built environment
-
The case for super-ambitious Living Buildings. A talk with Jason McLennan
Seattle architect Jason McLennan created the Living Building Challenge, a standard far more demanding than the widely used LEED standard. Here's why.
-
How to find an energy efficient mortgage
Energy efficient mortgages are a potentially transformative tool that rewards homebuyers with well-sealed houses, on the thinking that if your heating and cooling bills are low, you'll have more money to make mortgage payments. A new guide can help you get one.
-
Isolated green buildings won't save the planet, TEDsters argue
Everyone in the green-buildings world already understands this -- if they're halfway informed and halfway honest. Who exactly are the writers refuting? Real-estate marketers.
-
Mother Earth not invited to housing summit
No surprise here, but Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner & co. gave no mention to sustainability at Tuesday's summit on housing and what to do about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
-
Senate bill would make energy-efficient mortgages mainstream
Heating, cooling, and electrifying a home costs money -- more than the average family pays for property taxes. Shouldn't homeowners pay attention to those costs? Shouldn't mortgage lenders? A bill backed by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) would direct banks to start paying attention to energy.
-
How Obama could make housing policy greener
On Tuesday, the Obama administration is holding a large summit on how to reshape federal housing policy and eventually offload mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the government bailed out in 2008. It'll be a Very Serious event in which the health of the economy gets top billing and the health of the planet will be lucky to get even a passing mention.
-
Mosque near Ground Zero will be greenest in the nation
The Cordoba House in lower Manhattan will be the nation's first "green" LEED-certified mosque, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin reports at Daily Beast.
-
How much do you spend on transport? New web app aims to show you
The cost of a home is easy to keep in mind. The cost of getting to and from it is not. A new web tool aims to shed light on transportation costs and nudge Americans away from sprawl.
-
New Walk Score assumes you won’t swim to the grocery store
A great tool gets better.