Lucia Athens has been selected to serve as Austin’s first Chief Sustainability Officer. An internationally recognized expert on green building practices, Athens will help steer the city’s environmental initiatives in her new role. Athens spent 10 years as an administrator with the City of Seattle’s sustainability programs, where she led policy development efforts. Her 25 [...]

This is a cool local program in Chicago. The Green Restaurant Association certified 20 Chicago restaurants for their efforts to reduce waste, energy and water use, improve recycling, and support organic farming. Underlying image CC licensed by Flickr user supafly. Green Squared admission… I am a Top Chef fan. So, I was particularly intrigued that [...]

In a recent NY Times article, it was announced that Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the German bank, is financing the creation of a public database of several hundred retrofitted buildings in New York City and a companion report to determine the savings from such moves. I love the notion that they [...]

According to this article from the NY Times, P.G.&E. Corporation, the California utility holding company, has created a $100 million tax-equity fund to finance residential solar installations. The fund, managed by a P.G.&E. subsidiary, Pacific Energy Capital II, is the largest single solar leasing pool to date, according to the company, and marks the growing [...]

According to a recent article many builders attending the NAHB National Green Building Conference in Raleigh, N.C., in May said that they have been able to sell sustainably built homes considerably faster than the traditionally built new homes that have been languishing in today’s tough market. Not surprisingly for us at Green Squared, energy efficiency, [...]