Green Building Articles
Architecture 2030 Fact Sheet
"Because the Building Sector is key to addressing climate change, the success of the climate bill hinges on setting realistic targets for achieving dramatic energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions in the Building Sector. Set correctly, these targets can provide a reasonable and beneficial pace for change that will achieve the reductions necessary within the timeline called for by the scientific community."
Empower yourself with the facts from Architecture 2030, a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization, established in response to the global-warming crisis.
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GE Targets Net Zero Energy Homes by 2015
Moving Net Zero To The Mainstream
GE announced that by 2015 it is developing a turn-key product portfolio that will empower consumers to build - both new home builders and existing homeowners - to efficiently consume, manage and generate electricity to enable an overall net zero annual energy cost. In addition to GE's current portfolio of energy-efficient lighting and appliances products and demand response technology that GE is currently developing, GE plans to develop residential power generation products like solar PV and residential wind products, well positioning GE to make the net zero energy home a reality.
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More Sun for Less: Solar Panels Drop in Price
For solar shoppers these days, the price is right. Panel prices have fallen about 40 percent since the middle of last year, driven down partly by an increase in the supply of a crucial ingredient for panels, according to analysts at the investment bank Piper Jaffray.
The price drops — coupled with recently expanded federal incentives - could shrink the time it takes solar panels to pay for themselves to 16 years, from 22 years, in places with high electricity costs....
American consumers have the rest of the world to thank for the big solar price break.
Until recently, panel makers had been constrained by limited production of polysilicon, which goes into most types of panels. But more factories making the material have opened, as have more plants churning out the panels themselves — especially in China.
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National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 in Las Vegas, NV Videos
Participants at the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 in Las Vegas, NV, discussed ways smart federal and state-level policies can work to upscale existing markets for energy-efficiency retrofits, renewable energy, and energy infrastructure in a way that creates jobs, saves consumers money, and generates private investment. In conjunction with the summit, John Podesta and former Senator Timothy E. Wirth (D-CO) authored a short memo about the promise of natural gas as a bridge fuel for the 21st century, and CAP released a report with the Energy Future Coalition.
The videos represent an excellent six-hour workshop on the clean energy challenge and opportunity from some of the leading experts in the country.
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A Convenient Remedy: Walkable Urban Neighborhoods
Watch this short movie to begin learning about the difference your choice of neighborhood can make in reducing your contributions to global warming --
and how it can help protect you from runaway gas prices.
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Growing Smarter, Living Healthier: Age-Friendly Neighborhood Design Guidebook
Growing Smarter, Living Healthier is a guidebook from the U.S. EPA intended for older adults who are interested in how our communities work and how we might help them become more ''age-friendly.''
From the EPA website: Many of us have longed for the kind of age-friendly neighborhood that has different types of homes for people at different stages of life; walking paths and public transit to make it easy to get around without a car; and parks, shops, services, and homes that are closer together. Older adults are finding that by designing new neighborhoods differently -- as well as redeveloping existing neighborhoods and roadways -- we can make places that are healthier for ourselves, our neighbors, and the environment. Rather than let aging limit our options, we can actually become more independent by reducing our dependence on the auto, increasing our travel choices, and improving our quality of life right when we've started to have time to enjoy it....
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