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neoli

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LEED Now Encourages Cradle to Cradle Certification

As we wait for the November launch of LEED v4, it’s worth noting that our favorite sustainable building rating system now includes Cradle to Cradle Certification.  This is the result of a majority vote (a whopping 85{e3829ec1db02d54faaf9fa2de0d48db26af01d7a7944a63c3b26976124791cab}) by members of…
neoli
July 24, 2013
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Living Simply in a Small, Simple House

A recent trip to Davao, a city in Mindanao, Philippines made us realize the various degrees of sustainable living.  As with any city, the farther you get from the center, the simpler the people’s lifestyle becomes.  Farther still—in the outer…
neoli
July 20, 2013
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Saving Elephants Through Radioactive Carbon

Yes, this is supposed to be a blog on sustainable building, but once in a while let’s veer away from all that and delve into something about the natural world.   Specifically, saving elephants. A baby elephant follows its parent. (Image…
neoli
July 12, 2013
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Green Museum for a Green World

Seasoned travelers know well enough to stay away from museums when visiting a new city.  It’s in the outdoors where life and culture thrives, they argue.  Not within the safe, enclosed walls of buildings. But there is still something to…
neoli
July 3, 2013
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Quick Green Buildings in a Fast-Paced World

The quest to raise the world’s tallest skyscraper is officially on.  Named Sky City, the 220-floor green building is an ambitious well-intentioned project by the Chinese firm Broad Sustainable Construction.  After much delay from securing construction permits and other bureaucratic…
neoli
June 11, 2013
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Edible Landscapes for Our Office Building Gardens

 We’re used to seeing PETA vegan campaigns featuring celebrities clad only in various produce.  This time around, the Virginia-based animal rights organization is giving us an idea of the scope in which veganism is currently embraced by all of America. …
neoli
June 8, 2013
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Spray-On Solar Cell Prepares to Make a Debut

Traditional silicon-wafer cells and thin-film solar cells have an upcoming rival—solar cells of the spray-on kind. Spray-on solar cells for glass windows (Image from newenergytechnologies.com) Since 2010, New Energy Technologies based in Columbia, Maryland has been busy developing their breakthrough…
neoli
May 31, 2013
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Let’s Have Bird-Friendly Buildings Once and for All

In the U.S., as many as one billion birds die each year from accidentally colliding into glass windows of buildings. We can’t get our head around this number—one billion—and yet that number apparently is already a conservative estimate. The Aqua…
neoli
May 23, 2013
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Smart Paint, Carbon Dioxide, and the Building Sector

One of the more disheartening news reports we read about last week was the one about carbon dioxide reaching a new record level—400 parts per million, as measured in the atmosphere of Mauna Loa, Hawaii.  For scientists and environmentalists, this…
neoli
May 18, 2013