From: Brown To: Green

Back to the Future

2009-02-28T10:56:00.008-05:00

You may have noticed less frequent postings to this blog lately. Allow me to explain. My spare time has been focused over the past few months on a quest to become the first Director of Sustainability at Indiana University and making the transition from one career to another. I start that new career on Monday.For me this is a return to the beautiful Bloomington campus where I first learned about

Ball State University Going Geothermal to Slash Their Carbon Footprint in Half

2009-02-07T15:24:00.016-05:00

Ball State University's Board of Trustees voted Friday to cut their campus carbon footprint in half by investing in the largest university geothermal heating and cooling system in the country in lieu of a proposed upgrade of their coal-fired boiler plant.Four coal-fired boilers will be taken off line in two phases saving $2 million and 85,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. In addition, the

Building Dashboard for the Whole Elon University Campus Helps Save Energy

2009-01-25T21:59:00.006-05:00

Elon University, located in Elon, North Carolina in the Piedmont region east of Greensboro, has just over 5000 students who know to the watt how much energy they are using at any given moment. EU realized that if you want to change something, you typically will have more success if you have a method to measure your progress (like my bathroom scale and my diet). Trying to teach students and

Fasten Your Seatbelt and Prepare For a Soft Green Miracle Landing in 2009

2009-01-18T19:25:00.011-05:00

One prediction for 2009 that I'm sure will be true is it will be a very interesting year. We have a new president taking office amid a perfect storm of foreign and domestic problems of epic magnitude on our hot, flat and crowded world. Add several hundred billion in new federal funding and tax breaks to attempt to stem the most pressing of those problems and you have a recipe for even more

Seven Surefire Steps to Passing the LEED AP Exam

2009-01-09T21:19:00.023-05:00

A LEED Accredited Professional is someone who has passed an 80-question multiple choice exam which tests their ability to apply the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System™. Currently three versions of the exam exist, for New Construction, Existing Buildings and Commercial Interiors. New exams are under development and

Addicted to Blokus

2009-01-04T18:05:00.005-05:00

One of the rules of blogging is to post frequently. I violated that rule to spend some quality time off with family and friends over the holidays. I hope you enjoyed some relaxing family times as well.Before I get back to my mission to turn the world from brown to green, I wanted to mention a board game that my family got hooked on. It is a strategy game called Blokus (pronounced "block us"). It

Nine Books of 2008 to Prepare You to Change the World in 2009

2008-12-13T09:51:00.037-05:00

November was a month of travel and discovery for me. My bags remained packed from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education conference in Raleigh, to Greenbuild 2008 in Boston, to an interview for a net-zero-energy library gig in Phoenix. All that conferencing and traveling and networking revealed some more great books as well as providing time away from my

Chicago's Climate Action Plan

2008-11-30T12:31:00.000-05:00

Mayor Daley atop Chicago City HallYou may have heard about Chicago's ambitious Climate Action Plan. I urge you to read it and then, perhaps more importantly, read the research it is based on. Of particular interest is the section on Adaptation to climate change. Chicago has invested substantial resources in research and implementation and they have provided a useful model for other Midwestern

Are Green Buildings Really Having an Impact?

2008-11-28T19:18:00.000-05:00

So much new information is announced during the U.S. Green Building Council's annual conference that it is impossible to sort through all of it in real time, but now that I have had time to unpack from my trip to Boston, I thought I would try to illuminate some of the most important, one blog post at a time over the next few weeks.Let's start with a report released by Rob Watson, who led the

Three Gifts for you from Greenbuild 2008

2008-11-22T07:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday at Greenbuild in Boston I had the opportunity to hear from three of our most gifted thinkers; Bill McKibben, E.O. Wilson and Janine Benyus.All three provided gifts in the form of web sites that have the potential to change the world.Bill McKibben gave us 350.orgE. O. Wilson unwrapped the Encyclopedia of LifeJanine Benyus handed us AskNature.orgSpend an hour with each one this weekend

USGBC Turns Fifteen in Boston

2008-11-19T22:04:00.000-05:00

Greenbuild 2008, underway in Boston this week, marks the 15th year of the U.S. Green Building Council, one of the world's fastest growing non-profit organizations. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu was giving the keynote address this morning, I could not help but reflect on the amazing history of this organization.In 1993, USGBC founders David Gottfried, a developer, and Rick Fedrizzi, then with Carrier

Colleges Tackle Climate Change at AASHE 2008 in Raleigh, North Carolina

2008-11-10T22:05:00.000-05:00

When I attended my first U.S. Green Building Council event in 1994, less than 200 people showed up. At the last Greenbuild International Conference in Chicago, more than a 100 times that number showed up to crowd McCormick Place. Next week, Greenbuild descends on Boston for what promises to be another record attendance that will probably approach 30,000.Today, I am midway through another

College Campuses Going Climate Neutral

2008-11-07T22:13:00.000-05:00

Raleigh's new LEED-Registered Convention Center will host AASHE 2008When a relatively new national organization sells out its second annual conference, you have to think they may be on to something. Such is the case for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. AASHE 2008 has been sold out for a couple of weeks but I was lucky enough to get off the waiting list so

Energy vs. Water

2008-10-20T11:19:00.000-04:00

Bellagio Hotel Fountain in Las VegasThis morning I addressed the New England Library Association in Manchester, a lovely New Hampshire mill town ablaze in autumnal colors. My talk was about Future-Proof Design as a response to dramatic change. I picked up the current issue of Scientific American Earth 3.0 in the airport on the way here, a new magazine devoted to "Solutions for Sustainable

A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste

2008-10-12T14:24:00.000-04:00

Google Headquarters putting its money where its roof is. Tired of all the bad economic news? Could you use a 121% return on your investment dollar right now? Looking for a safe place to invest your money? Then pull yourself away from your doom and gloom TV for a while and take a look at these good news videos.Probably the best summary of the business case for high-performance green buildings was

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

2008-10-07T20:31:00.000-04:00

When President Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which you may know as the 'bailout bill," new incentives went into effect that may advance green buildings and renewable energy that will ultimately help move the economy in a better direction. Thanks to Paul Jones, Jr., a green tax attorney and Co-Founder of INSA at Ice Miller, LLC for providing the basis for my summary. Any

Real Life LEED Publishes Full LEED EB Submittal From University of California

2008-10-02T12:14:00.000-04:00

Real Life LEED, an essential blog that details the trials and tribulations of a fellow real life LEED consultant, reported this week that the University of California has given all of us green building certifiers a great gift, a complete set of LEED for Existing Buildings documentation for their 1111 Franklin Street facility.While this is for the older version of LEED EB (the new LEED EB -

Bored with the Ice Cream Swirl CFL?

2008-10-01T22:17:00.000-04:00

Until recently, not much changed in the light bulb world since Thomas Alva Edison invented a carbon filament that burned for forty hours in 1879. Compact fluorescent bulbs were a giant leap forward in energy efficiency and long life that first appeared in the mid 90's when they were very expensive due to the difficulty of manufacturing the swirling glass tubes that have now become so

The Greenest Cities in the United States

2008-09-24T18:20:00.000-04:00

A passenger train enters the eastbound platform of Portland, Oregon's Washington Park MAX station.SustainLane's just announced their new US City Rankings 2008, which ranks the nation's most populous cities in terms of their green score. Portland ranks #1 while my city, Indianapolis, comes in at #44. In other words, if your mission is to change things "from brown to green," this is a much better

Senate Shines Light on Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008

2008-09-24T16:43:00.000-04:00

After eight attempts, the Senate finally passed H.R. 6049, the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 with a resounding bipartisan vote of 93 to 2. It now returns to the House, which is expected to act quickly reconcile the Senate provisions and send the bill on to the President for signature. Obviously, there are enough votes for an override of a potential Presidential veto.Among other

Time for Future-Proof Design

2008-09-19T20:07:00.000-04:00

You may be wondering what draft horses have to do with future-proof design. Read my latest published article on the topic - the cover story for Library Journal's Libraries by Design.

How to Combat Higher Home Heating Bills

2008-09-18T21:21:00.000-04:00

This morning's Indianapolis Star had a front page headline stating "Heating bills to rise 15% to 25% this winter." In reaction to higher wholesale natural gas prices, utilities all over America are raising their rates, again. Natural gas prices have doubled since 2000 and, in spite of what T. Boone Pickens might want to sell you, they will probably continue to do so.So what can you do about that?

The Funniest Moment On TV?

2008-09-16T19:57:00.001-04:00

Habitat for Humanity Goes LEED Platinum

2008-09-12T19:29:00.000-04:00

Most people would not equate green buildings with affordable housing, especially when you achieve the highest level LEED Platinum Certification. Most people would not equate a Habitat for Humanity home as cutting edge design. But the first LEED Platinum Habitat for Humanity home serves to shatter conventional wisdom. This unique partnership with Drury University may inform more sustainable

Hurricane-resistant Green Homes

2008-09-07T11:49:00.000-04:00

With hurricane Ike potentially following in the path of hurricane Gustav, some people on the Gulf coast may be looking for housing that can take on a disaster and not only remain intact but remain habitable with it's own back-up systems for essential services. As I continue to do research for my own, future-proof, disaster-resistant dream home, I was directed to the StalwartBuilt Homes web site