Transportation Choices

At the core of building more sustainable communities, energy efficient structures, and preserving our natural environment is our need to completely re-think global transportation and retool personal transport with multi-modal choices and more efficient, renewable energy vehicles.

            "The horseless carriage is the coming wonder. It is only a question of a
             short time when the carriages and trucks in every large city will be
             run with motors."                                             Thomas Edison, 1895

    Alternative Fuel Vehicle News
    Consumer Energy Center Transportation Choices
    Electric Auto Association
    Global Stewards Solutions for Getting Around Town
    Hybrid Vehicles
    National Renewable Energy Laboratory
    Transportation Choices for Consumers
 


Preservation
Building preservation is the front-line of sustainability. Adaptive reuse utilizes the embodied energy and materials of existing buildings that form the irreplaceable context of historic districts — national treasures and repositories of our community’s most important beliefs held together in the fabric of ‘place.’

    Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation
    Boston Preservation Alliance
    Historic New England
    Massachusetts Historical
    National Park Service, Technical Preservation Services for Historic Buildings,
        Preservation Briefs

    National Register of Historic Places
    National Trust for Historic Preservation
    Preserve.net
    Preservation MASS
    Secretary of the Interiors Standards for the treatment of Historic Buildings
    The Association for Preservation Technology International


Sustainability:
Earth’s human population in 1900 was 700-million. Today, we are 7-billion with estimates for 2025 at 8.5-billion and 11.6-billion by 2150. Adopting more sustainable living and building practices is not a burgeoning fad, is it a commitment to our humanity and survival of the planet. Change occurs one conversation at a time, one project at a time, and with each action we take.

            Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.
                                                                                Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Alliance for Global Sustainability
    Boston Building Materials Resource Center
    Building Green
    California Department of Toxic Substance Control
    Center for Health Environment and Justice
    Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology
    Collaborative for High Performance Schools
    Conservation Economy
    Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management
    Earth’s Carrying Capacity and Populations
    Eco-labels-The Consumers Union Guide to Environmental Labels
    EcoWaters Projects
    Environmental Design and Construction Ideas for Sustainable Design
    Forestry Stewardship Council
    GeoExchange
    Geothermal Research Program
    Global Footprint Network
    Global Green USA
    Green Affordable Housing Coalition
    GreenBiz
    Green Building Resource Guide
    Green Decade Coalition, Newton, Massachusetts
    Green Resource Center
    Green Roundtable
    Greener Building
    Healthy Building Network
    International Institute for Natural Environmental & Cultural Resource Management
    Local Governments for Sustainability
    Massachusetts Audubon
    Massachusetts Technology Collaborative
    Minnesota Building Materials Database
    MLUI New Ecology Inc.

    Natural Resources Defense Council
    New Ecology Network
    The Institution Recycling Network
    Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
    Plant Native
    Renewable
    Review of Sustainable Design Technologies and Products
    Rudolf Steiner Foundation Innovations in Social Finance
    Scorecard Pollution Information Website
    Sustainable Architecture, Building and Culture
    The Association for Preservation Technology International
    United Nations Division for Sustainable Development
    United States Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable  
        Energy Network

    United States Green Building Council
    United States Green Building Council's LEED Green Building Rating System  
        for Existing Buildings

    Whole Building Design Guide

 
Reference points

To glimpse into the future and envision where we are all heading, it is useful to see where we've come from. Today, nearly all of humanity benefited in some way from the great advancements of the 18th, and 19th Centuries. However, many of these technological advancements have created new challenge for us, our planet, and for all future generations.

Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century