Energy Generation

Originally founded by famed particle physicist Frank Oppenheimer in 1969, San Francisco’s Exploratorium moved to Pier 15, its current location, in 2013 and set a target of becoming the world’s biggest net zero carbon museum. 10-years later the 220,000-square foot attraction achieved its goal, which it hopes will inspire others around the world. The Exploratorium […]

Last month, June 2024, the US Department of Energy (DOE) published the first ‘US National Definition of Zero Emissions Buildings’ to a tempered reaction from many in the buildings, energy, and environmental communities. After months of deliberation, the DOE’s somewhat simplistic definition reads: “A building is regarded as ‘zero emissions’ if it is highly energy […]

As the first timber structure of its scale in Australia, International House Sydney (IHS) occupies an important position in the nation’s architectural history. Completed in mid-2017, IHS gained a 6 Star Green Star for office design and achieved As Built (v3) rating, alongside many other awards for design, operation, and especially embodied carbon. The six-story […]

Dubbed the “First Space Station on Earth” —the NASA Sustainability Base, has served as an experimental model for smart and net zero buildings for over a decade. In this research note, we explore how the building was designed, constructed, and operated to achieve a positive impact on the environment. NASA teamed up with William McDonough […]

The Elithis Tower in Dijon, France, is the headquarters of the Elithis Group, a building engineering consultant firm. Completed in March 2009, the facility was one of France’s first net zero buildings and is considered the world’s first positive energy office tower developed at a standard cost of construction. At just over 50,000 square feet […]

Completed in 2017, the Freiburg City Hall was one of the world’s first public net zero buildings. It generates more energy than it consumes. Designed by the Düsseldorf-based architectural practice Ingenhoven architects and constructed over a period of 33 months, the 24,215 m² new city hall accommodates 840 employees over six floors. It is characterized […]

The Bullitt Center in Seattle, WA, is one of the net zero buildings known as a pioneer of “deep green” architectural design. Completed in March 2013, the $32.5 million dollar project was considered an “audacious and provocative experiment and living proof of the economic and technical viability of sustainable buildings” in a 2014 paper by […]

Last month, the European Parliament set out its new Green Claims Directive, which seeks to address the rampant problem of greenwashing across the continent. Greenwashing practices have become prevalent and the new directive hopes to solve that by proposing two new laws that address vague and misleading green claims by companies. The launch of the […]