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Prefabricating Green: Building Environmentally Friendly Houses Off Site
Prefabricated housing offers several potential environmental benefits, including reduced transportation impacts, reduced waste, and quality control for better durability and performance. Aside from a few industry leaders, however, most manufacturers do not take full advantage of those efficiencies to create affordable high-performance houses.
Environmental Building News—October 1, 2007
Driving to Green Buildings: The Transportation Energy Intensity of Buildings
The energy used traveling to and from an average office building—its transportation energy intensity—can be more than twice the energy used to run it. This article addresses the significance of this issue and examines strategies for lowering transportation energy intensity through increased density and improved transit options.
Environmental Building News—September 1, 2007
Antimicrobial Chemicals in Buildings: Hygiene or Harm?
Carpets, door handles, and a myriad of other building products now contain pesticides targeting fungi and bacteria, offering potential benefit to the indoor environment, but also raising health concerns. This article asks whether antimicrobial products live up to their marketing claims and whether relying on them is a sound path to a hygienic environment.
Environmental Building News—August 1, 2007
The Challenge of Existing Homes: Retrofitting for Dramatic Energy Savings
Greenhouse gas emissions associated with residential energy use account for a fifth of all emissions in the U.S. Retrofitting existing houses to achieve a two- to three-fold reduction in energy use is necessary if we are to achieve the emissions reductions scientists say are required for avoiding catastrophic climate change. Here’s a look at how it can be done.
Environmental Building News—July 1, 2007
Making Carpet Environmentally Friendly
Carpets are the most popular floorcovering in the U.S., but they have also been associated with environmental problems including indoor air emissions and intensive resource use. However, manufacturers have worked to curb their environmental footprints by recycling carpet, examining their life-cycle impacts, and pursuing broad-based certification.
Environmental Building News—June 1, 2007
Building Information Modeling and Green Design
Building information modeling (BIM) is a design process that allows real-time feedback on design decisions and supports collaboration between disciplines. New interoperability between BIM software and building analysis tools are bringing the design process to a new level of sophistication.
Environmental Building News—May 1, 2007
Piping in Perspective: Selecting Pipe for Plumbing in Buildings
Potable water supply piping and drain-waste-vent piping represent a significant fraction of a building's materials. Choosing the greenest pipe for both applications, particularly deciding between metal pipe and plastic alternatives, requires evaluating a variety of environmental and human health impacts as well as durability and performance issues.
Environmental Building News—April 1, 2007
In the Pipeline: District Energy and Green Building
Very common in northern Europe, district energy systems use a network of buried, insulated pipes to distribute centrally produced steam, hot water, or chilled water to heat or cool multiple buildings. These systems can make use of waste heat from power generation (combined heat and power) or renewable fuel sources to help reduce the environmental impacts of buildings and communities.
Environmental Building News—March 1, 2007
Cradle to Cradle Certification: A Peek Inside MBDC's Black Box
Cradle to Cradle is a multiple-attribute product certification program based on the philosophy of architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, and the work of their company, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC). While MBDC’s consulting services are driving breakthroughs in green manufacturing, the certification program lacks some of the comprehensiveness and transparency that are increasingly expected in the green certification market.
Environmental Building News—February 1, 2007
Historic Preservation and Green Building: A Lasting Relationship
Rehabilitation of existing buildings is important to sustainability in buildings, but with historic buildings, green building and preservationism can diverge. With attention to preservation standards and suitable application of green strategies, however, those agendas can be aligned.
Environmental Building News—January 1, 2007
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