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The World Economic Forum has published a briefing paper setting out its recommendations for sustainable building development. Titled Accelerating the Decarbonization of Buildings: The Net-Zero Carbon Cities Building Value Framework,” the document sets to establish a series of practical steps at... View full entry
In May 2022, Cornellians will see a drill the height of McGraw Tower rise above a plot of land between the Cornell Teaching Dairy Barn and Cascadilla Creek as it drills a 10,000-foot hole. The drilling is part of the Cornell University Borehole Observatory: the first stage of the University’s Earth Source Heating project, which aims to eventually use geothermal heat to provide ecologically-friendly heating to campus buildings. — The Cornell Daily Sun
Cornell’s Earth Source Heating Program, aiming to harness renewable energy in Ithaca, is part of the school’s Climate Action Plan. The goal of the initiative is for the University’s campus operations to be carbon neutral by 2035. This step of the project will first explore the... View full entry
The Central Park Conservancy, the Yale School of the Environment, and the New York City-based Natural Areas Conservancy have teamed up to launch a new initiative and climate partnership to study the impacts of climate change on urban parks. Called the Central Park Climate Lab, the program’s... View full entry
Las Vegas has become the latest city to embark on constructing a digital twin, following the unveiling of a digital model at the city’s Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month. Developed by Chicago-based Cityzenith and Las Vegas-based Terbine, the model encompasses a 2.7-square-mile portion... View full entry
A new planned community in Utah will strive to make it possible for residents to meet all their daily needs within 15 minutes without getting in a car — and to serve as a model for other U.S. developers who want to build basic mobility into the foundations of their designs. — Streetsblog USA
Called The Point, the envisoned community will be located in Draper, Utah, and take up about one square mile of state-owned land. The development, master-planned by SOM, will specifically aim to reduce the need for cars by featuring extensive biking, walking, and transit systems. A... View full entry
Buro Happold has been enlisted by the University of Southern California to craft key standards for environmental design and construction performance. The firm was selected through a competitive process to develop new sustainable design guidelines for the university. Buro Happold will lead the... View full entry
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) called for an end to the use of natural gas in new buildings in a policy blueprint released Wednesday ahead of her State of the State address. — The Hill
The governor's plan will require that there be zero on-site greenhouse gas emissions from new construction by 2027. It would also require energy benchmarking, a process that requires large buildings of similar sizes or occupancy levels to compare their energy consumption. Hochul’s blueprint... View full entry
A 5-story, 122,000 office and retail building, set to be one of the largest Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) buildings in Los Angeles, is taking shape. For 843 N Spring Street, this month continues the installation of what will be 82,000 square feet of CLT panels in the hybrid timber structure... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has completed a 158-meter-tall, 33-story tower, located at the center of one of Shenzhen’s key business districts. The structure responds to the region’s tropical climate through a series of biophilic and sustainable design solutions. SOM was commissioned by... View full entry
In December, developers closed on $30.3 million in financing for the first phase of Arverne East, a master-planned community and revitalization project within a 116-acre oceanfront site in the Arverne and Edgemere neighborhoods in Queens’ Rockaway Peninsula. Led by real estate firms L+M... View full entry
If there’s one thing that 2021 has shown us, it is that, for better or for worse, the world is evolving faster than ever. While this is a natural phenomenon, it’s apparent that the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the level of uncertainty the world faces. Sociopolitical and... View full entry
President Biden on Wednesday set in motion a plan to make the federal government carbon neutral, ordering federal agencies to buy electric vehicles, to power facilities with wind, solar and nuclear energy, and to use sustainable building materials. — The New York Times
Biden called for the transformation of 300,000 government buildings, 600,000 cars and trucks, and the use of its annual $650 billion budget for goods and services to meet his goal for a carbon-neutral federal government by 2050. Detailed by The New York Times, his timetable for the... View full entry
The City Council is poised to ban the use of gas in new buildings, requiring most to use electricity-powered heat and hot water. Lawmakers reached a deal late Wednesday on a bill requiring new buildings shorter than seven stories to go electric on Jan. 1, 2024, and taller ones after July 1, 2027. Projects that get their construction documents approved before those dates will be exempt. — The Real Deal
Buildings of less than seven stories and at least half of its units subject to an affordable housing regulatory agreement are exempt if construction documents are approved before December 31, 2025. New buildings that are taller with the same agreement will have two more years. The measure allows... View full entry
Energy efficiency among New York City buildings has improved a bit, but almost half of those forced to post a grade are still failing. According to The City’s analysis of preliminary data from the Department of Buildings, 48.3 percent of buildings received either a D or F grade. Receiving a D is essentially the worst a building can do, as Fs are reserved for properties that don’t submit data. — The Real Deal
More than 20,000 buildings exceeding 25,000 square feet were surveyed. As reported by The Real Deal, the share of Ds dropped to 39.2 percent from 44.1 percent from the same time last year, indicating some of the least energy-efficient buildings made improvements. The share of F grades, however... View full entry
A floating solar farm that’s equivalent to about 70 soccer fields in size has begun generating power in Thailand, reflecting the country’s push to achieve carbon neutral status by 2050. — Bloomberg
Located at the Sirindhorn Dam, which is about 410 miles east of Bangkok, the facility is the world’s largest hybrid solar-hydropower system. It combines two methods of electricity generation, with 145,000 solar panels generating power from the sun during that day, while three turbines convert... View full entry
