HR 2454 or the Waxman-Markey bill, named after its two major supporters Henry A. Waxman and Edward J. Markey of the Energy and Commerce Committee, was passed in the US House of Representatives on June 27. Its major mandate is a cap and trade system though it does have other green practices scattered throughout. There [...]

I am not sure how many of you read the recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle about a net zero modular multi-tenant townhouse being built by a bay area company. I am very glad that this article made the front page especially on a day when Michelle Obama visited San Francisco. It [...]

Document early and often
Parties need to understand the importance of documenting throughout the process. This is especially relevant when it comes to MR credits. Because of the volume of information those credits require, it is essential that team members provide the LEED Consultants or PM’s with the documentation to be able to quantify [...]

I happened to be up in Tahoe this weekend and missed all the action of earth hour. What I did see was that countries outside of the US took earth hour as a celebration and cities in the US took it as a burden. It seemed that there was multiple gatherings of thousands of people [...]

The new version of LEED has some new and improved features and I wanted to discuss this idea of “weighting credits” that the USGBC has mentioned since GreenBuild.
To start with the new book is 674 pages - ridiculously big so plan on paying more for it than you did.
Secondly, they have decided to organize all [...]

So I started writing a comparison/death match between LED’s and CFL lamps and I realized it is a terrible comparison. The more I learn about lighting the more I understand that lighting fixtures are like women - they come in all shape and sizes and the best one depends on the correct application. [...]

For those of you in San Francisco interested in learning about energy efficient buildings go to the PGE headquarters on 5th and Howard. It is really one of the best resources to learning about all items related to green building. They have great demonstrations on lighting, windows, HVACs and many more. It [...]

So I never like to give away trade secrets but it isn’t like this puppy should be locked away in some vault - it really isn’t all that secretive. And besides our proprietary information involves a much much more conclusive approach to sustainability (just kidding we use this calculator all the time!)

You wouldn’t believe [...]

This weekend I was driving in traffic on the Oakland toll Bridge reading Van Jones’s The Green Collar Economy and was blown away by his forward thinking and by my multi-tasking abilities. Although I was impressed with my ability not to crash I think it is more important that I share with you Van [...]

So I flipped on CNN this morning early as I usually do and was shocked that I hadn’t heard about the ice storm back there. Apparently Kentucky and Arkansas are badly hit by a winter storm that has left droves of power outages in its wake. Here is an article for you if [...]