To shift the global economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy will require the construction of wind, solar, nuclear, and other installations on a vast scale, significantly altering the face of the planet. Can these new forms of energy approach the scale needed to meet the world’s energy demands?
A pending lawsuit alleges that the USGBC and its LEED standards are false advertising. Bob Faulhaber, who is himself a LEED, AP defends this green building certification system pointing out how it has succeeded in raising awareness and increasing involvement in developing and promoting green building techniques and that it has helped to promote an integrated approach to design and construction that has in fact lead to more sustainable buildings.
Among the many measures the world can take to wean itself off fossil fuels, few match the benefits of making homes, business, and cars more energy-efficient. But financial and psychological barriers have kept individuals, businesses, and governments from realizing efficiency’s great potential.
In this a rebuttal post to The Green Building Adoption Rate is Slow, Find Out The Practical Reasons Why, Richard argues that in fact the growth rate has been very high, citing for example that in late 2010, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) celebrated its first billion square feet of LEED certified green buildings. He makes the argument that the growth rate in the green building space is actually quite high especially considering the background of economic recession and tight capital in which it has occurred.
Green leasing plays an important role in the sustainability of the building stock; building operations themselves must be “greened” as well. Green leasing introduces sustainable goals and commitments into building operations and into the lease itself.
As the nation seemingly and slowly pulls out from deep recession there is indication that cleantech sector employment is helping to lift some areas of the country and is starting to provide some jobs in what has been a painfully jobless “recovery” for far too many. This post, by John Addison focuses on some areas of his home state of California that are helping to drive the California economy and boosting jobs growth.
This is my fourth annual list of renewable energy and energy efficiency stocks since I began the series in January 2008, which I expect to outperform in 2011.
With heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems using more building energy use than lighting and IT combined, they can have a major impact when it comes to how sustainable a building is. This is where innovative HVAC start-ups like Ice Energy, Optimum Energy, and Chromasun come in, with technology designed to significantly reduce HVAC building energy usage.
Meet Conor Carlin, Manager, Enterprise Energy Intelligence EnerNOC, Inc. Conor is also the managing editor of Thermoforming Quarterly, a newsletter of the Thermoforming Division of the Society of Plastics Engineering. Prior to transitioning to a career in energy management, Conor worked for 9 years in business development, sales and marketing in the plastics and packaging industries. Read our interview with Conor, in which he shares his story of how he transitioned from a career in packaging and plastics sales management to one in energy management.
