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If you, like me, are watching the bleeding out of the Deepwater Horizon in a helpless rage, it is useful to remember that when one points a finger, three fingers are pointing back at you.
Just under a year ago I quoted Fermi Award-winning physicist and former California Energy Commissioner Dr. Art Rosenfeld, who noted that the energy lost through our inefficient windows alone represents the approximate throughput of the Alaska Pipeline, which is about 2 million barrels per day (the top 15 countries we import oil from provide about 10 million barrels per day).
So in the final analysis, are we any better than BP if the buildings we design and manage are leaking an oil equivalent in energy at about 100 times the rate of the Deepwater rig? To be sure it’s less visceral visually -- the leakage manifests as carbon and other air pollution, coal mining scars and other collateral damage of wasteful energy production -- but the damage is real, it is widespread and it is growing.
As the Gulf of Mexico disaster has refocused our attention on the consequences of our wasteful energy use (yes, I know that oil use and buildings are largely divorced, except in the Northeast), we would do well not to pretend that the shores of Louisiana are the only place being devastated by our profligacy: Buildings, heal thyselves!
As a potential first step toward healing, building “first aid” courses are being offered June 16 and 17 (this coming Wednesday and Thursday) at the GreenBuildingsNY conference in, you guessed it, New York City at the Javits Center. You can sign up here.
GBNY is a joint effort of the good folks over at Reed Expo in partnership with Greener World Media, the company that produces GreenerBuildings.com and the GreenBiz.com family of websites.
Yours truly is conference chair again this year, and I think we’ve put together a really great lineup of topical and practical sessions, not to mention 40 CEUs worth of professional development credits applicable to maintaining your LEED AP, as well as 25 AIA credits. New York’s Lieutenant Governor, Richard Ravitch will deliver the opening keynote Wednesday morning.
Rob Watson is the executive editor of GreenerBuildings.com. You can reach Rob at rob.watson@greenerworldmedia.com or follow him on Twitter@KilrWat
Manhattan skyline -- Image CC licensed by Flickr user wwarby.
Solar, Security, Energy Saving, & Blast Mitigation Film- USE
This is one of the least expensive and most effective methods in making buildings more energy efficient. How often is it used? Two manufacturers had the Clinton Climate Initative endorsement but you rarely hear of the application of these cost effective films>