Archives
Transparency & Innovation: Open Data For Green Building
Bomee Jung, Jul. 1, 2009
Climate Change & Environmental Impact Statements
Michael B. Gerrard, Jun. 1, 2009
Another Berkeley FIRST
Mayor Tom Bates, Mar. 1, 2009
New Space, New Faces
John Tepper-Marlin, Feb. 2, 2009
Taming the Concrete Dragon?
Stephen Hammer & Elizabeth Balkan, Dec. 1, 2008
Green Zoning
Caroline G. Harris, Oct. 1, 2008
International Influences on City Sustainability Plans
Gail Karlsson, Aug. 1, 2008
Growing Green Collar Jobs in NYC
Joanne Derwin, Jul. 2, 2008
USGBC to Accredit Green-Building Certifiers
John Tepper-Marlin, Jun. 5, 2008
Energy Efficiency in NYC: The Problem of Split Incentives
Kate Bashford, Apr. 7, 2008
Contractors Wanted
Wendy Fleischer, Feb. 1, 2008
The Status of LEED in NYC, Positive Lessons
John Tepper-Marlin, Dec. 3, 2007
The Healthy School and The Sustainable City
Stephen Boese, Oct. 1, 2007
The Green Manufacturing Scene
Sara Garretson, Jul. 31, 2007
Energy and Environmental Reality Check
Peter Fusaro, May. 30, 2007
Plant-Based Heat for Your Home
John S. Nettleton, Apr. 16, 2007
The Color of Money
Jon Lukomnik, Mar. 1, 2007
Saving Energy In Existing Residential Buildings
Richard Leigh, P.E. & Eduardo Guerra, Jan. 4, 2007
Birth of 21st Century Construction in Harlem
The Full Spectrum Team, Nov. 1, 2006
To Move Mountains, Fix Markets
Charles Komanoff, Sep. 27, 2006
Make Room for Green Work
Jenifer Becker, Aug. 29, 2006
What is DG and Why Should We Care?
Michael Bobker, Jun. 30, 2006
Beyond Pilot Projects
City of New York DDC, May. 24, 2006
Green Buildings & Perverse Incentives
June 01, 2010
Though hard to do, the key to creating a sustainable world is easy to state. Currently, our economic system regards environmental protection as a cost center, as a burden on wealth creation. But the truth is that protecting and restoring the environment is the ultimate profit center; one that can provide the wealth needed to create a sustainable planet.
The biggest obstacle to building such a sustainable economy is perverse incentives. Incentives, generations of economists have demonstrated, are what drive economic behavior. Perverse incentives are those that reward economic behaviors that are environmentally destructive, destroying more wealth than they create.
The Switch: A Green Reporter's New Beat
April 01, 2010
The reporter who covers "the environmental beat" can cover the beat for years without hearing a bird sing. Instead, this reporter can make every assignment a chance to explore theories and trudge through engineering reports even if he barely knows an ampere from a watt. After years on a self-defined mission to report on how cities can become greener at scale, I now know how thoroughly the old border between nature and cities is vanishing and something new is coming into sight. I also know how intense the glare can be on people who try to map the new territory.
Hiding In Plain Sight
March 02, 2010
On an ordinary day in 2007, I had a professional epiphany when I was drawn to a presentation at the American Museum of Natural History entitled "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Graphs: The Psychology of Environmental Decision Making." Delivered by Dr. Sabine Marx of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University, it detailed the ways in which the human brain processes complex bits of information leading to decisions that either ensure an individual's survival or spells their demise. How information is delivered, argued Marx, makes a world of difference.
Smart Building Technolgy: Not Smart Enough
January 01, 2010
Our carbon-constrained future requires that we improve the energy efficiency of our building stock in order to achieve comfortable spaces at a minimum environmental and financial burden. Smart building technology has been developed and popularized as the key ingredient to achieving this scalable building energy-efficiency, but there are several key challenges to building energy efficiency that remain unresolved by smart building technology. By recognizing and embracing these challenges, we may avoid the pitfalls of a misplaced faith in technology, and generate solutions to the true underlying causes of buildings’ energy inefficiency.
Advancing Energy Efficiency in Russia
November 03, 2009
According to an old Russian proverb, "Free cheese is found only in mousetraps."
When it comes to money gained through energy efficiency, as Sallan's regular readers know, this isn't true.
Investing in energy efficiency projects can create new money. A 2008 study by the respected McKinsey Global Institute concluded that at least one half of projected worldwide energy demand growth over the next twelve years could be met through increased energy efficiency in all sectors of the economy — and this can be accomplished by employing existing technologies that generate significant rates of return on investments. By more than paying for themselves, these energy efficiency technologies will generate capital that can be spent elsewhere.
Blue/Green — Making It Work Takes Work
August 31, 2009
Since the first Earth Day events of the 1970's, progressive labor activists and many environmentalists have dreamed of a grand coalition of blue-collar workers and so-called greens. This coalition would, we hoped, expose the inherent exploitation by market capitalism of the Earth and its inhabitants. After the loss of millions of industrial jobs from North America, several large-scale environmental disasters (Exxon Valdez, Bhopal, Love Canal) and the real threat of global warming the blue green army was ready to march in-step. I wish!