Blogs & Ecology

Much as LEED™ has transformed the building industry, the people behind the STAR Community Index hope to transform the way local governments set priorities and implement policies and practices to make their cities more sustainable.

GreenerBuildings.com released its 2008 Green Building Impact Report yesterday, the first comprehensive evaluation of the real and verifiable environmental improvements of LEED design and construction.

The report is filled with figures measuring the amount of emissions reductions or the impacts of indoor environmental quality, but for the more the casual observer, what’s more interesting is the tepid tone the report takes.

My bike and I are off to Boston for the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, to see eight hundred exhibitors, dozens of speakers ranging from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Van Jones and Bill McKibben, with Bill Clinton thrown in. It's huge, and every hotel room in Boston is booked.

Yet 15 years ago it might have been held in a phone booth; the green building movement was tiny and disorganized...

The LEED-certified Oregon Health & Science University's Center for Health & Healing

This lovely 9,800 square foot gem has been called "One of the Greenest Luxury Homes Ever Built" and " shows
that high-end real estate can have a small environmental footprint."

A year ago, Preston at JetsonGreen asked "Are we confusing the words "green," "sustainable," "energy efficient," and "small footprint"? You tell me, is this green? Since then, the answer has become even more obvious.

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TreeHugger has discussed Solar One before, and George had posted a video of Solar Two

Now it appears that the proposed education facility has won the whacking big Holcim Award, $100,000 provided by one of the world's largest cement and aggregate companies to honour the best in sustainable construction, what some might call a bit of a contradiction but I will let that one pass. ...

photo: Sustainable Fellwood

The $50 million mixed-use, mixed-income redevelopment project sits on 27 acres in Savannah on the site of the state's first public housing project, and it serves as a principal component of the City of Savannah's Westside Development Revitalization Plan. What's makes this development one of the greenest of its kind?...

The big, homely coconut is put to use in a wide variety of foods, from the ever popular Almond Joy to the serious contender to the dairy based ice cream throne, Coconut Bliss. Drinking the juice is a unique, highly efficient hydration treat. But what happens to the thick, fibrous hull? Not much, typically.

No, it's not a new IKEA store, (the base would be blue) it is the expanded Brooklyn Children's Museum by Rafael Vinoly that opens on September 20. According to Nicholas Tamarin at Interior Design, it is the "city's first LEED Silver-certified museum."...

It seems these days that green building is everywhere you look. It's hard to not find a media outlet throwing in a story with a green building angle. Hurrah for those who want to build or remodel green, you've got plenty of resources now. But what if you're not yet at the "Honey, which rainwater catchment system do you like? The red, or the orange?" stage? What if you just want to rent, and you want it green (or greener)? Not so easy to find.

Bronx Borough President Carrion responding to audience member questions

The new HSBC headquarters is over half a million square feet of green goodness, with rainwater collection, drought resistant landscaping, renewable energy, paper-free cafeteria all topped off with a green roof and going for LEED Gold certification. What could be wrong with that?

For one thing, 3,000 employees formerly working in Chicago are now commuting to " Mettawa, once predominantly a horse farm, chosen in part because of its open space and rural setting. The village, with only 500 people and an area of about five square miles, is so small that it does not have a village hall."

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Inhabitat's BRA-Braille wall tiles are molded bamboo paper pulp.

OK, fun facts. Portland and Seattle always seem to take the awards for most LEED-certified green buildings per capita. But dinky little Durham, North Carolina with a population just over 200,000 has the most LEED buildings in the state and ranks in the top five nationally on a per capita basis.