Checking your Neighborhood Walkability Score

From the desk of Alex Vondeling

Since we all seem to be into tracking and competing,  this site is great for measuring the walkability of your neighborhood.

They also rank cities for best transport and cycling. I find that suspect since it ranks Philadelphia higher than Chicago and Portland for public transit, but it doesn’t make the top 10 for biking.  I’m not sure I agree with that assessment – I actually found the City fairly bike friendly – except for the lame drivers who would yell at me to ride on the sidewalk!

Boat Shaped Architecture:

From the desk of Alex Vondeling.

Fascinating new ecology center in Palo Alto, CA – built in a renovated 1941 boat shaped building and incorporates many green features.  The mission reminds me a lot of Hard Bargain Farm’s project.

Burning Wood:

From the desk of Jenn Rezeli

This is a very visually appealing material with a long lifespan…wonder about the embodied energy in carbonizing it and the cost (of course).

Cargo Bikes:

From the desk of Jenn Rezeli

In my research about the best way to tote the wee ones to and fro, I saw this interesting article on Cargo Bikes. (click on image to read the article)

The 2013 Greenbuild Challenge:

From the desk of Neil Young

DVGBC is asking its members to challenge themselves to reach new heights in green building by Greenbuild 2013 (located in our fair city of Philadelphia). Re:Vision Architecture‘s pledge is to reach 100 LEED certified buildings (including 20 LEED Platinum) and near certification of a Living Building Challenge project.

A few other pledges include:

The Energy Efficient Buildings Hub will support 5 full spectrum energy efficiency retrofits in regional commercial buildings

Philadelphia University will have graduated 150 students through its sustainable design program

Pennsylvania Horticultural Society will plant 250,000+ trees regionwide through its Plant One Million project, grow 250,000+ pounds of food through City Harvest, and clean and green 250 acres of vacant land throughout Philadelphia

The City of Philadelphia, across city agencies, will employ green building standards for all residential and mixed-used projects receiving city funding

Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia will build to LEED Silver standards on all new construction projects.  

The Philadelphia Zoo will complete the Hamilton Family Children’s Zoo and Faris Family Education Center, the first LEED certified building in a zoo in PA

See more pledges here...

What will you pledge?

US Solar Market Report:

From the desk of Drew Lavine

Good news for solar…

Click here to read the full report…

Healthy Building Network:

From the desk of Alex Vondeling:

The Healthy Building Network in conjunction with Building Green is launching Health Product Declaration (HPD) as a format for reporting product content and associated health information related to building materials.

One of the goals is to encourage product transparency (much like food manufacturers being required to list ingredients). Several manufacturers have signed on as being willing to participate. See who has signed up here…

For those of us specifying products, both this web site and Pharos’ are great places to start for product selection.

All The World’s Water:

From the desk of Michelle Robinson

The graphic to the left illustrates a scale comparison of all of the world’s water, fresh water, and planet size. I suggest hanging this up near your kitchen sink to serve as a reminder of our limited supply of fresh water.

Read more…

Dirt Is Making A Comeback:

From the desk of Jenn Rezeli

Great to see Inga Saffron advocating for rammed earth…there is also a brief statement by Scott in the article.  This really made me want to do a demonstration for Scott and my future garden shed.  Anyone interested in a dirt party?        Read on…

Forget Sci-fi Cities:

From the desk of Bryan Astheimer

On the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, Emirati gold is being spun into a solar-powered city of the future called Masdar. But the most widely copied model for sustainable urban design is the humble, pedestrian-scale ‘complete street’ approach.

Read on…