The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey, produced by the Energy Information Administration at the Department of Energy (DOE), provides incredibly valuable information about how commercial buildings use energy and energy-using systems such as lighting and HVAC. If you wanted to know things like, “How many office buildings are in the Northeast?” or “What is the [...]

Reprinted from NEMA’s eiXtra newsletter (February 7, 2011 issue), original source: Chris Rhodes, Forbes/Energy Source blog: The January issue of Chemistry World includes a warning on impending shortages of certain elements. Among them are the rare earth elements, in particular neodymium, production of which, it is reckoned, will have to increase five times to build [...]

More than 10,000 homes across the U.S. have earned LEED certification through the LEED for Homes program, according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED-certified home projects span the residential market, from multi- and single-family, to market rate and affordable housing. LEED for Homes is a national voluntary certification system that promotes the design [...]

Total U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 6,576 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) in 2009, a decrease of 5.8% from the 2008 level, according to Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2009, a report recently released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Since 1990, U.S. GHG emissions have grown at [...]

I’m pleased to announce that I have finally completed the long awaited (by my publisher) update to The Lighting Management Handbook, which came out in 1994, with this 300-page book about redesigning existing lighting systems: Lighting Redesign for Existing Buildings. Because light is used to see but cannot be seen, it is often overlooked by [...]

Today is Earth Day.

Lime Energy has joined GE Lighting’s Energy Services Program, which involves a consortium of energy services consulting firms who work closely with GE to help commercial and industrial firms formulate strategies to optimize the financial and environmental returns available from improvements in building energy efficiency. Through its affiliation with GE, Lime Energy will also help [...]

The University of California, Davis and the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) have announced a commitment to reduce the campus’s electricity use for lighting by 60% by the end of 2015. The Smart Lighting Initiative makes UC Davis the first large institution to commit to a sweeping cut in energy use after the California Public [...]

Precision-Paragon [P2], a division of Hubbell Lighting, Inc., has released a free web app that provides a starting point for determining cost/benefit for lighting upgrade projects in offices, warehouses and manufacturing spaces. The Lighting Retrofit Calculator is available on the [P2] website.