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Boston Takes Significant Step in Addressing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Buildings

Energy Reporting Ordinance Passes Overwhelmingly in City Council Mayor Menino’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance was approved today by the Boston City Council in a 9-4 vote. The Ordinance requires large commercial and residential buildings to report and disclose their energy and water usage, and greenhouse gas emissions in order to encourage investment in energy [...]

A BU Center to Promote Cleaner Cities?

Just one idea proposed at Smarter Cities conference 03.15.2013By Rich Barlow As both an engineer and a motorist, Christos Cassandras feels the pain of drivers on Commonwealth Avenue. Although he usually leaves work after the evening rush has waned, he invariably hits a red light at the BU Bridge, even when there’s no traffic coming on [...]

Breaking the Fossil Fuel Habit

The Promise, and Challenge, of Shifting to Alternative Energy 03.28.2013 By Leslie Friday Think of it as worldwide addiction. At least 80 percent of the energy people use to drive, heat their homes, and power gadgets comes from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and the consumption of all of the above contributes [...]

Tracking Change, Predicting Trouble

By  Century’s End, Arctic Will Feel Like U.S. South By Leslie Friday 03.26.2013 Winter is getting warmer, spring is coming earlier, and plants are enjoying an extended growing season in northern areas. “It’s the initial gold rush,” says Ranga Myneni, a College of Arts & Science professor of earth and environment, but what will follow will [...]

Why the Earth is Warming

Study Disproved Two of Three Hypotheses, Aims Blame at Man-Made Pollutants 03.25.2013By Cynthia K. Buccini. Video by Devin Hahn and Joe Chan Watch this video on YouTube In the video above, Bruce Anderson explains why global temperatures are rising, and why some theories don’t hold water. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky View closed captions on YouTube Bruce Anderson didn’t set [...]

Climate Action

State Pledges $25 Million for Green Computing Center

Governor Deval Patrick last month pledged $25 million to help fund construction of a Green High-Performance Computing Center (GHPCC), to be powered by alternative energy. The center, which will be built in Holyoke, is projected to cost $100 million. Patrick said the center, whose construction will begin this fall, will provide an infrastructure for research [...]

Lessons From the Field

By Joe Keohane Photos by Joe Keohane Boston University Trustee Emerita Terry Andreas (’64) took an unusual path for a journalism major. Deeply concerned about depletion of the planet’s resources, she founded the School for Field Studies, now America’s oldest and largest undergraduate environmental study abroad program. At sites all over the developing world, the [...]

Solar Power Solutions

A half an hour into the first meeting, equations and model drawings covered the photonics white board with blue ink. Professor Malay Mazumder and five engineering students fired shop jargon across the table. The group is taking on a project NASA has spent billions to test: self-cleaning solar panels. To a bystander, this could have [...]

Four Days in Copenhagen

Trying to change the world before it changes us By Rachel Weil (CAS’10) Rachel Weil (CAS’10) left, and Athena Laines Rachel Weil is one of several BU students and professors who traveled to Copenhagen, where representatives of 192 nations have come together to devise a strategy to combat global warming at the United Nations Climate [...]