Open Source Content Management

Irish renewable heating specialists Evergreen Energy are set to launch a new solar panel designed for typical Irish roofs at the Energy Show next week. The show, organised by Sustainable Energy Ireland, will be held next Wednesday and Thursday, 29 and 30 May, in the RDS, Dublin.

Plans for the world's first 'eco city' appear to be dead in the water according to Fred Pearce's excellent Greenwash column in the Guardian.

Guardian green technology Alok Jha correspondent outlines his plans to reduce the energy demand of his terraced London Victorian home in this video.

Interesting news from Toronto, where plans by mayor David Miller to make green roofs mandatory in the city are being criticised by both the construction industry and green roof advocates.

Via Treehugger, architect Cameron Sinclair writes in the Huffington Post :

For the past twenty years the voice of the architecture profession has mainly been drowned out by the computer generated sky-piercing towers of luxury. Year after year the biggest names in architecture tried to out do each other in what is technically feasible...This constant craving to create jewels of desire in the urban fabric left the general public wondering what on earth we do. Now, with the global economy in tailspin, these exercises in object making have come to a crashing halt. For many of us, we couldn't be more thankful...For those of us that work in this arena we are being swamped with requests for help from the camps in the eastern Congo to the hoovervilles in southern California. The desire for well built, sustainable structures is immense and young professionals seeking meaning are finding themselves drawn to providing their expertise to these communities. There is immense opportunity for architects to work in the service of humanity rather awkwardly trying to define it or worse impose a solution on it.

TreeHugger has posted an interesting slideshow on the best in green design and architecture, including Edouard Francois & Duncan Lewis designed French holidays homes (below) that are designed to fit seemlessly into the surrounding environment, and the green roof on the California Academy of Sciences (bottom).

A quick look through the summary of today's budget measures at budget.gov.ie reveals the following under the list of capital expenditure measures:

Communications, Energy & Natural Resources – €15 million savings, including a reduction of €13 million in the allocation for Sustainable Energy and Energy research programmes.

The Empire State Building is set to get a low carbon makeover, according to the Guardian. The $500m renovation will aim to slash the building's energy consumption by 40 per cent and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 105,000 metric tonnes a year.

Sustainable Energy Ireland has announced the launch of its annual sustainable energy awards for businesses nationwide. The awards are designed to recognise the achievement of Irish businesses who make an effort to reduce energy demand and improve environmental performance. Categories include leading energy efficiency project, pioneering renewables project, sustainable energy building excellence, and

An interesting discussion on TreeHugger on the merits of various forestry certification programs, including the below photo (courtesy of Heart of Green) that apparently shows both FSC (Forestry Stewarship Council) and SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) certified forests.