Scouring the web this morning for information and projects to go along with this month's journal, I found quite a lot with regards to schools embracing net-zero construction. The concept of becoming energy-neutral, and even carbon-neutral, is gradually increasing its hold within the US. It makes sense then that one of the groups taking a proactive stance is that of the students and their community.

One example of this is Portland Community College, one of the top 20 community colleges of its size in the nation. Starting with the Sylvania campus, it will begin to retrofit all existing buildings to reach net-zero with the help of the Department of Energy's Net-Zero Commercial Building Initiative. From there it will focus on its Newberg Campus, currently being constructed with net-zero in the plan from the beginning.

As this month rolls along and I continue to research information for the Journal, I find more and more approaches design and build teams take to reach zero-energy, or energy neutral, with their buildings. One example of this type of construction I came across this morning is the first home on the South or West Coast to meet Passive House energy requirements. This in and of itself is a great accomplishment as Passive House requires drastic energy reductions in new construction without the use of many active systems.

The home is located in Lafayette, Louisiana, and satisfies Passive House design criteria of a 90% reduction in energy usage over traditional homes built to current codes. In addition to this, a building integrated photovoltaic solar laminate system is used to cover the remaining ten percent of energy required to bring the home to zero-energy status. The Passive House standard is gaining steam here in the US after proving itself in Europe for many years. It is one of the most stringent building standards available today, and I hope more people take notice of it to demand better building codes.