Grow Your Green Building Skillset Online — From Design to Retrofits From building science to retrofits, energy modeling, smart homes, and beyond, HeatSpring offers a comprehensive marketplace of green building courses. Join your expert instructors for weeks of top notch technical training. Deep Energy Retrofits – Upgrade existing residential and commercial buildings… Continue reading “Grow Your Green Building Skillset Online — From Design to Retrofits”
Fostering Sustainability in Prisons + Reducing Emissions/Consumption How can prisons act as a catalyst for sustainability efforts? In 2003, Dan Pacholke, Superintendent of Cedar Creek Corrections Center in Washington, attempted to answer that question by implementing rainwater harvesting and composting measures designed to reduce waste, cut costs,… Continue reading “Fostering Sustainability in Prisons + Reducing Emissions/Consumption”
Deep Energy Retrofits for Historic Buildings Historic buildings are a special case in the world of Deep Energy Retrofits, as they bring additional constraints and special structural issues to the forefront. Still, bringing a beloved (but usually energy inefficient) community building into the resource climate of… Continue reading “Deep Energy Retrofits for Historic Buildings”
UW Greek Community Perpetuating College Sustainability Movement Officially launched in November 2015, the Green Greek Representative Program (GGRP) is a student-run program at the University of Washington working to make the Greek Community a more sustainable place. Working through UW EcoReps and supported by the UW Sustainability office,… Continue reading “UW Greek Community Perpetuating College Sustainability Movement”
Selling Home Performance: 4 Traps to Avoid You want the sale. We all want the sale! Maybe you’re very hungry to post some numbers or push to hit the plan. That’s OK. But don’t let that get in the way of good approaches… THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN… Continue reading “Selling Home Performance: 4 Traps to Avoid”
GRID Alternatives’ International Program Expands to Nepal In July, HeatSpring published a Sustainable Women Series article featuring the Founder and CEO of GRID Alternatives, a national non-profit that facilitates affordable solar power projects, oftentimes in low-income communities. In this follow-up article, I spoke with Jenean Smith, the… Continue reading “GRID Alternatives’ International Program Expands to Nepal”
Building Automation Systems and Open Building Systems: Design Specs Building Automation Systems (BAS) specifications are a required piece of any building construction, upgrade or retrofit project. Learn about Building Automation Systems and Design Specifications for Open Building Systems in Ron Bernstein‘s latest course. Typically developed by a consulting engineer,… Continue reading “Building Automation Systems and Open Building Systems: Design Specs”
Water in Sustainable Building: Distribution, Uses & “Zero Net” Strategies In this free course, sustainable building expert Ann Edminster discusses the uses of water in sustainable building practices. Enroll and learn about… -The distribution of water on Earth -How water gets to and leaves building sites -How water is used… Continue reading “Water in Sustainable Building: Distribution, Uses & “Zero Net” Strategies”
Energy Models: Design Tools & Energy Use Simulators “What is an Energy Model?” In this brand new free course, P.E. and LEED Fellow Chris Schaffner explains. Chris describes a variety of methods for modeling building energy consumption. He starts with simple energy estimating tools of increasing complexity and… Continue reading “Energy Models: Design Tools & Energy Use Simulators”
Zero Energy Homes: Economics, Efficiency & Renewable Energy Integration What are Zero Energy Homes? How are they cost efficient and how do they help significantly lessen energy use? In this $30 course, sustainable building expert Ann Edminster has the answers. This course, designed as an introduction to all things Zero… Continue reading “Zero Energy Homes: Economics, Efficiency & Renewable Energy Integration”
Sustainable Brewing: A Small, Solar-Powered Company in the Business of Beer Throwback Brewery: where great beer, solar and sustainable business practices collide. In 2010, co-Founders Annette Lee and Nicole Carrier opened their brewery in North Hampton, New Hampshire with the vision to create 100% locally-sourced beers, as well as to promote other aspects of… Continue reading “Sustainable Brewing: A Small, Solar-Powered Company in the Business of Beer”
Volta: A Start-Up Company Powering West Africa As the solar and clean energy industry grows, it’s no surprise that the target market for renewable energy technologies is now expanding to include developing communities and countries. In fact, a host of new start-ups and innovative business models are… Continue reading “Volta: A Start-Up Company Powering West Africa”
Rethinking the Global Economy with Sustainable Solutions In 2002, sustainable business guru and Time Magazine’s “Hero of the Planet” Hunter Lovins founded Natural Capitalism Solutions, an organization that helps communities, companies, and countries implement genuine sustainability solutions to change the way business is done worldwide. NCS is a… Continue reading “Rethinking the Global Economy with Sustainable Solutions”
zHome: Setting a National Net Zero Energy and Green Building Precedent Almost ten years ago, Built Green, an environmentally-friendly residential building program of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, began a project to develop the first net energy townhome complex in the United States. The project was created… Continue reading “zHome: Setting a National Net Zero Energy and Green Building Precedent”
Heat Recovery Ventilation Considerations in Zero Net Energy Homes Marc Rosenbaum discusses heat recovery ventilation considerations for zero net energy homes on the Zero Net Energy Homes course discussion board… Exhaust-only ventilation home health concerns Student 1: Do you know of any potential health impacts from living in a depressurized space–… Continue reading “Heat Recovery Ventilation Considerations in Zero Net Energy Homes”
Venting About Ventilation There is much debate within the building science community about how much ventilation is enough. Building science as a discipline has to deal with a lot of messy, noisy data, entrenched mythologies, and strong tendencies towards confirmation bias. On the… Continue reading “Venting About Ventilation”
A Free Strategic Leadership Course for the Sustainable Building Community Join Kathleen O’Brien and amplify your leadership effectiveness today In a series of 20 presentations and interviews recorded in 2014, Kathleen O’Brien shares the strategic leadership model that is at the core of EMERGE programs, along with case studies, and… Continue reading “A Free Strategic Leadership Course for the Sustainable Building Community”
What’s the Difference Between Energy and Heat Recovery Ventilators? On the Mastering Building Science discussion board, Allison A. Bailes III, PhD asks students: What is the difference between an ERV and an HRV? Allison A. Bailes III, PhD: In the homework, I asked, “What is the difference between an… Continue reading “What’s the Difference Between Energy and Heat Recovery Ventilators?”
The Impact of Air Tightness on Ventilation in Passive House Design When many first hear of the Passive House blower door test requirement of 0.6 ACH at 50 Pascals of test pressure, the first thing that comes to mind is the difficulty of designing and executing air barrier details that deliver… Continue reading “The Impact of Air Tightness on Ventilation in Passive House Design”
Minimize the Energy Your Building Needs with this new Free Tool Download Ann Edminster’s Free Tool ‘Minimize the Energy Your Building Needs (Energy Free: Homes for a Small Planet, Chapter 4)’ This chapter from Edminster’s award-winning, residential zero-energy primer covers key performance issues such as building geometry, enclosure design, comfort strategies and… Continue reading “Minimize the Energy Your Building Needs with this new Free Tool”