From the category archives:

Carbon footprint

Zero Carbon Britain before Zero Carbon Vermont?

Pat Heffernan on June 19, 2010

I’m jealous. I know it’s not becoming, but I can’t help it. We’ve been outdone not once, but twice. As a firm believer in the theory you’ll never get there if you don’t set a stretch goal, a BHAG, it’s inspiring but galling to find out from Alex Steffen and Amanda Reed that Britain has [...]

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LEED buildings: The Gap between Promise and Performance

Pat Heffernan on May 25, 2010

The Promise A recent opinion piece by Alec Appelbaum in the New York Times caught my eye. In “Don’t LEED Us Astray,” Appelbaum wrote about the promise represented by the grand opening of 1 Bryant Park, a new LEED platinum-certified office tower in New York city. The tower is the first to rate platinum, the [...]

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A Must-Read: Krugman’s Building a Green Economy

Pat Heffernan on April 30, 2010

Sometimes I agree with him. Sometimes, passionately, I don’t. But after reading Paul Krugman’s “Building a Green Economy” in the Sunday New York Times magazine, mostly I just wanted to hug him. Klugman begins in a matter of fact way by observing that in the debate over climate economics, the “casual reader might have the [...]

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Four Must Do Steps to Win
the Energy Challenge

Bill Maclay on March 15, 2010

Image by geofones via Flickr At the 2010  Efficiency Vermont’s Better Buildings Conference, Andy Shapiro of Energy Balance and I offered an “Energy Challenge” to the audience of architects and building owners to begin a broad based campaign to track building energy performance. This challenge extends not only to collecting the data for your business [...]

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Bill Gates TED discussion on Energy and Zero carbon footprint

Pat Heffernan on February 21, 2010

This is a clear and fascinating explanation of the CO2 challenge and why we must do something about reaching net zero, starting now. Personally though, it’s distressing to hear that rather than pursue renewable energy and battery technology solutions, a to-me frightening new nuclear technology has caught Bill Gates’ attention. My mind is having difficulty [...]

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Silly S.E.C. — Climate Change Affects Everyone

Pat Heffernan on January 31, 2010

So the S.E.C. has now said that companies have an obligation to tell investors of any risks, or potential benefits, that climate change poses to their business. To quote the New York Times: The S.E.C., on a party-line 3-2 vote, issued “interpretive guidance” to help companies decide when and whether to disclose matters related to [...]

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Net Zero Energy Buildings: Stable Returns in an Unstable World

Bill Maclay on September 18, 2009

Faced with multiple challenges from environmental pressures due to climate change, energy price volatility and the economic downturn, we have never had a better time to build wisely. But we’re not talking about any ordinary buildings—we are talking about the design and construction of buildings that minimize the use of natural resources and energy. Such [...]

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4 Steps to Effective Change for a Net Zero Vermont

Pat Heffernan on August 5, 2009

Deep down we all probably recognize that despite good intentions and occasional spurts of progress, the lifestyle changes needed to successfully lower carbon footprints and increase energy efficiency will not be easy. We’ve seen and heard it many times: Old habits die hard. How can we make and sustain the change needed to help Vermont [...]

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