Non Toxic Vision

What is green architecture?

 

The Goethe-Institut New York continues its hit series What Is Green Architecture?, a series of conversations, lectures, and events exploring the cutting-edge developments in the field and their impact on contemporary life as well as implications for the future. This season premieres with a talk by noted Berlin-based architect Diébédo Francis Kéré addressing his current award-winning project in his native Gando Village, Burkina Faso, followed by a conversation with Andres Lepik.

February 3rd, 6:30pm, Avery Hall, Room 114, at Columbia. Free.

Eco-buildings in Austria

 

Vorarlberg, which is Austria's westernmost provice close to the Swiss border is also the capital of green architecture. 80 % of all newly built apartment buildings meet the criteria for ecological housing. The region encourages low energy consumption, the use of renewable energy sources as well as ecological, environmentally friendly building products. Today there are more than 90,000 m2 of thermal solar collectors and 76,000 m2 of photovoltaic systems and more than 20 % of heating energy is derived from biomass. The architect Oskar Leo Kaufmann's prefab housing project, was selected to participate in the MOMA exhibition last summer.

To google - or not to google.....

Did you know that searches on Google (or actually any search engine) produce about half the CO2 used for boiling a kettle? Gartner, a US research company, says that a single Google search takes up enough energy to produce around 7 grams of carbon dioxide, while a boiling kettle produces 15 grams.

Gartner estimated that information technology accounts for about 2 % of global CO2 emissions, and said that in 2008 it surpassed the aviation industry in the amount of emissions it produced.

So, think about your search terms before you put them into your computer.....