Rhode Island Feeds

Architects, designers, contractors, manufacturers, students and others interested in green building innovation and showcasing their ideas on video have a shot at a $1,500 grand prize and bragging rights in a contest sponsored by YKK AP America.

Since the first humans carried a torch to provide light, heat has been a by-product of producing light. Traditional electric lights give off more heat than light. But LEDs are twice as efficient as fluorescents at converting electricity to light, generate very little heat, are nearly maintenance free and provide a high quality of light. So what's standing in the way of their broad adoption?

Here are 10 ways you can reduce your energy usage and costs without sacrificing comfort or building functionality.

The company, a subsidiary of utility giant Exelon, launched what it is calling a "Smart Grid Innovation Corridor" in 10 Northern Illinois communities where there are already smart meters installed in 130,000 homes. Five pilot tests will take place in the corridor, using the smart meter technology as the foundation.

Project registration for LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance is the fastest growing among all the LEED certification standards offered by the U.S. Green Building Council. Here are tips on how to make the most of LEED-EBOM certification and help position your tenants to pursue LEED for Commercial Interiors.

One silver lining in the dark clouds of our current economic conditions is how people are turning to simple, low-cost measures that can save tons of energy and money. Sometimes being forced to get lean makes you realize how fat you really are. Our obese existing building stock is being forced to get on the treadmill and the patient we save may end up being our own economy.

PACE financing is a potentially revolutionary way to retrofit commercial, residential, and industrial properties with energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. The program overcomes one of the largest hurdles to investment in clean energy -- the upfront cost. This post, the first of a three-part series, looks at how the fate of PACE programs could determine the future of the clean energy economy.

Kikkoman Foods Inc. plans to start tapping into the power of the sun this month with the completion of a carport-mounted 106kW solar photovoltaic system at the company's soy sauce factory in California's Central Valley.

ULC Standards, part of the Underwriters Laboratories family of companies, has acquired the managers of Canada's EcoLogo program in a move that will expand both group's reach in the universe of green certifications.

As the U.S. military musters efforts to lighten its environmental bootprint, the German Army also is striving to march down a green path and has enlisted Johnson Controls Inc. to retrofit the Oranienstein base in Diez.

A little knowledge on lighting goes a long way. EDF Climate Corps fellow Sarah Will has helped REi identify almost $900,000 in potential energy savings, and lighting improvements account for a big chunk of the money. Now she can’t help eyeing commercial lighting wherever she goes and contemplating possible savings.

ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA is teaming up with the Virginia Municipal League to promote greener communities through a contest to develop environmental policies and practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The partnership is one of several recent efforts across the country to accelerate development of more environmentally friendly communities.
 

Worsening structural problems in a LEED-certified county government building in Salem, Oregon, have forced occupants to vacate the premises. The future of the building is under review.

A mosque proposed near Ground Zero in New York has prompted great anger and may never be built. Sometimes you need to stand up to "mad" and other times you need to respect the sentiments behind the anger. This seems like one of those times to stand up to "mad" because if we don't, we become that which we abhor.

Siemens Industry Inc. named the winners of its inaugural Smartest Building in America Challenge, while the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, Metropolis Magazine and General Electric's Innovation Challenge renewed the call for entries in their competitions.

Energy expended for lighting has plummeted at the headquarters of broadline distributor Maines Paper & Food Service following a retrofit with an advanced system from Digital Lumens.

The San Francisco Institute of Architecture is offering a master's of science degree in green building and a master's of business administration degree in sustainability via distance learning.

Kyocera Group has planted edible "green curtains" stretching thousands of feet across facilities in Japan, Thailand and Brazil in a bid to keep its buildings cool and greenhouse gas emissions low.

Rigorous environmental product declarations are relatively new in the U.S., and Bekaert Specialty Films is among the early adopters of the practice. BSF completed a climate declaration with the lifecycle analyses of 32 of its solar window films.
 

The state government of New South Wales (NSW) just released new planning guidelines that discourage development in some coastal zones due to sea level rise caused by climate change.