Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
My friend David Dixon, and his Boston-based architecture firm, Goody Clancy, has been doing some fabulous smart growth work, and I’m here to give them a well-deserved pat on the back for it. I mention this because I’m off...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Curbing Pollution , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
After so many wonky posts in a row, this time I'm going to lighten up with one of those fun internet quizzes that I can do more or less all day when I have something I want to procrastinate. This...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
Last week my longtime NRDC colleague Eric Goldstein posted a blog entry highlighting five laudable environmental sites (green apples) and five awful ones (bad apples). Eric got it right as usual. I am particularly a fan of his because, like...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
The American Institute of Architects has announced their annual “Top Ten Green Projects,” as chosen by the Institute’s Committee on the Environment (affectionately known as “COTE”). Now I have to say that I personally like and am impressed by just...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Thanks to my NRDC colleague Nancy Stoner for pointing me to a great new article about green roofs on the msnbc web site. We’ve been struggling a bit within the environmental community to agree on techniques for watershed protection that...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Matthew Yglesias on theatlantic.com points out that it is not just large cities and metro areas that can adopt smart growth practices. He correctly explains that there are plenty of places in America that will never have, for example, sophisticated public...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Fifteen blocks south of the US Capitol, at 8:05 pm this Sunday evening, a joyous thing will happen in Washington. The city’s major league baseball team, the Washington Nationals, will take the field for their first official game at their new stadium,...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
The blogosphere is awash this week in chatter over a new report from the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (a NAFTA creation). The report points out that a substantial portion of greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings, along with all...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
I've been pretty hard on Wal-Mart and, believe me, they've earned it with their land-use practices. I awarded them my Thanksgiving turkey and then followed up with my despair over a news story touting their sustainability efforts.The problem with most...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
I’m a bit fickle about this. At first I was sure the country's best example of smart growth was Atlantic Station, in Atlanta. Then I thought it was one of the iconic transit-oriented developments in the west, The Crossings in Silicon Valley or...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Historic Charleston, South Carolina is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is characterized by palmettos, live oak trees, graceful homes on classic streets, stately “low country” architecture and, yes, southern charm. But Charleston, like every other American...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Last week I was posting about the downtowns of the very large cities of London, Stockholm, and Washington, DC. I’ve also posted about smart growth in smaller cities. But good, environmentally sound development comes in all shapes and sizes, and...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
Hello. My name is Kaid and I’m a new urbanist. (All together, now: “Hello, Kaid.”) No, really. New urbanists - members of the school of architecture and planning that advocates compact, walkable, mixed-use communities - catch some grief in the...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Because of various remembrances of Dr. King on Monday, I reminded myself that no one has been hurt by sprawl more than low-income, inner-city, frequently minority populations. When jobs and investment have fled to new pastures (literally), their neighborhoods have...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
So, as I was writing yesterday, when the economy was ready, so was Asheville’s downtown. They did it right. Today, most all the places I knew as a kid are still there, but now serving 21st-century functions: I can...
