Green Building/Remodeling | Green Living Ideas

One Way Climate Change Will Change the Way We Build

Posted on Jul 19, 2010 by Susan Kraemer.

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A village in Alaska has had to find a way to counteract the effects of an ongoing permafrost melt that has destabilized the ground beneath homes in the village. New building techniques may be the result.

With a 3.3° C rise in the region’s average air temperatures over the last twenty years, some buildings have cracked and slipped in the Alaskan village of Salluit on the Hudson Strait, because the permafrost beneath the village is melting. Ground temperatures have risen a third as much.

These structural problems are due to the permafrost melt as the result of global climate change that has already begun. Alaska is one of those regions that has warmed by more than the global average.

Although climate change so far averages out to just 1° C or so worldwide, that world average is the sum total of all the regional increases in some places, and in other places; decreases, forming the new global average temperature.

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Is Your Insulation Bad For the Environment?

Posted on Jul 13, 2010 by Susan Kraemer.

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Uh-oh. Turns out that many of the insulation materials we use to reduce our energy use (and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions), are themselves producers of extremely potent greenhouse gases. How bad? Try up to 1,430 times.
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Gardening on School Roofs

Posted on Jun 03, 2010 by Zachary Shahan.

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You’ve probably heard of green roofs before. And if you have, you’ve probably even thought of the possibility of gardening on your own roof. But this project below by a group of teachers, parents and green roof advocates brings us one step further.

A large school building in the Lower East Side of New York City that houses elementary schools P.S. 64 and the Earth School as well the Tompkins Square Middle School is going to be fitted with a green roof and gardening on this green roof is going to become part of the schools’ curricula. Courses in science and nutrition will make use of the green roof. Furthermore, vegetables the children grow on the green roof will be used in the cafeteria.
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Guys Like Green Girls

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Zachary Shahan.

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A new survey conducted by footwear company Timberland, the “2010 Timberland Eco-Love Survey“, shows that men are looking for eco-friendly and adventurous girls.

54% of men would question starting a relationship with a girl who litters, 27% would question doing so if the girl didn’t recycle, 25% if she didn’t turn the lights off when leaving home, and 21% would ponder starting things with a girl who drove a gas-guzzler.
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EU Mandates Nearly Carbon Neutral Buildings After 2020

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Scott James.

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This week the European Parliament announced new energy standards that will require all new buildings constructed in Europe after 2020 will need to be nearly carbon-neutral. The announcement is part of the EU’s plans to cut carbon emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. The new guidelines will take effect for all new public buildings constructed in the European Union after 2018 and apply to all residential and office buildings after 2020.
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