Occasionally, I hear contrasting—at times, even incompatible—notions about the United State's energy consumption. Word-of-mouth can allow talking points to take on lives of their own and data trends change over time. What does current data offer in terms of the U.S. energy sector?
Among myriad strategies to help make buildings healthier for occupants, one of the most potent ways to improve their psychological and physiological responses to a built space is to appeal to our hardwired affinity for the natural environment.
The Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule serves as a tool for insurance companies to assess the effectiveness of building codes in mitigating risks associated with natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters.
Statewide energy codes are important for several reasons—not the least of which are reduced energy consumption, mitigated greenhouse gas emissions, minimized building operational costs, and improved climate resilience. Yet, at the time of this writing, ten states do not have a statewide commercial energy code.
The latest 2030 By the Numbers report details the aggregate impacts of 23,276 project reported, including a 48 percent overall reduction in predicted (modeled) energy use intensity (pEUI) and 41.8 million metric tons of CO2 emissions avoided relative to baseline-equivalent buildings.
The prospect of decarbonizing the electrical sector is riddled with myriad economic, technological, political, and outright physical challenges. There will be unanticipated setbacks and some nascent technologies will offer staggering breakthroughs. Goals notwithstanding, the future has yet to be written.
In recognition of the carbon intensity of our landscape, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) have made several recent moves toward deeper climate action.
Tree-rich ecosystems serve as "carbon sinks" by absorbing more carbon than they release, which could potentially help offset the carbon emissions from human activities such as using fossil fuel-based energy resources for building construction and operation.
Although both wet-bulb globe temperature and Heat Index take into consideration dry-bulb temperature and relative humidity, Heat Index is calculated specifically for outdoor shaded areas and does not consider conductive heat transfer from wind speed or the heat stress added by direct sun exposure.
