St. Louis is taking sustainability to the streets – literally. In a test program, the city redesigned the streetscape of six blocks on South Grand Boulevard. The redevelopment of the street is to create a more sustainable community – results benefitting the social, economy, and environmental character. The updates include: fewer lanes and shorter crosswalk [...]
California, Nevada Lead The Way In U.S. Geothermal Growth
Geothermal has surpassed wind as the most efficient energy source, finds a recent NYU report. With 144 new geothermal projects underway, the technology is experiencing a 50% increase in projects and doubling of production doubling in just two years. Currently 14 states have geothermal projects underway, with California and Nevada topping out the list. This [...]
Sustainable Housing And Recreation Space Of The Future
There have been a flood of sustainable building and city concepts in recent years – brought on by increasing concern and sensitivity for the environment as well as respect for environmental form. These new concepts set the stage for new living standards and ways of life. From organic forms to lush gardens, the future looks [...]
“Green Roofs” Prove Even More Effective In Fighting Global Warming Than First Thought
It’s time to garden. A new report out by shows that greening your roof can help the environment even more than we originally thought. For quite some time now, we’ve known that green roofs help to reduce heating and air conditioning costs, retain stormwater, and absorb carbon dioxide. Adding green to your roof though can [...]
The Green Case For Cities
Updating our homes, businesses, and cities using new sustainable elements and features is certainly a step in the right direction. But as Witold Rybczynski points out, the real change that is needed is a lifestyle change. He points out that while the LEED certification process certainly ensures certain qualities of a building are “green,” it’s [...]
Urban Is Good
The New Yorker staff writer David Owen has recently published a book that extols that positive points to living in a dense urban city. In Green Metropolis, Owen comments on the facts that many of the major urban centers like Manhattan and Hong Kong are actually far greener than less dense locations. This primarily relates [...]
Sustainable Cities Are The Solution
The sustainable city may be what saves humanity from itself. Contrary to stats from President Obama, Bill Clinton, and UN officials, city dwellers actually have a smaller carbon footprint that non-urban residents. Many who study urban development have understood this but now new statistics are proving it. With these new numbers showing that urban living [...]
Home Green Home: Affordable Green Living
Sustainable home living is coming to Western Massachusetts thanks to Rural Development Incorporated (RDI) and the Franklin County Housing and Redevelopment Authority. Wisdom Way Solar Village is nearing completion, the end product will be 20 low- to moderate-income duplexes. These Zero Net Energy Homes are being built near the center of Greenfield each feature solar [...]
Federal Officials Praise Green Impact Zone In KC’s Urban Core
The green economy bug has hit Kansas City, and the federal government is taking note. The city has established a 150-block area as a Green Impact Zone. What exactly does this mean? This area will be the focus for home weatherization on a massive scale, bus rapid transit and more sustainable energy approaches. Already Kansas [...]
Can The Sahara Desert Power Europe
Plans are currently underway to establish large solar arrays in the African Sahara to create and transfer energy to Europe. One such plan has the potential of producing up to 15% of Europe’s energy needs – a significant chunk that could result in less environmental impacts. Hopefully the plans consider the social equity aspect. As [...]
