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Sustainable building

Cyclist ride in front of a bus shelter with flowers planted on the roof.

A Dutch city is turning bus shelters into bee sanctuaries

Environment

More than 300 bus shelters have been transformed into bee-friendly green hubs to support biodiversity in the Dutch city of Utrecht.

A 65 by 13 foot modular unit is shown with a green insulated side and windows, dangling from a crane.

Architecture’s ‘Lego’ trend: Build rooms halfway across the world, then snap together

Business, Economics and Jobs
A woman scrapes mortar off of a salvaged brick with a flat end of a chisel so the brick can be reused.

‘Symbolic rubble’ from crumbling adobe homes preserves the past and eases trauma after Mexico earthquake

Culture
Henry Project Exergy

Someday we may be heating homes and businesses with computers

Technology

Bullitt Foundation opens new building in Seattle that redefines environmentally-friendly

Environment

Amsterdam climate neutral by 2025

Amsterdam’s ambitious plan to lower its carbon footprint by 40 percent in 2025 by aggressively going green.

The World

China’s failed experiment with dry toilets

Environment

The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports on an effort to save water and recycle in part of China by building an apartment complex with composting toilets. The first installment of our five-part series this week on sanitation issues, called “Toilet Tales.”

The World

William McDonough: Godfather of Green

Arts, Culture & Media

William McDonough is a grand old man in the young field of green architecture. In the 1970s, he built the first “green roof” in America and is now working on a sustainable building for NASA. Kurt Andersen asks him about environmental design.

Green Roofs

In heavily-paved urban areas, a good downpour can quickly overwhelm a municipal sewer system. But an ancient building technique that’s popular in Europe suggests a way to alleviate the problem: add a touch of green to the roof. Roof-top vegetation provides insulation, cooling and waterproofing; and it can help prevent runoff, too. Here in the […]

Green Roofs

In heavily-paved urban areas, a good downpour can quickly overwhelm a municipal sewer system. But an ancient building technique that’s popular in Europe suggests a way to alleviate the problem: add a touch of green to the roof. Roof-top vegetation provides insulation, cooling and waterproofing; and it can help prevent runoff, too. Several German cities […]