Posts in the 'Building Efficiency' category
Sustainable Cities and Buildings at COP21: Delivering our Future Today
Sustainable Cities and Buildings at COP21: Delivering our Future Today
TheCityFix is covering cities at COP21. Urban areas account for a large share of greenhouse gas emissions but are also tremendous agents of innovation to address climate change. Read our full coverage of the Paris Climate Conference as it relates to cities, buildings, and mobility. This year ...
Building Efficiency Finally Gets its Day in the Sun at COP21
Building Efficiency Finally Gets its Day in the Sun at COP21
TheCityFix is covering cities at COP21. Urban areas account for a large share of greenhouse gas emissions but are also tremendous agents of innovation to address climate change. Read our full coverage of the Paris Climate Conference as it relates to cities, buildings, and mobility. Energy use ...
Buildings and National Climate Commitments: What You Need to Know Before the Global Climate Change Conference (COP21)
Buildings and National Climate Commitments: What You Need to Know Before the Global Climate Change Conference (COP21)
TheCityFix is covering cities at COP21. Urban areas account for a large share of greenhouse gas emissions but are also tremendous agents of innovation to address climate change. Read our full coverage of the Paris Climate Conference as it relates to cities, buildings, and mobility. In anticipation ...
Setting the Goal Posts for Energy Use: How Energy Efficiency Targets Trigger Action
Setting the Goal Posts for Energy Use: How Energy Efficiency Targets Trigger Action
The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score — Bill Copeland. Goals help provide our everyday lives with structure, and operate similarly at the institutional ...
What’s Next for Google’s “Project Sunroof?” Reducing the Need for Power in the First Place
What’s Next for Google’s “Project Sunroof?” Reducing the Need for Power in the First Place
Google recently released Project Sunroof—an interactive online tool that allows building owners to estimate how much money they can save by installing solar panels on their roofs. In short, the tool is a valuable resource for anyone considering solar power ...
How Mexico City Can Unlock Finance for Retrofitting Public Buildings
How Mexico City Can Unlock Finance for Retrofitting Public Buildings
When it comes to improving energy efficiency in buildings, cities can lead by example to create a big impact. By retrofitting public buildings, cities can demonstrate the benefits of action on energy efficiency and inspire change from within the private ...
Energy Use in Buildings: What’s Culture Got to Do with It?
Energy Use in Buildings: What’s Culture Got to Do with It?
When the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan caused a series of energy shortages throughout the country, the national government recommended that office buildings cut back on air conditioning during the summer months in order to reduce power usage. Through ...
How Cities Can Drive Change with the New UN Sustainable Development Goals
How Cities Can Drive Change with the New UN Sustainable Development Goals
This weekend, from September 25 – 27, more than 150 world leaders will convene in New York City for the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit to develop the new sustainable development goals (SDGs). This agreement will serve as the foundation ...
To Achieve its New Climate Goals, China Must Look to its Buildings
To Achieve its New Climate Goals, China Must Look to its Buildings
China made international news earlier this summer when it announced a new pledge to peak its emissions by 2030, in addition to other climate commitments. The country laid out 15 specific actions as part of its “intended nationally determined contribution” ...
Accelerating Building Efficiency Improvements in Latin America
Accelerating Building Efficiency Improvements in Latin America
Energy efficiency improvements in the building sector can yield significant financial and environmental benefits including reduced energy costs, decreased greenhouse gas emissions, improved occupant health and increased local employment.  However, long standing market and policy barriers stand in the way ...
Better Building Benchmarking = More Energy Savings
Better Building Benchmarking = More Energy Savings
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently released a real-time building monitoring and scoring platform called LEED Dynamic Plaque, enabling building managers to benchmark, monitor, and improve their building’s performance on an ongoing basis. The program has been recognized as ...
Buildings: Our Biggest (and Most Underutilized) Asset for Improving How Cities Perform
Buildings: Our Biggest (and Most Underutilized) Asset for Improving How Cities Perform
Urban residents around the world have different daily routines, but they share something in common that often goes unappreciated. Let’s take the example of how a city dweller in China spends an average day: 8 hours of work activities 30 ...
Green spaces in cities, such as New York's High Line, promote an active, sustainable lifestyle for city residents. Photo by David Berkowitz/Flickr.
Designing for a Sustainable Future: A Q&A with Jared Green
For Designed for the Future: 80 Practical Ideas for a Sustainable World, Jared Green asked 80 architects, landscape architects, urban planners, non-profit leaders, journalists, and artists—all people shaping the future of our built and natural environments—the same question: what gives ...
Building Air Quality Bogota
Friday Fun: How Buildings Can Help “Eat” Urban Smog
Many cities around the world are suffering from severe air pollution. The World Health Organization (WHO)’s urban air quality database reveals that about half of the global urban population is exposed to air pollution that is at least 2.5 times ...
Mumbai, India and Building Efficiency
Crowdsourcing Local Knowledge to Make Buildings More Efficient
Investing in resource efficiency helps cities and their residents by cutting energy and water costs, creating jobs and creating cleaner, healthier air. And making cities more resource efficient is critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and combating climate change. Improving ...
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