Issue 28 | Energy

Over the past few months, ILFI staff and board have finalized a new strategic plan that will guide the organization over the next five years. The opportunity to witness the collaboration between friends and colleagues throughout this process has filled me with energy and optimism for the future. We’re proud of where the organization is heading, and invite you to take…

In the past few decades, nearly every large company has adopted the word “sustainability” into its organizational vernacular. The rise in popularity of sustainable practices is in part a business trend but is also a reaction from business and government to assuage human impact on the environment. As a whole, sustainable practices have largely produced incremental positive change toward preserving…

Net zero energy is quickly becoming a sought-after goal for many buildings worldwide. The media focuses primarily on commercial buildings, but there are a number of innovative homeowners who seek to reduce demand on the earth’s natural resources. Residential net zero energy buildings are examples of what is possible when homeowners and designers look at how to reduce energy demands…

Editor’s Note: In past issues of Trim Tab, Jason F. McLennan and Bill Reed have collaborated on two articles that focused on the subject of regenerative design (Regenerating the Whole and Falling in Love with Life) Introduction In our past articles we introduced aspects of the different thinking required to engage in the practice of living system development or regeneration;…

Originally published in Rolling Stone It’s obvious how this should end. You’ve got the richest industry on earth, fossil fuel, up against some college kids, some professors, a few environmentalists, a few brave scientists. And it’s worse than that. The college students want their universities to divest from fossil fuel – to sell off their stock in Exxon and Shell…

  The End of the Internal Combustion Engine and the rapidly approaching Fossil-Fuel-Free World  A couple years ago, I began to discuss the idea that the end of the internal combustion era was finally in sight, along with the overall rapid decline of a fossil fuel– driven world.  I think some folks felt it was a premature pronouncement—yet in more…

Reveal, a transparency label by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), aims to make known the energy use of commercial buildings for the purpose of broadening people’s access to information in the corporate sphere. By labeling the electricity consumption of specific buildings, Reveal targets an invisible and often hidden component of physical structures. The Reveal label brings forward numerics and…

Editor’s Note: The following excerpt is a chapter from the Power of Zero, the latest release from Ecotone Publishing. Net Zero Energy — the first stage in a transformation toward a carbon-free future. Net zero energy (NZE) buildings, though compelling and meaningful, are just a beginning. We are only in the earliest days of a revolution in net zero energy…

Why do African American families use less energy than white households, but pay more for it—literally and figuratively? It’s true. The average African American family emits 20% less carbon dioxide than the average white household does, yet we are more susceptible to increases in energy and water costs that result from climate change. As extreme weather events like blizzards, droughts,…

The floods that struck São Paulo in early 2015 quickly overwhelmed urban infrastructure, transforming roads into rivers and washing cars away. The region as a whole, however, suffered from severe drought. São Paulo, whose 12 million inhabitants make it the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere, was watching its reservoirs dry up. When the storm abided, the reservoirs were still…