Category Archives: In Buildings

Nineteen schools in the region awarded Nation’s first Green Ribbons

Posted on April 24, 2012 by sjonesneep| Leave a comment

Imagine if your school saved thousands of dollars on utility costs by cutting down on energy, harvested vegetables from its “lasagna garden” for school lunch, or fueled its buses with discarded cooking oils from local restaurants. Schools across the US are doing this and more – and have been honored for the first time by the Department of Education’s Green Ribbon School Awards program for their innovative “green” approach to education.

Secretary of Ed. Arne Duncan and students at Green Ribbon Schools Winners Announcement

On a morning visit to a DC school this Monday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the first ever winners of the Green Ribbon School Awards. Schools received Green Ribbons for implementing a strong, holistic approach to being “green” – these schools save energy, foster healthy school environments, and have strong environmental education programs.   Nineteen of the 78 winning schools came from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

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With Tools in Hand – Mainers Fight for Safe, Affordable & Comfortable Buildings

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Allison Webster| 1 Comment

Buildings are our nation’s biggest energy guzzlers, using 40% of our energy and 70% of our electricity.

As the nation makes strides to improve the energy performance of its building stock, one effective method of doing this is with building energy codes. Building energy codes play a central role in creating a sustainable energy future by significantly reducing building energy use and ensuring safe and affordable dwellings for its businesses and citizens.

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Globe Magazine story misses the obvious: energy efficiency

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Jim OReilly| Leave a comment

In a Feb. 5 cover story of the Boston Globe Magazine, Neil Swidey’s “What if the Lights Go Out?” paints a bleak picture of the state of our regional electric grid. And all of his reasons are quite valid: we are overly-reliant on natural gas fired electricity generation; we have an aging electricity and natural gas infrastructure that is vulnerable to failures on its own and attacks from those intent on crippling our power system; and we are increasingly facing extreme weather events that challenge both that system and our resolve.

Swidey largely dismisses renewable energy resources, focusing on their intermittent nature rather than their promise to deliver clean energy from sources that, unlike fossil fuels, are not finite.

But his biggest disservice to readers is his complete omission of a solution that is quickly deployed, clean, reliable, affordable and indigenous to our region: energy efficiency.

Swidey makes no mention of the fact that cost-effective energy efficiency has the potential to save New England about 31,800 gigaWatt-hours of electricity, or the equivalent to the amount of energy produced each year by about four large coal-fired power plants.  The electricity saved could power 4 million homes for one year – about equal to the households in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont combined.

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Posted in In Best Practices, In Buildings, In Products, In the Market

Green codes underway in Rhode Island – is this the future of public policy?

Posted on February 3, 2012 by sjonesneep| 1 Comment

City Hall Annex - Cambridge's first high performance municipal building Photo: City of Cambridge and Blind Dog Photo, Inc.

Naturally, I waited until the last possible day of the year to apply for my resident parking permit at the City Hall Annex in Cambridge, Mass.  When I entered the lobby, the line of permit-seekers was at least a hundred people deep, winding around the entire first floor of the building, up the staircase and back down again.  What I expected to be a high-anxiety situation filled with people sighing loudly and making rude comments under their breath turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant experience. People waited patiently, read their books, chatted with their neighbors, and played games on their cell phones until it was their time at the window.  Why such a pleasant atmosphere?

I’d like to think that the vibe had something to do with the fact that we were all waiting inside Cambridge’s first municipal “green” building.  The building is a historic renovation of an 1871 schoolhouse—with big windows, an upgraded ventilation system, non-toxic paint and finishes, and geothermal heating.  The walls of the lobby are covered in nature-inspired murals depicting the City’s commitment to the environment.  Cambridge taxpayers pay less for utilities to power this building – and procrastinators like me now have a beautiful place to wait in line to get a permit. Continue reading →

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Opting out of Green Ribbon Schools, but the need to showcase and celebrate persists

Posted on December 15, 2011 by sjonesneep| Leave a comment

For champions of the green schools movement, the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools award program –now in its pilot year—is an exciting opportunity to gain national recognition for years of hard work transforming the way we design, build, and operate schools.  Thirty three states, the District of Columbia and the Bureau of Indian Education have opted into the program and plan to nominate schools this January with a goal of announcing winners in April. The Mid Atlantic is strongly represented in this pack vying for an award; states such as Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and New York plan to participate.

In New England, however, Rhode Island is currently the only state to step forward as a contender. Continue reading →

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Up to $240K Available: “Consulting Services for Raising the BAR (Building Asset Rating)”

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Allison Webster| 1 Comment

NEEP, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER), is seeking proposals for innovative methodologies that can help reduce the time and cost of data collection.

Operational ratings for buildings, which are based on actual energy use (i.e. energy billing data), are great, but don’t paint the full picture of a building’s true energy performance. To help connect the dots, asset ratings evaluate the energy performance of a building based on the thermal envelope (e.g. insulation, windows) and mechanical and electrical systems, irrespective of tenant behavior. Asset ratings are designed to facilitate direct comparisons of energy performance among similar buildings, and in turn educate stakeholders and enable the real estate market to value energy performance, thereby increasing investments in energy efficiency. Continue reading →

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Zero Net Energy Buildings – A Pathway to Energy Independence and Disaster Preparedness

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Allison Webster| Leave a comment

Over the past six months, the Northeast has been hammered with unexpected and extreme weather.  Tornadoes tore through Western Massachusetts in June and Hurricane Irene wreaked havoc throughout the entire region in August, devastating Vermont with the worst flooding they’ve seen in 84 years.  We also felt the strongest earthquake to rattle the region since World War II, and last month’s October snowstorm left a reported three million on the East Coast without power.  The image below of Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P)’s power outage map, taken on the morning of October 30, begins to illustrate the stark and extensive aftereffects of these storms. During the peak of the outage 830,000 customers were left in the dark: no lights, no heat, no water…and in some towns for as long as 10 days. These events force communities and government to seriously grapple with, and possibly rethink, emergency preparedness plans. Continue reading →

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Green Revolving Funds for Energy Efficiency Opportunities at Vermont Colleges & Universities

Posted on November 8, 2011 by neepenergy| Leave a comment

Richard Donnelly, Efficiency Vermont

With economic and social challenges ranging from climate commitments to deferred maintenance, how can colleges and universities make the investments necessary to control their costs and reduce carbon emissions? As energy efficiency projects directly compete with limited funds to pay for other expenses, how can colleges and universities capitalize on long-term efficiency investments that could transform how all institutions approach sustainability?

This past spring Efficiency Vermont began a series of conversations with several presidents from Vermont’s colleges and universities. These conversations yielded valuable insights regarding institutional goals, barriers, and opportunities. One common theme was that budget constraints were preventing Vermont schools from taking advantage of numerous cost-effective, low-risk investment opportunities across their campuses. Continue reading →

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School’s Back in Session – Working Together to Save Energy, Cut Costs & Keep Students Healthy!

Posted on September 22, 2011 by neepenergy| Leave a comment

Student Recycling Station at the Manchester Essex School

Students and teachers hit the ground running in September, sometimes without noticing all of the improvements made to the school building over the summer months by facilities staff.  This fall, many schools will have new lights, new boilers, new or cleaner ventilation systems, maybe even a more comprehensive recycling program in place.   Not only should students and teachers be made aware of these improvements, but they can take an active role in sustaining healthy energy efficient schools. Getting students and teachers involved in the operations of the school helps save money in tough economic times, but it also teaches kids lifelong lessons about energy and climate science. Continue reading →

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Energy Guides for Buildings? It’s Coming!

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Allison Webster| Leave a comment

First adopted over a decade ago in Australia and Denmark, mandatory building energy rating policies are now in place in over 30 countries worldwide. Fundamentally, rating and disclosure is pretty straightforward – we see the concept applied every day in nutritional labels on food, fuel economy stickers on cars and energy labels on appliances. Unfortunately for buildings, slapping on an energy rating label isn’t as easy as this photo illustrates and unlike national labeling requirements for vehicles or appliances, rating and disclosure policy requirements for buildings will vary substantially between jurisdictions. Continue reading →

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Posted in In Best Practices, In Buildings, In the Market

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