green building

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US Schools Need $542B in Repairs: Report

Bill Clinton calls for federal review

(Newser) - America's schools are in such disrepair that it would cost more than $270 billion just to get elementary and secondary school buildings back to their original conditions—and twice that to get them up to date, a report released today estimates. In a foreword to the report, Bill Clinton...

New Orleans Repair an Experiment in Green
 New Orleans Repair 
 an Experiment in Green 
glossies
Aug 29, 2009 7:12 PM CDT

New Orleans Repair an Experiment in Green

(Newser) - Four years after Katrina, the rebuilding of New Orleans is becoming an exercise in environmentally friendly reconstruction, Bryan Walsh writes in Time. Global Green USA, the American arm of a group founded by Mikhail Gorbachev, is leading the pack by building a sustainable village in the city's Lower Ninth Ward,...

Empire State Building Going Green

Makeover project hailed as a landmark for energy efficiency

(Newser) - The Empire State Building is getting a makeover to reduce its King Kong-sized carbon footprint, NY1 reports. As part of a larger renovation, "green" improvements will be made to the 78-year-old building—including an update for all 6500 of the structure’s windows—to reduce its energy consumption by...

9 Ways to Go Green and Save Green

(Newser) - Being sensitive to the environment doesn't have to cost a fortune. In fact, the green option is often the most cost-effective one. Scientific American spotlights nine ways of cutting your bills as you save the Earth:
  • Shrink your living space. Prefab homes and plans for dwellings as small as 65
...

A Look at Obama's Energy Blueprint
 A Look at Obama's 
 Energy Blueprint 
OPINION
Nov 13, 2008 1:56 PM CST

A Look at Obama's Energy Blueprint

Going green will help bring US out of crisis: Klein

(Newser) - Detroit's looking for a bailout. China just announced a massive stimulus package, including big investments in transportation and energy. What’s a president-elect to do? Barack Obama would be best served by making good on his promise to create an alternative energy economy, writes Joe Klein in Time. Thankfully, the...

RFK Jr. Takes Green Dream to Reality TV

Bobby Kennedy Jr. will chronicle building his green home

(Newser) - The most prominent American political dynasty is branching out into reality TV. Environmentalist Bobby Kennedy Jr. and wife Mary are developing a 13-part series that will document the building of their dream green home, the New York Daily News reports. This Old House star Bob Vila will supervise construction of...

Green Housing: From Good Idea to Good Business

Architects, not automakers, have the power to halt global warming

(Newser) - With US homes on average twice as large as they were 50 years ago—and, of course, dwarfing those in all other developed countries—rethinking our idea of "home" is as crucial to cutting global warming as switching to a smaller car, says architect Edward Mazria in Fast Company....

McMansions Make Way for Green Pads
McMansions Make Way for Green Pads
Jun 22, 2008 8:41 PM CDT

McMansions Make Way for Green Pads

Smaller homes built to strict LEED specs are all the rage

(Newser) - When it comes to building green, a LEED rating is the ultimate cachet-- but they're tough to get, the New York Times reports. And homes approved by the Leadership in Energy and Evironmental Design council tend to be small and pricey, with one platinum-certified four-bedroom house in California on the...

'Greenwashed' Products Mostly Hype

Some 'Earth-friendly' products are more about marketing than reality

(Newser) - "Green" is in, and many new products being marketed as Earth-friendly are in reality only marginally less unfriendly. The Boston Globe points to hybrid SUVs that get barely better mileage than their standard brethren, water bottles that use less plastic but still require large amounts of energy to make...

Green Homes Gain Heat in Cool Housing Market

Buyers willing to pay for eco-upgrades, survey says

(Newser) - Eco-friendly homebuilders are faring well despite the plunging US housing market, Newsweek reports. With home sales at a 15-year low, a national survey showed that buyers last year were ready to spend an extra $8,964 on a home that cuts utility bills. "It's taken almost as a fait ...

Best New Buildings of 2007
Best New Buildings of 2007
Dec 6, 2007 1:10 PM CST

Best New Buildings of 2007

BusinessWeek profiles the top 10

(Newser) - Looks weren't all that mattered to BusinessWeek and Architectural Record in choosing their 2007 architectural awards. "Contribution to business" was important, too. Their top picks:
  1. InterActive Corp. Headquarters, New York—Gehry Partners
  2. Young Center for the Performing Arts, Toronto—Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects
  3. US Census Bureau Headquarters, Suitland,
...

World's Best Green Hotels
World's Best Green Hotels
Nov 5, 2007 10:15 AM CST

World's Best Green Hotels

Leave a footprint as small as your carry-on at a luxurious eco-hotel

(Newser) - Solar-heated pools, energy-conserving lights, composted food scraps . . . hotels aren't all bastions of consumption and waste. Travel+Leisure teamed up with Conservation International to assemble a list of 20 eco-friendly hotels:
  1. Spice Island Beach Resort, Grenada
  2. Soneva Fushi Resort & Six Senses Spa, Maldives
  3. Heritance Kandalama, Sri Lanka

Straw Goes Green
Straw
Goes
Green
Aug 20, 2007 11:59 AM CDT

Straw Goes Green

Eco-friendly building material branches out beyond fairy tales

(Newser) - The newest surprise climate-saving tool is straw walls, and the Big Bad Wolf may have underestimated the First Little Pig’s shelter, the Washington Post reports. Instead of drywall or insulation, contractors stack the farm waste around buildings’ skeletons and then coat it with plaster. The eco-friendly result looks like...

It's Not Easy Building Green
It's Not Easy Building Green
Apr 6, 2007 12:43 PM CDT

It's Not Easy Building Green

Say regulators, utilities are putting the breaks on clean energy

(Newser) - Despite the hype, the cool technologies and the new cachet, building green on a big scale is a very frustrating business, developers in New York tell the Observer. Exciting projects are hobbled by slow-moving regulators and greedy utility companies, they say. Their $100K natural gas "microturbines" are idle because...

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