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.

Does it pay to upgrade windows? Yes, and quite a bit, according to Steve Selkowitz, one of the country's leading thinkers when it comes to energy efficiency.

“The philosophy behind Passive House design is fairly simple: super-insulate and mercilessly air-seal the exterior envelope of the house in order to create a volume that will maintain a very constant and comfortable temperature level inside the house year-round,” explains Kevin Killen, Senior Associate Architect at EHDD Architecture. Killen and EHDD Principal, Scott Shell, offer an inspiring case study demonstrating how they met the rigorous Passive standards of air tightness.

Super-insulating SeriousWindows can help reduce energy bills in two ways. They can reduce heating and cooling loads by reducing the amount of heat that is conducted through the window, as well as the amount of heat that is leaked around the window (known as “infiltration").

We love this recent article by Ronald Hicks on SustainableFacility.com: “The Facility Manager’s Role.” In it, Hicks insightfully calls attention to the importance of facility teams for ensuring the success of any sustainable building project. We couldn’t agree more.

At Serious, we often cite that windows are the ‘weakest link’ in a building’s thermal envelope.  An interesting statistic in this regard was offered recently by McGraw-Hill Construction Continuing Education author, Katharine Logan.  In her article “The Rise of Retrofit,” she writes:

North Carolina’s first Passive House, located in Chapel Hill, is also the first  on built out concrete.  Passive House Consultant, and owner of Anchorage Building Company, Chris Senior told Jetson Green that using concrete for the entire exterior of the home helped keep costs “surprisingly reasonable.”

According to the American Express Spending & Saving Tracker, an annual poll of homeowners that aims to understand consumer behavior and trends related to home improvement, 64% of homeowners plan to invest in home improvement projects in 2011.  32% of those homeowners indicated that their plans include “green improvements,” with 31% reporting specifically that they will invest in energy saving improvements in order to realize long-term cost savings.

iWindow offers high energy-saving and comfort performance without replacing existing glass, virtually eliminating occupant disruption, and enabling rapid retrofit

Luke and Laura have a Serious vision for their dream home.  In 2007 they purchased a house, and since then have been tearing it apart and building it back up brick by brick to turn it into a home.  When it came time to choose their windows, Luke and Laura had all but decided on wood clad windows when they saw freshly installed SeriousWindows in a friend’s house.  Luke was immediately drawn to the attractive, high quality fiberglass frames, but it was his research into SeriousWindows’ performance and innovative, custom approach to building windows that convinced him to change his tune.

Congratulations to architect Dennis Wedlick!  The Hudson Passive House is now officially the first certified passive house in New York State.  The Hudson House not only meets the rigorous requirements of the Passive House Standard, like an air tight envelope with ACH < 0.6 and a 90% reduction in heating and cooling energy, but it is also a stunningly beautiful and supremely livable home.

Blake Bilyeu, Oregon-based builder and Passive House extraordinaire, explains in detail how the home he built saves money thanks to its energy-efficient design. The Bilyeu House is so airtight that it scored an ACH 0.2, it features Series 925 SeriousWindows, an energy recovery ventilation system, and solar hot water heater. While these features amounted to a net increase of about 6% in the overall budget of the house, Blake drives home exactly how that cost pays for itself and then some when you factor in incentives and future utility bills.

The Earth Advantage Institute published their Top Ten Green Building Trends for 2011 and it’s full of exciting things! Trend #1 “Affordable Green” is one we could not agree with more – in fact, it’s been our position from day one that green building will only take off when it is green in every sense, i.e. financially feasible and creates a ROI.

This gorgeous new home could be called Net Zero Energy House + Cars.  Located in chilly Fraser, Colorado, the Fraser House braves the sub-zero temperatures and eliminates the use of fossil fuels – for the house and two all-electric plug-in cars.  The combination of solar photovoltaic and evacuated tube solar thermal arrays meets all of the home’s (and car’s) power and heating needs.

The well recognized retrofit of 1610 N Honore Street, Chicago, was part of the GreenBuild 2010 tour program last week. Self-taught green developer and building owner, Tom McGrath, led fellow green building professionals through the inspiring project. Tom’s mission for the retrofit of the 1890 original building in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood was to resuse as much of the existing structure as possible, with as much existing material as possible. Where new materials were called for, Tom chose high energy-efficient materials such as Icynene spray foam insulation, high R-value SeriousWindows 925 fiberglass series to super-insulate the building’ relatively high total window-to-floor area, and Eco-Deco water based, low VOC paint.

The Empire State Building today announced the completion of a building-wide window refurbishment. The initiative is one of eight measures implemented at the Landmark as part of an innovative energy retrofit project announced in April 2009 with President Bill Clinton and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The building's 6,514 windows were refurbished through a groundbreaking process that reused 96 percent of the existing glass and frames. The initiative alone will directly reduce building energy costs by more than $400,000 annually.

Blake Bilyeu of Bilyeu Homes, Inc. recently completed this new home construction in Salem, Oregon. The home may look generally 'typical', but it happens to be one of the most energy efficient, air tight in the country. In this video, Blake explains the wishes of the home owner - to have a low energy house - without knowing exactly how to achieve it.

Watch DIYNetwork's Amy Matthews visit to Serious Energy's Colorado window factory to find out why you lose so much energy from dual pane windows. You'll get an inside look at how high R-value super-insulating windows are made in one of our plants. It was terrific to host Amy and the crew from their great new show This New House!

Thomas McGrath is very serious about reducing energy usage of the 1890's building he owns in Chicago. With partners Ted Roszkowski of ACT Construction and architect Gerhard Zenserling, this "gut retrofit",  resuses as much existing materials as possible and focuses on replacing energy inefficient materials where needed - like the windows. The net result aims to be USGBC Leed Platinum, Chicago 3 star rated, and Energy Net Positive (meaning, excess energy will power the building, going beyond just being energy "net zero").

Architects Thompson Naylor and Hartman Baldwin are working with Allen Associates to design and build an exemplar energy efficient, sustainable community in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, CA, built on an infill site.