Green buildings

Lumbini, the UNESCO World Heritage Site so marked for being the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, will soon also be home to an "eco-monastery."

The Lumbini Udyana Mahachaitya World Center for Peace and Unity (LUM), which began construction in 2006, opens this April in Nepal. It will be the largest Buddhist temple and meditation hall in Lumbini, but aims to leave the smallest carbon footprint.

The lighting system for the 48,600-square-foot structure will rely entirely on solar panels to generate electricity for its lighting, as well as incorporating the use of natural light in … Read more

Start-up Retroficiency today officially launched its service for streamlining efficiency projects in commercial buildings and said it has raised a seed round of funding.

The Boston-based company said it has raised $800,000 from local angel investors and World Energy, which operates online auctions for bidding on energy supply contracts.

Retroficiency's Web-based application is designed to quickly create a picture of a commercial building's energy profile and potential efficiency upgrades. It can be used by energy auditors to speed up creation of their reports or by buildings' facility managers to prioritize projects.

Many building owners or occupants are … Read more

Building systems management giant Johnson Controls announced yesterday it has signed an agreement to acquire the EnergyConnect Group. EnergyConnect, based in Campbell, Calif., announced that this will be a cash deal totaling $32.3 million.

The demand response technology company EnergyConnect is best known for GridConnect, its software platform for enhancing electrical-grid efficiency, especially in the cases of regional shortages or peak pricing changes.

The system includes real-time monitoring of energy markets, as well as energy information.

"The $0.2253 per share acquisition price represents a significant cash premium of approximately 73 percent over the previous closing share price … Read more

Serious Materials announced today that its proprietary system for retrofitting windows for thermal efficiency--a system that attracted attention during the Empire State Building's recent makeover--is now available for commercial buildings.

The company gained recognition for developing a system to overhaul and improve the efficiency of the Empire State Building's 6,514 windows as part of the iconic skyscraper's $20 million refresh. The window retrofit was done with no visual change whatsoever to the exterior of the building. Most of the original 26,000 panes of glass were reused, and the changes to each window casement were done … Read more

In the last eight months, Morris County, N.J., has undergone a significant energy change of which many of its residents are probably not even aware.

The partners involved call it the "Morris Model." It's a new financing model that allows municipalities to partner with solar-energy companies to incorporate solar energy into their energy portfolio for little outlay.

In June the Morris County Improvement Authority (MCIA) announced it was entering into this Morris Model financing plan with Tioga Energy and SunDurance Energy to install about 3-megawatts worth of solar panels by offering up something it already had: … Read more

Could prefab structures be a quick and cost-saving way to get U.S. students out of dilapidated and energy-sucking schools?

A recent award to a Gen7 school building, made by American Modular Systems, seems to signal that modular classrooms have moved beyond being ad hoc building solutions for developing nations.

For the first time in California, a prefab building has been awarded national Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) certification for new school construction. CHPS certification is awarded to those schools that meet specific health, comfort, maintenance, and environmental sustainability standards.

"The Gen7 classroom proves that a prefab structure … Read more

The U.S. government has released specifications for a highly-efficient rooftop air conditioning unit it believes could save the country a plethora of electricity, and commercial properties a considerable amount of money.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) had announced its laboratories were working on such a rooftop air conditioning (RTU) in fall 2010. However, it became clear on Tuesday that the project was successful when the DOE announced it would be holding a Webinar on building high-efficiency RTUs to interested manufacturers on February 23 via its list of upcoming forums posted on the Building Technologies Program Web site.… Read more

Conserval Engineering is testing a new product with the U.S. Army based on its original solar thermal wall panels that could help cool a building in addition to helping heat it up, the company announced today.

The company is best known for its SolarWall corrugated galvanized-steel solar collectors that can be used to heat a building's HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) system as a way to save energy and bring down heating costs. It's used mainly on commercial, industrial, or large apartment buildings with vast wall space. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, for example, installed a … Read more

editor's notebook SAN FRANCISCO--I had the good fortune this past weekend of attending Compostmodern, a two-day conference here devoted to exploring different ways in which designers can help create a sustainable future. And I'd like to mention a few of the tech- and Internet-related highlights--some of which are new, some of which you, like me, may have missed the first time around. There's a variety of supercool stuff here, so read on.

Organized by the San Francisco chapter of AIGA (one of the country's premier professional groups for designers)--and sponsored by Adobe and other companies, … Read more