Local Food and Resilience

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The highly productive Kingsbury Farm in Waitsfield, Vermont in mid-August, 2011. Note the tracking PV modules in the background. Photo: Alex Wilson. Click on image to enlarge.

In this final installment of my ten-part series on resilient design, I'm taking a look at where our food comes from and how we can achieve more resilient food systems.

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Review Comments with Phantom Requirements

"Often required by reviewers" is not an appropriate response to a direct question about where this language appears in credit requirements.
by Michelle Rosenberger

We are seeing more and more review comments with requirements cited that don't seem to exist specific to our project's registration date and/or rating system. Generally, we are able to pose a further question about these comments that reveals that fact. Last week we got a clarification request on our EQpr2 Environmental Tobacco Smoke documentation for a v2.2 residential project. The comment denied our no smoking lease language and referred to 5 bullet points that must be included in a residential lease.

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Energy Modeling, Building Size, and BIM—What's Cost-Effective?

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Energy modeling Q&A: first some answers on cost, and then it's your turn to ask (or answer) some questions.

Chris Schaffner

There is so much confusion about energy modeling--what it should cost, what benefits it offers, how to approach it--that clear statements addressing these questions are like a breath of fresh air.

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Resilience and Window Attachments at BuildingEnergy 2012

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Going to BuildingEnergy this year? There are a lot of exciting sessions to choose from.

Alex Wilson, a naturalist as well as a green building expert, knows a thing or two about being prepared.

Interdisciplinary, cutting-edge, and combining high-flown philosophical ideas with practical nuts-and-bolts advice, the BuildingEnergy Conference in Boston is not only close to home but also close to our hearts. Every year, we look forward to meeting with old friends and hearing a lot of new ideas.

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Redefining What Makes a Building Product Green

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It's easy to get lost in a sea of greenwash. Our updated GreenSpec criteria provide clear direction on what makes a product green.

BuildingGreen has been defining what makes a product green since the start of the GreenSpec directory in 1998--and we're repeatedly surprised by how far and wide our list of green attributes travels. The industry is not static, though, and it is our aim to continue providing a compass that points from today's best practices to truly sustainable materials management.

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Resilient Communities

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A pedestrian-friendly, walkable community was created in Annapolis, Maryland, making getting around without cars much more feasible. Photo: Dan Burden. Click on image to enlarge.

In this ninth installment of my ten-part series on resilient design I'm focusing beyond individual buildings to the community scale.

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Free Webcast: LEED Energy Reporting Made Easy

LEED Minimum Program Requirement #6, requiring energy and water use reporting, is the most controversial and the most difficult to comply with. Our free webcast explains it step by step.
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Free Webcast: LEED Energy Reporting Made Easy: Fulfilling LEED-2009 MPR #6

Tues. Feb. 28, 2012 | 1 p.m. Eastern Time

When the Minimum Program Requirements (MPRs) were introduced in 2009, it quickly became clear that MPR #6 would be perhaps the most controversial and the most difficult to comply with. Under the requirements of MPR #6, certified LEED-2009 projects are committed to sharing whole-building energy and water usage data.

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Army to Congress: LEED Doesn't Cost More

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The Army is still going for Gold and Platinum despite recent legislation calling a halt to LEED spending.

Fort Carson is piloting net-zero energy, water, and waste--and expects to meet that target by 2020.

The federal government has been one of the biggest supporters of LEED certification in the last few years, with the General Services Administration (GSA) requiring basic LEED certification for all federal buildings starting in 2003 and then upping that requi

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