Can anyone point me to a study that compares wood versus stone versus brick holistically and includes an analysis of the 100 year loss of a tree's energy absorbing ability while a new one is grown, compared life-cycle for life-cycle with the cost and value of the other materials, adjusted for embodied energy?  Also, this should be not just life cycle costing but be a life cycle valuation.  It should use a term and reversion model for assessing these: the traditional view is that you get more value from marble than wood, so is this being taken into account in a holistic comparison of not only the costs, but the revenues, adjusted for differing life cycles?

How does wood compare to brick or stone as a building material, in terms of sustainable building. I want to believe it's better, but I'm questioning it and I don't see satisfactory answers yet. If it isn't, we have some rethinking to do on some very basic and fundamental assumptions, of which this is only one.

This is from BC Building Info: Issue #58 Green Renovations September 13, 2006

1. Basics: Glossary, Treatise, Industry Needs, Consumers

These three examples (below the picture) are of green development articles - they were recently passed on to me by Rob Bennett, from the City of Vancouver's Sustainability group.

See more examples of green buildings around the world by clicking the picture below, which is of the Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects Plaza Apartments project in San Francisco (aiming for LEED Silver), which is redefining green affordable housing in that city (it has 106 SRO units).

Where do we find inspiration? The Ideas that Last exhibition at the SBC inspires us with local green buildings. Of course, buildings like Turning Torso in Malmo also inspire us.

What are our favourite inspirational quotes? I have seen some lovely ones lately.  Here are a few:

While the rest of Canada, and the rest of the world, pursues wind power at an alarming rate, BC lags the country with zero installations of large scale wind power. Similarly we lag behind most European nations, Japan, and the USA in adoption of other solar thermal, photo voltaic and other renewable energy infrastructure.

Where incineration is not a dirty word

As Toronto battles to find a solution to its garbage crisis, Sweden offers a solution

May 10, 2006. 01:00 AM MAGNUS SCHÖNNING

The industrialized world produces a never before seen amount of wealth and goods for its citizens. This is true for both Sweden and Canada. One needn't look far, however, to see how this generation of richness is slowly burying us in a mountain of waste. In Canada, two examples come immediately to mind. Toronto sends more than 975,000 tonnes of its household garbage to Michigan every year, while Ottawa residents are currently embroiled in a fierce debate about the expansion of a local landfill.