News - NIOSH’s New Indoor Environmental Quality Topic Pages Free!
September 26th 2008
NIOSH’s new indoor environmental quality topics page discusses mold, ventilation, and facilities renovation and construction.  They provide answers to frequently asked questions, reports, as well as links to other resources. 
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Cement Sequesters CO₂: Wouldn’t it be lovely? - Hal Levin Free!
September 17th 2008
Cement is one of the most carbon emissions intensive parts of today’s buildings, and more often than not, one of the most widely used materials in pure mass per unit of floor area. Cement manufacturing is estimated responsible for 5% of global CO₂ emissions. California has placed the reduction of carbon emissions from concrete high on its agenda to meet its ambitious CO₂ emission reduction goals. Wouldn’t it be lovely if concrete could actually store CO₂ instead of being responsible for so much CO₂ emission?
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Calculating Buildings' Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Hal Levin Free!
September 1st 2008
Buildings are responsible for a significant fraction (~40%) of fossil fuel consumption and related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. In the United States, buildings are responsible for 70% of total electricity use. While these factors vary from country to country and even among regions within countries, the numbers reflect the relative magnitude of building energy consumption in most of the developed world. In the developing world, the percentages are different with a shift toward combustion of biomass and less electricity use. However, the human contribution to GHG emissions is still significant and growing as developing countries gain access to modern energy-consuming technology, electricity, and a more mobile life style.
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Indoor Climate and Climate Change: Exploring Connections - Hal Levin Free!
September 1st 2008
The connections between climate change and indoor climate are strong but not generally recognized. Climate change impacts local and regional atmospheric conditions including air quality and thermal conditions. Building climate control must respond to local climate and air quality to protect human health and support buildings’ functional uses. Good indoor climate protects humans against local air pollution and the severe consequences of climate change. Technologies to control indoor climate requiring fossil fuel energy increase pollutant emissions including greenhouse gases; thus, indoor climate control impacts indoor and ambient air quality as well as global climate. Protecting humans and other living systems from the impacts of climate change involves adaptation and mitigation of the local and regional effects. Understanding and considering impacts of indoor climate control on regional air quality and global climate can reduce the negative impacts of building technology on building occupants as well as the entire global environment.
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Let's pick the biggest, lowest-hanging fruit! - Hal Levin Free!
September 1st 2008
Roughly 70% of all workers in the United States travel to work in single occupancy motor vehicles. It seems to me that this is one of the lowest hanging pieces of fruit on the tree of opportunity. Perhaps the only lower one is the wastefulness of energy use in buildings.

For example, while California has been a model for stabilizing total energy consumption for the past 30 years in spite of its population growth, there is still only something on the order of 12% market penetration of compact fluorescent lamps in the residential market. The reason frequently given when I raise this point is ‘color rendition.’ This may have been the case at some point in the past, but a wide range of color rendition is available in CFLs now. Go to a good lighting specialty store where they display the range of CFLs available and you will be able to see this. When an investment of $2.50 to $5.00 results in a lamp lifetime saving of $40 to $50, it is hard to explain. Potential electrical energy saving — huge!

Now for the really big one — passive solar. Why do we restrict the minimum size and amount of opening area of windows and yet let people put windows on any side of a building regardless of compass orientation? Passive solar is the invisible low-hanging fruit. Use overhangs and properly oriented and sized windows and you can save half the heating costs for a house in most North American climates, far more in sunnier, warmer locations like nearly the entire west coast and southwest. Get a clue! Heating is nearly half of residential energy use, therefore, nearly 1/3 of building energy use and nearly 15% of all U.S. energy use. Let’s pick the biggest, lowest hanging fruit first — no new technology is required.

Anybody out there know how to do this?
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News - Summary of Call for Abstract Deadlines Free!
September 25th 2008
Be sure to marks your calendars with these Call for Abstract Deadlines.  Click on the conference link for more information.
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Calculating carbon emissions from buildings -- What's happening? - Hal Levin Free!
September 4th 2008
Reducing your carbon footprint, or emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, has become popular, but measuring your footprint can be tough. For anyone seeking to measure the footprint of a building, Environmental Building News demystifies this effort with its feature article  "Counting Carbon: Understanding Carbon Footprints of Buildings." You will also find more information about two other projects and ASHRAE's progress toward developing a carbon emissions calculator for buildings.
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Major Study Shows: Outdoor Air Quality Matters: Ozone, Filters, and SBS - Hal Levin Free!
January 30th 2008
Two new analyses of the U.S. EPA's BASE Study show that outdoor air quality can affect building occupant SBS symptoms. Papers published in the journal Indoor Air also show that while some respiratory symptoms get significantly worse when outdoor ozone levels are higher, the type of filters can have an even bigger effect when combined with higher outdoor ozone levels.
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Can House Plants Solve IAQ Problems? - Hal Levin Free!
August 31st 2008
The idea of common plants solving IAQ problems is attractive. Most people like having plants in their homes and offices and in the hotels, stores, and public buildings they visit. However, important questions exist as to whether plants can actually affect indoor air sufficiently to warrant their use as air cleaners.
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California Adopts New Green Building Code Free!
August 25th 2008
Press Release
The California Building Standards Commission has taken the opportunity, along with other state agencies, to develop green building standards that will establish California as a leader in the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from structures. The code as adopted includes mandatory features with a delayed effective date for housing, and voluntary standards for hospitals and other non-residential occupancies. (Those few measures shown as "required" in the Commission's Application Matrix refer to regulations or statutes currently in place.) The Commission will continue to work with state agencies and the many stakeholders as we develop a comprehensive set of mandatory provisions in the 2010 edition of the California Green Building Standards Code.
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Green Building by the Numbers - USGBC Releases Data Free!
September 10th 2008
Green Building by the Numbers -- from USGBC   August 2008 (USGBC Press Information)

The value of green building construction is projected to increase to $60 billion by 2010. (Source: McGraw-Hill Construction Analytics, SmartMarket Trends Report 2008)
The construction market accounts for 14.2% of the $10 trillion U.S. GDP (Source: 2006 DOE Buildings Energy Data Book).
By 2009, 80% of corporate America is expected to be engaged in green at least 16% of the time, and 20% will be engaged in green 60% of the time (Source: McGraw Hill Construction, Greening of Corporate America SmartMarket Report, 2007).
The green building products market is projected to be worth $30-$40 billion annually by 2010 (Source: Green Building Alliance).
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FEATURE:  Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and house plants: the myth persists - Hal Levin Free!
September 11th 2008
The idea that plants clean indoor air is part of a sad, long-running saga fed by bad science, commercial interests, and wishful thinking. An new version of an article I published an article in the Indoor Air Bulletin on the subject in 1992 (available here) provides more details.
Take home messages:
1.   Don't use plants to improve IAQ. They don't. If anything, they pose risks to good IAQ.
2.   There is no credible scientific evidence that plants improve IAQ. The planting media has been hypothesized to be responsible for pollutant removal in some studies. The planting media alone can be expected to contribute to a limited reduction in some airborne chemical concentrations.
3.   Most advocates of indoor plant use have been funded by or are themselves providers of plants or supporting systems.
4.   If plants are used indoors for aesthetic reasons, there should be extra care to avoid moisture problems or problems with fertilizers and pesticides, all known sources of indoor air quality and health problems.
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WHO publishes report on Mold and Dampness - Hal Levin Free!
February 13th 2008
WHO has announced publication of the meeting report “Development of WHO guidelines for indoor air quality: dampness and mould. Report on a working group meeting, 17-18 October 2007”
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What's a Green Material? Many Views, Questions, and Issues - Hal Levin Free!
June 19th 2008
Download the slide presentation as a pdf file. Note that slide #11 is under revision.
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Sustainable Buildings: The Low Energy Path to Good Indoor Air Quality - Hal Levin Free!
June 27th 2008
As we attempt to improve the indoor climate (air, thermal, illumination, and acoustic quality) in buildings, we run up against the constraints of resource availability and the effects of their use. In particular, we are challenged to find ways to ventilate, heat, cool, illuminate buildings with minimal consumption of energy. We must find the low-energy pathways.
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