It is hot in the Northeast this week, but there are some fairly easy steps you can take to keep cool indoors. See GreenBuildingAdvisor.com for some great tips. 

We’re into those hot days of summer–really hot–with temperatures predicted in the mid- to upper-90s, even in [New England]. In this column [GreenBuildingAdvisor.com provides] some simple tips for keeping (reasonably) cool in hot weather or, if you use air conditioning, operating that air conditioning equipment most efficiently.

Recent changes to Energy Star Portfolio Manager may have impacted your building’s energy performance rating. Energy Star recently added the Data Center space type and made adjustments to the Retail and Office space types. Data centers can now earn an Energy Star Label. Buildings with retail, office and data center space types will notice a change in their Energy Star performance rating, especially large buildings such as highrises.

The purpose of the adjustments is to ensure accurate ratings for very large buildings, and for buildings with extremely high densities of computers and cash registers (which should now be listed in the Data Center space type in Portfolio Manager). Part of the changes in Energy Star include a cap on the office and retail square footage when assigning points based on energy performance. The result is that the Energy Star ratings for virtually all large office buildings without a significant data center are lower than they were prior to the June 7, 2010 adjustments. Project teams that accurately adjust inputs to reflect all data center and computer spaces in the Data Center space type in Portfolio Manager will see better results.

Energy Star Press Release

The Emerging Green Builders of the Maine Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council present Green Careers Series, Part 4, Energy.

When: June 10, 5:30- 7:00 PM
Where: Slainte Wine Bar, 20 Preble Street, Portland, ME 04010, 207.828.0900

Speaker Panel
– Dana Fischer, Purist Energy
– Vamshi Gooje, Fore Solutions
– J.D. Lloyd, Investment Engineering

For more information visit the USGBC website.

CityCenter’s Mandarin Oriental making Vegas debut

One of the world’s most prestigious hotel brands makes its Las Vegas debut today when the 47-story Mandarin Oriental opens at the $8.5 billion CityCenter.

It’s the third building of this week’s phased opening at MGM Mirage’s Strip resort campus and sets the stage for the Dec. 16 launch of Aria, the 4,000-room hotel-casino centerpiece of CityCenter. (Dec 4, 2009, Las Vegas Sun)

CityCenter’s unveils Crystals retail district

Adding a slew of high-end retailers to the Las Vegas Strip, CityCenter’s Crystals retail and entertainment district opened on Thursday, marking the unveiling of the massive project’s second building.

Crystals opened at noon for a charity shopping event and at 5 p.m. to the public. The 500,000-square-foot retail and dining district has direct access from Las Vegas Boulevard and houses some of the most high-end brands in fashion. (Dec 3, 2009, Las Vegas Sun)

Crystals, the 500,000-square-foot luxury retail and entertainment district at CityCenter, opens today pretty much how MGM Mirage officials envisioned five years ago: big, bold and energy efficient. (Dec. 3, 2009, Las Vegas Review Journal)

Jeff Young visits a super energy-efficient, solar powered house in Maine [BrightBuilt Barn designed by Kaplan Thompson Architects and Bensonwood Homes]. Its owner [Dr. Keith Collins] uses technology he calls “state of the shelf,” rather than state of the art. The goal is a green house that’s as economically affordable as it is environmentally sustainable. (Living on Earth, week of October 23, 2009)

Click here to listen to the Living On Earth story.

New York City’s biggest commercial landlord is making it easier for some of its key tenants to cut their energy costs. Vornado Realty Trust, which controls 17.5 million square feet of office space in 23 Manhattan skyscrapers, is attaching a series of small sensors to the meters in these tenants’ offices, and the sensors are feeding data on energy use to a private Web site every 15 minutes. The tenants can then organize the data by floor. (NYT, October 7, 2009)

Click here to read the full article.

A Belfast, Maine home by G.O. Logic was featured in the Portland Press Herald on September 21st. The house is a model of energy-efficient design, contemporary architecture, high-performance building techniques and exacting standards (LEED and Passivhaus, to name two). Once built, it will be living proof that a self-sustaining home that cuts energy costs by 90% can be beautiful and affordable, too.

The three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot house is expected to cost roughly $225,000, minus land. That’s on par with typical custom-built homes in Maine. And costs could drop, the builders say, if the techniques being used here are adopted in mass production. (Portland Press Herald, Sept. 21, 2009)

Visit the G.O. Logic Website.

ABC News broadcast an interview on Ahead of the Curve last Friday evening with Rick Fedrizzi, President of the U.S. Green Building Council. He spoke about the LEED rating system and Hannaford’s new LEED Platinum grocery store.

Click here to watch the ABC video. (Interview will air after the advertisement…..)

Efficiency Maine is raising Business Program incentives by 25% for all applications received between September 1 and December 31, 2009. This covers all prescriptive and approved custom incentives for energy-efficient equipment. In addition to the increased incentive levels, the cap on incentives a business can receive in one year has been raised from $100,000 to $300,000 for the foreseeable future.