The Joseph Story house in Salem, Massachusetts- a National Historic Landmark- has received LEED-Silver certification. The owners have just completed a two-year renovation of the 1811 home, proving once again that historic preservation and green building need not be adversaries.

They note that LED have not yet surpassed induction lights in efficiency or cost but appear poised to do so in the near future with expected technical advances.

University of Pittsburgh researchers have conducted the first cradle-to-grave assessment of light-emitting diode (LED) streetlights and determined that the increasingly popular lamps strike the best balance between brightness, affordability, and energy and environmental conservation when their life span-from production to disposal-is considered.

Here.

Preservation, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation has devoted their March/April issue to green building and there is some great stuff inside. My favorite quote is from Blair Kamin:

Choosing between preservation and conservation . . . is like choosing between a Volvo and a Saab. They have more similarities than differences.

Kamin’s piece is here.  You will also find a solid article on the retrofit of the Empire State building, a great case study of a Rhode Island Fire Station and a handy Green Guide to simple retrofit moves.

Alexandra Marks is singing our tune over at the Christian Science Monitor, noting the critical importance of ensuring a properly performing building envelope before considering expensive technologies like solar panels or geothermal wells. Follow her informative series on the greening of her 100 year old Connecticut home here.

Lloyd Alter at Treehugger has a great slideshow on the Passive House standard, with accompanying text. One of the projects is the “100K” house, shown above, just a short train ride away in Philadelphia.

Prefab homes, as the joke goes, are the next big thing . . . and always will be. On paper they make a lot of sense, both economically and environmentally. It’s great to see so many talented and bright designers tackling this problem. The solutions have enormous potential, but their acceptance requires a reversal of inertia for one of our largest industries- a far stronger force than logic.

Last month Bernd Heinrich from the University of Vermont provided a fantastic, and critically important, summary of the problems with current proposals to provide carbon credits in a cap and trade system for tree plantations, but not for existing forest ecosystems.  Among the more shocking items Heinrich notes:

After much political wrangling, the Kyoto delegates decided that there would be no carbon-reduction credits for saving existing forests. Since planting new trees does get one credits, Kyoto actually created a rationale for clear-cutting old growth.

If you care even a little about the future of our planet you should read this op-ed piece.

Princeton students measure campus lighting to advance sustainability.

No surprise that the Yale Daily News has an article about a new building at Yale. But Kroon Hall is a really special building- which makes the article worth a few minutes.

This remarkable addition to the august Yale campus is alos a focus of this article on carbon neutral buildings over at Metropolis.

Treating water as a precious resource is every bit as important as conserving energy. In the same manner that we have begun to explore the possibility of net zero energy, we need to move towards buildings that are net zero water users. Like energy, water use is terrifically complicated and concepts like Net Zero Water can help us get our heads around the subject and move the conversation forward.

A researcher in Philadelphia has launched a blog on the Net Zero Water concept.  Worth a visit.