Cate Blanchett and husband Andrew Upton reveal the Sydney Theater Company’s new rooftop solar installation last week.

Blanchett, who acts as co-artistic director of the theater in Sydney, Australia, aptly stated, “If theater doesn’t engage with the big issues that face human beings and society generally, then it very quickly becomes irrelevant.”

The installation is expected to take care of 70% of the theater’s energy needs—approximately the same amount it would take to power 46 individual homes.

Fuente: CalFinder Solar

Here are several images of a green roof using Tournesol’s GRT2 modular green roof trays. Este 1600 cuadrados. ft. techo verde se ha instalado en el Alto, en Vancouver, AC, por T. Moscone Bros. Paisajismo. The designer, Durante Kreuk LTD, originally had specified a different modular system.

According to the contractor, the lead time for the alternate product was longer than the window that they had to install it, so they went with Tournesol green roof trays instead.

Fuente: Tournesol Siteworks

Celebrado poeta escocés Robert Burns y compositor ahora puede llamar a la demanda de un nuevo espacio que celebra la obra de su vida. Constructed as a lovely eco building, the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, which opened this fall, is located in the village of Alloway on the outskirts of the town of Ayr. Designed by Simpson & Brown with engineering by Buro Happold, this stunning and sustainable structure is topped with a curvaceous green roof, is built from local materials and uses a ventilation system that draws cool air from the earth.

Fuente: Inhabitat

For years the Medina New York sewer plant has had a voracious appetite for electricity, requiring about $100,000 a year to keep a network of pumps, motors and blowers running 24 hours a day. Officials believe a series of about $1.5 million in “green energy” initiatives have the potential to wipe out those electric bills.

“Our goal is to have a net-zero facility,” said Medina Mayor Adam Tabelski. “The plant uses a lot of juice and we want to reduce our operating costs.”

The village in October 2009 was approved for a grant to pay 90 percent of the improvements. The funding came from the federal stimulus program, or the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and targeted green energy projects.

Banks of solar panels on top of two roofs at the sewer plant line two of their facilities. Altogether, the two sites have about 350 solar panels. On sunny days, the panels will produce more than enough energy to run the composting plant, allowing Medina to sell back some green power to National Grid.

Next month, Medina expects to begin installing a cogeneration plant, which will use methane gas from the plant to run a generator, producing electricity. The system will operate in a similar way as the anaerobic manure digesters at several local dairy farms.

Medina also is implementing other tactics to reduce its electrical costs and spare the environment by consuming less fossil fuels. A 2,500-square-foot section of the sewer plant building is covered with a “green roof.” That will become a layer of dirt and thick grass in the next 18 a 24 mes. It will act as insulation for the plant.

Fuente: The Daily News Online

We’ve always thought we had roofs covered. They had to be barren, hostile places the rain and the wildlife slid from before they could do any damage. Nature had no place on our roofs. Except – we couldn’t have been more wrong. A green roof may required a little extra engineering behind the scenes, but it’s far better than its non-living counterparts for regulating house temperature, filtering out pollutants, scrubbing the surrounding air, controlling stormwater run-off, absorbing sound and many more factors that impact our quality of life. A green roof is a healthy roof.

El diseño ecológico es una tendencia muy popular en la arquitectura moderna. Echa un vistazo a estos 17 ejemplos - algunos en lugar de hoy, y otros aún en fase de diseño. We may have got it wrong in the past, but we’re certainly making up for lost time.

Fuente: EcoSalon

Por sexto año consecutivo los mejores proyectos "verdes" en el sureste de Carolina del Norte han vuelto a ser reconocido, and the winners range from a green roof to a wetlands to treat polluted runoff.

The Lower Cape Fear Stewardship Development Award Program recognizes developments in New Hanover, Brunswick, and Pender Counties that protect water quality, preserve open space, utilize innovative green building and storm water practices, and educate the public.

This year’s Outstanding Stewardship Awards, the group’s highest honor, went to the Blue Heron Branch in Currie, Pender County, and Wilmington’s E.L. Wade Park.

Fuente: Star News Online

La "casa de la colina", diseñado por Bjarke Ingels Group, simplemente, una vivienda unifamiliar con una zona verde, viven techo. Sin embargo, el techo es especial en lo grande que es: the elongated roof essentially serves as the structure’s roof and side walls simultaneously, wrapping from the top of the building down the sides, and connecting with the earth. The surface is covered in living sedum plants, which are low maintenance and drought tolerant.

The sedum roof protects the home from the hot sun in the summer, and keeps warmth in during the cold winter. Ingles also envisions it as a playful architectural element: the roof, he shows in renderings, can be used as a recreational greenspace, and perhaps could even be a hill for sledding or skiing down during Denmark’s long winters.

Via: Inhabitat

There may be hope for solar funding in one version of the tax bill currently before the Senate.

This version, a compromise between the Senate and the White House, was voted on today, Diciembre. 14, and includes a one-year extension of the Treasury Grant Program mandate (TGP; 1603) to Dec. 31, 2011. Unofficial “cloture” vote counts indicate the measure will pass handily.

For renewable energy firms, especially those planning utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV), solar thermal and concentrating solar power (CSP; parabolic trough, Fresnel lens, Stirling engine and heliostats with a power tower), this means the rush to break ground or expend 5 percent of project costs now has a one-year breathing period.

Fuente: CalFinder Solar

A hurricane-proof green roof project took home one of the top prizes in the 2010 Premios de Medio Ambiente de Negocios.

Aloha Paisajismo y Guam LMS instalado un techo verde en la costa 360 Unión Federal de Crédito en Guam. El proyecto fue el primero de su tipo en la isla.

Fuente: Lawn & Landscape

Yesterday we noted all the things that will be making an appearance on your roof this Winter Season. As part of our week long focus on getting your roof ready for Winter, which officially begins Monday December 20th, today we’ll examine the act of being proactive rather than reactive.

Fuente: Techo de vida de Oregon