When Cities and Wetlands Collide

When Cities and Wetlands Collide

Describes the winning entry in the recent Gowanus Lowline Competition. The winning entry, which is described encapsulates the kind of far sighted bio-mimetic and bio-symbiotic urban design our country needs. Reading this post is like reading a how to book on healing the earth; and in particular healing the brownfield urban wastelands, very often built over per-existing wetlands.

16 Green Building Material Qualities to Think About

16 Green Building Material Qualities to Think About

Examines 16 important qualities that green building materials should strive to achieve and that builders need to weigh during the materials selection process of a project. A well planned green building material selection process can help to ensure the best solution for a given project with given goals and constraints peculates up through the decision process.

Six Sustainable Site Planning Fundamentals

Six Sustainable Site Planning Fundamentals

Using a framework for creating sustainable site designs is one of the most realistic and effective ways for architects and other design professionals to create sustainable designs. Six fundamental concepts needed to be applied are explained in the post.

The Ultimate Green Twitter Hashtag List: Build Your Online Green Twitter Following

The Ultimate Green Twitter Hashtag List: Build Your Online Green Twitter Following

The following are 150+ Twitter hashtags that can help you gain Twiitter followers interested in cleantech, sustainability, green building, climate change and other green topics. Using hashtags on Twitter can help you to grow your business, build your green brand, raise awareness about your cause, build your reputation, and more.

The 3 R’s of Sustainable Site Design: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The 3 R’s of Sustainable Site Design: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle… In this post Bob goes into some detail what this means in practice for building green; listing various practices that builders can use in order to achieve their these sustainability goals. The post covers such subjects as runoff, site disturbance, materials etc. as well as the importance of sustainable design practices that reduce the impact of the built space on the surrounding environment both during construction and during the buildings life.

Regulating Green Building- Part 2: 7 Rules For Sound Green Regulations

Regulating Green Building- Part 2: 7 Rules For Sound Green Regulations

This post is the second in a five part series on green building regulation looks at how green building regulators can avoid problems down the line if they establish regulations that have a clear intent, evaluate extreme outcomes, carefully analyze utilizing third party green building criteria and certification systems, create measurement and verification mechanisms, develop valid enforcement mechanisms, check for state and federal preemption, and anticipate litigation.

Regulating Green Building Series-Part 1: Anatomy of Green Building Regulations

Regulating Green Building Series-Part 1: Anatomy of Green Building Regulations

This post, a part of five part series on green building regulation looks at the anatomy of green building regulations identifying three main types of regulations, which are command and control, in other words building codes and such; financial incentives, like tax breaks; and non-financial incentives such as increases in floor to area ratio, building height or density for building green.

Green Building as a Market Advantage

Green Building as a Market Advantage

This post looks at a real world case, the Gai Building in Orlando Florida that was built to LEED Silver standards and uses this to talk about some of the reasons the developer chose to go with the LEED Silver standard. It uses this example to address some of the advantages of building green and a few of the shortcomings of the LEED certification standards. It makes the case that only when a developer can determine that a proposed sustainable project is economically viable and will give the developer a definable market advantage will these projects get built in practice.

The Most Overlooked Green Building Site Practice

The Most Overlooked Green Building Site Practice

Site erosion control, while often overlooked is an important part of sustainable building practices. Erosion from building sites silts up waterways amongst other things so minimizing it is critical for achieving the goal of low impact development. In this post, Bob goes on to suggest five techniques that architects and builders can use to help to prevent erosion and sediment loss and ensure that the building of the green building is itself green.

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