GreenBuild Blog

Nega-gallons and Aqua-vores: New Approaches to Water Conservation

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

More than 20 years ago, the energy expert Amory Lovins introduced the term “negawatts” to indicate that conservation of energy would be a reliable alternative way to supply “megawatts” of projected electricity demand. This “least-cost, end-use” approach distinguishes between supply (of energy) and usage (energy end-use demand). Lovins showed that it’s a lot cheaper (and faster) to conserve energy and use energy-efficient appliances than it is to buy more kilowatt-hours of electricity. This is because infrastructure investments (supply) usually cost a lot more (and take a lot longer) than investments in efficiency (demand reduction).

Learning from Australia’s Continuing Drought

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Areas of urban Australia have reduced per capita daily water use to as low as 34 gallons (130 liters). By comparison the average per capita water use in California is 135 gallons per day, with a U.S. average of 150 gallons. Australia’s current multiyear drought has impressed a “culture of conservation” on the public.

I’m in Stuttgart for German Sustainable Building Council annual conference

Monday, June 21, 2010

In a continuing effort to stay updated on the progress of green building in Germany, Jerry is attending the annual conference of the German Sustainable Building Council in Stuttgart, 22-23 June. For a good background, see Jerry’s book, Green Building Trends: Europe

, highlighted elsewhere on this website.

What’s Your Water IQ?

Thursday, June 10, 2010

I’ve crafted a home water audit quiz for you to test your “Water IQ”. You can create your own score and then use the audit to plan measures to reduce your household water consumption. My personal score is 41/50. Hope you enjoy it, and please let me know how you rate yourself!

Green Building Growing Rapidly on Campuses

Thursday, June 03, 2010

New Yudelson Associates white paper shows that more than 600 green buildings have been LEED certified on America’s college and university campuses and more than 3000 projects are registered for LEED certification, about 15 percent of the total LEED project registrations, as of the end of 2009.