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The Pentagon has announced it will be installing a solar panel array on its roof in a historic first that’s part of a new $55 million Department of Defense clean energy initiative at military installations in the United States and Germany. The DOD has been active in attempting to mitigate the... View full entry
A group of 11 AEC industry groups in the United Kingdom, including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Chartered Institute of Building, and UK Green Building Council, have joined together in urging the government toward taking action on restricting embodied carbon emissions in the... View full entry
An effort by the Biden Administration to establish a new national definition of zero-emissions buildings is gaining traction after leaders representing a group of 69 different AEC firms working in the U.S. added their support in a letter that was circulated earlier this week. Prominent... View full entry
Repeated calls for the decarbonization of architecture are sometimes met with criticisms as to their lack of substance, and in some cases, practicality or overall feasibility, Canada's National Observer tells us. The only mycelium binders on the market are, for example, unsuitable to certain... View full entry
A climate deal has been struck by global leaders at the COP28 UN climate summit in Dubai following days of negotiations. The agreement calls for all countries to move away from using fossil fuels, though stops short of phasing them out. The final text, signed by 200 countries, recognizes a “need... View full entry
If approved in its current form, the deal struck on Thursday night will also force member states to put solar panels on more buildings, starting with new public buildings and offices and expanding to include new homes by 2030. [...]
It is a compromise on the European Commission’s original proposals to renovate the leakiest homes, which member states had fought fiercely.
— The Guardian
The EU’s pledge mandates that all new buildings will have zero emissions from fossil fuels in that timeframe, with heating systems derived from fossil fuels phased out by 2040. The expansion of heat pump subsidies will be a decisive factor, along with the mandatory installation of solar panels... View full entry
It will soon become nearly impossible to install fossil-fueled appliances to heat new homes and businesses in Washington. [...]
The codes will require new homes and buildings to meet the same total energy performance as those built with electric heat pumps while allowing builders flexibility to choose appliances. Basically, if builders choose gas appliances, they will need to make up the efficiency losses elsewhere in the construction.
— Seattle Times
The state’s building code update puts them in league with California, Maryland, and major cities New York, Los Angeles, and Boston to have adopted similar policies. The new amendments offer a “watered-down” alternative to a proposed electric heat pump mandate that was abandoned in the... View full entry
Several leading design and construction firms in the UK have signed onto a new appeal urging Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to halt his program of delayed implementations of key environmental building regulations in the interest of protecting a net-zero carbon emissions future in the... View full entry
The new Winthrop Center in Boston by Handel Architects has just been certified by the Passive House Institute (PHI) as the largest Passive House office design in the world, according to an announcement made Friday by its developer Millennium Partners. Inaugurated in the spring after a... View full entry
All-electric building projects have increased by more than 130% since 2020, according to new data from the American Institute of Architects. The figure is one of several findings from the latest AIA By The Numbers report which provides a detailed analysis of the energy performance of architecture... View full entry
New York State has announced the adoption of a ‘Buy Clean Concrete’ mandate for state agencies, described by Governor Hochul’s office as a “first-in-the-nation” commitment to environmental sustainability. The plan contains mandatory rules for establishing emissions limits on concrete... View full entry
A new report driven by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Yale University's newly-formed Yale Center for Ecosystems + Architecture (Yale CEA) has recommended drastic reductions in the industry’s use of certain construction materials as it faces the environmental headwinds of sector-wide... View full entry
The American Institute of Landscape Architects has published the results of a members' survey on the role of landscape architecture products in aiding decarbonization and biodiversity in the built environment. Insights were garnered from 454 landscape architects, designers, and educators out of... View full entry
The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation has just announced the third cycle of its Frankenthaler Climate Initiative (FCI), representing a total of $2.7 million in funding to 48 different visual arts organizations across the country for 2023. Along with the announcement of this year’s awardees, the FCI... View full entry
Boston is officially ending its reliance on fossil fuels in government-owned buildings after Mayor Michelle Wu signed a new executive order banning their use in all new municipal construction and renovation projects across the city. In a press statement released on July 31st, Wu told reporters... View full entry
