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Beijing is building up for the Olympics, spending $40 billion to impress the world -- and pushing commercial architecture to its limits. National Geographic's May 2008 special-edition issue, "China, Inside the Dragon," features dozens of articles, most of them short, all of them about China.
Continue reading "China: New Great Walls - Construction for the Beijing Olympics (NG)" »
How will Beijing stage "green games" in one of the world's most polluted cities? By placing all sources of pollution on hold for two months. If the plan fails, the International Olympic Committee's president says smog could postpone some outdoor events.
Continue reading "Beijing Construction to be Halted ahead of China Olympic Games (NY Times)" »
We explore three commercial buildings without power bills, and contrast the many meanings of "zero" in energy and carbon. First, a commercial building proven to be zero energy -- and then some. In the first 12 months after construction, this building produced more energy than it consumed. Then we learn about two more buildings presented in the ZEB session at Globe last month. The Energy Minute is about the meaning of zero: What should be counted when designating a building "net zero energy" or "zero carbon"? In the Program Notes we have photos and links to more information for those of you who are researching the net-zero option for your own buildings. (podcast) (photo)
Continue reading "Three Buildings Net Zero Energy - Building Priorities Briefing" »
CHICAGO, April 1, 2008 -- Remember the turn of the 21st century, when intelligent buildings were at the bleeding edge of technology? Now, artificial intelligence is out of the lab and headed for a building near you. Buildings have literally taken on a life of their own and today, the first of April, the first sentient building opened in Chicago Illinois. Denis Du Bois interviews Cornice Leed, the brains of the new Gore Tower office building in the Windy City. (podcast) (transcript)
Energy Minute: Biomass is slowly gaining popularity for space heat -- in part because it's a renewable energy source, and in part because it's less expensive to operate than a conventional furnace. (podcast)
Energy is the theme of the upcoming ConnectivityWeek conference -- specifically the energy we use in buildings, and how we can leverage things like renewables, distributed energy, demand response, and information to help solve energy-related problems. Denis Du Bois interviews Anto Budiardjo, president and CEO of Clasma Events, about the "energy revolution" that will change the way buildings are designed and built. (podcast)
Continue reading "ConnectivityWeek 2008 Promises "Energy Revolution" for Buildings" »
Energy independence comes in many forms. We look at a commercial office example and a residential example that demonstrate how solar helps owners to be self-sufficient in ways that match their values. The California Healthcare Foundation covered the roof of their newly renovated offices with solar panels. Going solar is consistent with their mission to improve the health of Californians. Borrego Solar co-founder Chris Anderson built a new home for himself and went off-grid. He wants to show Northeasterners that a home can be energy independent and comfortable at the same time. Renewable energy isn't the only green-building feature of these two projects. (podcast) (photos)
Continue reading "Energy Independence at the Office and at Home - Building Priorities Briefing" »
Seattle Home Show 2008 -- This is the place where Puget Sound-area homeowners and exhibitors gather twice a year. If you're thinking of building or remodeling, you'd come here to find contractors, retailers, designers -- and if you're an exhibitor here, you'll meet thousands of homeowners in a few short days... but what about the rest of the year? Home Savvi is using technology to bring homeowners together with the green building information, products and services they need, online. Denis Du Bois interviews Villette Nolon, CEO and co-founder of Home Savvi, at the 64th Annual Seattle Home Show. (podcast) (screen shots)
Continue reading "Home Savvi Connects Homeowners with Green Building Resources" »
Seattle Home Show -- Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels commemorated the anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol on opening day of the 64th Annual Seattle Home Show with a short speech and a tour of energy-efficiency and renewable-energy exhibits here.
Continue reading "Mayor Marks Kyoto Anniversary with Home Show Tour" »
This month we explore the cohousing trend in residential green building. We start with an audio tour of a cohousing community now under construction in New Hampshire. The sustainable housing development uses wood pellet boilers to provide heat and hot water, so the Energy Minute is about using biomass as a heating fuel. In the third half of the show we hear about what opportunities the cohousing trend creates for builders and developers. (podcast) (photos)
Continue reading "Cohousing: Green Building Trend and Opportunity - Building Priorities Briefing" »
Energy Minute: Systems in a facility can be networked so they can interoperate. Just stringing a wire between a security system and a lighting controller isn't enough. Your choices will affect the life cycle cost of your building or campus.
Continue reading "Networked Building Controls: Open or Proprietary?" »
This is the premier edition of the new Building Priorities Briefing. This month we'll see what decisions went into the design of a new mixed-use campus to reduce their costs throughout the building lifecycle. The Energy Minute this month is about open versus proprietary networking methods for building controls. And Denis Du Bois interviews the consultant who designed the networked controls system for the Albert L. Schultz Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, CA. (podcast)
Continue reading "Open Networks for Building Control Systems - Building Priorities Briefing" »
A valuable new audio series from Energy Priorities magazine keeps commercial building owners, developers and managers up to date with green building.
Continue reading "What Is the Building Priorities Briefing?" »
Data center managers are increasingly concerned about the energy footprint of their operations. Power consumption, cooling demand, and physical space are at or near maxed-out levels. Several resources are emerging to provide information about shrinking the footprint and reducing the energy-related risks in data centers.
Continue reading "Data Center Energy: Information Resources Emerge" »
GREENBUILD-- Hear from 7 exhibitors in 12 minutes in this whirlwind audio tour of the expo hall. Denis Du Bois hand-picks energy-related vendors and brings you an audio summary of what they have to say. Denis does the walking, interviews the top people in each booth and edits their message down to its essence; you just sit back and enjoy. (podcast)
Continue reading "The Business Case for Green Office Buildings" »
GREENBUILD-- Every building is different, and the US Green Building Council is working hard to establish LEED standards that apply fairly to all kinds of buildings. Would a more fluid, flexible system be more effective at encouraging green building?
Continue reading "Green Building Standards Pass up Golden Opportunities" »
GREENBUILD-- What we saw at Greenbuild 2007 could reconceptualize the way architects design buildings. When you see the photos, you'll agree. Autodesk terms it a "research project" for now. Will it be a real product, when, and in what form? EP talked with Autodesk VP Phil Bernstein about the company's sustainability analysis dashboard.
Continue reading "Autodesk Sustainability Analysis Dashboard Wows Greenbuild Attendees" »
GREENBUILD-- The tally on the white board in the press room is up to 20,500 attendees at Greenbuild 2007. There are still more people in line to get in.
Continue reading "Greenbuild 2007 Gets Even More Jam-Packed" »
GREENBUILD-- Put 18,000 architects, builders and vendors in one building, when you were expecting fewer than 10,000, and you get...
GREENBUILD-- President Bill Clinton, speaking to a packed auditorium of 8,000 attendees at the oversold Greenbuild 2007 conference in Chicago, gave the audience a call to action: Prove to the world that solving the climate problem is the biggest opportunity for economic and social mobilization since World War II.
A quick note to congratulate the Seattle winners and finalists in the third annual BetterBricks Awards.
Continue reading "BetterBricks Seattle Award Winners 2007: Congratulations" »
A couple of weeks ago, the authors of the Sketchup Blog decided to run a friendly competition. They asked readers to submit examples of sustainable work they've done in SketchUp. Six projects were selected -- "They were the most compelling, and most complete, that we received," writes blog author Aidan Chopra.
Continue reading "Green Design in Google SketchUp Highlighted" »
As American businesses wrestle with sustainability and the prospect of even higher energy costs, competitive energy suppliers and members of the building automation industry are coming together at DR Expo 2007 to collaborate on ways to fast-track energy demand response solutions.
One of the promises of a "smart grid" is to bring the advantages of data and communications networks to the infrastructure that delivers electricity to our businesses and homes. That would make it possible to fully deploy ideas like demand response and real-time pricing -- ideas that depend on having intelligence at both ends of the wire -- sophisticated systems at the utility end; and at the customer's site, smart energy meters. Why is the United States so far behind Europe in deploying advanced metering infrastructures? What will it take to accelerate adoption? Denis Du Bois interviews Jeff Lund, a VP in the Networked Energy Services division at Echelon. (podcast) (transcript)
Continue reading "Marketing Intelligence: The Challenges of Selling Smart Meters in the US" »
Before investing in lighting upgrades, consider spending some money on paint. Lighting Design Lab, a nationally recognized research facility in Seattle, has done some research into how a room's surfaces affect the quality of light.
Continue reading "Lighting Boost, No Power Needed (Lighting Design Lab News)" »
In follow-up to my earlier article "How Green is Your IT?" here's an AP article on cooling data centers.
Continue reading "Data Centers Suck Down Energy, Mostly for AC (Seattle P-I)" »
How do you define "Green IT?" Growth is driving global trends in resource depletion, air and water pollution, energy consumption, and climate change. A third of U.S. energy consumption comes from commercial buildings. Businesses are automating those buildings to reduce costs and emissions. Will IT lead, or follow, the coming change? This is the second in a two-part series on IT's role in solving energy and environmental problems.
Continue reading "What Is Green IT? Part 2: Converging with the Shadow Network" »
The article covers an integration of systems in state facilities in Missouri, where the government’s energy costs had soared from $42 million to $74 million in two years.
Continue reading "IT-based Buildings: The New Trend of Managing Buildings via the Network (GCN)" »
BuilConn was an interactive environment where attendees helped shape big ideas, such as Buildings 2.0 and GridWise. Ken Sinclair of Automated Buildings magazine called to get my report from the conference, and he published this article:
How do you define "Green IT?" Sure, data center energy savings are a huge opportunity. Data centers consume more energy per square foot than any other part of an office building. But they're part of an information and services supply chain that begins with raw materials and ends with the disposal of waste. The chain includes people, the space they occupy, and the cars they drive. Along the way, the chain increasingly gobbles energy and spews greenhouse gases.
The IT department is in a unique position to change that. This is the first in a two-part series on IT's role in solving energy and environmental problems.
Continue reading "What Is Green IT? Part 1: Cutting Emissions and Energy Use Enterprise-wide" »
Continue reading "IPCC Fourth Assessment Defines Role of Buildings in Climate Change Mitigation" »
Gatorade has earned Gold LEED Certification for its new manufacturing plant, in part by maximizing its energy efficiency.
Continue reading "Gatorade Goes Green, Gets Gold (Archi-Tech)" »
The BuilConn and ConnectivityWeek conferences ended on a high note with an award gala reception and dinner.
ConnectivityWeek founder Anto Budiardjo was master of ceremonies. This closing dinner and awards ceremony was mostly for fun, but Mr. Budiardjo had a few serious things to say. Then he announced the winners of the 2007 Buildy Awards. (podcast)
Continue reading "ConnectivityWeek 2007: Buildy Award Winners" »
Interview with Ed Richards of Richards-Zeta. We talk about new tools and ideas for buildings. Ed shares his insights about the influence of California, Europe and Asia on those ideas. (podcast)
Continue reading "ConnectivityWeek 2007 Insight: New Integrated Approach to Buildings Lifecycle" »
A quick guide to the day's sessions, plus an interview with Jack McGowan, president of Energy Control Inc. (podcast) (transcript)
Continue reading "ConnectivityWeek 2007: Wednesday Highlights" »
Interview with Carter Williams, keynote speaker and president of Gridlogix. We'll talk about the vision of Buildings 2.0 and the technology that drives it. (podcast)
Continue reading "ConnectivityWeek 2007 Insight: Roadmap to Buildings 2.0" »
Why it is what it is: The evolution of ConnectivityWeek. Conversation between Denis Du Bois and conference founder Anto Budiardjo. (podcast) (transcript)
Today is opening day for ConnectivityWeek in Chicago. The focus for today's ConnectivityWeek Insight podcast is the Cisco Connected Roundtable track. I interview Rick Huijbregts, the track leader. (podcast) (transcript)
Continue reading "ConnectivityWeek 2007 Insight: Cisco Connected Roundtable" »
The fifth annual BuilConn kicks off next week in Chicago as part of ConnectivityWeek 2007. Energy Priorities editor Denis Du Bois is hosting a daily podcast series featuring interviews with the top speakers at the conference. BuilConn is all about the convergence of building automation and information technology, a field that takes the concept of "connectivity" to extremes. Make it possible to connect lighting controls to the security system and tie it all to the corporate information trust, and you have an environment that just might make buildings truly "intelligent."
Continue reading "ConnectivityWeek 2007 "Highlights and Insights" Podcast Series Begins May 22" »
Given that passive features make a building more comfortable and energy efficient with minimal complexity, can active and dynamic components such as automated shading enhance the benefits without overwhelming complexity? For an average 50,000 square foot building, they can reduce cooling energy demand by as much as 40 percent, and reduce lighting energy consumption by 60 percent. Dynamic envelope technologies reduce energy demand, especially during peak periods. Reduced energy demand means fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Continue reading "Integrating Dynamic Facades with Building Control Systems (AutomatedBuildings)" »
Data centers are big energy users, and manufacturers like Sun and IBM have been responding with more energy-efficient technologies. Today IBM announced the application of self-assembling nanotechnology to conventional chip manufacturing, borrowing a process from nature to build the next generation computer chips. The chips will use less energy, and be faster. IBM is testing microprocessors using the new technology, and expects to deploy it in manufacturing lines in 2009. (photo)
Continue reading "IBM Advance To Make More Energy-Efficient Chips Possible" »
Twelve manufacturing sectors account for 85 percent of U.S. industrial energy use. A new report from the EPA details their energy use and explores policy and regulatory improvements.
This is the last day of GridWeek. Denis Du Bois is hosting a daily podcast series featuring the top speakers at the conference. Today he interviews Kurt Yeager, Executive Director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative, and Volker Hartkopf, Director of the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University. (podcast)
Continue reading "GridWeek 2007: Buildings and the Future of Electricity" »
Cooling, space heating and ventilation are responsible for a 30 percent of a building's energy consumption, the largest portion, on average. Regionally the percentage can be considerably higher -- especially in hot climates. As summer aproaches, building owners need to check not only the health of their cooling systems, but the condition of the building envelope itself.
Demand management vendors have traditionally specialized in either industrial or commercial spaces. That means few choices for industrial sites that want to automate their entire facility using a centralized system. A recent merger could eventually result in a new system that can manage both plants and offices. Will it have enough of an advantage over integrating multi-vendor systems?
Continue reading "Demand Management Technology Has Cross-Atlantic Reunion" »
Demand response is catching on around the world as a means of reducing the need for new power plant construction, lowering wholesale power costs, and cutting harmful emissions. It can also be a source of revenue for participating companies. If demand response is going to be part of your energy cost management strategy, then you have some options for how you go about it. (podcast)
California's big three utilities have 2,660 MW of demand response enrolled, ahead of the regulators' policy goal for next summer. Enrollment is not the same as participation. Do companies have enough price elasticity to participate? If so, is demand response cost-effective for utilities? Can participating companies recover the cost of the necessary equipment? Who pays the price?
Blogged live from a meeting entitled "Demand Response: Simple Solutions, Real Savings, Fast Payback," this article grew as the meeting proceeded. It's still in its rough form, but nonetheless full of interesting information and perspectives. I invited readers to post questions using the comments form at the bottom of this article, and I posed some of them to the speakers and panelists.
Continue reading "Demand Response: Experts and Businesses Discuss the Challenges Ahead" »
The January-February 2007 issue of Distributed Energy Magazine includes two case studies of successful on-site generation projects that capture heat from power generation and put it to productive uses.
Continue reading "Cogeneration Rising (Distributed Energy Magazine)" »
Building owners are looking for new ways to squeeze more energy efficiency out of their commercial facilities, and one of the largest opportunities is in heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Jim Hanna of Optimum Energy explains how the company's control technology makes commercial air conditioners more energy efficient. (podcast) (photo)
Checking in on a solar array from the office is an intriguing thought for a solar homeowner. But there's a more serious and practical side to monitoring renewable energy systems for businesses, who are demanding accountability from solar installers and integrators. (podcast) (photo)