Introducing the Resilient Design Institute: a new nonprofit organization that has been created in Brattleboro.

A massive ice storm, in which up to four inches of ice were deposited in early January, 1998, destroyed over 100 power distribution towers and tens of thousands of wooden utility poles, leaving millions without power for up to three weeks in Eastern Canada.
Photo Credit: Hydro Quebec

Some 27 years ago, following a five-year stint as director of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (which was then based in Brattleboro), I launched my own company focusing on information about environmentally responsible design and construction. That company, now called BuildingGreen and with a staff of 18, remains a leading player in the green building world—a trusted source of information on green building products, the place to find objective news on happenings in the green building world, an independent voice on the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System.

It’s a great place to work and I’m thrilled to serve as executive editor at BuildingGreen and be able to research and write about all the cool stuff that our subscribers need to know. Nadav Malin has been doing a superb job at running the company since I handed the reins to him several years ago.

My shift away from company management at BuildingGreen has given me the space to focus on where we’re heading in the building industry and what sort of changes will be needed to solve the many challenges we face, led by climate change. My sabbatical last year, which I began with a contemplative 1,900-mile bicycle trip through the Southwest, provided an opportunity to delve deeply into this thinking.

Watch the plants! There are limits to their growth, and ours. Also: data center showdown, cargo bikes, and satellite photos of economic injustice.

A coal industry "documentary" from the early '90s painted a lush picture of plant life in a carbon-rich atmosphere. Empirical evidence of stunted growth is showing us just how wrong their science was.
Photo Credit: Smithsonian Institution

Stop taking plants for granted

If plants love carbon dioxide, then it stands to reason that more CO₂ should turn into more happy, healthy plants, right? Well, apparently not. Botanists are compiling increasing evidence that elevated CO₂ can actually stunt plant growth, as reported by John Collins Rudolf in the New York Times.

And it’s not just CO₂. The planet can only support so much plant life (and thus human life) before it hits a “planetary boundary”—and some scientists point out that this boundary is fuzzier than we might expect. “It’s not as if we can keep doing business as usual until we hit a planetary boundary, and all hell will break loose,” says ecologist Start Pimm, quoted in the New York Times. “It’s already breaking loose now.”

Let them eat leaves

We’ve seen a lot of reports lately about the role of trees in urban health and safety, like the strong correlation between trees and lower crime rates. Here’s another interesting look at tree cover and neighborhoods—from space.

This simple system for recovering heat from wastewater makes a lot of sense—especially for families and commercial buildings that produce a lot of hot water.

Power-Pipe drainline heat exchanger. Heat from the hot water going down the drain pipe is transferred to water passing through the smaller-diameter pipes. Click to enlarge
Photo Credit: RenewABILITY Energy

Over the past few weeks I’ve written about various strategies to produce hot water efficiently. We’ve seen that tankless water heaters are more efficient than storage water heaters (though are not without their drawbacks), and we’ve learned that heat-pump water heaters produce two to three times as much heat per unit of electricity consumed as electric water heaters that rely on electric resistance heat.

But the unfortunate reality is that even with the most efficient methods of generating hot water, we still lose the vast majority of that heat down the drain. Domestic hot water is a once-through product. I’ve seen estimates that 90% of the heat in hot water is lost down the drain. Dan Cautley, an energy engineer with the Energy Center of Wisconsin, says that drain water “may be one of our largest untapped resources.”

It turns out that we can do something about that. Im the right application, drainline heat exchangers allow a significant portion of the heat from hot water going down the drain to be recovered.

Sustainability might not come naturally to us, but maybe we’ll get past that if we can teach our children well.

Minecraft helps kids in Kenya show how real places could be transformed.
Photo Credit: FyreUK

Sustainable design: the next generation

Apparently my kids are not the only kids on earth obsessed with Minecraft. And unlike my children, some are actually putting it to good, practical use in Kenya. For more, read this awesome story about the power of play for solving serious problems, from Sarah Goodyear at The Atlantic Cities.

Or, sustainable design: a sinister plot?

“Do trash receptacles and sidewalks have an ideology?” asks Renee Loth in a column over at the Boston Globe. Apparently, some people think so. Sentiments against the UN’s “Agenda 21”—and by extension anything to do with sustainable neighborhood development—are growing in some circles. The U.S. Republican Party has even adopted an anti-Agenda 21 plank in its 2012 platform, Loth reports. Read more commentary on this at Treehugger, where Lloyd Alter has been following this story for months.

Pastoral scenery provides a contrast to Ecore’s factory, where it produces unique recycled rubber flooring systems that could change the industry.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, home to one of the largest Amish communities in the United States, is also home to the headquarters of Ecore International, a company predominantly known for several rubber flooring offerings.

The Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge crosses the Susquehanna River, connecting York and Lancaster counties.
Photo Credit: pennstatelive, May 14, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

During a recent visit to Ecore’s manufacturing location in York, Pennsylvania (located in York County, adjacent to Lancaster County), I got an inside look at “itstru” (pronounced “it’s true”) technology, a process that Ecore has developed to bond a diverse variety of wear layers to a recycled rubber underlayment, resulting in interesting new possibilities for flooring options—flooring like vinyl or carpet, with the performance characteristics of rubber, and easy to install.

New federal regulations beginning in mid-April 2015 will require that larger electric water heaters be heat-pump models. It’s time to pay attention to this option.

The GE GeoSpring heat-pump water heater is the quietest model I could find and the only one that's made in America.
Photo Credit: GE Appliances

Last week I wrote about “hybrid” water heaters, a relatively new type of water heater that includes features of both storage and tankless models. This week I’ll cover another type of water heater that is also (confusingly) referred to as “hybrid”: heat pump water heaters. These produce over twice as much hot water for each unit of electricity consumed as any other type of electric water heater (storage or tankless).

You’re going to be hearing a lot about heat-pump water heaters over the next few years, because new federal regulations that take effect in 2015 will require heat pump functionality for larger electric water heaters—more on that below.

Public facilities don’t have to be ugly, we can now hear air pollution, and the sports industry is going for the gold with green initiatives.

What made the Katrina Cottages so popular? It's the Teddy Bear Principle, says Steve Mouzon, and it's useless to resist it.
Photo Credit: Kent Griswold

Want greener homes? Embrace the cute

Wake up, architects! It’s time to give up on sleek and chic and get big-eyed and fuzzy. Like it or not, people like precious, adorable little cottages, and Steve Mouzon at Original Green has a theory about why: he calls it the Teddy Bear Principle.

It’s all about proportion, he says, and he suggests that we stop fighting it—because it can help us design greener houses. “The great thing about the Teddy Bear Principle is that if you know about it, you don't have to sell the idea of building smaller and smarter on cost savings alone,” Mouzon writes.

Power plants can look nice too

Your local water treatment plant is probably the last thing you want to hug, but Lloyd Alter at Treehugger thinks that’s a shame.

A relatively new type of water heater combines features of both tankless and storage water heaters.

A.O. Smith's NEXT Hybrid water heater.Click to enlarge.
Photo Credit: A.O. Smith

In last week’s blog I compared tankless and storage water heaters and explained why tankless water heaters often don’t make that much sense.

This week I’ll describe a newer type of water heater that has some features of both storage and tankless designs and solves several problems that are common with tankless models. While these are referred to as hybrid water heaters, they are quite different from heat-pump water heaters, which are also often referred to as hybrid. I’ll cover heat-pump water heaters next week.

Phobia or fatigue? When it comes to toxic chemicals, we all have our own way of coping with information overload. A free webcast helps you sort it all out.

Do you know where the most toxic chemicals are in building products? Vinyl sheet flooring is a top hazard, but far from the only one.
Photo Credit: DIYadvice.com

Even if we try to ignore it, we are constantly barraged with information about dangerous chemicals in our food, our water, our dust, our air…even our grocery receipts.

The information is often sensationalized, always incomplete, and sometimes downright contradictory from one day to the next.

You can’t “go organic” at work

It’s hard enough to make choices about everyday things like organic food, antibacterial soap, or vinyl flooring in your own home.

As a building professional, your clients look to you to help them make solid, science-based decisions about even more complex products and materials. Decisions about a school, a multifamily building, or a commercial office space can affect a lot of people. Do you have enough information to answer the questions of concerned clients?

Other clients may be skeptical about the dangers of certain materials or worried that alternatives will cost too much, even if they’re interested in healthier materials. How do you cope with that?

Droughts are cracking foundations and cars are blocking crosswalks. Meanwhile, Martin Holladay debunks “greenest home on earth” claims.

Sam Martin's "SkyCycle" concept would elevate bike lanes to new heights in London.
Photo Credit: SkyCycle screen capture

Here it comes…the greenest home in America

We all see “greenest building on earth!” headlines on a regular basis, but saying it doesn’t make it so.

Martin Holladay does a righteous takedown of such ridiculous claims over at Green Building Advisor, pointing out that nine recent “greenest home in the world!” houses average 4,168 square feet and have amenities like heated electric toilets. Give the claims a rest, pleads Holladay: “The contest was won long ago by a poor family in Brazil, Tanzania, or Laos.”

The drought next time

Feeling lucky because your house wasn’t burned in a wildfire or flooded this year? Not so fast: the drought could destroy it too. Very dry soil—clay soil in particular—can cause huge cracks in foundations that may eventually damage the rest of the house, reports Jim Salter for the Associated Press.