Our Top-10 Products for 2012 look ahead, offering forward-thinking solutions you can put in place now.

Greenbuild is one of the highlights of the year as we scout out new, innovative products for GreenSpec and Environmental Building News, and every year we present the Top-10 Building Products as selected by our editorial team. This year we are awarding the top 10 products of 2012. That is not a typo.

Microsoft releases initial results from an energy management pilot project that uses the MS campus as a test bed.

I had the privilege Tuesday night to attend a dinner hosted by Microsoft Corp. here in Toronto. When I told my colleagues where I was heading, they said, "What is Microsoft doing at Greenbuild?"

A new Johnson Controls tool, called Panoptix, has tremendous promise. But will people see past the name?

Car trip! The BuildingGreen team drove to Toronto for Greenbuild, making a quick stop along the way to tour a new test bed facility in Syracuse.

Greenbuild is still a little quiet, but BuildingGreen staff are already super busy.

Well, it was a long drive--with a special stop at a test bed facility in Syracuse that I'm going to share with you in a few minutes--but the BuildingGreen team all made it to Toronto last night. We're awfully excited and already quite busy. If you're not here yet or won't make it this year, please post a comment to let us know what you want to hear about.

The Large Blue Butterfly, found in Europe, lays its eggs on a marsh gentian leaf. Its larva (a caterpillar) hatches and falls to the ground and emits a scent that smells to certain species of ant just like its own larvae. The ants carry the caterpillar back to their nest, where they not only care for it as one of their own, but as one of their own that is going to turn into a queen. Meanwhile, the caterpillar is eating the actual ant larvae and growing large.

I had the honor of being within a few feet of a barn owl this weekend at the wildlife festival at the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum. Kept alive after being injured years ago and now a frequent visitor to classrooms and museums, this bird of prey was perched on the arm of a handler, who wore thick falconry gloves.

Green building is about more than saving money, but policymakers are embracing the business case for LEED and other rating systems--with sometimes confusing results.

What is it about the bike racks?

Watching our sweet little brook turn into a raging river during Hurricane Irene was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. An NRDC report tries to re-create this experience for others--before it's too late.

I've got my passport, my schedule, and a map of the expo floor. Just need to grab my coffee mug and my running shoes.

Saturday found me helping a friend install new batteries for another friend's off-the-grid solar power system.

Correction: The author has posted a comment (see below) clarifying the likely width of the ridgeline road associated with this project.

One of my favorite pieces of Vermont trivia has been that the tallest manmade structure in the state is the Bennington Battle Monument, at 306 feet tall--and construction of it was completed in 1889

We waste almost as much food in the U.S. every day as we should be eating--about 1,400 calories per person. Wasting less is best, but if we really can't eat it, where should we put it?