A problem that worsens each decade for southern cities such as Houston or Phoenix is an effect called the Urban Heat Island (UHI_), for which inner city temperatures have been observed to exceed temperatures measured in nearby rural areas by amounts now approaching 20 F. This article proposes a novel and simple means of mitigating this by installing a straight-forward technology, called the Atmospheric Vortex Engine (AVE). it is estimated that, by installing AVE facilities that could continuously elevate 1000 m3/s of air per square kilometer of surface from the inner city into the mid troposphere. During hot summer months, approximately 0.3-0.5 kwh/m2/day of heat (~ 65% via evaporation) would be removed and a mean temperature reduction of 3-4 oF could thereby be achieved as cooler, drier air from rural areas is pulled in to replace the warmer, wetter air that would be ejected from the region.

The USGBC is accepting proposals for educational sessions and applications for peer reviewers to evaluate these proposals for the 2010 Greenbuild Conference.

Al Gore delivered the keynote address to green building professionals at the Greenbuild conference. He praised the leadership of the USGBC for bringing real change to the marketplace. He also urged the crowd to take responsibility for expanding green building globally and to call out greenwashing.

This is a round-up of on-the-spot interviews with job seekers who attended the job fair at the Greenbuild Conference that is taking place this week. Attendees were asked what strategies were they using to land a green building job.

Last week, Secretary Chu announcen nearly $300 million in Clean Cities grants to support clean fuels, vehicles, and infrastructure development. The projects are designed to create jobs, limit pollution, and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.

A new report released recently assessed exactly how 40 of the country’s largest cities are trying to limit their carbon footprints and take the steps needed to raise these efforts to the next level. The report,  initiated and conducted by Living Cities, a collaboration of 21 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions is [...]