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Tired of hearing that sustainable construction has to cost more, Josh and his colleagues want to prove that resource efficient homes can be built at comparable cost and timeframes to regular houses. The homes will be thermally comfortable year round, without the need for air conditioning or additional heating. They will generate more electricity than they use, and will harvest and recycle water. In addition to private garden areas, a common productive garden will supply both houses with fresh food. What sets this project apart from many others is that the building designs have achieved a 10 Star energy efficiency rating*, whilst intentionally using conventional building materials and construction methods so they can easily be replicated by industry and the wider community. The project also demonstrates a more sensitive approach to residential subdivision that has considered maximising effective garden area around the homes to allow for natural shading, children's play spaces and local food production - important health and lifestyle benefits that are rapidly disappearing from our suburbs. Construction started in November 2012 and is scheduled for completion by May 2013.

"The Endeavour Centre is excited to begin the Canada's Greenest Home project, a residential build in Peterborough, Ontario that we are undertaking with the students in our five-month, Sustainable New Construction certificate program. Throughout the design and construction of Canada's Greenest Home, we will make every effort to publicly detail the entire process on this blog, so please follow along. We are sure to have a steep learning curve, and we want this learning to be a legacy of the project."

"Positive Footprints combines Environmentally Sustainable Design and Construction into the one company making high performing sustainable homes easy to achieve. Positive Footprints is honoured to have recently received 2 industry awards: MBAV Excellence in Housing  Best Sustainable Energy Home 2012 Award for Penola House and, National BPN Sustainable New Home of the Year 2012 for Marion House "

"If you're thinking about building green, keep this infographic nearby, as it covers thirteen elements that you'll want to consider in the design and construction of your home. Also keep in mind that this list isn't definitive; it does, however, demonstrate well that building green involves big-picture thinking beyond "Hey, let's put solar panels up.""

"Alcoa (NYSE: AA) announced today that its $21 million Alcoa Wheel and Transportation Products casthouse expansion at its Barberton, Ohio plant is expected to cut in half the total amount of energy used to recycle aluminum for forged wheels, reducing greenhouse gases and increasing the overall efficiency and sustainability of the company's manufacturing process. The recycling facility, the first of its kind in North America, uses advanced technology to produce wheels from re-melted and scrap aluminum. Construction of the 50,000-square-foot facility began in July 2011. It is now up and running at full capacity and has created more than 30 full-time jobs."

"The City of Sydney is embarking on the construction of Australia's largest rooftop solar installation, following an announcement of a plan to install a 1,250KWp (kilowatt peak) solar photovoltaic system across 30 rooftop sites within the Sydney city boundary."

"The recent start of construction on the first of two large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in outback New South Wales shows the importance of renewable energy targets and funding. The first, currently being built at Nyngan, will be the largest solar PV farm in the southern hemisphere, producing 103 megawatts at peak capacity. "

"Yesterday saw the launch by Prime Minister David Cameron of the world's largest offshore wind power plant, the London Array, located in the Thames estuary, approximately 20 kilometres off the Kent and Essex coast.  Owned, developed and built by a consortium consisting of Dong Energy, E.ON and Masdar (Abu Dhabi's state backed renewable energy company), it has a total capacity of 630 megawatts (MW) and will generate enough power to supply 500,000 British households with clean electricity.  It is estimated to reduce annual CO2 emissions by approximately 900,000 tons, equivalent to the emissions of 300,000 passenger cars. Construction involved over 75 organisations and 6,700 people."

"Australia's largest concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar power plant was officially opened today, with the Victorian energy minister joining executives from the plant's developer, Solar Systems, to cut the ribbon on the 1.5MW demonstration facility in Mildura. The demonstration of the "dense array" solar technology of parent company Silex Systems is a fore-runner for what is expected to be a 100MW power plant, with construction slated to begin in 2014. Another 1MW demonstration plant is being built in Saudi Arabia, with hopes of further development as that country pushes into the start of a $100 billion solar spending program"

"Positive Footprints combines Environmentally Sustainable Design and Construction into the one company making high performing sustainable homes easy to achieve. Positive Footprints is honoured to have recently received 2 industry awards. This is their YouTube Channel featuring Fly-throughs of their house designs.

"EPA has released a draft guideline on Energy from Waste, consistent with the Victorian Government's Getting full value: the Victorian Waste and Resource Recovery Policy. The guideline outlines how the Environment Protection Act 1970 and associated policies and regulations are applied to the assessment of proposals that recover energy from waste. The document provides high level guidance for industry, government and the community on EPA expectations and requirements for the siting, design, construction and operation of such facilities."

"The biggest solar power project in the entire state of Minnesota is going to be at an airport. On Thursday, Gov. Mark Dayton joined officials from the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport to announce the construction of a $25 million solar project there, which will be built on top of two parking ramps at the airport's main terminal. The solar panels are expected to produce 3 megawatts (MW) of power, and generate close to 20 percent of the airport's total electricity. Beyond the airport, the project means that Minnesota itself will have 20 percent more solar capacity than it did before."

"Get out and about in the city to discover some of the best Green Star-rated icons. The Sustainable Melbourne Walking Tour is a self-guided, street-level exploration of some of Melbourne's greenest buildings. Walk the city while learning how green buildings are contributing to the sustainability of the inner-city community and leading by green example in the design and construction of our built environment."

"Published on Jul 9, 2013 Building a skyscraper? Forget about steel and concrete, says architect Michael Green, and build it out of ... wood. As he details in this intriguing talk, it's not only possible to build safe wooden structures up to 30 stories tall (and, he hopes, higher), it's necessary."