Homes Struggle With Lighting Efficiency

When it comes to homes, lighting has become a luxury of the modern age. Architects have steadily grown to gorge themselves on light fixtures. Without a doubt, nice lighting can certainly look cool, but it is easy to go overboard. Light a circulation path here, throw in some accents there, before we know it we [...]

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Playhouses and Studios Bringing Sustainability Center Stage

When sitting comfortably with popcorn and soda in hand, it is easy to be drawn into the world of plays and films with little thought spared to what was necessary to create them. Whether it’s a blockbuster movie or just a commercial the focus is on the finished product rather than things like efficiency or [...]

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Restaurant Turns Stalled Site Into Urban Farm

New York City is an environment of consistent densification with more footprints being raised up to taller heights above the street to leave the island of Manhattan as one of the most densely populated places on the planet.When the recession hit the Big Apple full force in 2008 there were many building projects that were [...]

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The Power in a Group of Individuals

The question of identity is something that many of us struggle with from time to time, particularly the balance of being a recognized individual and a part of a larger group—the smaller path of self expression vs. getting lost in a larger force as a cog in the bigger machine. Sustainability encounters a cousin of the same problem, where individual contribution to any environmental problem amounts to such a small piece of a greater solution that the very scale of the task is daunting, if not downright disenchanting. Like any ecosystem, when it comes to the health of the environment every participant must play a role.

Our Dangerous Addiction to Hype

Despite history of bountiful production, we are no longer a country know for making very many things. One thing that we do have a talent for producing, perhaps better than anyone else, is “hype”. With its contagious force, 100% pure American-made hype can surge from coast to coast and beyond. Hype allows for a select few topics to rise above the countless other bits of information that are all struggling to reach us via a thirty-second sound byte. A key goal of successful hype is eliciting the strongest response from the greatest number of recipients. Historically, one of the topics that has been consistently successful in the world of hype is oil, particularly its relationship with gasoline prices. Amidst the rising tide of the upcoming presidential elections (a prime breeding ground for hype), gas prices have re-emerged to claim valuable reporting time as the average price for regular gasoline approaches $4 a gallon even before the surge of summer driving.

EPAs One-Two Punch to Coal, Let the Market do the Rest

As one of the nation’s largest producers of pollution and carbon emissions, the vastness of coal’s contribution to the nation’s power supply has left them a champion of the economic and political realm with a lot of weight to throw around. Not long ago the EPA stopped dancing around the ring and decided to throw some weight behind an overdue advance on the coal industry. It is easy to forget that the EPA’s prime function is neither research nor public awareness (though both are important). It provides “protection” as an agency of enforcement.

Planning For Centuries Ahead

While a prestigious institution of higher learning like Oxford is home to a myriad of impressive spaces, one separates itself from the rest with a remarkable characteristic. College Hall, a component of the university’s New College, is a large gathering room that provides space for dining and meetings. The rhythm of dark wooden paneling wraps the base of the room, giving way to a plaster finish above. The vastness of the room helps underscore its impressive nature, echoed by the dark wood ceiling that stretches across the space.

Battling Heat Islands: Why and How

If you walk into the city on a sunny, summer day and feel like it is warmer than the suburban home you left earlier, it isn’t your imagination. The “Heat Island Effect” is a term that refers to a localized rise in ambient, outdoor temperature due to dark materials absorbing light from the sun. While asphalt roads contribute meaningfully, roofscapes are the most abundant culprit with a large number of existing flat roofs in this county being black—either tar, asphalt or a rubberized membrane. In full summer sun, a black roof can reach temperatures of 170 degrees. When the number of these roofs located in close proximity rises so does the amount of heat captured and radiated back into the air.

Though it is occurring at some scale on any dark-colored, man-made surface, the effects are most strongly felt in urban conditions where streets and the tops of buildings make up most of the net surface area facing the sky. In a city like New York, the result can be a local air temperature 5 to 10 degrees higher than surrounding townships in the depths of summer. Keep in mind, Manhattan is also on the coast which means that this temperature rise is happening despite the cooler normally found from coastal winds.