Green Building Alliance
Promoting Healthy and High-Performing Places to Live, Work, Play, and Learn.
Energy efficiency projects are well-known for their long-term cost savings and permanent energy load reduction. In the PJM Interconnection, they can also generate unexpected but substantial revenue streams when offered on PJM’s forward capacity market as a capacity resource. Proper measurement and verification, though, is the key. How does energy efficiency help regional transmission organizations stabilize […]
In the past year or so you may have noticed that GBA has been quite supportive of the Passive House standard. Why? Well, designing and building buildings that use 1/10 the energy of traditional buildings is likely one of the best ways to reduce human’s contribution to climate change. And as we are all about […]
This is a guest blog by home energy consultant Erin Vaughan If you ask most homeowners if they want a green home, chances are, they’ll say yes. We start with notions of protecting the environment, of using fewer resources and reducing our carbon footprint. Dig a little deeper though, and most consumers admit they have […]
Recently, the 21st International Passive House Conference 2017 was held in Vienna, Austria. In addition to the presentation of papers at the Passive House Conference, there were more than 70 exhibitors displaying products that help make the most energy efficient buildings in the world possible. Buildings built to the Passive House standard are very low […]
State agencies have not always been a friend to green buildings. There are outdated building codes, unpredictable defunding schemes, and of course garden variety bureaucratic inertia. But out of the ashes has risen a dark horse, an unlikely but stalwart advocate for healthy and high performing buildings: the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Authority (PHFA). What exactly […]
We all know that the quest for healthy and high-performing buildings does not end at the completion of construction. In fact, that’s just the beginning! Once a building is occupied, energy models and water budgets transform into real-life building users turning on lights, faucets, and computers. Efficient operations and smart maintenance in buildings not only […]
Pittsburgh has spent the last forty years greening its economy, initially focused on merely a shift from heavy industry to the less resource intensive health and technology sectors. This change was motivated by economic necessity, but also included public health concerns (if one more person references ‘hell with the lid off’ this author might revolt!). […]
At this point, almost everyone in the building world is familiar (if not intimate) with LEED, with emerging awareness of the Living Building Challenge, WELL Building Standard, and Passiv House. BUT, in Pittsburgh, there is a new framework in town, developed right here. You’ve heard “p4” tossed about as the next frontier of sustainable, urban […]
These nonprofit solar experts are making your community greener. Find out if your roof can gleam with new solar panels. Summer is a time for sunburns, sunporches, and, of course, photovoltaic cells. For those of us living in one of Pittsburgh’s charming (read: hilly and tree-lined) neighborhoods, going solar may seem like that European getaway you’ve been pining for […]
By guest blogger Eleanora Kaloyeropoulou, Climate and Energy Fellow at Pennsylvania Environmental Council On March 15-16, 2017 the Pennsylvania Environmental Council is convening Achieving Deep Carbon Reductions: Paths for Pennsylvania’s Electricity Future in Pittsburgh. This conference will bring together prominent thought-leaders in clean energy and climate protection for an open and honest discussion around the […]