UWW310 Technology & Sustainability

This is a great website to research Bills etc. This particular Bill is a bill to protect farmers from large biotech companies like Monsanto. A similar Bill has been put forward 2 additional times but all three have not made it past committee review.

Too many Bills have been put forward by too many states to ban or label GE or GMO products, seeds, plants or animals. Why is our government not representing the people and supporting big businesses like Monsanto? I helped write the referendum in Mendocino County banning GMO crops from being grown but Monsanto is winning across our country. Research this topic, it is vital for our sustainability ! Salmon is now the next target!

As a family we have built many houses and structures with COB and Straw Bale. I thought that this was a great video on the community aspect of building with COB. Not so fond of the oversized straw bale house built with conventional construction but I understand their idea of taking baby steps to converting the building code inspectors. Hope you enjoy watching!

Having a bad day? Reading lots of depressing things about the future of our dependence on oil? This 27min watch suggests we can fix it without government intervention and with current technology while boosting our economy. Seem too good to be true? Perhaps!

Using the concept of Sustainability in Master-planned communities

New science which addresses heat transfer can make any home super efficient.

For about $70 buy a device that plugs into your car and talks to an iPhone app. It monitors your driving behavior and gives you tips on how to drive more energy effeciently, plus other stuff (like telling you where you parked).

This quote sums it up nicely: "Think of it as an air traffic controller for organic matter," Gordon says. "If you're a food charity, you've got the logistics ability of anybody else in the food chain now."

A good starting point when looking into the concept of Cradle to Cradle design with some links to actual work being done.

Sometimes perfect is the enemy of good. Many people know that meat is not environmentally sustainable with our current diets. And yet being a vegetarian just sounds too hard. This short talk (~6mins) suggests that going part way is a good solution. No need to be all or nothing! This lesson can be taken further than this particular environmental impact too.

EnergyPlus 7.2.0 is now available. Learn about the new features. EnergyPlus is a whole building energy simulation program that engineers, architects, and researchers use to model energy and water use in buildings. Modeling the performance of a building with EnergyPlus enables building professionals to optimize the building design to use less energy and water.

This is a great group of designers and builders who have been helping build housing for those affected my catastropic events, such as the Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Katrina.

The best journal and perhaps longest in print on green building. Published in Vermont. Environmental Building News is a monthly newsletter on environmentally responsible design and construction, featuring comprehensive, practical information on a wide range of topics related to sustainable building - from renewable energy and recycled-content materials to land-use planning and indoor air quality.

Architizer is a new way for architects to interact, show their work, and find clients. It is an open community created by architects for architects.

Long used as a renewable energy source, geothermal power was ignored while wind and solar developments increased yearly over the last decades. Now Geothermal energy is having a comeback....

The explosion of technology has, possibly, created a slow down in the acceptance and use of green design....interesting points showing the clash of interests in the advancement in science

Modern buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows give spectacular views, but they require a lot of energy to cool. Doris Kim Sung works with thermo-bimetals, smart materials that act more like human skin, dynamically and responsively, and can shade a room from sun and self-ventilate.

This is googles somewhat marketing driven document on the efficiencies of using cloud computing. I would emphasize that the most valid aspect of this analysis is for small businesses. Small business will rarely use the "full" potential computing power of local servers, but even during idle time that server requires power and cooling capacity.

This is the most advanced sustainable design certification program available currently. It is focused on restorative developments, and calls for "transformative design" . Their motto is a "Socially Just, Culturally Rich and Ecologically Benign" development.

This a great guide if you want to learn about sustainable green building practices