Buildings
Pittsburgh Paves the Way for a Zero-Energy City
Today, the City of Pittsburgh passed an important ordinance to help it reach its climate goals. All new and existing city facilities must be built or retrofit to net-zero energy (NZE) ready—an advanced level of building performance in which a building is designed to achieve net zero energy levels of…
Designing a Climate-Positive Future with Zero-Energy Districts
The environmental impact of buildings is clear. Over the last 30 years the green building industry has emerged in full regalia, with products, rating systems, building science, and architectural élan. Our design and technology have jumped from making buildings perform “better than code” to “zero-energy” or even “net-positive-energy” construction. Today’s…
Designing the City of the Future and The Pursuit of Happiness
What constitutes the “ideal” city? On a recent visit to Mumbai, India, my informal polling of shop vendors indicated that in their view, a new city outside of Mumbai known as Palava City represents a close approximation of the ideal, citing Palava’s quality of life, quality of construction, and amenities.
Why Building Owners Should Care About Increasing EV Adoption
The electric vehicle (EV) revolution is well underway. According to Bloomberg NEF’s Electric Vehicle Outlook 2019 report, US-based EV sales will grow from 2 percent in 2019 to nearly 60 percent in 2040. And more electric cars were sold in the first half of 2018 than all of 2016. Unlike…
How Cities Can Improve Homes
The way we use energy makes a big difference in our lives in how safe, comfortable, and productive we are. In addition to impacting our individual lives, energy use in homes makes up a large part of energy use in the United States. The residential sector accounts for 20…