Rmi Outlet
Net-Zero Energy
Defining the Future of the Built Environment
Today, buildings account for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, transforming the building stock is essential to ensure a decarbonized energy system and to keep global temperature rise below 2°C. That’s what nearly 600 leading policymakers, design professionals, building owners, and systems manufacturers were discussing at the Getting to…
Pittsburgh Paves the Way for a Zero-Energy City
Today, the City of Pittsburgh passed an important ordinance to help it reach its climate goals. All new and existing city facilities must be built or retrofit to net-zero energy (NZE) ready—an advanced level of building performance in which a building is designed to achieve net zero energy levels of…
Designing a Climate-Positive Future with Zero-Energy Districts
The environmental impact of buildings is clear. Over the last 30 years the green building industry has emerged in full regalia, with products, rating systems, building science, and architectural élan. Our design and technology have jumped from making buildings perform “better than code” to “zero-energy” or even “net-positive-energy” construction. Today’s…
Designing the City of the Future and The Pursuit of Happiness
What constitutes the “ideal” city? On a recent visit to Mumbai, India, my informal polling of shop vendors indicated that in their view, a new city outside of Mumbai known as Palava City represents a close approximation of the ideal, citing Palava’s quality of life, quality of construction, and amenities.
An Affordable, Net-Zero, All-Electric Community in the Colorado Rockies
Last week the Rocky Mountain Institute Basalt office (and two of our Boulder colleagues) had an amazing opportunity. We were able to volunteer to help build houses with Habitat for Humanity. But these weren’t just regular houses. These are in the first affordable, net-zero, and all-electric housing project in Western…