In a continued period of falling energy prices, for oil and natural gas as well as renewables, and in an era when energy use in the U.S. has not increased in decades (despite the increase in population), Congress passed an energy bill. ... Tenant Star will present business opportunities and may some day be a market driver in the commercial real estate sector… Continue Reading
Forget what you know about earth sciences and think law. By statute all solar panels are pervious in Maryland. Of course that doesn't mean that rain actually passes through the solar panels or ...… Continue Reading
Election Day 2014 in which Republicans made big gains in Congress and statehouses across the country portends huge business opportunities for green building. As more conservative legislative bodies look to enact environmental and energy policies while driving up growth without enacting new mandates or imposing new taxes, enabling voluntary green building is positioned to be part of the new legislative agendas.… Continue Reading
The USGBC's annual Greenbuild Conference and Expo in New Orleans wrapped up last Friday and the question I am most asked is, "what was the highlight?"… Continue Reading
You can smoke marijuana in a LEED certified building assuming it is otherwise legally permissible in the jurisdiction to do so, but ...… Continue Reading
All the cool green building people will be in Memphis next week updating the 2012 International Green Construction Code. There are more than 900 changes proposed ..… Continue Reading
Both LEED and Green Globes are the very type of "voluntary consensus standards" that will be impacted by the revised OMB Circular A-119. OMB is seeking comments on the revision no later than May 12, 2014.… Continue Reading
There is a single change to LEED in v4 that is the most significant, bar none. The change is buried deep within the LEED Operations and Maintenance Existing Buildings program and is not even in the printed reference guide. The quick explanation is the change is an alternative method of satisfying the prerequisite that an existing building achieve an Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool energy performance rating of at least 75.… Continue Reading
So this post is a farewell of sorts. And, an introduction that I am very excited about. The Farewell I can’t write for this blog anymore. You may have noticed — or not noticed — that I stopped writing about one year ago. It’s not because green building doesn’t interest me any more. … Continue Reading