Opinions & ideas on energy use, climate change, and the economy in Vermont
Al Gore’s recent TED Talk, The Case for Optimism on Climate Change, is a true game changer. It is likely to have an impact as great as, or greater than, An Inconvenient Truth. Three Simple Questions: Al Gore asks three simple questions about carbon and climate change: Do we have to change? Can we change? Read More …
Getting to Net Zero National Forum, Washington D.C. I was fortunate to attend the Getting to Net Zero National Forum in Washington, DC on February 1-3 which was promoted as “A gathering to share perspectives on the growth of zero energy buildings, learn about best practices for successful projects and collaborate on opportunities for zero energy to Read More …
The rapidly evolving revolution in power generation, storage, and distribution. The rapid transformation in renewable energy technologies and plummeting costs for renewables, generation, storage, and distribution systems is now revolutionizing the global energy sector as powerfully as the Internet, social media, and other recent high technology sectors. It is also transforming our energy infrastructure and Read More …
We are alive at a unique and remarkable time – this moment in history marks one of the most major changes in human civilization. Today, fossil fuels no longer make economic sense. We have reached the tipping point where using renewable energy costs less than using fossil fuel energy. This cost consideration even excludes the Read More …
The International Living Futures Institute, the parent organization for the Living Building Challenge, hosted an “unConference” on May 23rd Portland, OR. Among the highlights, Maya Lin, renowned international architect, and Lance Hosey the author of The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design both spoke. I presented as a part of a panel with Mark Read More …
On a sunny day in July, I was happy to find myself in Boothbay, Maine for the grand opening of our most recent net-zero project, The Bosarge Family Education Center at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Heralded by the press as “The Greenest Building in Maine”, this educational center is the first net-zero commercial/institutional project Read More …
Is obfuscation one of your goals? I didn’t think so. It does seem to be a goal in many architectural, energy efficiency and sustainability circles though. The terms zero energy building, net-zero carbon, net-zero energy cost, zero net energy, net-zero energy site, net-zero electricity, near net-zero, and net-zero ready…are all tossed about to describe a Read More …
I tend to think of net zero energy as a mindset rather than a single end point. True, there are those who favor purity, specific definitions and exact measurements whenever the term net zero energy is used, but for a layperson like myself interested in change, there’s value in thinking in terms of a never-ending Read More …
As pleased as I was to see the new Jeffords building at the University of Vermont featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education, I must confess to being somewhat disappointed by the article. Although Dean Tom Vogelmann appears amiable and approachable in the first photograph, the remaining photos do little to convey the “functional elegance” Read More …
Image via Wikipedia Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) recently invited Christiane Egger from O.O. Energiesparverband, an organization similar to VEIC located in Upper Austria, to visit Vermont. O.O. Energiesparverband functions to promote energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in the federal state of Upper Austria. What is interesting is that the state of Read More …