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[This is the second in a three-part inteview with Van Jones, who delivered the keynote address in Detroit, Mich., on April 30, 2014, to attendees of the ACI National Home Performance Conference. The full interview is posted in three consecutive blogs. Click here to read Part 1. We plan to publish the entire interview in an article in Home Energy magazine.] [continue reading]
Van Jones delivered the opening plenary keynote speech for ACI's 2014 National Home Performance Conference in Detroit last week. I've been aware of Van's work since he started the Green Collar Job Corps program at the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, Calif., back in 2007. Van was the main advocate for the Green Jobs Act that was signed into law by Pres. George W. Bush in that year. [continue reading]
Over the years I've been working in Thailand I've been involved in all sorts of projects, but what has interested me most is the process of trying to understand the 'rightness' of its traditional buildings, which clearly grow out of their environment, climate and culture. What might this 'rightness' offer to builders today? [continue reading]
I recently had the privilege of attending the inaugural U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Challenge Home Student Design Competition, held at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, CO April 26-29. Twenty-eight teams from universities across the US and Canada competed for awards in categories such as Best Design Solution, Best Technical Integration, and Best Presentation, as well as for the Grand Award for best overall project. [continue reading]
On April 30, the Building Performance Institute, Inc. (BPI) honored Stephen L. Cowell of Conservation Services Group by naming him the 2014 recipient of the Tony Woods Award for Excellence in Advancing the Home Performance Industry, at the Opening Plenary ceremony of the ACI National Home Performance Conference in Detroit, Michigan. [continue reading]
As usual, the ACI National Home Performance Conference contained too many highlights to mention in one blog post. So I will share just a few. [continue reading]
Despite record unemployment numbers across America, employers in the HVACR industry are having trouble finding people with the right skills to fill open positions. [continue reading]
The Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance (GCEA)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partner—has a successful equipment lease program that provides local contractors with access to the tools they need to expand their services into home performance without requiring a major upfront investment. [continue reading]
Shortly after taking office in 2009, President Obama launched the Open Government Initiative, an effort to increase transparency, participation, and collaboration in the federal government. The initiative introduced a number of websites and strategies to offer raw government data, including research grant information on data.gov. For energy gurus, data.gov/energy offers downloads of energy-related data such as energy use and consumption in the U.S. [continue reading]
I was at the Energy OutWest Conference several years ago, but a memory still stands out from that event. I was at lunch with a man who was a weatherization technician. He was bitter. The people we help don’t care about saving energy, as long as someone else is paying for it, he said. And he went on like that. I’m at this year’s Energy OutWest in San Diego ... [continue reading]