Cloud 37: Lessons from LEED
Last week, one of my colleagues exclaimed that she was on Cloud 9, or rather, Cloud 37. She’s not come down since.
Over the last several years, Rice has undertaken an ambitious $1 billion construction program, and the bulk of these facilities are now open. We’re in celebration mode. Almost all of our new buildings will [...]
Inspiration From Afar
In this era of budget cutting, I’m regularly hearing from my fellow campus sustainability professionals that they’ve had to reduce or eliminate their travel. I’m no exception. The challenge then is to find opportunities to be inspired by the great thinkers and practitioners of the sustainability arena without actually leaving our campuses, for it’s often [...]
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Would you wash your hands with a fire hose?
Over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about a significant source of energy waste, one that burdens utility budgets, frustrates maintenance personnel, and ultimately leads to building occupants who are either too hot or too cold, but never just right. This pernicious source of energy waste [...]
Questioning Assumptions
There are times when we stumble into our lessons.
A few years ago, when I was first getting my feet wet as a campus sustainability professional, I was unexpectedly called upon in the middle of a design meeting for a new building and asked to lead a conversation about energy efficiency. As my mind began to [...]
