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Articles by Zack Semke
How Passive House Design Can Propel the Clean Energy Transition in Architecture
With reversals in US climate policy underway and a US exit from the Paris Agreement announced for 2020, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the clean energy transition is already underway. The potentially exponential forces of market transformation that this transition could release offer real, economics-based cause for hope for the future of the planet.
Cheap solar energy won't end the need for deep-green buildings
California energy markets show how surging demand after dark can force carbon-emitting power plants to step in to meet household needs. The clean energy revolution is gathering steam with tech breakthroughs, record-breaking deployment rates, free-falling prices and a new, cautious optimism about the prospects for meaningful climate solutions. As this revolution unfolds, what are the implications for energy efficiency in our buildings?
DJC.COM -- Building Green 2018
Let’s make buildings people can still use after a disaster More designers are taking recovery time into account as the climate changes and major disruptions become more frequent. By STEVE MODDEMEYER Collinswoerman New green rating systems go way beyond LEED Owners who want to stand out from the crowd can choose among rating systems that focus on health, wellness, resilience, energy-efficiency and more.
The Lesson from Munich
Granted, we don’t see it right now in Seattle. Passive House can feel pretty “niche” compared to the explosion of non-Passive House construction underway here. In Pittsburgh (site of our mid-Atlantic office), a Passive House wave is becoming perceptible, thanks to city and state policies that encourage Passive House development. Even there, the notion that Passive House is the inevitable endpoint for the building industry might seem a stretch.
Is Efficiency Dead? Passive House and the Clean Energy Revolution
Despite the best efforts of the fossil fuel industry and its friends in the White House, the clean energy revolution is upon us and gathering steam. It’s exciting stuff: a steady drumbeat of tech breakthroughs, record-breaking deployment rates, and free-falling prices. We’re entering a time of exponential change and smashed assumptions about our energy system, our energy consumption, and the prospects for solutions to the global climate crisis.
Study: Air Quality in Passive House Schools Supports Learning
Indoor air quality (IAQ) can either support student learning or inhibit it. According to the EPA, not only does IAQ impact the health and academic performance of our kids, IAQ is even more impactful on kids than adults because kids’ bodies and brains are still developing. Yet, it’s common for indoor CO levels to regularly exceed ASHRAE’s classroom guideline of about 1,000 parts per million (ppm).
» Are Buildings Our Next Clean Energy Solution?
Returning from Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training, it’s clear to me that if we hope to avert catastrophic climate change we need to start viewing our buildings as clean energy power plants. It might be easier than you think. Gore and the global experts he convened for the training emphasized three things: 1. we face a climate crisis emergency; 2. we have the means to solve the crisis; and 3. our future depends on determined local climate action, now.
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