Buildings
Driving Industrial Revitalization with Net-Zero Energy
City leaders around the world are looking to rejuvenate their urban cores, boost quality of life for all residents, and improve resiliency. Revitalizing old industrial sites with net-zero energy (NZE) projects can help to advance these goals—while also advancing carbon emissions reductions citywide. Cities like Pittsburgh, PA; Syracuse, NY; Detroit,…
Four Insights from the Most Successful NZE Home Builders
The number of net-zero energy (NZE) homes in the US is growing at an exciting rate (it has grown by 33 percent from 2015 to 2016), but this growth is nowhere near fast enough to make NZE homes mainstream. Today, they are a very niche offering, comprising roughly…
Can Massachusetts Correct a Market Failure by Making Home Energy Use More Transparent?
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) is leading a new effort that could benefit Massachusetts’ homeowners and the US real estate sector as a whole. Yesterday, he introduced An Act Relative to Consumer Access to Residential Energy Information, which has the potential to simultaneously improve the quality and energy performance…
A City in the Rockies Paves the Way for Net-Zero Energy Leases
Boulder, Colorado, is a national leader in sustainability—especially when it comes to the built environment. The City of Boulder has the most aggressive new construction energy code in the country, the nation’s first voter-approved tax dedicated to addressing climate change, and a benchmarking policy that requires efficiency…
Putting Home Energy Upgrades on the Air
Rocky Mountain Institute has teamed up with the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) to supply the nation’s TV newscasters with materials about home energy upgrades that they can use in their broadcasts, blogs, and websites when they are most relevant. Drafty, energy-inefficient homes can seem perfectly fine when conditions…