GAB Report library
Carbon Neutral
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Team California’s Refract House Starts 2,848 Mile Trek to the 2009 Solar Decathlon
It’s the 2009 Solar Decathlon, but the journey began two years ago: 16 design proposals narrowed down to one winning scheme, design development, refinement, hours of hard work, construction, close-in, and finally, today’s auspicious send-off for the Refract House. Team California, a partnership between the California College of the Arts and Santa Clara University, has…
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What is Your Building’s Carbon Footprint?
As design professionals and consumers, we have become smarter about the decisions we make in selecting building products and we are asking more questions of the vendors and manufacturers. We now have the knowledge to evaluate and select green materials such as FSC certified wood or a solar photovoltaic system. However, we can take it…
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Transforming a Concrete Box into a Net-Zero Energy Building
Editor’s Note: The IDeAs Z2 Design Facility is now the San Jose office of the Integral Group. At the AIA 2009 National Convention, I was pleased to find a handful of educational sessions, led by San Francisco Bay Area architects and engineers, that focused on net-zero energy building design. One of the featured projects, the IDeAs…
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Evaluating Whole Building Carbon Emissions
Two years ago, the Society of Building Science Educators* (SBSE) partnered with the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE), Educator/Practitioner Network, and Sustainability Discussion Group to spearhead the Carbon Neutral Design (CND) Project. This year at the 2009 National AIA Convention, Dennis A. Andrejko, FAIA, moderated a discussion of the CND…