27-sq-ft bike home + rowboat shelter

Jay Nelson has built what is essentially an electric quadracycle and tiny house/RV all in one using materials commonly available at the hardware store. Featuring a sleeping space, luggage storage, a tiny kitchen (with sink) and even a rudimentary toilet arrangement with the addition of a steering wheel/iPhone holder, it feel all rather modern, if a little quirky.

It has a limited range- it can do a little under 10 miles and has a top speed of 20mph, which means that this is more a leisure run-around than a serious home. He calls his tiny mobile home the Golden Gate.

Topics: Green Buildings ,Electric, Hybrid and Plug in Hybrid Electric Cars ,Electric and Hybrid Bikes and Bicycles

CSRMinute: Dell expands recycling program; Texas U's Student Service HQ wins green building award

Dell has expanded its computer recycling program to 319 additional Goodwill donation sites. With the expansion, Dell Reconnect will be offered in 77 additional counties across Florida, Ohio, Alabama, and Kansas. There are now more than 2,600 Goodwill drop-off locations in the U.S. and Canada which give seven million households access to free electronics recycling. The expansion will divert an estimated 7.5 million pounds of unwanted electronics from landfills annually.

The Student Services Building at the University of Texas at Dallas has won the 2011 Innovation in Green Building award. The award, given by the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, recognizes a college or university that is revisiting the way it develops its physical campus, and how the school uses Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design—LEED—as a tool for campus greening. The building is the first LEED Platinum facility in the University of Texas system.

Topics: Green Buildings ,eWaste Management

Green Building Tour- University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia is host to several green buildings on campus.
C.K.Choi Building for the Institute of Asian Research,  The Liu Center which houses the Institute for Global Studies, Fred Kaiser Building for the faculty of Applied Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Life Sciences Center have incorporated a number of eco-friendly, green measures to improve the overall efficiency of the buildings.
Natural ventilation, windows to provide plenty of sunlight, scooped atria that help in flow of natural air and energy efficient lighting systems are a part of all these buildings. The Choi building houses composting toilets which processes the solid waste to fertilizer and the liquid waste is pumped to a wetland trench with gravel and plants that have purifying bacteria in their roots.
The Liu Center has used recycled materials for its construction. The patio bricks have been reclaimed from all over campus, the rubber on the stairs are from tyres and the floors and ceiling are made of fly ash concrete which is a by-product of coal burning. The fly ash concrete act as effective heating and cooling systems.
The Fred Kaiser building hosts PV panels and uses plastic pipes filled with water to heat and cool the concrete which in turn does the same to the building.
The Life Sciences building is powered from renewable and waste energy sources, uses rainwater harvesting for providing drinking water, and treats waste water on-site. The offices have automatic lighting that turns on when a person enters the room and turns off after a period of inactivity. The building is built of certified wood and beetle-killed wood, which lock in more than 500 metric tones of carbon.
The building is certified LEED Gold.

Topics: Green Buildings

Structural Insulated Panels

Structural Insulated Panels

Active & Passive Cooling

Q. What is the difference between active and passive cooling and which one is best.

A. Active cooling uses a fan, passive cooling doesnt. Watch the video to find out more…

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities

Steven Peck is the President and Founder of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. In this video he talks about the many benefits of green roofs including how they manage storm water, mediate the urban heat island (UHI)effect and provide area for integrating agriculture into our urban environments. Check out www.greenroofs.org for more details.

Using nature's genius in architecture

How can architects build a new world of sustainable beauty? By learning from nature. At TEDSalon in London, Michael Pawlyn describes three habits of nature that could transform architecture and society: radical resource efficiency, closed loops, and drawing energy from the sun.