Energy efficiency - done as a comprehensive upgrade service - can pay for itself. At the K-12 level some projects have been cash-flow positive, adding to discretionary funds.

Yesterday, Serious Energy's CEO Kevin Surace spoke at The MIT Club of Northern California. Among other things, Kevin described the idea of bringing a high-tech “walk through walls” mentality to the building materials industry. The goal?:  to challenge the industry with breakthrough innovative technology.

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Creating quiet in buildings for better comfort and higher productivity for everyone has increasingly become a priority in commercial building practice. Older, less reliable methods of noise control, such as resilient channel, have a high failure rate and can leave tenants and occupants unhappy and unsatisfied. The Quiet Soundproofing System not only simplifies the process with easy solutions, but delivers quieter results, reliably. Recently published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a multifamily condo conversion of a former soap factory uses the Quiet system for their soundproofing building upgrade. Located in the busy streets of Manhattan, Quiet products were chosen for soundproofing between apartments and in corridors of the condo units to create quiet, comfortable rooms for residents.

While technological breakthroughs have helped create the green and clean market, financial programs have paved the way for their adoption. Solar exploded after solar leasing. Car networks, a la ZipCar, seem destined to become the way most Americans will initially experience electric cars.

And economic solutions are having a big impact in energy efficiency and green building. Programs such as Serious Solutions that deliver an end-to-end comprehensive building upgrade service at no upfront cost to building owners, are "genius" said David Pogue, the National Director of Sustainability at CBRE during a panel discussion on green building and efficiency finance sponsored by Wells Fargo in Palo Alto this week. "The technology has been there but no one has had the guts to do it," he continued.

NYC neighborhoods have some of the smallest per capita carbon footprints in the country -- and they do it just by living smaller, living closer and driving less.  It’s just one more thing that New Yorkers can feel superior about. However, they’re not gloating – they’re acting. The city is listening to all the smart people that comprise the Urban Green Council, the New York Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is enacting Zone Green, “the most comprehensive effort of any U.S. city to sweep aside zoning obstacles to the construction and retrofitting of green buildings.”

Interpretting the acoustical testing results for Serious Energy's iWindow.

Some of our first iWindow™ retrofit projects have been city buildings in noisy, high-traffic settings. So, the immediate feedback from a number of occupants is a thankful “It’s so much quieter in here.” We wanted to quantify that, so we sent iWindow samples out for sound transmission testing. This returned some impressive reports. But, what do the numbers really mean to my – or anyone else’s – ears? It wasn’t coming through loud and clear. So I turned to our Quiet® brand team for an explanation.

Kevin Surace is the CEO of Serious Energy, and he's also the one of the best speakers in the country when it comes to detailing the opportunities created through energy efficiency. Energy efficient buildings consume less energy, which means lower power bills, which means cleaner air and less demand for burning coal or natural gas.

Green buildings also achieve higher rental and resale values, creating money in a relatively frictionless way, and put assembly line employees, contractors, electricians, and architects to work. It's a virtuous cycle if there ever was one.

But it's tough to do the performance justice in words. So here you can find some of his most recent speeches and press interviews.

If you are in real estate, you already know new building and housing starts are down. Now, the AIA has put some numbers around it. A new report shows that construction spending is down 27 percent since 2008, a loss of $300 billion in economic activity. Leanne Tobias at Greenbiz writes:

"As reported in a new study by the American Institute of Architects, construction spending in the U.S. has declined by 27 percent since 2008, an economic loss of close to $300 billion. (An additional $470 billion in construction-related spending also has been lost.) Private construction projects have been particularly hard hit, declining by more than a third, while public construction is down roughly 10 percent.

If you needed more convincing that green, energy efficient buildings save money and increase the value of real estate, here is a report from Pacific Northwest National Labs.

Researchers at the lab examined 22 buildings owned by the General Services Administration and found that aggregate operation costs, on average, were 19 percent lower than normal. Carbon dioxide emissions were also 34 percent lower, a big consideration in Europe, Australia, California and soon other areas that have carbon regulations. Your building mints energy credits while you snooze.

Freezing right now? Broiling? Can't see because of glare? Blame your windows. Serious Energy is holding the I Want Better Windows contest. You could be one of the winners of 250 square feet of iWindows. (click here to enter) or vote for one of the entrants.

Today's entry comes from Michael in New Jersey. He's at a hospital:

"We are a non-profit hospital. Our windows are 30 or more years older... It would be great to have warmer patient rooms and offices for the staff. My office is in the basement... No windows for me but it would be realy good for the building."