Story Archives of 'construction'

We’ve heard a lot about efforts to boost our sagging economy and revive the manufacturing sector with green-collar jobs. But if sustainable and energy efficient systems are going to get built properly, it’s blue-collar workers who need to be on board.

A green-collar job is a lot like a blue-collar job, except that workers incorporate the principles of sustainability and environmental stewardship. Take the union stronghold of construction. The EPA ranks construction as the nation’s most wasteful industry by far, which makes eco-friendly development sound like a contradiction, or a massive undertaking. Raising a green building in the working-class neighborhood of south boston introduces other challenges. The documentary The Greening of Southie chronicles Boston’s first residential green building – the Macallen – and the workforce that set out to construct the “city of tomorrow.” "The Greening of Southie" is coming to Red River Theatres in Concord tomorrow night and runs through next week. I spoke with the director, Ian Cheney, when the film was first released, and asked him how he came across this unusual project.

The Greening of Southie at Red River Theatres in Concord

(Photo by Taylor Gentry)

We’ve heard a lot recently about efforts to boost our sagging economy and retool our manufacturing industry with green-collar jobs. A green-collar job is a lot like a blue-collar job, except that workers incorporate the principles of sustainability and environmental stewardship. Eco-friendly development might sound like a contradiction because, for one thing, the EPA ranks construction as our country’s most wasteful industry. Yet efforts to green the building industry are underway, including in the working-class neighborhood of South Boston. The new documentary The Greening of Southie chronicles Boston’s first residential green building – the Macallen – and the workforce that set out to construct the “city of tomorrow, today.” The film’s director, Ian Cheney, joins Word of Mouth with more.

(Photo by Taylor Gentry)

About 40 percent of our nation’s energy goes into running buildings, and another 12 percent to building them. To help developers achieve LEED certification, a new crop of green building materials has sprung up.

As part of our "next green thing" series, we asked Michael Kanellos to fill us in on some of them. He’s a senior policy analyst at GreenTech Media.

CalStar Cement’s founder, Mark Porat, says he’s developed "the biggest technological changes in bricks since the Canaanites." Instead of burning clay, CalStar will take fly ash, the particulate matter that ordinarily leaves smokestacks to enter the atmosphere, add some extra chemicals and make bricks. Rather than requiring high temperature cooking, the chemicals congeal into a solid, hard mass.

Serious Materials is doing the same thing with drywall. Instead of cooking gypsum at a high temperature to make drywall, Serious has a chemical compound that, when mixed with other chemicals, congeals into drywall at low temperatures. We also look at Integrity Block, a company in Palo Alto that's come up with a building block made out of mashed earth. It takes far less energy to make these than a regular cement block.

(Photo of Integrity Block CEO Trevor Stout courtesy of Integrity Block)

Nearly twenty hospitals in New Hampshire are undertaking multi-million dollar additions or renovations.

In a few cases, the construction is the first modernization in decades.

But in most instances, the renovations are directed at making changes in patient care and to handle a growing number of patient visits.

Still, as New Hampshire Public Radio’s David Darman reports, some analysts say there’s a kind of profit motive behind the construction.

Gail Guernsey lives in White River Junction. Her mobile home was starting to fall apart - the roof and floors were failing. Volunteers from COVER Home Repair addressed these urgent needs so her home could be safe and comfortable again.