Sustainable North

From The New York Times, October 30, 2009:
Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 3-year-old granddaughter, Onalenna, was puzzled.
Her older cousin, Mungi, had just deflated a large, blow-up globe to demonstrate the imminent danger of climate change.
“Are we going to go the moon then?” Onalenna asked her grandfather.
“I don’t know, I will not be here,” Archbishop Tutu, 78, whispered [...]

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From The Christian Science Monitor, Thursday, October 28, 2009:
Along with all the other interesting things that an iPhone can do  – allow you to read free books,  listen to Elvis radio, and never be out of tweeting range, for instance – a few of its more than 50,000 apps can make an environmental impact on [...]

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From Boulder Green Building Guild (BGBG), Tuesday, October 13, 2009:
People who work in green buildings are more productive than employees who don’t, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of San Diego’s Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate and CB Richard Ellis.
The study surveyed 154 green buildings, containing some 2,000 tenants, across the [...]

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From The Associated Press, Thursday, October 28, 2009:
The Coast Guard’s plan to move away from oil-fired burners and toward heating with biomass could provide a lift to the timber industry in Southeast Alaska.
Projects are being considered in Ketchikan and Sitka that would convert building heating systems to biomass boilers that burn wood chips. That would [...]

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From The New York Times, October 19, 2009:
Across the nation, an antigarbage strategy known as “zero waste” is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants, stadiums and corporations.
The movement is simple in concept if not always in execution: Produce less waste. Shun polystyrene foam containers or any [...]

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ASK A BUILDER
by CCHRC Staff
The “Ask a Builder” series is dedicated to answering some of the many questions Fairbanks residents have about building, energy and the many other parts of home life.
Q: How often should I get my septic system pumped? It seems like everyone has a different opinion.
A: That’s a tricky question because [...]

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From FineHomeBuilding.com, Monday, October 27, 2009:
The Passive House movement (Passivhaus) started in Germany 15 years ago and recently spread to the United States. It is a group of builders, architects, engineers, manufacturers and others focused on reducing the energy use of buildings, large and small, including houses. They’ve developed a rigorous standard that results in [...]

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From the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, Thursday, October 22, 2009:
There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising. And fewer also see global warming as a very serious problem – 35% say that [...]

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From NPR, October 27, 2009:
Along the Gulf Coast and across the country, it’s being called a “silent hurricane.” Between 2004 and 2007, an estimated 100,000 homes in more than 20 states were built with toxic drywall imported from China.
Click here to read more.

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Released by the American Council for an Energy Efficient-Economy (ACEEE), Tuesday, October 27, 2009:
Climate Change Policy as an Economic Redevelopment Opportunity: The Role of Productive Investments in Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions offers critical insights about climate legislation just as U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), introduces her new climate [...]

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