Benefits, Risks and Liabilities of Green Roofs

A must read short and informative piece by leading green building and sustainable development attorney Geoff White of Frost, Brown Todd LLC. Go to http://www.consilienceblog.org .

There are two basic types of green roofs, (i) an extensive roof, which has a few inches of soil cover and (ii) an intensive roof that has two feet or more of soil for a variety of grass, trees, bushes and shrubs. Green roofs are used in a multitude of buildings, including industrial facilities, commercial offices, retail properties and residences. The benefits of a green roof include reduced storm-water runoff, absorption of air pollution, reduced heat island effect, protection of underlying roof material from sunlight, reduced noise, and insulation from extreme temperatures. A green roof can thus be a critical design element for a green building.

Hudson Valley Wind Power Initiative launched

Written by Administrator Friday, 01 May 2009 09:33

The Hudson Valley Center for Innovation Wednesday announced a region-wide effort to create a wind power initiative to concentrate on research, testing and certification.“The Hudson Valley is suited to become the global epicenter of distributed wind energy development,” said Donald Perry, a green strategist and consultant to the project.

The Wind Power Initiative plans to conduct wind turbine training, testing and analysis at selected community colleges in the Hudson Valley, including Sullivan, Orange and Ulster, along with its primary academic partner, the Polytechnic Institute of NYU.

Perry said the wind power system being constructed now at Sullivan County Community College was as the result of his efforts to bring the players together.

By the end of the year, a commercial wind power facility will be constructed and online in Westchester County, he said, with others to follow.

Placing turbines at colleges will provide students with “real world experience working with real wind energy systems and help them become expert in their design, installation, testing and maintenance, as well as helping the push the technology envelope further and create new wind turbine generators of even greater power production, efficiency and cost competitiveness,” said Les Neumann, managing director of HVCFI.

The project will also provide “an excellent introduction to the potential of the Hudson Valley as a location which is in close proximity to the largest concentration of end-users – New York City and the Northeast corridor,” he said.

http://www.greenhudsonvalley.com/environment/renewable-energy/196-wind-power.html

5O Strategies to Green your Environment

The 50 strategies represent readily available and effective tools and techniques that will have an immediate impact on architects’ ability to achieve significant carbon reduction. They span a spectrum from broad-based site and planning objectives to specific, building-based concepts.

Each strategy includes an overview of the subject, typical applications, emerging trends, links to information sources, and important relationships to other carbon reduction strategies.

http://wiki.aia.org/Wiki%20Pages/Table%20of%20Contents.aspx

Does green building make cents?

It depends. Two new studies offer conflicting views Much of the savings that advocates of green measures tout is compared with older buildings, those erected to minimum standards or ones with different uses, not with similar, recently built structures,

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/405135_green15.html