In setting up Green Buildings Alive we have been researching the latest uses of real measurements to verify and improve what it means to be ‘green’.

Here are two new overseas initiatives that have caught our eye. Can you provide us with any more links?

UK – LessEn

Started by the Urban Land Institute, LessEn is compiling the UK’s first “building energy” map to see how workplaces are performing. It encourages people to use the web or their smart phone to submit their building’s Display Energy Certificates. Currently focussing on London, this data is creating a virtual map of the city with red, green and orange arrows showing individual buildings and how they rate. You can see the “layer” already on your iphone as you walk around the city.

But this is all a first step. LessEn aims to become a huge, free resource of information, products and services for energy efficiency. It also wants to create the ‘largest global community of individuals focused on reducing energy within the built environment’. We hope we can work with them on forming that community and achieving real environmental results in the built environment.

Solutions Blog: http://less-en.org/solution-blog/ | Twitter: @Less_En

USA – Jerry Yudelson calls for Best Buildings

Yudelson Associates are well-known architects with a mission to “grow the business of green building”. They have published extensively, and Jerry has spoken all over the world to motivate people to understand and act on the business case for building green. Last month, the firm turned its attention to performance measurement of buildings, putting out a special request world wide to help find the world’s greenest buildings. Unlike other Green lists which have been based on design Jerry says, “The case studies and noteworthy projects in this book will be based on collecting actual energy and water performance data from the highest-rated green buildings around the world." For this, the company is asking for the help of leading architects and engineers, building owners and facility managers from around the world to nominate buildings and provide data. You can view the full invitation here.

Yedelson Associates News: http://www.greenbuildconsult.com/news/ | On Twitter: @jerryyudelson

If you have real building data to contribute to Green Buildings Alive, or can provide other examples of green building data initiatives then get in touch or leave a comment below. You can see our first data tool here.