Showing urban leadership – part 2

Continuing on an urban theme, there was a recent survey of 300 cities on energy efficiency and technologies that provides very interesting evidence on investments in energy-efficient technologies. This article comes from the Buildings.com website. Separately, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a new role as U.N. envoy on cities and climate change. … Continue reading Showing urban leadership – part 2 →

Showing urban leadership – part 1

Many US cities are working very closely together to increase the energy performance of large buildings. Sarah Kollmorgen writes on Northwestern University’s Madill Reports website about the City Energy Project that includes Chicago from where she is writing from. 10 cities, one energy-efficient goal Chicago is one of 10 cities that have joined the … Continue reading Showing urban leadership – part 1 →

Illuminating our cities

Mark Major, both a Principal of Speirs + Major, a light design practice, and a Royal Designer for Industry, wrote this excellent article as a blog for Friends of the Earth in the UK. It is good to see that a holistic approach is being taken because urban lighting is seldom thought of that way. … Continue reading Illuminating our cities →

Impact of air pollution in the UK

John Vidal writes in the Guardian about air quality in UK cities, although primarily London, and what it is doing to health. One monitoring station in London shows the fourth highest levels of NO2 of over 2,000 monitoring stations in Europe. Cities are missing targets set under EU laws, but questions arise as to who … Continue reading Impact of air pollution in the UK →

Making our cities more energy efficient

Cities are getting a lot of attention globally because of their high energy consumption and their potential to make significant savings. Dr. Mayarani Praharaj from the Department of Architecture, College of Engineering and Technology, provides a detailed account of some of the issues and the initiatives underway Bhubaneswar for the Daily Pioneer in Delhi and … Continue reading Making our cities more energy efficient →

Promoting energy efficiency in Chicago

Midwest Energy News provides an excellent review by Kari Lydersen of what is going on in Chicago to promote energy efficiency. Importantly, the city is setting up an Infrastructure Trust and it will be important for all to follow how this evolves. The role of cities is becoming more and more important in energy efficiency … Continue reading Promoting energy efficiency in Chicago →