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Add Boston to the list of cities that have approved energy benchmarking. The city ordinance will require larger commercial and residential buildings to report annual energy and water usage to the city, making the information available for the public. Seven other cities have enacted energy benchmarking including New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. California […]

Timed perfectly with Earth Day, the Bullitt Center opened its doors yesterday as the world's greenest building. Located in Seattle, the six-story, 50,000 square foot office building features a variety of sustainable projects, including composting toilets. The Bullitt Foundation "hopes that the new center will demonstrate that carbon-neutral office space can be 'commercially viable and aesthetically stunning.'" […]

A new report questions the value of energy benchmarking laws, especially in terms of what they are meant to achieve. Robert Stavins, an environmental economist at Harvard University, examined "whether mandatory benchmarking and auditing rules can achieve what they're meant to do." Energy benchmarking has worked its way to the Midwest as a way to […]

Last year, New York City required its commercial buildings to disclose their energy consumption. The benchmarking plan saw many surprises including finding newer LEED buildings ranked behind much older buildings when it came to energy efficiency. Take for instance the New York Times building, which is seeing more impressive gains in efficiency. Constructed in 2007, the […]

It may not feel like it here in Kansas City, but summer is right around the corner. For businesses looking to save on utility costs, that means implementing strategies for cooling commercial buildings. It seems that commercial buildings are more susceptible to higher energy use. This is because offices and commercial buildings have high indoor […]

Out with the old and in with the new this year. Since the ban of incandescent lighting, consumers and business owners are tossing out their T12s, and replacing them with LEDs. The energy efficient lighting technology last much longer and uses far less electricty than incandescent. "Prices for the bulbs are falling steadily as retailers […]

Is energy efficiency in your future? If you're looking to improve the efficiency of your office next year, here are some helpful tips to keep in mind, courtesy of Clean Technica.

You've heard of their benefits, but do you know enough about installing light emitting diodes (LED)? Unlike fluorescent lamps, LED light fixtures contain powerful LED light sources that include plastic lenses to reduce glare. And some light sources are already becoming too bright to look at directly. As LED technology continues to grow, fixture manufacturers still […]

The Swedish-based furniture chain recently announced a new green initiative  Ikea is phasing out sales of all lighting that is not LED-based by 2016 “in an effort to help customers save energy, reduce electricity bills, and cut carbon emissions.” Ikea is the first major home furnishing retailer with a U.S. presence to entirely banish less efficient […]