Peter and I are staying for a few days at Meg and Dave’s lovely new home in Bartlett NH. They built the house from scratch over the last year or so, from 100% non-toxic materials (no plywood, glues, formaldehyde’s, etc)– many of our regular readers are familiar with the house already.
Curious enough to come to [...]

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“Technology that only takes one architect to install…” Rick Renner

Our friend Rick Renner recently completed Portland, Maine’s first LEED Platinum project. It was the renovation of a two story brick building into a first floor office for his architecture firm and a second floor apartment for himself. Rick is a principal of Rick Renner [...]

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This Thursday at 2pm at Maine Green Building Supply, the City of Portland will hold a press event regarding the release of the Sustainable Portland Taskforce Report and Brochure (Port City Studios did the editing and design for the brochure). From the Press Advisory:
This Thursday, the Sustainable Portland Taskforce will release its Sustainable Portland Report. [...]

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In the February issue of Working Waterfront, there are some really interesting articles. And I thought I would pass them along. Working Waterfront is one of my favorite local papers here in Maine, and I always make a point to pick it up when I see it. Luckily, they also maintain a pretty good website, [...]

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Congressman Tom Allen recently emailed his list to promote what he believes is an insufficient and flawed Federal Budget. He struck out against the Bush Administration and in particular the Energy Policy that is certainly a step backwards for the nation. I am sure you fully aware of its faults but here is an excerpt [...]

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This ten minute video features the co-creators of CheatNeutral.com, a spoof on the prevalent practice of Carbon Offsetting. If it doesn’t make sense to offset cheating on your spouse, why does it make sense to offset polluting?

I found this site via: Respond|Design, an interdisciplinary forum for RISD students and faculty interested in how design can [...]

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The Department of Energy and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a lab funded by the DOE and managed by Battelle, recently completed a pilot project titled: The Pacific Northwest GridWise™ Demonstration Project. In brief, this project studied whether knowledge, provided by computers, could help consumers decrease energy usage. Holy cow man – it worked.
This is [...]

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the earth receives more energy from the sun in just ONE HOUR than the world uses in a whole year.
If you want to use the sun to heat your hot water, warm your home, or power your building than Energyworks is probably the best place in the state of Maine to start your investigation.
I was [...]

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Energyworks shared some cool news last month.
First: Energyworks received a renewable energy demonstrative grant to install photovoltaic systems onto three local schools, Lincoln Middle School in Portland, Yarmouth High School and Gray New Gloucester High School.
Second: Energyworks installed its first solar hot-water system in New Hampshire at 19 Ridge Road. Next year, the builder, Dave [...]

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Portland, Maine Mayor Ed Suslovic will announce next week the formation of a new City Committee focused on energy and the environment. The councilors serving on the new committee will most likely be Jim Cohen, Dave Marshall and Mayor Suslovic.
The EEC is going to tackle issues like decreasing the City’s energy costs, installing renewable energy [...]

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“We should be preserving the pre-oil industrial waterfront, not destroying it to build condominiums.” Kevin Donoghue
This strong sentiment is echoed loudly across the coast of Maine, and especially from Portland (Maine) City Councilor Kevin Donoghue. There is no better way to get the Councilor’s attention than over a pint of beer - and that’s exactly [...]

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If you missed the energy bill debate this summer and didn’t see the few obscure articles about its contents, then you may be surprised to learn of the unlimited loan guarantees that will be offered to large energy corporations. These guarantees will help fund the construction of new Liquid Coal and Nuclear plants. What a [...]

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Representative Ted Koffman, a Democrat and co-chairman of the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee has a mission, to decrease the amount of plastics used and disposed of in the State of Maine. Everything from plastic shopping bags to plastic diapers is up for debate.
Mr. Koffman, has a long up-hill battle, although Maine and is a rather [...]

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The Building Magazine, a UK publication launched the Sustainability Awards last year which recognizes sustainability excellence in 15 areas. Among the winners this year were BioRegional, a UK based consulting firm specializing in sustainable buildings, products and lifestyles. (www.bioregional.com)
Visit Building Sustainability for a list of the nominees and winners.
(no Amish were nominated, they are still [...]

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Plastic is a bad idea no matter what way you cut it, especially when it is filled with water and transported massive distances to reach your mouth. If you think it is a good idea to use 7 million barrels of oil each year to make having a drink more convenient – you are not [...]

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Maine Green Building Supply in Portland, Maine showcases a variety of great building products including American Clay, a southwest product which is a non-toxic wall-covering, mud, that is colored from stone and minerals - a great replacement for paint. I helped my brother Dave pick up a little over a ton of base and mud [...]

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This is a video of a prototype windmill created by the San Francisco Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. The goal is to build a small-scale inexpensive ($100) wind turbine that can be used in remote villages in Guatemala to power lighting systems and cell phone chargers. Here is some more info about the project. They [...]

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Check out this post at Vigorous North. I would love to wake up to the sight of a windmill moving in the breeze on the Eastern Prom. Clearly that sentiment isn’t shared by the folks up near the proposed Black Nubble wind project, who feel it might contaminate their wilderness (and their views).
So let’s do [...]

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Our good friend Ted Rouse and his friends in Baltimore have created the first biodiesel option in the city. With help from the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance (CSBA), and the Baltimore BALLE network, the group of social entrepreneurs taught themselves the ins and outs of producing and selling biodiesel. The producing part did not go [...]

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The earth receives more energy from the sun in just ONE HOUR than the world uses in a whole year.

The Solar Decathlon was held last week on the Mall in Washington DC. The decathlon is both a physical and academic competition with 20 teams competing in 10 contests. The goal is to design, build, and [...]

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