GreenHomeNYC’s Green Careers Transition team is putting together a reading list - check out their previous selections. Continuing the series, GreenHomeNYC volunteer Mary Tchamkina takes a look at books that might help to motivate and guide your career transition.
(more…)
Describe your “Eukera!” moment that shaped your decision to pursue environmentally conscious design.
I actually never had one single moment, rather a series of them that had guided the evolution of our firm’s philosophy over the years. Some people pursue environmental design out of moral conviction, others think of it as good business, but we just think of it as good design. Our primary interest has always been good architecture. Good design can be distinguished by its beauty, functionality, and economy; we believe that engagement with the environmental element is just as an important a component as the other three. If we were to omit it, that opportunity for enrichment would be lost.
GreenHomeNYC’s Green Careers Transition team is putting together a reading list - check out their previous selections. Continuing the series, GreenHomeNYC volunteer Mary Tchamkina takes a look at six books on designing in harmony with nature.
Last month, the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council acknowledged the Empire State Building as an example of an outstanding retrofit project. Clinton Climate Initiative, Johnson Controls Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle, and Rocky Mountain Institute, all partners in the project, were given the Beyond Green High Performance Building Award, a prize reserved for projects that demonstrate leading practice in whole-building approaches to design and construction. Dattner Architects were winners of the same award in 2007 for their work on the Bronx Library Center.
Join GreenHomeNYC for our March Green Building Forum, with three guest speakers focusing on Stormwater issues. The evening will address methods to re-use and manage stormwater for community, residential and commercial projects.
All GreenHomeNYC forums are free and open to the public.
Here in NYC, green buildings are rated by the US Green Building Council, who developed and promote the LEED building rating system. GreenHomeNYC volunteer Brian Rahm takes a look at a similar organization 8,000 miles away: the New Zealand Green Building Council.
NZGBC has established a rating system called Green Star, similar to the LEED paradigm. Up to now, rating and green building work in New Zealand has focused on commercial property rather than residential. Because of this focus, and the relatively recent interest in green building principles, many of the properties highlighted by NZGBC are still in the design phase, and are typically large multi-use high-rises in urban environments.
(more…)
Yikes! You are probably wondering what any of these have to do with green buildings! Not to worry!
One Straw Revolution by Masonobu Fukuoka, Gaia’s Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway and Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell each explore in various contexts, the notion of leveraging existing system elements and assets in order to minimize necessary inputs, maximize desired outputs and control or reduce adverse impacts or, in simple English. . .strategies for creating systems that achieve potentially conflicting goals and are also self-maintaining. I would say that accomplishing this is certainly an aspiration of the “high performance” or “green” building.
Already in February 2010 there has been three major policy announcements to further integrate smart building strategies into the city’s built environment. This news in the short term particularly impacts clean energy business owners and those doing business with the city - in the long term the City has begun the process to overhaul its entire regulatory framework. Below is a brief overview of the Speaker’s State of the City Address, the release of the NYC Green Code Task Force’s 111 recommendations, and a link to the DDC’s new Active Design Guidelines - all after the jump. (more…)
Governor Paterson has announced the New York Great Appliance Swap Out - a program that provides $16.8 million for New Yorkers to turn in their less efficient appliances for rebates on energy efficient appliances NOW through Sunday, February 21. The program uses federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
(more…)
If so, you might be interested in a stormwater management competition, finishing up this week. Submit your ideas on smarter solutions for street runoff by February 15th and help NYC divert some stormwater from over 6,000 miles of streets in the city. If you’re a follower of GreenHomeNYC’s monthly forum, you might recall our August ‘08 session on this topic.
Find our more about the compeitions at www.mindsinthegutter.org, and read on for details of the judging panel.
Energy Efficiency Policy green careers Jobs products LEED materials educational resources careers transition NYSERDA Green Power + Alternative Energy Affordable Housing Green Building Monthly Forum Finance water