weatherization

Regular or unleaded? Are we willing to invest in healthier homes?

Photo: Steven DepoloHey, have you heard? It’s Lead Poisoning Awareness Week! Stop. I know what you’re thinking. “We don’t have a ribbon,” says Beth Bingham, communications director for the national Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning. “We get a lot of calls from people wondering what color ribbon they should wear. Everyone else has a […]

Green jobs by the numbers

Cleantech sectors saw explosive growth in 2003-2010, despite the Great Recession.

House Republicans seek cuts to Energy Star, weatherization, advanced energy research, puppies

The Republicans' Spending Reduction Act would chop funding for Energy Star, transit, organic programs, energy research, and family planning.

Anita Maltbia

Art: Nat Damm Anita Maltbia Director, Green Impact Zone Kansas City, Mo. Anita Maltbia is spearheading the transformation of 150 square blocks of Kansas City, Mo., from blight to bright. The Green Impact Zone project, which she directs, is resuscitating this economically depressed African-American neighborhood by putting local residents to work weatherizing the zone’s 2,500 homes and […]

Home Star advances in the House

The Home Star program, which could jumpstart a national revolution in residential energy efficiency, is one tiny step closer to becoming law. The House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on Wednesday passed the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010, which could create 168,000 jobs by investing up to $6 billion in residential energy efficiency […]

Job Creation Begins at Home

Originally published on TheRoot.com Today the Senate Energy Committee will begin debating a weatherization bill known as Home Star that aims to make American homes more energy efficient, while creating thousands of American jobs in the process. Home Star has the potential to significantly reduce residential energy consumption, saving consumers almost $10 billion over the […]

How I Reduced My Natural Gas Use 75 Percent for Less Than $1,400

(Photo credit VA5LF via the Flickr Creative Commons license). Cross Posted from Biodiversivist This is an update to a post I did last winter titled: Weatherization Nation–How I reduced my natural gas use 60 percent for less than $400 In that post I speculated that getting the next 20 percent reduction (for my goal of […]

Vindication edition: Obama declares insulation “sexy”

Here at Sexy Retrofits, we’ve been pointing out for a while the absolute hotness of making buildings more energy efficient. Today, our President said this: “I know the idea [of investing in upgrades to inefficient buildings] may not be very glamorous, although I get really excited about it. Insulation is sexy stuff.” Know what else […]

Green jobs for real people: The story behind the recovery numbers

640,329 That figure represents the number of jobs that have been created or saved so far through the Recovery Act, according to a report released by the Obama administration on Friday. But the true significance of this number lies in the people behind it. People like Thalia Williams. Thalia is a single mother of a […]