The Mother of Necessity

I'm was in Jerusalem attending theIsraeli Presidential Conference 2009: Facing Tomorrow. It was very exciting to see the path-breaking new technologies coming out here in energy, water and information management.

Abundant in nature's flows of sunlight and poor in nature's stocks of fossil fuels and flow of water, if ever there was a country where green building should be flourishing, it's here.

然而，以色列是一项相反的研究：一方面，它需要在25年以上的新建筑物上加热太阳能水 - 90％的房屋含有太阳能热水 - 基本的节水固定装置很普遍。另一方面，直到2009年，任何类似于整理建筑能源消耗的综合方法的任何方法终于得到了批准，而且我在这里公认的有限时间尚未看到无水小便池。

所以让我想到：让人们摆脱建筑物的可持续性需要什么？竞彩足球app怎么下载

Information (including true eco-nomic pricing of finite resources) is clearly one very important element. The good news is that decent information on building performance is becoming more readily available on a timely basis.

Now the challenge is to do something with it.

On the policy front, best practices website put together byGreen Cities California(GreenCitiesCalifornia.org) is a great example of this. Although somewhat misleadingly grouped under “Urban Design,” the website features the ordinances, requirements and promotional materials developed to implement several very successful municipal green building programs.

To the bottom 10 states inACEEE's new state scorecardon energy efficiency policies: Take note.

With nearly $1 trillion of water infrastructure upgrades estimated to be required over the next decade to maintain the safe delivery of drinking water and treatment of sewage, theEPA WaterSense labelis quite welcome, though arguably long overdue.

So, what took 'em so long?

Well, water is at best a quasi-market public good, so it will never be priced commensurate with its value. The concept of a “lifeline” tariff for basic, efficient water consumption, followed by steeply inclining rates for higher use, by and large seems to have eluded regulators. So, we will continue to flush our toilets with drinking water in the desert and other fractally-stupid building practices . . . until we can't.

In another what-took-'em-so-long? effort,GreenBiz.com Managing Editor Matthew Wheeland writesabout a new University of Manchester European research effort (air travel in the U.S. is all hunky-dory, thank you) to determine whether modern IT methods can help improve the efficiency of airport operations in everything from airplane takeoff schedules to baggage handling. Hmmm . . . ya think?

While they're at it, they ought to check out this really cool hybrid magnetic brake/drive system being developed byDelos Aerospace, which employs the same principles of dynamic braking used by hybrid cars to use the momentum of the plane to generate braking power, as well as allows the plane to drive itself around the airport using on-board electric motors, saving tons of fuel and emissions (literally) and improving gate turnover because the plane's not waiting for those funky lead-filled push-back thingies.

The Look-Grandpa-I-picked-up-the-$20-bill-you-said-was-fake-but-it's-real! award goes toDell and Chipotle restaurants for their comprehensive sustainability efforts-- including lots of new PV capacity. Dell's sustainability efforts will save them nearly $6 million per year.

Rob Watsonis the executive editor ofGreenerBuildings.com. You can reach Rob at[email protected]or follow him on Twitter@KilrWat

Image above CC licensed by Flickr userJust Being Myself
Flickr用户许可的索引CC的垂直图像Urville Djasim