Bosch Thermotechnology Corporation of Londonderry, NH and MyPointNow have launched a series of online systems on August 20 for the Buderus Boiler Line. This program, coined as the Compass system, is a comprehensive online array of interactive resources including:

• Online product registration and feedback systems for both product owners and installing contractors
• Comprehensive contractor search functions including a ranking system that allows consumers to identify the top Buderus installers in their community
• A lead management system whereby potential customers can contact contractors online combined with a responsive contact management system that will allow participating companies to improve their Buderus sales.
• The Compass contractor intranet site. Every Buderus contractor can log into their own intranet site to manage leads, register installations, review consumer feedback, access technical information, and participate in training.
• A Compass Flex-Content system that can customize intranet site content to meet the needs of other trade partners such as builders, engineers, institutional users, and utility or regulatory personnel.
• Full sales management integration with Buderus wholesalers, independent sales representatives, and Buderus personnel.
• Full integration with MyPointNow contractor website systems and the MyPointNow network.

Compass is the most comprehensive online system in the HVAC industry today. It empowers trade participants and allows them to efficiently improve their sales and market share by better serving the hydronic heating and domestic hot water markets.

By: Florence Hudson

I speak to groups all around the world on green issues and sustainability. In my travels I get to meet all types of people, from hotshot politicians to corporate bigwigs to average citizens.

Regardless of what part of the social ladder they occupy, I’ve noticed that many people are gamblers at heart; they have an abiding faith that somehow a big-bet, cure-all is just around the corner to deliver us into a greener and more sustainable world. It must be true – the logic usually goes – because there is too much money to be made; or there are huge benefits to reap. When such advancements do not arrive on schedule, it’s a conspiracy, of course.

Now, I am a huge believer in technology and its ability to help mankind leapfrog to a better future, but it seems to me we’re fooling ourselves if we put too much faith in deus ex machina solutions for our complex environmental problems.

We’re not going to become all-solar, all-the-time; and the replacement for the internal combustion engine – which has been “just around the corner” since I was a kid – will take more time, apparently. In the meantime we can make incredible progress towards a more sustainable future using the tools we have and the inventions that already exist – because some of them are quite powerful.

Take a gaze out of your window and you’ll likely see one of the most glaring environmental problems that can be rectified now, with the tools we have – the commercial buildings and structures that populate our planet. There are about 5 million of them in the U.S. alone.

The HVAC system, the lights, the water, the elevators, the power and cooling for technology, the heating and cooling for people: all contribute to making buildings a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions–and a leading energy user. Lights blaze and air conditioners hum in empty offices at night, and lawn sprinklers turn on even during a rainstorm. Commercial buildings can lose as much as 50 percent of the water that flows into them.

Consider:

The building sector is responsible for more electricity consumption than any other sector, 42 percent, and 15 percent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) Emissions.

In the U.S., buildings represent 72 percent of all energy usage and 39 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (pdf). Yet, up to 50% of that electricity is wasted.

In New York City, buildings account for 80 percent of carbon emissions.

By 2025, buildings will be the single largest energy consumers and emitters of greenhouse gas on our planet.

Technology already exists that will allow us to utterly transform our buildings’ impact on the environment. It’s called the Internet. Along with cheap sensors (less than a penny each in some cases), the Internet becomes a network that can allow these buildings to be controlled for maximum energy efficiency; monitored for compliance; and customized to work better for inhabitants – floor by floor, room by room.

This is already happening today. Check out this example with the Calgary city school system in Canada.

We don’t need any new inventions or legislation to solve one of our biggest environmental problems. What are we waiting for?

By: Annie Spiegelman

This summer, with a plethora of states across the country experiencing drought conditions, learning about low-volume watering is crucial to having your yard survive the dry months. This simply means applying water to a uniform depth directly to the plant’s root zone. This reduces water waste and your water bill at the same time. It’s win-win. But first, let’s make sure you’re soil is helping you by holding all the moisture it can.

What’s Up with your Soil?

Before changing anything having to do with your irrigation system, add 2-3 inches of compost (either homegrown or purchased at the plant nursery or Waste Management site) on top of your soil. Do this once or twice a year preferably in the fall and spring. You don’t even have to dig it in. Digging is so old school! The microorganisms in the compost will nourish your soil doing the underground work for you. Incorporating compost (organic matter) increases the water-holding capacity of your soil. With sandy soil, you’ll lose less water to the subsoil and with compacted clay soil, water will easily and slowly trickle its way to the plant’s roots, instead of sitting on the top floor, uselessly, like a lump on a log.

Read the rest of this article by clicking here.

By: Todd Woody

The anemic economic recovery may have hit the dog days of summer with consumer spending and factory orders slowing, but the new energy economy continues to surge, according to a report released Tuesday by Ernst & Young.

Venture capital (VC) investment in renewable energy, electric cars, energy efficiency, and other green technology jumped to $1.5 billion in the United States in the second quarter of 2010, a nearly 64 percent spike over the second quarter of last year. Green tech investment now has returned to the record levels of the third quarter of 2008, before the global economic collapse shut down the VC’s ATM.

So where’s the money going? Between March and June, at least, investors hitched a ride with startups developing electric cars and the infrastructure to support them. Better Place, the Palo Alto company building electric vehicle charging networks around the world, snagged $350 million. Fisker Automotive, a Southern California startup building a sexy and pricy plug-in hybrid sports sedan called the Karma, scored $35 million, according to the report.

Solar remains a hot opportunity for venture capitalists, with nearly $439 million invested in the second quarter, a 183 percent increase from the year-ago quarter.

(more…)

Remember Home Star, the killer bill that would incentivize thousands of home energy retrofits across the country, reduce energy bills for struggling homeowners, put some of America’s hardest hit trades back to work, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions? The one backed by a coalition of more than 1,700 organizations including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers? (The one that’s not called “cash for caulkers” and please for the luvagod stop using that stupid, misleading name.)

The House passed the bill back in May and it’s been sitting in the Senate ever since. Homeowners are putting off retrofits, waiting to see if it will pass. Construction trades are holding off on hiring, waiting to see if it will pass. Members of the Home Star coalition now populate all 50 states and they are holding their breath, waiting.

Now the bill’s on the knife’s edge. There’s been talk of including Home Star in the Small Business Jobs Bill that’s pending in the Senate Finance Committee. A final decision about whether to do so will be made on Wednesday.

If it isn’t included, it may get caught up in the energy bill mishegas, or may not get taken up again until Fall. That would be incredibly counter-productive and short-sighted on the part of the Senate. This bill is as close to a no-brainer as will ever grace Capitol Hill, supported by left and right and of benefit to every single Congressional district. Surely if the Senate can do anything any more, it can do this.