating and cooling our homes, places of business, and every other building in between, alternative energy and the technology to support it is becoming a necessity to close the gap. With this in mind,  I'd like to take a look at geothermal heating, a growing technology that is not commonplace in the average residential community, but may well be by 2020 Yet, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Efficiency Tagged With: , , ,

Green Building is Key to Minimizing Global Climate Change

December 1, 2009 By 1 Comment

The more I read about green building and environmental issues, it seems clear that they're all connected to the same issue; the need to change people's minds.  It really does seem that this is a major factor that needs to be overcome when it comes to greater energy efficiency and use of resources to curtail the effects of global climate change. This article about green building from the Guardian makes the connection between energy consumption in buildings, which accounts for one-third of global … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Efficiency Tagged With: , , , ,

Al Gore Speaks About Green Building

November 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Recently, former American Vice-President, Presidential hopeful, and more recent environmentalist speaker and author Al Gore delivered a keynote address to the USGBC Greenbuild Conference. Items he touched upon included green building mandates, the effectiveness of USGBC leadership, calling out greenwashing, and the folly of unsustainable dependency on fossil fuels as a means of stabilizing our economies and ways of life all over the world.  Ultimately though, Gore's perspective is that with innovation … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

LEED certification means long-term benefits

March 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

In reading about changes to LEED thanks to this article from the Richmond VA based Richmond Times Dispatch,  my mind turned to the idea of green building in the face of our current economic downturn. One of the major changes to LEED recently, says the article, is a greater emphasis on energy conservation and the reduction of emissions that contribute to global climate change.  This of course represents a benefit which isn't exactly an instant pay-off to builders.  And in this current economic … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Efficiency Tagged With: , , ,

2030 Challenge Stimulus Plan

January 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I've been going on for some time about why there should be government spending in green building. Here's a intriguing plan by Architecture 2030, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that promotes integrated climate change action through the built environment.  It connects a lot of dots in reducing CO2 emissions in the building sector while creating jobs and stimulating the economy in a responsible way. The plan has been presented to the new Obama Administration and it would be worth consideration … [Read more...]

Filed Under: climate change, Energy Efficiency, environmental legislation, global warming, Green Building, Sustainability Tagged With: , , , , ,

Green Building: A Look at the Future

December 5, 2008 By Leave a Comment

As previously noted, the built environment is responsible for over 40 per cent of the U.S. CO2 emissions – the bulk of GHG emissions. This GHG footprint is considerably larger when one factors in emissions from building materials and freight transportation. The case for public expenditure in “greening” the built environment is all the more cogent when one looks into the future. Despite the current gloom pervading the world economic outlook, the economic climate is subject to change … [Read more...]

Filed Under: climate change, Energy Efficiency, global warming, Green Building Tagged With: , , ,

Green Built Environment: Political Will Needed

December 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment

  The Pew Center report on a Climate Friendly Built Environment – to which I referred in my previous posting – makes an emphatic assertion for the needed political will to act now in three policy areas. It correctly observes that the building industry’s fragmentation makes decision making almost impossible for comprehensive solutions to environmental problems.     The report notes:   “An integrated approach is needed to address GHG emissions from the U.S. building sector—one … [Read more...]

Filed Under: climate change, Energy Efficiency, environmental legislation, global warming, Green Building, green marketing, Sustainability Tagged With: , , , , , ,

A Climate Friendly Built Environment

November 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment

In my previous post I referred to the PEW Centre on Global Climate Change. In 2005 – shortly before the new world economic order began – the PEW Center published a most insightful, almost prophetic study entitled "Towards a Climate Friendly Built Environment." Built Environment and GHG emissions Here's an excerpt from the Report's introduction. Buildings in the United States—homes, offices, and industrial facilities—account for over 40 percent of our nation's … [Read more...]

Filed Under: climate change, Energy Efficiency, environmental legislation, global warming, Green Building Tagged With: , , ,

Built Environment: GHG Infrastructure

November 26, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Keynesian economic theory appears to be alive and well – or least recently revitalized if not completely resuscitated, thank goodness! Too bad it couldn’t be rationally adhered to in better times, but c’est la guerre! (That’s a figure of speech for you literalists.) Economic Stimulus: Public Funds Now it’s up to politicians to make prudent decisions about how much and when to stimulate the economy with public spending. If they screw up, they can blame the theorists; if … [Read more...]

Filed Under: climate change, Energy Efficiency, global warming, Green Building Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Carbon Offsets for U.S. Green Affordable Housing

November 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Duh! This news releaselooks like an afterthought by the organizers of recent USGBC Greenbuild International Conference and Expo held in Boston November 19 – 21. The release, dated November 24, 2008, looks forward to the Conference which ended three days earlier. Too bad, because the news content is interesting. Attendees at this year’s Greenbuild can assuage their guilt over carbon emissions from their travel and energy used at the conference. Enterprise Green Communities, which sponsors … [Read more...]

Filed Under: climate change, global warming, Green Building, green marketing, Sustainability Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,