Grist | Topics | 28 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 28
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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)

Keeping tabs on Tampa Florida city takes another smart(ish) step	Katharine Wroth	13 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Yesterday, the Tampa city council gave preliminary approval to a plan that offers incentives for green building; they're expected to formally approve it later this month. We mentioned in our rockin' Smart(ish) Cities series that this was in the works -- nice to see it pursued, and heartening to see such places taking green(ish) steps.
Topics: Florida, green building, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Your Cities, Yourselves Smart-growth advocates offer tips for changing your neck of the woods		16 May 2008	Grist Feature
This week we've profiled several cities that are changing the way their residents live, work, and get around -- all with an eye toward fighting climate change and building a more sustainable future. So what can you do if your community hasn't seen the light? We asked our sources for advice, and here's what they had to say. Kimber Lanning. "Buy local whenever possible. Whether you're hir ...
Topics: advice, grassroots activism, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, urban planning (all these topics)

Urban Legends Smart(ish) Cities series ends, sustainability efforts march on	Lisa Selin Davis	16 May 2008	Grist Feature
By now, you may have forgotten that Portland was ever crowned the Miss Universe of Sustainability, and have started packing up your bicycles and solar panels for the big move to Syracuse or Tampa. OK, maybe you're not thinking of uprooting yourself and your family. More likely, you're evaluating your own city to figure out what green things it's got going for it, where it lags behind, ...
Topics: environmental justice, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

Shinier, Happier People How three Rust Belt cities are changing		15 May 2008	Grist Feature
For more on Rust Belt cities, see our full feature on sustainability initiatives underway in Cleveland. It may not be intuitive to link an area historically associated with steel mills, coal mining, and automobile assembly lines to sustainable development. But green growth is catching on in the Rust Belt, long an economically unendowed area of the country -- and its manufacturing-heavy past is coming in handy in emerging ...
Topics: green building, New York, Pennsylvania, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, urban planning, Wisconsin (all these topics)

Those About to Rock Can Cleveland bring itself back from the brink?	Kristine Hansen	15 May 2008	Grist Feature
Still known for smokestacks and football, Cleveland is turning its ship around. Photo: Craig Hatfield "Most people know Cleveland by the Browns or The Flats," says Marc Lefkowitz. From the roof of his office building, which is dotted with native wildflowers and grasses, he gestures to the downtown skyline -- marked by the iconic Mittal Steel smokestacks that gave The Flats neighborhood it ...
Topics: green building, Ohio, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, urban planning (all these topics)

Outer Limits Sprawling Atlanta seeks new routes to the future	Robert DiGiacomo	14 May 2008	Grist Feature
The City in the Forest hopes to get back to its roots. Despite its reputation as a city of wall-to-wall subdivisions, office complexes, and shopping centers, Atlanta's not a complete stranger to matters of green. At the time of its mid-19th century founding, in the woods at the end of a railroad line, it was called the "City in the Forest." And in the early 20th century, the city created the 1 ...
Topics: Georgia, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

A Moment in the Sun How three Southeast cities are changing		14 May 2008	Grist Feature
For more on Southeast cities, see our full feature on sustainability initiatives underway in Atlanta. With rapid population growth and increased climate vulnerability, the Southeastern U.S. would seem a prime place for sustainability initiatives. But the area has been slow to cotton on to the greening trend. We chalk it up to the South's shade-shifting toward red in the last fifty years -- aligning with a party that was, unt ...
Topics: climate, Florida, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, Tennessee, urban planning, Virginia (all these topics)

Dry, Dry Again How three Southwestern cities are changing		13 May 2008	Grist Feature
For more on Southwest cities see our full feature on sustainability initiatives underway in Phoenix. Scan any list of "green U.S. cities" for winners from the Southwest, and you'll find a geographical void. Sure, a liberal-leaning place like Austin or Santa Fe or Boulder might sneak onto the list, but in general, there's a dearth of entries from this sun-drenched region. And that's troubling, as Southwest cities tend ...
Topics: green building, Nevada, New Mexico, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, sprawl, Texas, urban planning (all these topics)

Hope for a Desert Delinquent What Phoenix, the poster child for environmental ills, is doing right	Lisa Selin Davis	13 May 2008	Grist Feature
Can Phoenix remake its desert-gobbling ways? In order for Phoenix to truly be a green city, it would have to be brown. Or not brown, exactly, but the sandy shade of the mountains that surround it: the jagged peaks and parched hills that enclose the Valley of the Sun. These days, though, Phoenix is a less-natural shade of brown; a ring of smoggy pollution known locall ...
Topics: Arizona, climate, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, urban planning (all these topics)

Urban Index Fast facts about cities, climate change, and sustainability		12 May 2008	Grist Feature
Less than 1: Percent of the earth's surface covered by cities (1) 75: Percent of global energy consumed by cities (2) 80: Percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions contributed by cities (1) 6.7 billion: World population in 2007 (3) 50: Percent of world population expected to live in urban areas by the end of 2008 (3) 70: Percent of world population expected to live in urban areas by 2050 (3) 840: Mayors who have ...
Topics: climate, green building, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, urban planning (all these topics)

What's a Sustainable City, Anyway? Green-city ranking group SustainLane explains its methodology	James Elsen	12 May 2008	Grist Feature
With a chart-topping 26,000 people per square mile, New York City has to be smart. Photo: Tom Twigg How smart is your city? Take our quiz to find out. Back in 2004, the news emerged that two-thirds of the world's population might be living in cities by 2030. At SustainLane, we got curious about what cities were doing to handle that growth, and we began taking a closer look ...
Topics: green building, placemaking, public lands, public transportation, Smartish Cities, special series, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

Smart(ish) Cities A Grist special series on unexpected urban progress		12 May 2008	Grist Feature
Hear the phrase "smart growth" or "green city," and chances are you'll think of one place: Portland, Ore. That progressive pocket of the Northwest has become synonymous with sustainability, landing atop many a list and capturing more than a few hearts and minds along the way. Not far behind, other stars of the Northwest and Northeast vie for the top spot -- places like Seattle, Vancouver, Boston ...
Topics: green building, green living, placemaking, Smartish Cities, special series, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

Drawing on Experience Architect R.K. Stewart on building the future of sustainable design	Sarah van Schagen	25 Apr 2008	Grist Feature
If you build it, they will come. But if you build it green, you just may be able to save the planet. R.K. Stewart. Or so says a recent report, which suggests that green building could help cut North America's greenhouse-gas emissions more quickly and less expensively than any other measure. And word is getting out about the promise of this fast-growing field -- some have ev ...
Topics: art, climate, green building, interview, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

City of Angles If you're building in L.A., you gotta build green		23 Apr 2008	News
Posted at 9:36 AM on 23 Apr 2008 Los Angeles has become the biggest U.S. city to pass green-building laws. Under the regulations announced Tuesday, new commercial and residential structures of more than 50,000 square feet will have to be LEED certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. The law also applies to major renovations. "We look toward the future through a greener lens," says Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, "a ...
Topics: green building, Los Angeles, news, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Building green, one city at a time Eager municipalities hopping on board	Katharine Wroth	02 Apr 2008	Gristmill
In case you haven't noticed, it's officially the Year of Green Building. And while some areas have had eco-standards in place for a while now (helloooooo, D.C.!), the fevah is spreading in cities across the U.S. Take a gander at a few places considering formal green-building guidelines this spring: In a move described as a 'watershed time, a wonderful thing,' Chula Vista, Calif. voted yesterday to approve mandatory green-building standards for homes and business ...
Topics: green building, legislation, local politics, placemaking, politics, urban planning (all these topics)

Biloxi Clues A post-Katrina homebuilding project gives hope for weathering severe storms	Emily Gertz	20 Mar 2008	Grist Feature
When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Mississippi on August 29, 2005, the storm's 125-mile-an-hour winds and 25-foot wall of seawater ground homes, boats, and businesses into matchsticks across the state's three coastal counties: Jackson, Hancock, and Harrison. The cities of Waveland and Bay St. Louis, roughly 20 miles east of the Mississippi-Louisiana state line, were practical ...
Topics: Army Corps of Engineers, green building, Mississippi, Mississippi River, placemaking, severe weather, special series, urban planning (all these topics)

Green building certified! Again! New certification planned by safety group	Katharine Wroth	07 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Maybe this all makes more sense to green builders than it does to me, but I see news today of plans to develop another new green-building certification, this one sponsored by the International Code Council. It seems like only yesterday three weeks ago that the National Association of Home Builders launched its own 'education, verification, and certification' program, and of course our pal LEED keeps chugging along. Oh wait, look what happens when you read the who ...
Topics: green building, placemaking, urban planning (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)

Monstrosity or innovation? World's largest building approved in Moscow	Katharine Wroth	03 Jan 2008	Gristmill
Catching up on some late-December news (how dare the world keep spinning during vacation?): The city of Moscow approved plans for Crystal Island, a 27-million-square-foot complex designed by the fellow behind London's notorious Gherkin. Set to include 3,000 hotel rooms, 900 apartments, an international school for 500 students, theaters, offices, and stores, the gargantuan development is, said architect Norman Foster in a company press release, 'a paradigm of compact, ...
Topics: green building, placemaking, Russia, urban planning (all these topics)

Green building is the new black Rising hopes for 2008	Katharine Wroth	03 Jan 2008	Gristmill
Remember how, way back in 2007, green was the new black? Watch for a new new black in 2008: green building. The press is gushing with green-building news: According to a report from the American Institute of Architects, the number of cities with green-building programs has increased 418 percent since 2003, and AIA -- which has issued a list of 50 strategies for reducing buildings' fossil-fuel consumption 50 percent by 2010 -- says more cities are on track to ...
Topics: green building, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

The greening of Greensburg How one small town in Kansas is turning disaster into progress	Maywa Montenegro	28 Dec 2007	Gristmill
There wasn't much to be happy about on today's media spectrum. So I thought I'd share one heartwarming story about one Kansas town's efforts to pick up the pieces after a devastating tornado:Townhomes are beginning to rise from the ragged tree trunks, weeds and ruins off Main Street. They mark a radical departure from traditional low-income housing, according to Duncan Trahl, who is from Pennsylvania and on contract with the National Renewable Energy Labs.The to ...
Topics: green building, Kansas, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Not just a pretty face Brad Pitt pledges millions for sustainable rebuilding of New Orleans	Joseph Romm	26 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Brad turns out to be as serious (on climate) as he is good looking. He came to the first CGI as an observer, not a speaker. But today he announced a major commitment: Brad Pitt expanded his commitment to New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward today by announcing plans for a new community of homes in the area hardest-hit by the worst natural disaster in American history. He is partnering with Steve Bing in creating the 150 affordable and sustainable homes, which are t ...
Topics: celebrity, green building, Louisiana, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

No Looking Back Los Angeles Times series looks at NOLA's rebuilding effort two years later		30 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
No Looking Back Los Angeles Times series looks at NOLA's rebuilding effort two years later The two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is a largely grim occasion, but a Los Angeles Times series has found cause for inspiration. In a 10-story installment, the paper appraises the rebuilding effort in New Orleans and the innovation it has sparked -- particularly in ...
Topics: green building, innovation, Louisiana, news, placemaking, severe weather, urban planning (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)

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Stories About: green building AND placemaking AND urban planning