Brant Holeman's Blog

ASHRAE Sustainability Video

Brant — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:20:51 EDT

A new member video from ASHRAE reminds us of the value of joining and maintaining membership in ASHRAE to become a champion of spaceship Earth. The video has been translated into Mandarin and Catalan to help promote ASHRAE to speakers of those languages.

http://www.ashrae.org/members/page/1906

Dept. of Energy Webinars: Advanced Energy Design Guide Recommendations

Brant — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:11:29 EDT

http://www.energycodes.gov/training/onlinetraining/webcast_aedg.stm

No-Cost
Live Webcasts and Q&A

Three-Part Series on Advanced Energy Design Guide Recommendations

Part 1, Lighting Overview: Thursday, July 31, 2008
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Pacific Time

Part 2, Mechanical Overview: Thursday, August 14, 2008
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Pacific Time

Part 3, Envelope Overview: Thursday, September 11, 2008
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Pacific Time

Kent Peterson and THE INCREDIBLE HULK

Brant — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:23:56 EDT

Here's the current President of ASHRAE along side Ed Norton! They're speaking at The Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming in D.C. Ed is a trustee of an organization called Enterprise Community Partners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElT-RIL-iUE
So he's basically a talking head, but look! There's Ed Norton!!!

Oh and Ed said stuff too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUpgORpG748

http://www.freecycle.org/

Brant — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:50:29 EDT

http://www.freecycle.org/

WiserEarth.Org

Brant — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:09:47 EDT

I just joined WiserEarth.Org and I'm amazed at how many groups and resources are listed there! You should check it out.

Energy in Buildings!

Brant — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:18:00 EDT

I'm an engineer by trade. I design air conditioning systems.

There's a lot of exciting stuff going on right now in my industry such as:

The American Institute of Architects has set some pretty awesome goals: at least a 50% carbon emission reduction from new buildings by 2010 and carbon neutral buildings by 2030:
http://www.aia.org/walkthewalk/

More and more projects are being built and validated using the United States Green Building Council's LEED certification program. There are some great ideas to be shared here:
http://www.usgbc.org/

Looking for tax and other incentives for being greener? Check this website out:
http://dsireusa.org/

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers publishes standards and guides for building designers. They also publish a magazine that showcases phenomenal construction projects:
http://www.hpbmagazine.org/

There's also all sorts of products, technologies and strategies that help people improve energy efficiency and reduce energy usage in our homes and businesses.

Awesome stuff!

Recycling Committee Ideas

Brant — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:09:59 EDT

I started a recycling committee at work.

My company already buys carbon offsets for our air travel and pays a premium for green electricity in each office location, but not everyone recycles their bottles and cans.

Some of the things we have done so far include:
- Collection areas for batteries, cell phones and inkjet cartridges
- Reduced the use of paper plates and cups by using dish and glassware
- Replacement of single-cup coffee machines with machines that produce less waste
- Disposing of electronic waste properly
- Purchasing more environmentally friendly products
- Turning off lights or installing occupancy sensors in common areas and break rooms

We'd like to do more as far as our building management goes, but we're not always in control of our facilities or have the authority to install energy management stuff.