Home-builder Bill Decker explains some of the techniques used to create highly energy-efficient homes in chilly southeast Michigan. New research shows that the extra cost of making a home net-zero energy can pay for itself in under a decade in Detroit and 11.4 years in Chicago. Credit: Dan Gearino LAMBERTVILLE, Mich.—On a drive down a country road, builder Bill Decker gives an off-the-cuff seminar about energy efficient homes. He shifts from carpentry to electrical engineering, and then to theology—his belief that his faith compels him to take care of the earth. Every few minutes, he pauses and points out a house his family-owned company has built. He has been in business since 1981 and only now is his industry beginning to grasp something he has been arguing for a while: Net-zero-energy homes—homes that are so efficient a few rooftop solar panels can produce all the electricity the home needs—can be built almost anywhere, even in places with brutal winters. Our stories. Your inbox. Every weekend. His case is bolstered by a recent report from the Rocky Mountain Institute showing net-zero energy houses can make financial sense in much of the Midwest as costs for some of the key components […]
Latest Articles
New Carbon Tracking Tool For Trees Has Your (Exact) Number
Takeaways: CTrees has launched a satellited-based carbon tracker which can measure the carbon in trees.
This tracker will be able to measure every single...
Antarctic Researchers Gain Insights From on High as They Count Seals From Space
Takeaways: Using images from space and the help of thousands of citizen scientists, researchers have accurately estimated Antarctica's Weddell seal population for the first...
BMW To Recycle Fishing Nets In New Electric Cars
Takeaways: BMW's NEUE KLASSE of electric vehicles will feature plastic parts made from 30 percent recycled fishing nets and ropes.
For the first time,...
Why Conservationists Are Hopeful About the Manta Ray’s Future
Takeaways: While manta rays are experiencing pressure due to climate change and poaching, conservationists are hopeful about their future.
In the Maldives, protection measures,...
India Welcomes Back Cheetahs, 70 Years After Local Extinction
Takeaways: A project to reintroduce cheetahs from Nambia to India is the world’s first intercontinental relocation of animals.
The cheetahs were placed in a...
Michael Strahan is Embracing ‘Nature Tech’ — Why You Should Care
Takeaways: "Nature Tech" is a broad range of applied and information technologies which focus on helping scale nature-based solutions to climate change.
They can...
