Category: buildings

Focus on BPIE

The Building Performance Institute Europe is almost three years old and has been churning out valuable material to help Europe improve the energy performance of its building stock. Frequently EiD has highlighted its publications and activities. There are a couple of important updates that EiD readers will be interested in.   ENTRANZE First, BPIE is … Continue reading Focus on BPIE →

Retrofits at a fast PACE

Jim Witkin writes for the New York Times about a new financing programme for retrofits in Sacramento California.  The  programme is modelled on the PACE concept – Property Assessed Clean Energy that has no up-front costs.  As countries in Europe are starting to either implement or assess the possibility of such a scheme, it is … Continue reading Retrofits at a fast PACE →

Is the Green Deal a big deal?

Everyone in Europe is watching with great interest how the Green Deal will be implemented in Britain.  It is one of the big “experiments” in trying to improve financing for building retrofits.  The Green Deal has just started and it has, not surprisingly, gained much press attention.  This article by Lisa Bachelor for The Observer … Continue reading Is the Green Deal a big deal? →

The growing popularity of LED lighting in the US

Diane Cardwell writes in the New York Times about the growing interest in LED lighting as we see true market transformation taking place in the lighting sector.   LEDs Emerge as a Popular ‘Green’ Lighting The lighting industry has finally come up with an energy-efficient replacement for the standard incandescent bulb that people actually seem … Continue reading The growing popularity of LED lighting in the US →

The problems bringing basic heating to many Russians

Mikhail Loginov writes a very detailed report for Open Democracy Russia on the problems and hardships related to heating in Russia.  It really shows the challenges that are being faced to bring decent comfort to the population.  Unfortunately, these examples are all too often the case in many smaller cities and towns throughout the country. … Continue reading The problems bringing basic heating to many Russians →

No “E” for effort

The UK magazine, Energy in Buildings & Industry, in its January 2013 issue provides the following report on how landlords are prepared for the upcoming changes to require landlords from 2018 to have their properties reach a certain standard before renting.  What is also worrying in this article, is the general attitude towards sustainability.   … Continue reading No “E” for effort →

New York gives new push to improve energy performance of its public buildings

Greenbiz.com provides us with an important new executive order by outgoing Governor of the state of New York to improve the energy efficiency of it’s state buildings.  It ranks amongst the most ambitious in the USA.  There is a very interesting comment below on comparing some of its older buildings to LEED-certified ones.   How … Continue reading New York gives new push to improve energy performance of its public buildings →

Data needed on tenant behaviour

Professor Elena Gaura of the Low Impact Buildings Grand Challenge Initiative at Coventry University in the UK writes about a new experiment to have a better understanding of tenant data in order to help develop a more sustainable approach to sustainable housing  Sustainable housing movement held back by lack of tenant data The Naked House … Continue reading Data needed on tenant behaviour →

Positive impact from home air conditioning

Juliet Eilperin recently wrote in the Washington Post about a new study that has analysed the impact of deploying air conditioning on a wide scale to reduce deaths from excessive heat.  While this is interesting indeed, it does not mention that maybe houses should be better built to integrate passive heating and cooling in order … Continue reading Positive impact from home air conditioning →