CityLimits.org
April 13, 2011
Reducing NYC’s Carbon Footprint: Do We Know Our Shoe Size?
Ahead of this week’s Regional Plan Association annual assembly on “Innovation and the Global City,” an environmental thinker says more data is needed to direct efforts at greening New York and other cities.
There is much talk these days of a low-carbon economy, creating green jobs, and a new market in energy efficiency retrofit funding. For all the good intentions, many programs are having trouble getting off the ground. There is a lack of infrastructure but, most importantly, an absence of underlying data, indexes, and benchmarks that are essential for the development of any modern economy or market.
When a government sets out to develop an economic policy, among the first things it usually looks at are indexes. If a government is setting interest rates it will look at inflation, the rate of increase in the Consumer Price Index. If it is taking measures that will affect jobs, the government looks at unemployment indexes. If it is adjusting state benefits or pension fund rates, it will look at the retail or Consumer Price Index.
Canadian Design and Construction Report
March 29, 2011
If asked to name major climate change contributors, most people could easily name a few things - cars, for example, or deforestation. These certainly play a role in global warming. Most people, however, would overlook a large contributor of greenhouse gases in many countries: buildings. The operational inefficiency of buildings, especially commercial ones, is often overlooked as a major part of out climate change problem. While SUVs, the poster-child of wastefulness in recent years, account for about three per cent of North America’s CO2 emissions, the ongoing operation of buildings accounts for about 40 per cent on average. In New York this number is as high as 79 per cent.
While buildings are a significant part of the problem, this also means they are a key part of the solution. The creativity and expertise of the professionals that make up the building community is an important asset in mitigating global warming, particularly their ability to design and advance new technologies. Rebuilding entire cities is not the most practical, nor the greenest solution - besides being disruptive, it also creates a lot of building waste - but technological innovations can reinvent cities without having to rebuild them.
In an interview with SolveClimateNews.org, our CEO Ron Dembo shared his insights about the importance of changing the way we build our cities to combat climate change. The 2011 Zerofootprint Re-Skinning Awards, our initiative to celebrate excellence in retrofitting and re-skinning projects from around the world, launched on January 25th.
SolveClimateNews.org
February 16, 2011
The term “reskinning” may sound like a word straight out of a science fiction novel, but in actuality it means retrofitting the exteriors of aging buildings with energy-saving facelifts, and the practice is taking off - especially in Canada and Europe.
Ron Dembo, a former computer science professor at Yale University who founded the Toronto-based carbon software company Zerofootprint, coined the term in 2009. His inspiration came in part from being steeped in data on carbon pollution management.
Read the entire article on SolveClimateNews.org.
Ron Dembo’s Meeting of the Minds 2010 presentation on the Zerofootprint Re-Skinning Awards. Download here (PDF).
Government Technology
Jun 17, 2010
Sustainability Solutions Can Drive Economic Growth, Experts Say
By Chad Vander Veen, Associate Editor
OMAHA, Neb.—What decisions, policies and practices need to be in place to transform regions and cities into sustainable, interconnected communities? Answering this question was the purpose of the Meeting of the Minds, an invitation-only conference held in mid-June in Omaha. Climate change, transportation, renewable energy, structural retrofits and other issues were discussed and debated among attendees from around the world.
Zerofootprint to Showcase Winners of ZEROprize Re-Skinning Awards for Sustainable Buildings at Meeting of the Minds 2010
Winning Projects Highlight Ways Cities Can Become Sustainable by Improving
the Energy Efficiency of Older Buildings
TORONTO and OMAHA, Neb. (Meeting of the Minds 2010) June 14, 2010 - Zerofootprint, a leading organization in the global fight against climate change, in conjunction with the UNHabitat, will showcase the winners of its international ZEROprize Re-Skinning Awards for sustainable buildings at the Meeting of the Minds 2010 conference taking place June 16 -18, 2010 in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Ron Dembo, CEO of Zerofootprint, will present the winning projects at 10:50 am on Thursday, June 17th in the Junior Ball Room of the Qwest Center.
treehugger
03.29.10
First Re-Skinning Awards From Zerofootprint
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto in Design & Architecture
Aidlin Darling Architects: “an historic and previously derelict turn-of-the-century industrial building now refurbished to be as beautiful as it is energy efficient.”
inhabitat
03/25/10
Stunning Zinc-Skinned Office Wins 2010 Zerofootprint Award
by Bridgette Meinhold
Zerofootprint holds an annual competition for renovated buildings that showcase the most successful, holistic retrofitting projects of the year.
bustler
Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010
Winners of ZEROprize / Re-Skinning Awards 2010 Announced
Zerofootprint recently announced the five winners of the Re-Skinning Award 2010. The Zerofootprint Re-Skinning Award is meant to attract state-of-the-art retrofitted and re-skinned buildings that are exceptional, but do not meet the performance standards of the ZEROprize.
Zerofootprint to Unveil Winners of Re-Skinning Awards at World Urban Forum in Brazil
TORONTO – Mar. 16, 2010 – Zerofootprint, a leading organization in the global fight against climate change is participating in the World Urban Forum 5 taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil March 22-26, 2010.
While there, Dr. Ron Dembo, CEO at Zerofootprint will announce the winners of the ZEROprize Re-Skinning Awards, in collaboration with the UN-Habitat and contributing to the World Urban Campaign. The Re-Skinning Awards celebrate and advance market-disrupting improvements in energy-saving building design and technology.
