A new free online tool, developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology for the US Green Building Council, adds the effect of transportation and indirect emissions to the sustainable building equation.
Julie Wernau talks to a number of professionals working in green building who've come to realize that missing the impact of commuting in your calculations is a big mistake:
"Experts say the ability to quantify the energy spent getting to and from a building could force businesses to reconsider what it means to be "green." Transportation emissions account for 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the newly quantifiable data could spur development in urban areas served by public transportation over so-called greenfields."
The Transportation Energy Index online tool will be available in early 2011.
Thanks to Emily Robinson
Read the full story: New building tools detect varied shades of green
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello