Gas station design is about to experience a major shift. Madrid’s BREEAM-certified Repsol station demonstrates what may be on the horizon, both in terms of building design and what is for sale at the pump.

For most, gas stations may not come to mind when talking about exceptional green design, especially these days. Gas prices are continuously soaring, and we are more commonly wide-eyed at the outrageous prices than at the eco-friendly qualities or pleasing aesthetics of these in-and-out petrol ports.

A trip to Design Columbus 2012 in Columbus, Ohio, showcases the positive impact made by local chapters of the U.S. Green Building Council.

The USGBC’s Greenbuild International Conference & Expo is the world’s largest conference and exhibition devoted to green building. By attending you can take in three days of seminars and other educational events, see thousands of products, and enjoy live streaming and archived conference videos. Although Greenbuild is the USGBC’s premier event, local USGBC chapters host a number of similar events each year, and some are bound to take place practically in your own backyard.

A new facility for Unilever combines a contemporary, connected office environment with award-winning green building features.

When Unilever, a health and wellness company in Hamburg, Germany, determined that it needed a new headquarters, it wanted a structure that would provide adequate work space while fostering communication, socialization, and a sense of unity among its employees. Creating a juxtaposition of work and social space, Behnisch Architekten was able to bring the vision of unity to fruition while honoring Unilever’s commitment to sustainability and creating a better future.

Despite technological advances in weather forecasting, natural disasters are often unpredictable. Even when we do know a geological or meteorological disturbance is on its way, very often little can be done to protect existing homes from destruction, so TF Forming Systems is building in that protection from the ground up.

TF Forming Systems owner Steven Huff is in the process of building a large residential structure that will be able to withstand the toughest natural disasters, all while reducing dependence on oil, gas, and coal. TF Forming Systems manufactures and distributes a variety of insulated concrete forms (ICF). The Pensmore Chateau, a 72,000 sq. ft. structure located in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, is said to be able to withstand F5 tornadoes, in addition to earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fire, and insect damage. The chateau is located between Springfield and Branson, Mo., near the town of Joplin, which was devastated by F4 and F5 tornadoes in 2011.

Houses are stationary objects, so using terms like “passive” and “active” to describe them initially seems a little odd. These terms actually embody design strategies that create comfort for occupants while drastically cutting down on energy use.

Gone are the days when cutting-edge sustainability practices yielded a significant competitive advantage for building product manufacturers. Today’s builders and homeowners not only expect to be able to choose from a wide assortment of environmentally friendly products, they also expect that the companies behind the products to engage in robust sustainability practices when it comes to company culture as well as operations and manufacturing processes. As a result, sustainability has become a cornerstone of doing business for manufacturers, rather than an afterthought.

In the past two decades, the environment has become a hot topic across most economic sectors, and the homebuilding industry is no exception. As new technologies continue to emerge and as builders and homeowners continue to adopt environmentally conscious practices, the way that we talk about green products and practices is of ever increasing importance. Not only do homeowners expect builders to build green homes, they also expect builders to be able to explain why and how the home is green. Enter the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and their "Green Guides," which aim to provide guidance on environmental marketing.

Organizations and manufacturers have been researching green building materials for years now, inundating the market with a wide spread of green products for sustainably inclined developers and builders. Recently developed products go beyond the reduction of emissions and waste to the elimination of pollutants from the atmosphere. New smog-fighting technologies and products are still in testing, but some will be available for purchase by 2012. With their introduction to the marketplace, however, comes a myriad of questions.

Over the past few years home improvement and building improvement have taken a dramatic shift toward retrofits with financial benefits. Homeowners and building managers are no longer content with inefficient homes and underperforming assets. Instead, they are looking for multiple ways to lower their expenses. One of many successful strategies has been to decrease water use through the installation of low-flow fixtures. However, the question must be asked: what is the return on investment (ROI) of low-flow fixtures?

As the green building movement begins to hit its stride, geothermal systems are quickly gaining prominence as efficient and attractive choices for projects featuring alternative energy. Although fewer subsidies for geothermal systems are available when compared to solar, the initial investment for the installation of a geothermal system can be lower. This makes a geothermal system’s return on investment (ROI) extremely favorable. It is this financial analysis that may lead to the inclusion of geothermal systems in more building projects as its awareness grows.

Reducing paper usage has been one of the most iconic and understandable of the green movement’s mandates. The intricacies of forest management have remained obscure to most of us, however,  although forest management is the real key to preserving woodland habitats as well as our wood supply. Most consumers now recognize that it is an eco-friendly choice to look for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label on wood products, to guarantee that they are sustainably produced … but what does this label mean, exactly, and is there more to the story of sustainable forestry?

Builders looking for a sustainable, environmentally friendly product may want to consider Accoya^® wood, which matches or exceeds the durability and stability of the very best tropical hardwoods. Accoya, made from fast-growing softwoods, was introduced to the North American market in 2008. The process used to make Accoya is called acetylation, which has been studied for over 80 years. Accsys Technologies, the makers of Accoya wood, built its production facility in 2007.