I have been tracking the green stimulus spending since June 2009. In November 2009, actual dollars spent on green projects was $1.5 billion.  Now, in November 2010, dollars actually paid to date on green projects is approximately $11 billion.  It amounts to approximately 7% of contract spending from the Stimulus bill (more…)

Where do you begin with the benefits of green roofs? Over time, green roof owners, from residential to corporate, have testified to the numerous benefits they have received since installing green roofs on their homes and office buildings. Along with drastic cuts in electric and energy bills, they’ve also experienced longer-lasting (more…)

I am no stranger to wind. Growing up in the Chicago area, strong wind was a fact of life: flanked by the Great Plains on three sides and a Great Lake on the fourth, Chicago is called the “Windy City” for a reason. I will never forget one autumn day, walking around a street corner at the base of the Sears Tower (the Burj Khalifa of its day) and being stopped in my tracks by the wind – so (more…)

Once a building or facility manager has an ENERGY STAR statement of energy performance in hand they’re ready to set goals for improvements that will raise their rating but are often faced with no budget and minimal management support. The key to turning that situation around is showing how common best practices that cost little or provide quick payback can create both (more…)

Last week I attended GreenBuild in Chicago, and spoke on a panel with my fellow green law bloggers about the future of green building law and policy.  We are planning a joint follow-up post on our predictions with Lloyd Alter at Treehugger which will come out in the next few days.  But there were many other highlights of the conference:

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The most unusual place to harvest energy from the sun is perhaps also the most effective and efficient – underground. Earth absorbs nearly 50 percent of the sun’s radiation that reaches the surface and stores it as heat that can be used to warm up or cool down homes and other buildings – without polluting the environment. All you have to do is exchange it between (more…)

After walking what seemed like a half mile that took the better part of 20 minutes (the plenary is across two highways from the Exhibit Hall!), I arrived to listen to Rick Fedrizzi and Colin Powell at the Opening Plenary of Green Build 2010.

Rumors existed months ago that President Obama would keynote the event, however (more…)

As we decend upon Chicago to immerse ourselves in what is expected to be an epic GreenBuild, I am left to wonder where the industry is headed…

Last year 30,000 plus people moshed through the doors in Phoenix Arizona at Green Build 2009 but after Tuesday night on the showroom floor at Green Build 2010 (more…)

Pike Research recently published its free (!) white paper Smart Grid: 10 Trends to Watch in 2011 and Beyond and have received some interesting feedback. Since most of this has been expressed privately, I thought I would aggregate comments on each trend and share it here.

No. 1 – Security Will Become the Top Smart Grid Concern. There was universal (more…)

In seeking to establish new standards for home improvements that would increase energy efficiency, the EPA is asking for comments from the public. They have released a draft protocol which contains a series of best practice tools that would protect indoor air quality during a home energy retrofit. The goal is to devise a set of standards that would ultimately ensure (more…)