When I read about the AIGRMGreen Reputation Coverage, which covers bad press for green building projects, I immediately thought of allegations of greenwashing. From wikipedia:
Greenwash (a portmanteau of green and whitewash) is a term used to describe the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly, such as by presenting [...]
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July 31st, 2009 | Posted in AIG, AIGRMGreen Reputation Coverage, Insurance, LEED, greenwashing
The U.S. Green Building Council just sent out information from a report written by McKinsey and Company about energy efficiency and its role in U.S. mitigation of climate change. Here’s what they found:
Energy-efficiency of buildings (along with o…
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July 29th, 2009 | Posted in The Industry
How did we all miss this? While AIG may have had its problems recently, it certainly has created an innovative green building insurance product:
The company says the casualty coverage for property owners and managers of green buildings consists of two coverages, AIGRMGreen Reputation Coverage and AIGRMGreen Indoor Environment Coverage.
The reputation coverage provides up to $50,000 [...]
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July 29th, 2009 | Posted in AIG, AIGRMGreen Reputation Coverage, Insurance
Editor’s Note: When Matt Macko, a principal at Environmental Building Strategies, told me that he was the only energy expert in the room when the new LEED AP BD+C exam was written, I asked him to write the story of his experience for BuildingGreen….
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July 28th, 2009 | Posted in LEED
If you are a contractor lucky enough to have won a stimulus project, one of the pesky requirements attached to the project is reporting the number of new jobs created by the project. Many builders and contractors have been wondering how exactly to do that. Finally, at long last, the White House has provided clarity:
”Just [...]
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July 27th, 2009 | Posted in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, City, Codes and Regulations, Federal, State, Stimulus, green jobs
With so many recent initiatives aimed at combating climate change, energy prices have obviously taken a hit. To compensate for this change, though, many architects and builders have begun using Daylighting to a great degree in construction.
“Daylighting,” or “daylight harvesting,” has been growing in popularity recently because it uses natural sunlight to its advantage. A [...]
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July 27th, 2009 | Posted in Business, Design, Energy, Lighting & Electrical, daylighting, occupancy sensing, sunlight, worker productivity
See examples of biomimicry being put into practice with new products.
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July 27th, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized
At first glance, a humpback whale and a wind turbine don’t have a lot in common. But products designed using biomimicry are looking to nature’s designs and processes to solve human problems.
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July 27th, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized
The green building industry has a dirty little secret: Until recently, few people really kept track of how so-called “high-performance buildings” were actually performing.
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July 27th, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized
There is a brilliant sustainability series on urban gardening (Alive Structures and roof garden tutorials will be featured) in New York City this summer put on by a non-profit called New York Restoration Project. There will be four talks, every other Thursday from 7 pm to 8 pm, in NYPC’s Toyota Children’s Learning Garden. All of them are open [...]
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July 25th, 2009 | Posted in Alive Structures, Design, Green Roof Tours, Landscaping, NYC, NYRP, New York Restoration Project, Urban Gardening, Urbanism, green buildings, green roofs, roof gardens