|
BuildingEcology.com recommends:
Gabor Doka's LCA Hotlist
Links about Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), collected and annotated by G. Doka.
BuildingGreen.com
BuildingGreen brings the best research, thinking, and writing to you through many publications, including Environmental Building News, the GreenSpec directory of green products, and the BuildingGreen Suite of online tools.
Ed Mazria's architecture2030.org
Edward Mazria is an internationally recognized architect with a long and distinguished career. His architecture and planning projects span over a thirty-year period and each employs a cutting-edge environmental approach to its design. www.architecture2030.org is a non-traditional and flexible organization focused on protecting our global environment. He speaks nationally and internationally on the subject of the architecture, design, energy and climate change.
GreenBuildingNews.com
An online source for the sustainable building and maintenance industry.
Nature Reports Climate Change
Nature Reports Climate Change provides you with free, up-to-date, authoritative information on current climate change research, comprising news, in-depth features, research highlights, commentaries and reviews. As well as highlighting the best peer-reviewed research, it also covers the wider implications of global climate change for policy, society and the economy.
The Journal club, a forum where you can recommend interesting and outstanding papers. Readers can comment on the recommended papers and vote for their favorites .
Climate Feedback, the blog hosted by Nature Reports Climate Change enables you to join in informal lively debate on climate change in the scientific literature, in the news, and the world at large.
PNNL Report: Sustainable Buildings Rating Systems
The market place of the design and construction of high performance buildings is dynamic and evolving. Professionals through out the building industry use assessment rating systems to evaluate and differentiate their product or design. GSA is a significant participant in the building industry and it is critical for GSA to evaluate the performance of projects. Since 2003, all GSA projects are to use and achieve a certified rating from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Enviromental and Energy Design (LEED®) green building rating system. In order to keep pace with the evolving and developing rating systems available, Section 609 of the Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 (PL109-115, signed November 30, 2005), states: “… the Administrator shall report to the relevant congressional committees of jurisdiction on the progress and next steps toward recognition of other credible sustainable building rating systems within the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) sustainable building procurement process.” This summary document was prepared to offer information on sustainable building rating systems for GSA’s consideration in their response to this request. This document does not provide a recommendation for GSA but rather a summary of the information found for each sustainable building rating system.
Real Climate
RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion here is restricted to scientific topics and will not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science.
Sustainability Library Resources
NEHA has created a web page as a resource for you to find environment-related guidance and information.
Sustainability: General
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Green Buildings Site
This U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website is a "portal" site, designed to give users one convenient gateway from which to access numerous EPA programs and topics related to environmentally-friendly building. These programs include Energy Star, Indoor Air, Smart Growth, Environmentally Preferable Building Products and more -- including a new Construction and Demolition (C&D) Debris Website (select "Waste" from list offered).
University of California, Berkeley, Green Building Research Center
The Green Building Research Center resides in the organized research unit, the Center for Environmental Design Research (CEDR), which has large stores of instrumentation suitable for doing green building case studies. Research staff include faculty, research staff, and students from the Building Science Group, and interdisciplinary group from the departments of architecture, engineering, computer science, and business.
U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
International Initiative for Sustainable Built Environment
iiSBE is the international organization responsible for coordinating the Green Building Challenge, a research project to develop and compare building assessment systems from around the world.
Canada Green Building Council
The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) accelerates the design and construction of green buildings in Canada. The Council is a broad-based inclusive coalition of representatives from different segments of the design and building industry.
Green Building Information Council
The Green Building Information Council promotes energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in Canadian buildings through the facilitation of governmental and interdisciplinary partnerships. Acting as a clearinghouse for green building information, the council pairs participants with programs and assists with the development and transfer of new technology.
ecolabelling.org
ecolabelling.org is the global, independent database of ecolabels. An ecolabel is a logo that identifies a product or company that has met an environmentally preferable standard. Click on the link for more information on ecolabelling for green buildings, building products, and building services.
Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS)
The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS, pronounced "chips") aims to increase the energy efficiency of schools in California by marketing information, services, and incentive programs directly to school districts and designers. The Collaborative's goal is to facilitate the design of high performance schools: environments that are not only energy efficient, but also healthy, comfortable, well lit, and containing the amenities needed for a quality education.
Athena Institute
The Athena Institute is dedicated to sustainability of the built environment, a goal that can only be achieved by meeting the building community’s need for better information and tools. From its Canadian offices, and through its US affiliate, Athena Institute International, the not-for-profit Athena organization undertakes and directs various research and development activities that make it possible to factor environmental considerations into the design process from the conceptual stage onward.
Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE)
As the building industry consumes large amounts of material resources and energy, specific technological and political means should be developed in order to promote sustainable buildings. To be nationally authorized in Japan, a cooperative academic, industrial and governmental project has been to establish a new system called the Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE).
The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC)
SETAC's mission is to support the development of principles and practices for protection, enhancement and management of sustainable environmental quality and ecosystem integrity.
World Green Building Council
The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) will be the peak global not-for-profit organisation working to transform the property industry towards sustainability through its members - national Green Building Councils.
Santa Monica Green Buildings
The City of Santa Monica has a commitment to protecting the environment, improving quality of life, and promoting sustainability. In order to fulfill this commitment, the City has adopted a set of requirements and recommendations to encourage the development of "green" buildings without forcing excessive costs or other burdens upon developers, building owners or occupants. The City has also developed Green Building Guidelines to explain possible ways of achieving green building goals.
O2 Global Network
For more than a decade O2 has pioneered solutions to a central problem of the made environment: how to foster sustainability while having a good quality of life. At debates, meetings and international events, the people in this unique forum have been grappling with the problems of a throw-away culture, formulating nonpolluting production methods, sourcing nontoxic, sustainably managed materials--and crucially, passing on the knowledge.
Sustainability: Guidelines
New York City's High Performance Infrastructure Guidelines
On October 3, 2005, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed Local Law 86, which will require many of the City’s new municipal buildings, additions, and renovations to achieve rigorous standards of sustainability. This legislation will apply to many of the Department of Design and Construction’s (DDC) upcoming and future projects.
Sustainability: Climate Change
Real Climate
RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion here is restricted to scientific topics and will not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science.
EMISS 1.00
A special-purpose computer program for use in generating data files with location specific emissions factors for CO2, SO2, and NOX-related energy use in buildings. Emission factors are generated for electricity, distillate, and residual fuel oils, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and coal. The resulting data files can be accessed by BLCC to calculate reductions in air pollution emissions attributable to energy conservation investments on buildings and building systems.
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol
These guidelines explain how to quantify reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (referred to as “GHG reductions”) resulting from projects that either generate or reduce the consumption of electricity transmitted over power grids. They are designed as a supplement to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for Project Accounting (“Project Protocol”), and as such are focused on practical and simplified methods for estimating GHG reductions. They do not describe how to model the effects of a project on grid operations and development. Although modeling may be the most accurate method for estimating GHG reductions on systems as complex as electricity grids, these guidelines are intended for use in situations where extensive modeling would be too costly or insufficiently transparent.
carbonpositive
carbonpositive manages sustainable forestry and bio-energy ventures from conception through ongoing operations. They target venture opportunities that have the potential to realise attractive returns and generate carbon credits.
Lawrence Berkeley Lab Atmospheric Sciences Department
The Atmospheric Sciences Department is an interdisciplinary effort to bring together researchers in the Division and the University of California, Berkeley, interested in atmospheric processes, technology, modeling and climate change studies. Focus areas include atmospheric aerosols, atmospheric chemistry, modeling, emissions, designing advanced instrumentation, and global climate.
California Air Resource Board: Climate Change
This page provides information regarding ARB's climate change program pursuant to Assembly Bill 32.
Climate Action Network
A worldwide network of over 340 Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.
Climate Solutions
Climate Solution's mission is to stop global warming at the earliest point possible by helping the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia become world leaders in practical and profitable solutions.
Sustainability: Energy
U.S. Dept. of Energy Building Technologies Program
DOE's Building Technologies Program works in partnership with states, industry, and manufacturers to improve the energy efficiency of our nation's buildings. Through innovative new technologies and systems-engineered building practices we are transforming how we design, build, and operate the approximately 15 million new buildings projected to be constructed by 2015.
Lawrence Berkeley Lab Energy Analysis Department
The Energy Analysis Department studies energy use in the United States and abroad. Data compilation and analysis-as well as computer modeling of energy scenarios-are applied to the residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors of the economy.
Lawrence Berkeley Lab Environmental Energy Technologies Division
The mission of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division is to perform research and development leading to better energy technologies and reduction of adverse energy-related environmental impacts.
Lawrence Berkeley Lab Building Technologies Department
The Building Technologies Department develops window, lighting and glazing technologies that save energy and maximize visual and thermal comfort of building occupants. The Department also develops software that allows architects and building engineers to design or retrofit buildings for maximum energy efficiency and occupant comfort.
Interactive REcalculator
The REcalculator allows you to include the economic values of various externalities - air emissions, system integration, security of supply, employment - in your calculations. It provides the basis for developing recommendations for international and national policies that could level the playing field for renewables by including externalities in energy prices.
California Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings
From the California Energy Commission - The Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings were established in 1978 in response to a legislative mandate to reduce California's energy consumption. The standards are updated periodically to allow consideration and possible incorporation of new energy efficiency technologies and methods. California's building efficiency standards (along with those for energy efficient appliances) have saved more than $36 billion in electricity and natural gas costs since 1978. It is estimated the standards will save an additional $43 billion by 2013. The current (2001) Standards and the 2005 Standards may be downloaded from this website.
CANMET Energy Technology Centre
The CANMET Energy Technology Centre (CETC) is one of Canada's premier organizations in the field of energy, science and technology. As a key research arm of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and as part of NRCan's Energy Sector, CETC works with private and other public sector partners to develop and deploy leading-edge energy products and processes for virtually all sectors of the Canadian economy.
California Institute for Energy Efficiency (CIEE)
An innovative University of California partnership of energy agencies, utilities, building industry, non-profits, and research entities designed to advance energy efficiency science and technology for the benefit of California and other energy consumers and the environment. CIEE is a branch of the University of California Energy Institute.
DOE2
LEED recognized for Optimize Energy Performance, a comprehensive energy analysis program used to predict hourly performance of a building's energy use and utility costs.
Building Envelope Research at Oak Ridge National Lab
The Building Envelopes Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a program within the Buildings Technology Center (BTC), the premier U.S. research facility devoted to developing technologies that improve the energy efficiency and environmental compatibility of residential and commercial buildings.
Building Energy Tools Directory
DOE developed this directory because many Office of Building Technology, State and Community Program (BTS) programs develop software tools to help researchers, designers, architects, engineers, builders, code officials, and others involved in the building life-cycle to evaluate and rank potential energy-efficiency technologies and renewable energy strategies in new or existing buildings.
ASEAM (A Simplified Energy Analysis Method), Version 5.0
A public domain computer program to calculate the energy consumption of proposed and existing buildings. ASEAM 5.0 uses the modified bin methodology to calculate energy consumed by the building's heating, cooling, lighting, (HVAC) and other energy consumption of buildings, for both new construction and retrofit applications.
BLDG-SIM mailing list
BLDG-SIM is a mailing list for users of building energy simulation programs. Building energy simulation programs allow users to estimate the energy use and operating cost of residential, commercial and other types of buildings. This allows engineers, architects and others in the building design trade to compare alternative designs and select the design that is cost justified.
American Council on Renewable Energy
The American Council On Renewable Energy, a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization in Washington, D.C., is focused on accelerating the adoption of renewable energy technologies into the mainstream of American society through work in convening, information publishing and communications.
American Solar Energy Society
The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) is the United States section of the International Solar Energy Society. ASES is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the development and adoption of renewable energy in all its forms.
Alliance to Save Energy
The Alliance to Save Energy promotes energy efficiency worldwide to achieve a healthier economy, a cleaner environment and greater energy security.
Affordable Comfort
Mission is improving the way homes perform in terms of health, safety, durability and the reduction of energy use/cost. Training, conferences, and contacts.
Sustainability: Life Cycle Assessment
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Life Cycle Assessment Research
This site's purpose is to promote the use of LCA to make more informed decisions through a better understanding of the human health and environmental impacts of products, processes, and activities.
U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and its partners created the U.S. Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI) Database to help life-cycle assessment (LCA) experts answer their questions about environmental impact. This database provides a cradle-to-grave accounting of the energy and material flows into and out of the environment that are associated with producing a material, component, or assembly. It's an online storeroom of data collected on commonly used materials, products, and processes.
Greening the Building Life Cycle
Environment Australia commissioned a project consortium lead by he Centre for Design at RMIT University’s comprehensive LCA links page to relevant tools, data, case studies and reports.
Scientific Certification Systems (SCS)
Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) is a third-party certification company providing independent analysis and certification of a wide range of environment sustainability and food safety achievements. Since 1990, SCS has become a leading U.S. practitioner of Life-Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), assisting companies, government agencies and institutions in (1) documenting the environmental performance of a wide array of electricity options, manufactured products and services, (2) assessing the environmental advantages and trade-offs associated with various choices; (3) evaluating improvement strategies. Working in collaboration with European practitioners, SCS has participated in an international effort to modernize the LCIA technical framework. Its development and implementation of Life-Cycle Stressor-Effects Assessment (LCSEA) methodology is intended to build consensus around the value of LCIA in environmental assessment and decision-making.
SimaPro Life Cycle Assessment Software
The new SimaPro 7 provides you with a professional tool to collect, analyze and monitor the environmental performance of products and services. You can easily model and analyze complex life cycles in a systematic and transparent way, following the ISO 14040 series recommendations.
Building for Environmental & Economic Sustainability (BEES)
BEES is a Windows TM -based software program aimed at designers, builders, and product manufacturers. It provides a way to balance the environmental and economic performance of building products. BEES measures the environmental performance of building products by using an environmental life-cycle assessment approach specified in the latest versions of ISO 14000 draft standards.
Building Life-Cycle Cost (BLCC)
Computer program version 4.61 provides an economic analysis of proposed capital investments expected to reduce long-term operating costs of buildings or building systems. BLCC complies with American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) standards related to building economics and NIST Handbook 135, Life-Cycle Costing Manual for the Federal Energy Management Program.
EcoBalance
Ecobilan is recognised world-wide as an innovative and technologically advanced leader in the application to Technologies, Services and Products of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is concerned with the impact of extended systems (sequences of industrial operations) on the environment, applied to industrial strategy and product design,
Sylvatica
Sylvatica provides environmental and social impact consulting services to corporations, government departments, and non-profits around the globe. By using life-cycle assessment, total cost assessment, and other advanced research and analytical techniques, they significantly reduce manufacturing costs, while improving corporate image and helping to preserve the environment. In addition to their consulting services, Sylvatica also develops software tools that support environmental, health, safety, and social impact decision-making
Sustainability: Building Materials
Pharos Project Wiki
Pharos is a project of the Healthy Building Network (HBN) who has partnered up with key players in the green building movement to bring you this tool. Pharos seeks to define a consumer-driven vision of truly green building materials and how they should be evaluated in harmony with principles of environmental health and justice. The Operating Principles of the Pharos Project are transparency, comprehensiveness, independence, accuracy and fairness applied to analyzing the impact building materials have on human health, the environment and communities – during production, use, and at the end of their useful life.
California Integrated Waste Management Board
The CIWMB site includes a section on Construction and Demolition Debris and Recycling. They have compiled a variety of information on recycling construction waste. Here there are two searchable databases, one of California C&D recyclers, the other of manufacturers of recycled construction products that are available in California.
Recycled Content Product Directory
This directory has been set up to assist individuals, small business owners, state agencies, and corporate buyers in the commitment to buy recycled. The RCP Directory lists thousands of products containing recycled materials as well as information about the manufacturers, distributors and re-processors of these products.
Environmentally Preferable Products Database, California Office of the State Architect
EPPD is a "database designed to provide a list of environmentally preferable products (EPP) for school construction. The project scope of work includes the following basic phases: research, criteria development, product screening, and database publishing" (EPP).
Construction Waste Management Database
This U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) program "promotes the responsible disposal of [construction] waste, including concrete, asphalt, masonry, wood, and other materials, much of which can be recycled or processed for reuse if handled properly"
Green Seal
Founded in 1989, Green Seal provides science-based environmental certification standards that are credible, transparent, and essential in an increasingly educated and competitive marketplace. Our industry knowledge and standards help manufacturers, purchasers, and end users alike make responsible choices that positively impact business behavior and improve quality of life.
BuildRecycle.net
Used building material marketplace.
Construction Materials Recycling Association
The first association devoted exclusively to the needs of the rapidly expanding North American construction waste & demolition debris processing and recycling industry.
Association for the Advancement of Sustainable Building Materials in Construction (AASMIC)
Based in Australia, AASMIC promotes sustainable materials in construction. AASMIC recognizes that most materials research focuses on commercial needs rather than on sustainability, toxicity, waste reduction, or energy efficiency. Thus, the association, a multi-disciplinary group of concerned professionals, encourages innovative sustainable new materials, disseminates information about sustainable materials, and lobbies governments and agencies about the importance of materials for a sustainable built environment.
Council of European Producers of Materials for Construction (CEPMC)
CEPMC is a European confederation of national "umbrella" organisations. A typical CEPMC Member federates a large number of national associations, which, together, cover all kinds of contruction materials and building products, be they mineral, wood, plastic or metal-based. Founded in 1988, CEPMC is constituted as an AISBL, a non-profit making organisation under Belgian law.
The Green Architect Green Building Material Resources
Directory of green building material options
Carpet Recovery Effort (CARE)
Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) is a joint industry-government effort to increase the amount of recycling and reuse of post-consumer carpet and reduce the amount of waste carpet going to landfills. CARE was established as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding for Carpet Stewardship (MOU), a national agreement signed by members of the carpet industry, representatives of government agencies at the federal, state and local levels, and non-governmental organizations.
OPT3
Non-biodegradable waste overflowing land fills is a critical issue: carpet tile takes an estimated 20,000 years to disintegrate, and data indicates that a billion square yards go into landfills annually. OPT3, sponsored by DPM Enterprises Inc., was created to help. OPT3 is a proactive program that captures existing carpet upon removal, packages it and then ships it to an OPT3 dedicated recycling center.
The ReUse People
The ReUse People reduces the solid waste stream and changes the way the built environment is renewed by salvaging building materials and distributing them for reuse.
Sustainability: Environmental News
Christian Science Monitor Environmental News
Environmental news from the Christian Science Monitor.
Sustainability: Useful Publications
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Reports
The MA synthesizes information from the scientific literature and relevant peer-reviewed datasets and models. It incorporates knowledge held by the private sector, practitioners, local communities, and indigenous peoples. The MA did not aim to generate new primary knowledge, but instead sought to add value to existing information by collating, evaluating, summarizing, interpreting, and communicating it in a useful form.
The Journal of Industrial Ecology
Journal of Industrial Ecology is an international, peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary quarterly designed to foster both understanding and practice in the emerging field of industrial ecology. The journal addresses a series of related topics: material and energy flows studies ("industrial metabolism"); dematerialization and decarbonization; life cycle planning, design and assessment; design for the environment; extended producer responsibility ("product stewardship"); eco-industrial parks ("industrial symbiosis"); product-oriented environmental policy; and eco-efficiency. Since its premiere in spring 1997, the journal has provided a forum for continuing exchange of information and opinions through contributions from scholars, environmental managers and policymakers, advocates, and others involved in environmental science, management, and policy.
Living Planet Report
The Living Planet Report is WWF's periodic update on the state of the world's ecosystems. It describes the changing state of global biodiversity and the pressure on the biosphere arising from human consumption of natural resources.
Green Building Resource Guide
In this guide, mainly for homebuilders, each of the nearly 600 product listings includes a brief product description, icons representing categories of environmental benefit, contact information for the manufacturer, and a cost comparison with its most likely conventional alternative. Icons identify nontoxic, recycled-content, resource efficient, long life-cycle and environmentally conscious products. You can order the Green Building Resource Guide in two forms: a reference manual or a CD-ROM database.
Minnesota Sustainable Design Guide
The Minnesota Sustainable Design Guide educates and assists architects, building owners, occupants, educators, students, and the general public concerning sustainable building design.
|
