Member/Industry News

Member/Industry Green Building News

Apr
03

IWBI Lowers 2020 WELL AP Exam Registration Fees and Plans to Donate 20% of all 2020 WELL AP Registration Fees

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) announced today that through 2020, it is lowering the cost of registration to pursue its WELL AP credential by over 50 percent, to $299US. Students as well as individuals who are out of work or who have lost their jobs due to the current health...

Apr
03

Stephanie Horowitz of ZeroEnergy Design, Interviewed by Architectural Digest on Architecture and Climate Change

ZeroEnergy Design's net-positive farmhouse in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Stephanie Horowitz, Managing Director at ZeroEnergy Design, a Rate It Green Member, was recently interviewed for an article by Elizabeth Stamp of Architectural Digest: “How the Architecture Industry Is Reacting t...

Mar
22

IWBI Announces Three Impressive Initiatives to Support the Green & Healthy Building and Wider Communities in this Time of Crisis

The International Well Building Institute (IWBI) has announced a number of initiatives designed to help and support the green and healthy building and wider communities in the time of crisis surrounding the coronavirus.   First, IWBI will be setting up a Task Force to help b...

Mar
20

Green Builders, Let's Gather! IFLI Hosts a Happy Hour, Fridays at 3 - 5 pm EST

The International Living Future Institute has issued an offer and a call to gather!   "Talk Living Buildings, sustainability, and regenerative design with other advanced practitioners - without leaving your couch!"   The International Living Future Institu...

Mar
18

3-Part Webinar Series: Quarantine and Responses to COVID-19: What We Know, What You Can Do (Recorded 3/19, Available free, no registration required)

Healthy Indoors, The Building Performance Workshop, and the Maine Indoor Air Quality Council offered a series of three webinars on Friday, March 19.  The webinars are now available as recordings, with no registration required.   These are comfortable, fairly appr...

Mar
05

Global GreenTag Launches the World’s First Modern Slavery Transparency Declaration

“The time has come for Modern Slavery to be removed from history,”    -Mary-Lou Kelly, Global GreenTag, Managing Director Global Green Tag has launched the start of a world first Modern Slavery Transparency Declaration, the Global GreenTag MSD, at the New York ...

Jan
27

Microsoft Pledges to Go Carbon Negative by 2030

Microsoft took an impressive climate leadership position this week when the company announced a promise to remove all of the carbon the company has ever put in the atmosphere directly or by consumption - back to the company’s founding in a garage in 1975.  The company plans to be &...

Jan
27

Google's Nevada Data Center to be Powered by a $1 Billion Solar Farm

Google’s new data center in Henderson, Nevada will be powered largely by a $1 billion solar farm.  The project is one of the largest corporate solar deals signed in the US, and maybe the the world’s larges such deal once battery-backed storage is included.  Expected...

Jan
27

Arizona Utility Announces Commitment to Carbon-Free Energy Production by 2050

Arizona Public Service Company (APS) CEO Jeff Guldner announced that the company will produce all electricity from carbon-free sources by 2050 and will produce 45% of power from renewable sources by 2030.   The decision seems impressive, as according to Guldner, the plan to convert mo...

Jan
27

New York City Buildings to Display Energy Grades

Starting this year, approximately 50,000 midsize and large buildings in Manhattan will be required to display energy efficiency scores which include a letter grade near public entrances. The buildings may only represent only 2% of the city’s building stick, but apparently they account f...

Jan
27

Massachusetts, Washington Take Steps Towards NetZero Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Leaders in Washington and Massachusetts have recently taken significant and exciting steps towards net-zero emissions.  In December, Washington Governor Jay Inslee introduced climate legislation aimed at reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, through measure including a clean fuel...

Jan
26

Minneapolis City Council Approves “Home Energy Score" for Real Estate Transactions

Home energy data collection is now a part of required Truth in Sale of Housing (TISH) evaluations in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The data is used to generate an Energy Disclosure report to be used in the City’s TISH report, which must be available to the public and displayed at all open h...

Jan
26

Tiny Home Communities in Development for Homeless Veterans - in Brunswick, Georgia, Kansas City, Missouri, and Beyond

The Nine-Line Foundation has partnered with the Golden Isles Veterans Village to build a new development of tiny homes for homeless veterans in Brunswick, Georgia.  Between 30 and 40 homes will be located on the property. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, Veterans Community Proj...

Jan
21

2020 Green Single Family and MultiFamily Homes SmartMarket Brief

Dodge Data & Analytics, partnered with The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), recently released the “2020 Green Single Family and MultiFamily Homes SmartMarket Brief.” The study was done in order to better understand green building activity in the residential market...

Jan
20

Rhode Island Commits to 100% Renewable Energy by 2030 (First US State)

In her annual State of the State speech to lawmakers, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo signed an executive order this month calling for an end to fossil fuel reliance by 2030.  The action makes Rhode Island the first state in America to plan 100% renewable electricity within a decade....

Jan
05

City Buildings in River Falls Wisconsin, Go Green as of January 1, with 100% Renewable Energy

On January first and after years of effort to cut dependence on fossil fuel use, River Falls Wisconsin “flipped a switch” to power all city buildings with 100% renewable energy.  This arguably makes the college town of 15.000 one of the most environmentally friendly US cities. &n...

Dec
09

Kebony Wins Two 2019 Architizer A+ Awards!

Congratulations to Rate It Green Member Company Kebony for winning two Architzer A+ Awards in 2019, for Opening, Windows and Skylights, for Kebony Modified Wood Panels.  The panels were used twice in the University of Miami Buildlab project, and won both the Jury and Popular Choice ...

Dec
05

Greta Thunberg Announced as Time Magazine's Person of the Year

It's pretty exciting news in the sustainability world (and really, the whole world, whether everyone appreciates it or not) that Greta Thunberg was announced as Time Magazine's Person of the Year.  A simple few words as quoted by Time say it all: “We can&...

Nov
30

Brookline Massachusetts Bans Oil and Gas Pipes in New Construction

In a bold, sustainable move and a 200-3 vote, the Town Meeting Members of Brookline, Massachusetts voted in a ban of oil and gas pipes for new buildings and also for significant renovations of existing buildings.  This means that these buildings will have heating and hot water systems, a...

Nov
29

Recent Awards for ZeroEnergy Design

It’s been a busy award-filled November for ZeroEnergy Design! Boston Home Magazine awarded the firm Best Sustainable Architect in its 2020 Best of Boston Home issue. Architect Magazine, the official journal for the American Institute of Architects, ranked ZeroEnergy Design in th...

Nov
27

Global GreenTag Upgrades CarbonRATE™ Embodied Carbon Product Certification, Details Shared at Greenbuild

Congratulations to Global GreenTag for the relauch of CarbonRATE™ - a unique peer reviewed Embodied Carbon Product Certification Program.  According to Daniel A. Huard, CEO of Global GreenTag Americas, "CarbonRATE™ has been upgraded to strongly challenge the market ...

Nov
10

USGBC's LEED Surpasses 100,000 Commercial Green Building Projects

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced that there are now over 100,000 registered and certified LEED commercial projects. According to USGBC Presisdent and CEO, Mahesh Ramanujam, “Today millions of us are living, working and learning in LEED-certified bu...

Oct
24

Bethesda Green’s Spring 2020 Accelerator Cohort - Applications are Now Open (Apply by November 10)

Applications are now open through November 10, 2019 for Bethesda Green’s Spring 2020 Accelerator Cohort! They’re looking for eco-entrepreneurs who have achieved product market fit and are ready to scale. Specifically, they’re looking for companies that have environmental ...

Sep
24

The Global Climate Strike is On - September 20 - 27! UN Climate Action Summit September 23

Image: https://globalclimatestrike.net The Gobal Climate Strike kicked off on Friday, September 20, with strikes and protests around the globe, estimated by 350.org and The New York Times at an impressive 4 million people on day 1.  Events as part of this global climate pro...

Sep
18

The Numbers Are Out: Energy Efficiency Jobs in America Grow to More than 2.3 Million

The third annual installment of Energy Efficiency Jobs in America brings expected good news in reporting continued growth in energy efficiency jobs to more than 2.3 million in 2019, with a current growth rate of 3.4% and an expected growth rate in the next year of 7.8%.  T...