Chester Honored with Sustainable CT Certification

Chester Honored with Sustainable CT Certification

Press Release from the Town of Chester • 10/13/2023 Chester is among the Connecticut municipalities to be recognized this year for achieving Sustainable CT certification. Sustainable CT is a statewide initiative that inspires and supports communities to become more...

To Help Cool a Hot Planet, the Whitest of Paints

By Cara Buckley, The New York Times, July 12, 2023(Photo: John Underwood/Purdue University) Scientists at Purdue have created a white paint that, when applied, can reduce the surface temperature on a roof and cool the building beneath it. In one green-gloved hand, a...

Study: CT is fourth most expensive state in country for energy

By Luther Turmelle, CT Insider, 7/7/23 (Photo: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media) Connecticut residents have the fourth most expensive overall energy bills in the country, with total energy costs of $593 per month, according to a new study....

How climate change is affecting flooding along the Connecticut River

By Emily DiSalvo, Greenwich Time, May 3 2023 (Photo credit: Emily DiSalvo/ Hearst Connecticut Media) HARTFORD — Every spring, as the snow melts in the north, the Connecticut River swells and spills onto the land around it. Connecticut residents are used to it. Many...

Key climate change proposal dies in CT legislature — for now

By John Moritz, CT Insider, May 3, 2023 (Photo credit: File photo / Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media) A bill that would empower Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration to take a heavier hand in regulating climate-altering carbon emissions is in jeopardy this week...

Living in East Lyme, Conn.: ‘Clean, Safe, Peaceful and Quiet’

By Lisa Prevost, April 26, 2023, New York Times (Photo credit: Allegra Anderson for The New York Times) By the time they decided they were ready to start a family a couple of years ago, Patrick and Sophie Sayre had become disillusioned with life in Los Angeles. So...

18 Best Places to Live in Connecticut for Retirees

By Yahoo! Finance, April 25, 2023 As the cost of living continues to increase, maintaining retirement savings has become more challenging. According to a survey conducted by U.S. News, 41% of Americans who were saving for retirement had to temporarily stop...

Sunk: CONNECTICUT’s GROWING FLOOD RISK

By Tricia Ennis, February 19, 2023, CT Insider Ten years ago, Super Storm Sandy slammed into the East Coast, damaging homes, flooding neighborhoods, and knocking out critical infrastructure across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Ten-foot storm surges pushed...

Why America’s outdated energy grid is a climate problem

By CNBC, Feb 17, 2023 The network of transmission lines that carry electricity across the U.S. is old and not set up to meet the anticipated demand for clean energy sources like wind and solar. Currently, electricity generation results in 32% of carbon dioxide...

New CT Electricity And Heating Relief Announced: 5 Things To Know

By Rich Scinto, Patch, Nov 28, 2022 Gov. Ned Lamont announced a new slew of relief measures for high electricity and home heating costs. CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont announced a slew of measures aimed to provide Connecticut families with some relief from high...
Electricity Rate Filings Estimate $80 Monthly Bill Increases In CT

Electricity Rate Filings Estimate $80 Monthly Bill Increases In CT

By Chris Dehnel, Patch, Nov 18, 2022 Skyrocketing supply rates could translate into much higher electric bills in 2023 for Connecticut residents. (Chris Dehnel/Patch) CONNECTICUT — Electric rates for standard service could go up by more than $80 a month for power...

Climate Questions: How much has the climate changed already?

DANA BELTAJI, Associated Press Oct. 18, 2022 How much has the climate changed already? (AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin) Relentless drought in China, East Africa, the U.S. West and northern Mexico, devastating floods in Pakistan and Kentucky, scorching heat waves in...

Renewable Rankings: How is Connecticut Doing vs. Other States?

By Len Beshtoff, NBC CT, September 23, 2022 It’s estimated our state produced more than 1000 GW (gigawatts) of solar energy, and 14 GW of wind power last year, according to a recent report by an organization called Climate Central. But is that a lot or a little?...

Deep Energy Retrofits Accomplish More Than Improved Efficiency

Adding insulation to an older home improves its energy conservation and provides greater comfort. By Anne Surchin, Southampton Press, July 13, 2022 While looking for a good definition of a deep energy retrofit (DER) I started to feel a little like Alice in Wonderland,...

Yellowstone floods reveal forecasting flaws in warming world

By Matthew Brown And Amy Beth Hanson, AP, July 7, 2022 A house sits in Rock Creek after floodwaters washed away a road and a bridge in Red Lodge, Mont., on June 15, 2022. As cleanup from historic floods at Yellowstone National Park grinds on, climate experts and...

A Connection Revolution is Changing Architecture

  Yale School of Architecture grad students watch as a roof panel held by a crane is positioned at a Jim Vlock Building Project for Columbus House on Adeline Street in New Haven, Conn. on August 8, 2017.Photo: Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media By Duo...

Here’s How the Government Wants to Disaster-Proof Your Home

By Freida Frisaro, AP News, June 1, 2022 National Park Service, via AP, File On this first day of the Atlantic hurricane season, federal officials are launching a new initiative to modernize building codes so that communities can be more resilient to hurricanes,...

Connecticut Lawmakers Set 2040 Goal for Carbon-free Grid

Photo: Jan Ellen Spiegel AP News, April 29, 2022 Connecticut lawmakers voted Thursday to officially set a target of 2040 for having a carbon-free electricity supply, despite skepticism about whether the state can meet that goal and whether ratepayers can afford the...

UN Warns earth ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world’

(Photo: AP Photo / Felipe Dana) By FRANK JORDANS and SETH BORENSTEIN, AP News, April 4, 2022 Temperatures on Earth will shoot past a key danger point unless greenhouse gas emissions fall faster than countries have committed, the world’s top body of climate scientists...

Captain Zero and His Amazing Hotel From the Future!

By Rand Richard, Connecticut Magazine, March 30, 2022. Photo by Ned Gerard. Star developer Bruce Becker is known for his eco-friendly projects across the Northeast. The architect’s transformation of New Haven’s iconic Pirelli building into the country’s first...

3 Tips for Improving Indoor Air Quality

By Kelly Walowski, GB&D Magazine, February 25, 2022 The Indoor Air Hygiene Institute estimates that poor indoor air quality costs the US economy $10 billion annually. Whether it is through missed days at work, lower productivity rates, or any number of the many...

Dubai’s new Museum of the Future envisions a healthy planet

By Aya Batrawy, AP News, February 23, 2022 Dubai has unveiled an architecturally stunning new museum that envisions what the world could look like 50 years from today. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili) Dubai will open the doors Friday to an architecturally stunning building...

Passivhaus: how to insulate your home against soaring heating bills

The Old Holloway Passivhaus home in Herefordshire, England. Photograph: Juraj Mikurcik By Donna Ferguson, The Gaurdian, February 21, 2022 Soaring gas prices have been making headlines but for some households heating bills are nowhere near reaching record highs. These...

US could see a century’s worth of sea rise in just 30 years

By Seth Borenstein, AP News, February 15, 2022 (As high tide laps against the sea wall tourist walk down the Battery in Charleston, S.C. Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. According to a U.S. federal report released on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, seas lapping against America’s...

West megadrought worsens to driest in at least 1,200 years

By Seth Borenstein, AP News, February 15, 2022  (AP Photo/Josh Edelson, File) The American West’s megadrought deepened so much last year that it is now the driest in at least 1,200 years and is a worst-case climate change scenario playing out live, a new study finds....

This Is What Architects Should Do to Help Fight Climate Change

By John Gendall, November 18, 2021, Architectural Digest Buildings account for 35% of greenhouse gasses globally, so architects must turn to electrification as an alternative to gas-powered architecture Photo: Getty Images As Hurricane Ida slowly went back out to sea...

Climate change hastens disease spread across the globe

By Amy McDermott, PNAS, February 15, 2022 Trends in some regions are clear, but insect biology, climate quirks, and public health preparedness will determine whether outbreaks occur. (Field crews at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station track the diversity...

Zero waste homes are 3D printed in less than 24 hours

By Dawn Hammon, Inhabitat, 1/19/22 (Images via Mighty Buildings) Industries around the world are constantly innovating, however, the construction industry has been slow to adopt new technologies. Mighty Buildings is changing all that with the development of a...

What’s Ahead for Connecticut’s Climate

By Elaina Hancock, UCONN Today, February 8, 2022   A new report lays out the science projecting Connecticut’s hotter, more uncertain future as the climate changes.   A look into the near-future for Connecticut reveals a state where heat waves are more common,...

The State of Sustainable Architecture Practices in 2022

By Jennifer Riggins, December 29, 2021, The New Stack The next year, 2022, will be a turning point for the Earth. Either we proactively, dramatically cut our carbon emissions or extreme world events as a result of global heating will continue to cause devastation. The...

The link between tornadoes and climate change

By Rachel Theisman, December 13, 2021, NPR   Dozens of tornadoes — including one massive storm that tore through more than 200 miles — struck Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi on Friday and Saturday, killing at least 14 people in...


 A New Style of Country House Takes Root

More developers are bringing contemporary, sustainable design to the Hudson Valley and rural Connecticut. By Jane Margolies, New York Times, August 11, 2020 Rendering of a sample home for the upcoming Vita Foras development in Greene County, N.Y.Credit… Recent...

Energy Compacts and a Global Roadmap to Sustainable Energy Systems

By Roberta Boscolo, Oct 12 2021, ILLUMINEM On the 24th of September 2021, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, convened the High-Level Dialogue on Energy (HLDE) to accelerate progress towards achieving access to clean and affordable energy for all (SDG7) and...

Analysis: Was Glasgow pact a win for climate? Time will tell

By Kate Abnett and Valerie Volcovici, Reuters, Nov 14, 2021 GLASGOW, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Its ambition was clear: the U.N. climate summit was meant to secure a deal to give the world a chance to avert the worst impacts of climate change by capping global warming...

Are “net-zero” climate targets just hot air?

The US, Australia, Japan, and even Saudi Arabia are aiming for net-zero. Does it mean anything? By Umair Irfan, Oct 29, 2021, VOX Corporations and countries around the world are promising to eliminate their contributions to climate change. But many of their targets...