Whole Travel Blog

Starting next week, the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Environment and Environmental Design (LEED) certification standards will be revised and require building owners to submit data about how much energy and water they use on an annual basis, and seek re-certification every two years. The USGBC says the data collected by annual reporting will help improve future revisions to the LEED standards. Senior Vice President of LEED, Scot Horst, said in a press release Thursday, “[this information] will bring to light external issues such as occupant behavior or unanticipated building usage patterns, all key factors that influence performance.”

General Electric and the Idaho National Laboratory announced last week that they have received $2 million from the Department of Energy to further research and develop a technology that converts heat from industrial engines into electricity, potentially making engines 20-40% more efficient and reducing carbon emissions.

Don't waste that waste heat!

Researchers in Germany and New York have been working to improve the Organic Rankine Cycle so that they may effectively capture and convert waste heat, but technology to date has not been cost competitive. By using an evaporator instead of a working fluid, GE’s new design can capture heat from relatively small sources and convert it to electricity for a wide range of applications.

Many cities have set up initiatives that reach out to lower income homes to help them become more energy efficient.  Haya El Nasser writes in USA Today that houses in lower income areas often use older, less efficient appliances and are not well insulated.  Some of the most recent efforts to lower energy consumption have come in more affluent areas and public buildings.  In several cities organizations have been giving free energy audits, CFL lightbulbs, and other energy savings devices.

In Denver an initiative called Greenprint Denver was started by Mayor John Hickenlooper.  The director of Greenprint, Michele Moss Weingardener, states that a look at utility data and found that the “highest energy-using neighborhoods [were] the [the ones with the] lowest income.”  Volunteers have travelled around the areas supplying people with CF bulbs, programmable thermostats, and insulation around doors, windows, and water furnaces.  Obviously, energy usage goes down, but it also helps these indivuduals save money.  To read more about these intriuging programs, click here.

*photo by connor.molloy

If all goes according to plan in Raleigh, North Carolina, LED-lit street lamps might be the future of streets and neighborhoods across the country. Raleigh is currently conducting a test study to determine the lights’ durability, sensitivity to rain and severe weather conditions, as well as their overall effectiveness and longevity.

Although LED street lamps cost $500 compared to $70 for the traditional ones, they last at least twice as long and expend about 40% less energy.

Read the full report here.