Grist | Topics | 12 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 12 of 12
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Your city council could save the world How local building codes can be adapted to meet the 2030 Challenge right now	Edward Mazria	09 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Compared to cutting-edge technologies -- nanotechnology, coal with carbon capture and sequestration, biomimicry -- building codes seem downright stodgy and, dare I say it?, boring. Yet, much to the surprise of many, building codes are fast becoming the Titans in the battle against climate change. Able to fell with a single blow the giants on the other side of the battlefield -- out-of-control greenhouse-gas emissions, thoughtless energy consumption, and gross energy in ...
Topics: energy, green building, legislation, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

The ghost of link dumps past	David Roberts	03 May 2008	Gristmill
So I was thinking to myself, self, you should do a link dump post so you can close out some of this cluttery crap in your browser. I go to start one, and what do I find? An old link dump post that I'd never published! So here's an old link dump. Watch for a new one in mere days! ----- Thanks to the UK Times Online for deeming Gristmill "the green blog from the other side of the pond." It's a shame this op-ed is relegated to the Billings Gazette. I'd li ...
Topics: coal, dumbassery, energy, green building, placemaking (all these topics)

Green buildings wise up Linking green buildings and the smart grid will spawn a green energy ecosystem	Patrick Mazza	14 Apr 2008	Gristmill
A new energy ecosystem is emerging that connects smart, green buildings with a smart, green grid to optimize energy flows. Since commercial and industrial buildings represent around 40 percent of U.S. energy use, and homes another 30 percent, this represents the most significant opportunity for energy efficiency and mass-scale renewable generation. But creating this new green energy ecosystem means linking what are today heavily 'stovepiped' separate systems within ...
Topics: electricity grid, energy, green building, placemaking (all these topics)

Progressive energy policy in Bayou City? Carl Pope talks market failures with energy execs at Houston energy conference	Josh Dorner	28 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Today's second panel -- Carl's, on 'conservation and the environment' -- opened with remarks from Houston Mayor Bill White. Despite my earlier comments about the road-crazy Bayou City, Mayor White laid out some items from what appears to be a truly progressive energy agenda for Houston, including making it an international leader in green buildings. Some of his more interesting comments came when White told the story of being one of the staffers that helped ...
Topics: energy, green building, placemaking, Texas (all these topics)

Let buildings heat and cool themselves How to kill coal in 10 years	Jon Rynn	20 Feb 2008	Gristmill
We know that coal is the enemy of the human race, what with carbon emissions, deadly air pollution, and unsafe and destructive mining practices. The supply of coal is becoming more problematic as well: recently, a Wall Street Journal article described a 'coal-price surge,' and Richard Heinberg has warned that coal may peak much sooner than most people expect. So what's to like? Not much. But since coal-fired plants provide almost half of our electricity, we can't ge ...
Topics: coal, energy, energy at home, energy efficiency, green building, placemaking, renewable energy, urban planning (all these topics)

Financing green building and retrofits A public policy silver bullet that's available to fight global warming today	David Roberts	17 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Steve Heckeroth's piece "Solar is the solution" has been recommended all over the green blogosphere, first by Robert Rapier, I think. It's great reading, but I wanted to hone in on one thing he mentions -- a piece of public policy that has been woefully under-hyped. To wit: with today's technology, we know how to make new buildings net energy generators, and we know how to retrofit existing buildings to reduce their energy consumption by well over 50%, in s ...
Topics: energy, green building, placemaking (all these topics)

Portland of the Fee Portland, Ore., will pay builders to build green		09 Nov 2007	News
Posted at 2:07 PM on 09 Nov 2007 Portland, Ore., has unveiled an innovative plan to slash greenhouse-gas emissions. The city will require an energy-efficiency inspection of new homes, then levy a tax on builders who have merely complied with Oregon's efficiency requirements. Builders who construct homes 30 percent more efficient than the state building code requires will escape the fee; those who go above and beyond, with cons ...
Topics: carbon tax, energy, energy efficiency, green building, innovation, news, placemaking, Portland (all these topics)

The Only Thing We Have to Sears Is Sears Itself Clinton, Daley to green Sears Tower, other Chicago landmarks		08 Nov 2007	News
Posted at 8:42 AM on 08 Nov 2007 The tallest building in North America is officially going green, along with a few of its Windy City counterparts. At a green building expo in Chicago yesterday, former President Bill Clinton and eterna-Mayor Richard Daley announced a partnership to retrofit landmarks including the Sears Tower and the Merchandise Mart, the nation's largest commercial cente ...
Topics: Chicago, climate, energy, green building, placemaking (all these topics)

Green goes the Lower Ninth The Nation reports on sustainable revitalization of the New Orleans neighborhood	Grist	23 Aug 2007	Gristmill
This article by Rebecca Solnit is reprinted from the Sept. 10, 2007 issue of The Nation, released today, which focuses on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, two years later. Solnit is the author of a dozen books, including, most recently, Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics. ----- The word 'will' comes up constantly in the Lower Ninth Ward now; 'We Will Rebuild' is spray-painted onto empty houses; 'it will happen,' one organizer told me. Will itself ...
Topics: energy, green building, Louisiana, placemaking, solar voltaic power, urban planning, wetlands (all these topics)

Loan star Making energy efficiency possible for cheapskate homeowners	Clark Williams-Derry	20 Jul 2007	Gristmill
Apropos of my recent realization that if I had bought a new furnace on credit rather than waiting to save up the cash I'd have saved a bundle of money over the last 5 years, here's something I've been meaning to write about for months: a Vancouver developer that came up with a smart -- I mean, diabolically smart -- financing scheme to build a super-efficient condo complex. (Proving, I suppose, biodiversivist's point that spreadsheets are, in fact, wonderful thi ...
Topics: energy, energy at home, energy efficiency, green building, green living, placemaking, Vancouver (all these topics)

Clinton foundation energy efficiency plan: An offset by any other name ... New financial instruments may one day plug cities' building codes into global carbon market	Adam Stein	17 May 2007	Gristmill
The William J. Clinton foundation has arranged billions in financing to help a coalition of sixteen cities cut urban emissions by applying a range of energy efficiency measures to aging buildings. Efficiency measures tends to get lumped in under the heading of conservation, but they really deserve to be their own full-fledged category of solutions to global warming. If conservation is simply doing less of a polluting activity, efficiency is doing the same activity with ...
Topics: Bill Clinton, carbon offsets, energy, energy efficiency, green building, placemaking (all these topics)

Material intensity Indirect greenhouse-gas savings	Gar Lipow	18 Apr 2007	Gristmill
(Part of the No Sweat Solutions series.) Previously I pointed out that efficiency, doing more with less, is a key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (A lot of people on Gristmill are fans of conservation, doing less with less. I have nothing against this, so long as it is a voluntary choice, but I won't be spending a lot of time on it.) Normally, when people think of efficiency they think of direct savings -- insulating homes, electric cars, and so on. That is: ma ...
Topics: Amory Lovins, energy, energy efficiency, green building, placemaking (all these topics)

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