In a city like Charleston, with deep cultural roots and countless historic buildings, the effects of development on neighborhood preservation and the growing impacts of climate change demand a new approach that can address both issues simultaneously.
Island Press Field Notes
Around the country, interest in Zero Net Energy (ZNE) buildings is growing—this fall Santa Monica passed the world’s first ZNE building requirement for new single family homes and Boise unveiled Idaho’s first commercial ZNE building.
Last spring's Presidential appeal for fixing the nation’s “raggedy” infrastructure (his word choice) has failed to stir a response from Congress. However, bold...
Today we watched the assembly and installation of the thirty-foot blades of a 100 KW wind turbine on the 10 acre campus of the Woods Hole Research Center on the southern coast of Cape Cod.
Cities and regions will move from linear to circular or closed-looped systems, where substantial amounts of their energy and material needs are provided from waste streams. Eco-efficient cities will reduce their ecological footprint by reducing...
The potential to grow energy and provide food and materials locally will become part of urban infrastructure. Photosynthetic processes in cities will reduce their ecological impact through replacing fossil fuels and can bring substantial ecological...
The seven key innovations of resilient cities are set as city models (being detailed over the next several weeks here at “Eco-Compass”). While no one city has shown innovation in all seven areas, some are quite advanced in one or two. The challenge...
Green building consultant Jerry Yudelson has published his "Top Ten" list of green building trends for 2009. Yudelson says that green building will continue to grow in spite of the global credit crisis and the ongoing economic recession in most countries...