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Loading ...Brazil Begins Awarding Building Efficiency Labels
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Earlier this year I posted about Brazil’s trailblazing initiative to provide energy efficiency labels for buildings. Well, the National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality (Inmetro) has just announced that first five Brazilian buildings were given the labels in the form of steel plaques about the size of an A4 sheet of printing paper. […]
Caixa Creates Label for Sustainable Housing
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009Caixa Econômica Federal (CEF, popularly known among Brazilians as simply “Caixa”), Latin America’s largest public bank, is already involved in promoting green building though its insistence on construction using certified wood and its concessionary financing for the installation of the solar panels and water heaters in Brazil’s recently announced “My House My Life” Program to […]
Rio to Require Take-Back of Fluorescent Lamps
Thursday, February 26th, 2009The Environment Minister for Rio de Janeiro (RJ) State, Marilene Ramos, has sent to governor Sérgio Cabral for his signature a draft decree to implement a 2007 law requiring the take-back of end-of-life fluorescent lamps. The law required manufacturers, importers, distributors, resellers and vendors of fluorescent lamps to provide consumers with containers for the collection […]
Certifying Efficient Public Lighting
Friday, August 17th, 2007Synopsis in English: Brazil’s certification entity, the National Institute for Meteorology, Standardization and Industrial Quality (Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Normalização e Qualidade Industrial – INMETRO) recently announced that, starting in 2008, it and the mixed capital (but majority state-owned) electricity distribution company (the largest in Latin America) Eletrobrás a certification and labeling program for the […]
Exchanging Refrigerators and Air Conditioners to Combat Climate Change
Monday, July 9th, 2007The Environment Secretariat (SEA) of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) recently signed an agreement with a power company (Ampla) to initiate a program of the exchanging old refrigerators and air conditioners for new ones among the state’s poor families. A similar agreement is to be signed with Light, another power provider in […]
The Dark Side of Scrap
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007Not too long ago I noted how it’s become a big business in Jamaica to take metal scrap — including robbing it from working stock — and exporting it to China and other Asian markets. I knew at the time that this was by no means unique to Jamaica, but couldn’t point to any open […]
A Sustainable Energy Plan for Brazil?
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006The Government’s Energy Vision Last Wednesday Brazil’s Energy Research Corporation (EPE) released the National Energy Plan 2030, the government’s blueprint for energy development for the next 24 years. The EPE is a subsidiary of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), charged with energy planning. The principal theme of the plan can be found in […]
Brazilians Seek to Design the Eco-Efficient Home
Sunday, November 19th, 2006In a prior entry I introduced you to the experiments of the Federal University of Santa Catarina’s (UFSC) Construction Systems Laboratory with constructing homes using PET bottles. Today I’ll introduce you to the work of another innovative part of the UFSC, the Energy-Efficient Construction Laboratory (LabEEE). LabEEE’s main mission is research and development in improving […]