30 Project Beyond LEED Certification: The Importance Of Creating Living Buildings Jason McClennan is the CEO of the International Living Future Institute, the organization that runs the Living Building Challenge--a green building standard that goes far beyond LEED and perhaps every other performance standard for the built environment (the first Living Buildings were certified in 2010). The recently revised standard consists of seven "petals"--or performance areas--for buildings: site, water, energy, health, materials, equity, and beauty. Within those performance areas are a number of imperatives, including healthy air, appropriate sourcing, urban agriculture, net zero water and energy, and social justice. I spoke to McLennan about the future of living buildings at the recent Living Future Unconference. CO.EXIST: How did you first get interested in green buildings? JASON MCLENNAN: The short version is that I got interested in environmental issues because of where I grew up. I was always interested in buildings and design and architecture. That’s what’s cool.
Welcome to Thanet Earth: The biggest greenhouse in Britain unveiled By David Derbyshire Updated: 21:15 GMT, 11 June 2008 You've heard of the factory chicken. Now meet the factory vegetable. But this week, workers are putting the finishing touches to Britain's largest hydroponic greenhouse - an astonishing construction in white steel and glass. Massive: 'Thanet Earth' will cover 91 hectares of land in Kent. By the time the site is complete in 2010, another six massive greenhouses will have been constructed, providing a home to more than 1.3million tomato, pepper and cucumber plants - grown hydroponically, without soil. Kent is often called the Garden of England. At a time when people are increasingly concerned about industrial-scale farming, this latest, monumental step in the steady, insidious creep of factory farming is a controversial one. Garden of England: The site will contain seven greenhouses, each the size of 10 football pitches But real food campaigners say nothing can replace the taste of vegetables and fruit grown outside in proper soil. Enlarge
Switching to a green economy could mean millions of jobs, says UN | Environment Tens of millions of new jobs can be created around the world in the next two decades if green policies are put in place to switch the high-carbon economy to low-carbon, the UN has said. Between 15m and 60m additional jobs are likely, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep). These are net gains in employment for the world economy, taking into account any job losses in high-carbon industries that fail to transform. Achim Steiner, executive director of Unep, said: "The findings underline that [the green economy] can include millions more people in terms of overcoming poverty and delivering improved livelihoods for this and future generations. It is a positive message of opportunity in a troubled world of challenges." As well as generating net new gains in the number of jobs, the switch to a green economy could help to lift millions of people out of poverty.
A Wind Turbine Turns Dry Desert Air Into Precious Drinkable Water Water is everywhere, but there’s hardly a drop to drink. The vast majority of the Earth’s surface is either arid or salty ocean. Only 2.5% of our planet’s water resources are fresh, and just a tiny tiny fraction (0.007%) of that is available for direct human use. Yet one of the largest sources of water is around us every day: the air. The problem, of course, is that it’s rarely moist enough to rain. Now a French company, Eole Water, has successfully tested a wind turbine as a source of fresh water and renewable energy. Resembling a conventional wind turbine, Eole’s nacelle actually houses a compressor, water condensers, and heating devices. The technology, under development for a decade, has already attracted interest from a host of major companies such as Siemens and Danfoss. Hat tip: SmartPlanet
Energy Efficient Greenhouse | Electric Tree House The Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development has created an air-conditioned greenhouse which uses alternative energies to reduce the costs of energy while also improving the energy efficiency and increasing crop yields. The greenhouse uses a biomass boiler and thermodynamic solar panels to reach an optimum temperature for crop growth without using fuels derived from petroleum oil or gas. The boiler uses wood and other organic waste as fuel, along with thermodynamic panels to air condition the greenhouses used for intensive crop cultivation. By doing this, the Basque Institute has managed to reduce the costs while producing seasonal crops to be harvested throughout the year. The Institute seeks to find an alternative to the usual diesel or heating oil boilers, which emit a high amount of CO2 into the atmosphere and are costly to the farmer due to the high price of petroleum oil-derived fuels. Basque Research