A full-color, graphic version of this newsletter is available online at http://greenerbuildings.com/enewsletters/2008/greenerbuildings/index.html
Building the Way to Water Efficiency
By Lara Abrams Melman
With water supplies nationwide feeling the heat, facility managers, municipalities and innovative companies are working together to make water conservation easier and more effective than ever before.
Green and Mean: Responsible Property Investing in a Tough Economy
By Jeff Feinstein and Michael Butler
Our national building infrastructure poses some major challenges to the climate fight, especially when the economy makes investors hesitant to take on new projects; but here we explain why green buildings are among the best investments now — and any time.
Office Depot’s Building Prototype Earns LEED Pre-certification
The LEED Portfolio Program is designed to create a volume certification path to allow companies to incorporate LEED attributes into a prototype design before implementing across several buildings.
EPA Recognizes Energy Efficient Building Designs
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced the latest building projects designed with energy efficiency in mind.
Starbucks Sets New Goals for Renewables, Green Building
Starbucks wants to slash energy consumption in its stores by 25 percent and buy enough renewable energy certificates to satisfy half of its stores’ energy needs, all by 2010, the company said Wednesday. All new construction will incorporate green building principles.
Green Builders Spell Out Zero Carbon
By Sam Bond, Edie News
The U.K. construction industry is calling on government to re-write the rules after concluding that three quarters of new homes are unlikely to meet voluntary targets which would see them having no carbon emissions.
eBay Bids on Solar
eBay’s North Campus is now the home of 3,248 solar panels in a 650-kilowatt system that will supply 18 percent of the campus’ power, saving the company about $100,000 in electricity costs in its first year of operation. The company used the solar energy system’s unveiling to tout its first LEED-Gold building, which also is the city’s first.
Energy Efficiency: Overlooked and Misunderstood
A new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy finds that energy efficiency during the last 30-plus years has been paid little homage and future gains are threatened by inaction. U.S. energy consumption at the end of 2008 is expected to total half of the energy consumed in 1970, the report found.
EPS Corp Unveils Tracking System for Facility Energy, Carbon Emissions
The energy and carbon management company’s new monitoring system gives manufacturers a detailed look at emissions from products and facilities.
ASHRAE Aims for Energy Efficiency in Data Centers, Warehouses
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers recently launched two guides to move these structures toward reduced energy consumption.
Earning LEED-EB Costs Little: Report
A survey of owners and managers of facilities that have received LEED-Existing Building certification say the majority of measures associated with the process are no-cost or low-cost actions.
New Study Compares Green Building Rating Systems to AIA’s Sustainability Goals
The American Institute of Architects sees how the three main green building rating systems compare point-by-point with its criteria for what it says a green building system should include.
Wal-Mart Set to Measure Energy Use of 20 U.S. Capitols
Through a partnership with the National Governors Association, the “Greening State Capitols” program will provide energy audits in 20 U.S. state capitols to identify ways in which they can reduce energy consumption.
Innovations Review 2008
The first edition of what will be an annual report looks at innovative, effective green business strategies, such as ways to take advantage of renewable energy and make a net-zero energy office, that are both good for business and the environment.
