http://verdantconcepts.com Blog related to green roofs and environmental issues related to the urban environment. Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:32:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en To update from a previous post, not only did US Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit rule that the clean air mercury rule violated the Clean Air Act in February, but in July the District of Columbia Circuit also vacated the clean air interstate rule (CAIR). While the court ... http://verdantconcepts.com/2008/10/06/why-should-anyone-cair/ 38.890370 -77.031959 With the opening of the Olympic Games a few days away, air quality in the city is increasingly a concern. It is now possible to view air quality around the city thanks to a joint effort by Mapufacture, Inc. and Fortius One. The map shows values from air quality sampling ... http://verdantconcepts.com/2008/08/07/mapping-olympic-air-quality/ 39.906010 116.387909 A few weeks ago, I participated in a conference call for bloggers to learn more about the green building efforts of Genzyme, a biotech company focused on diagnostic testing, pharmaceuticals, and medical treatments. In addition to its headquarters building in Cambridge, Massachusetts (a LEED Platinum building), Genzyme has several additional ... http://verdantconcepts.com/2008/07/21/biotech-going-green-tech/ Yesterday the House Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality (part of the Committee on Energy and Commerce) held a hearing focusing on building energy efficiency as one method of tackling CO2 emissions. The subcommittee is presently developing and understanding various potential mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80% ... http://verdantconcepts.com/2008/07/18/state-of-the-shelf-progress-in-energy-efficiency/ 38.890370 -77.031959 Here's an update on NYC green roof policy incentives as discussed previously. According to an article in Greener Buildings, bill A 11226 passed the state assembly on June 23rd. The senate had previously passed the bill on June 11th. For buildings that green at least half of the roof ... http://verdantconcepts.com/2008/07/03/tax-credit-for-green-roofs-in-the-big-apple/ With Wall Street officially in a bear market, I was curious to see what effects if any the subprime mortgage mess and other woes have had on the environmental field. Simply hired, an online job search service and aggregator, provides data on the number of postings over time with specific ... http://verdantconcepts.com/2008/07/03/mixed-news-for-job-growth-in-environmental-field/ The WEF Sustainability Conference was held this week in Washington, DC. During the conference, a multitude of available resources were recommended to learn more about green infrastructure and sustainable water management. Below is a brief list of the resources in no particular order that I found interesting. I’ve included links ... http://verdantconcepts.com/2008/06/24/wef-sustainability-conference/ While San Francisco has had a green building map (developed by M. Landman Communications & Consulting) for quite some time, California has recently released their own green building directory and map. The green building directory is searchable according to location, LEED rating and status, project owner, and the inclusion of ... http://verdantconcepts.com/2008/06/09/mapping-green-buildings-in-california/ Last week I attended the Smart Growth speaker series at the National Building Museum. Two speakers presented on green infrastructure strategies. The first speaker, Nancy Stoner of that Natural Resources Defense Council, presented a summary and update from the 2006 NRDC report, Rooftops to Rivers: Greening Strategies for Controlling Stormwater ... http://verdantconcepts.com/2008/06/09/nrdc-and-epa-on-green-infrastructure/ While my interest is in the model development side of green roof research, there were several interesting talks on plant performance beyond the characteristics of depth and slope . Kristin Getter from that other large university in Michigan presented results from sun and shade studies of sedum. She noted that ... http://verdantconcepts.com/2008/05/22/annual-conference-review-plant-performance/