Back in the Swing!

girl sitting on swing

Image via Pexels

 

It’s been a bit more than a year since I posted, and what a year it’s been! Besides all the global madness, I moved last July from Pacifica to Petaluma, California. I love it here and feel a bit like that girl on the swing. Life is good. Notwithstanding — you know. These are exciting times, change is afoot, and I still have faith that I’ll see great things happen in my lifetime.

I have three things to share today:

  1. Team Zero’s annual residential zero energy/zero carbon inventory is ON, for the 5th time! Add new projects or provide updates about projects you’ve inventoried before, HERE. We’re especially excited to learn more about what’s powering North American zero energy homes: what’s the mix of sun, electricity from the grid, and fossil fuels? Help us find out, so we can report on this to you all in the fall!
  2. With my dear friend and co-conspirator, Peter Yost, I’ve started a monthly blog series on Green Building Advisor. (It’s behind a paywall, but there’s a free trial available, and/or you can subscribe monthly — and GBA is a great resource, in case you don’t already know that.) Pete and I call the series “Building Bedrock,” but GBA uses the more sedate title of “Best Practices.” It’s a ton of fun. Each month Pete and I take on a new theme and expound on it from our unique perspectives. You get to see where we converge and diverge. So far, we’ve posted an intro and Part 1 (“Setting Priorities”), with nine more in the works. Beam in on the third Thursday of each month for the next installment.
  3. My esteemed colleagues at Zero Energy Ready Oregon have put out a new online resource, “Cost Effective Steps to Zero.” It’s a nice overview with clear illustrations and simple steps. This is a good introduction to the topic for novice audiences, and includes lots of links to deeper dives (including several of my publications, I’m happy to add).

Happy Solstice Week, my friends!

The Numbers Are in! ZE Homes Up 33% From 2015

Yesterday, the Net Zero Energy Coalition (www.netzeroenergycoalition.com) released its 2016 inventory report, To Zero and Beyond. The number of zero-energy (plus/minus) homes in the US and Canada increased 33 percent over the Coalition’s baseline inventory – 8,203 residential units completed, in construction, and in design vs. 6,177 units in 2015. The number in the pipeline is even more impressive, with just under 30,000 in the planning stages. The numbers also represent an upward trend in terms of energy performance.

Read the whole report at http://netzeroenergycoalition.com/2016-zero-energy-inventory/.