CTBUH - Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

"The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, based at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, is an international not-for-profit organization supported by architecture, engineering, planning, development and construction professionals, designed to facilitate exchanges among those involved in all aspects of the planning, design, construction and operation of tall buildings.

Founded in 1969, the Council’s mission is to disseminate multi-disciplinary information on tall buildings and sustainable urban environments, to maximize the international interaction of professionals involved in creating the built environment, and to make the latest knowledge available to professionals in a useful form." to find out more...

Passage from http://www.ctbuh.org/AboutCTBUH/Overview/tabid/55/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Sustainability Tracking, Assesment & Rating System

"Three years ago, many of you called for a campus sustainability rating system so we could have a consistent way of measuring sustainability in higher education. After three years of research, a pilot program with nearly 70 participants and plenty of collaboration with you, AASHE is pleased to announce the early release of AASHE's Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) 1.0. STARS is a voluntary self-reporting framework for gauging relative progress toward sustainability for colleges and universities. It awards points for engaging in sustainability practices in each of 3 major categories: education and research, operations, and planning, administration and engagement. STARS provides a standard, comprehensive way to compare the sustainability performance of higher education institutions and to measure a single institution's progress over time. Institutions are now able to register to become a STARS Charter Participant at www.aashe.org/stars! STARS Charter Participants will be among the first to receive a STARS rating after submitting the required documentation. Any school can participate in STARS and there is a discounted fee for AASHE members. In addition, fees to participate are significantly reduced until the end of the year. The process for participating in STARS and details about the credits and submission information are included in the STARS 1.0 Early Release Technical Manual that is available on the STARS webpage."

to find out more...

Passage & Image from Paul Rowland

AASHE Executive Director

Google Power Meter

"Google PowerMeter, now in prototype, will receive information from utility smart meters and energy management devices and provide anyone who signs up access to her home electricity consumption right on her iGoogle homepage. The graph below shows how someone could use this information to figure out how much energy is used by different household activites." to find out more...

Passage & Image from http://www.google.org/powermeter/howitworks.html