Utility Tracking and Benchmarking Blog | WegoBlog

Whether you want to be a more informed citizen or just want to kill some time before 5 on a Friday afternoon, WegoWise has got you covered. It's been 14 days since Black Friday, so chances are your neighbors have had their lights up for...about 14 days.  Show them up this year with an energy-efficient light display.  Not only will you dazzle them with your impeccable taste, but you'll have some extra gift money lying around at the end of the month!  So peruse our best links, give us some feedback and be sure to share some of the info you just gleaned with other interested parties at the parties you are hopefully attending this weekend. Brought to you by Dan, Nate, Lily, Catherine, Casey, and Joanna.

The EPA’s building benchmarking tool, Portfolio Manager, will make a fully featured expansion into Canada this spring. 

Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) committed to expanding the EPA’s Portfolio Manager software to Canada this June. As it stands now, any building in the world can use the tool, but it will ultimately be benchmarked against buildings in the USA. With this development, Canadian buildings will now be compared against actual Canadian building stock and the analysis will incorporate Canadian source energy and greenhouse gas figures.

Whether you want to be a more informed citizen or just want to kill some time before 5 on a Friday afternoon, WegoWise has got you covered. Many of you may have spent the week since Thanksgiving acquiring presents for the holidays.  We've noticed a steady stream of deliveries in the office this week as our Black Friday bargains have been arriving.  Here are some environmentally friendly ways to wrap those for your friends and family.  So peruse our best links, give us some feedback and be sure to share some of the info you just gleaned with other interested parties at the parties you are hopefully attending this weekend. Brought to you by Dan, Nate, Lily, Catherine, Casey, and Joanna.

2013 has been declared the International Year of Quinoa by the United Nations. Good news for some of us quinoa lovers here in the WegoWise office. Yet, this decision by the UN is surprising for some due to last year’s contentious New York Times article exposing the negative social impacts from increased global quinoa consumption on the Andean indigenous people who grow the crop. Due to quinoa’s soaring popularity, fewer indigenous people in top producing countries, such as Bolivia and Peru, can afford to eat the native grain, consequently switching their diet to cheaper processed foods. However, public discussion about the issue has brought to light the complexity of the situation and put forth some ideas on how to address the issue.

There are innumerable blogs out there that post articles claiming to debunk common misconceptions about sustainability (we should know, you’re reading one right now!).  A blog post is a great way to introduce a topic and get some discussion going, but is almost never going to serve as a definitive answer to a complex question. 

Upon hearing the terms "zero energy" or "net zero", one usually assumes that the amount of energy used by a house/building is equal to or less than the amount of energy produced by that house/building.

Whether you want to be a more informed citizen or just want to kill some time before 5 on a Friday afternoon, WegoWise has got you covered. With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up this week, there is a lot to prepare for, whether you are cooking, hosting, or travelling. Why not make this year's feast green? So peruse our best links, give us some feedback and be sure to share some of the info you just gleaned with other interested parties at the parties you are hopefully attending this weekend. Brought to you by Dan, Nate, Lily, Catherine, Casey, and Joanna.

Wind and solar energy systems are constantly in the open, exposed year-round to 
whatever weather or disaster events come their way. Therefore, wind turbines and solar panels are built to withstand the elements, but how do they fare when encountering an extreme event, like the recent destruction Hurricane Sandy produced in the eastern Unites States?

Whether you want to be a more informed citizen or just want to kill some time before 5 on a Friday afternoon, WegoWise has got you covered. With the long weekend ahead of us, you're sure to have lots of ways to fill your time, let us help you get the most of your weekend and the newly crisp fall weather with some ideas for a green holiday weekend.  So peruse our best links, give us some feedback and be sure to share some of the info you just gleaned with other interested parties at the parties you are hopefully attending this weekend. Brought to you by Dan,Nate, Lily, Catherine, Casey, and Joanna.

Hurricane Sandy tore through the northeast coastline last week leaving millions without power and causing an estimated $20 billion in property damages according to IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm. By landing in one of the most densely populated areas in the US, Hurricane Sandy’s powerful winds and torrential downpours hit areas at high-risk for contaminant release into the environment. Superfund sites, nuclear power plants, and oil refineries were all in peril. While the Northeast can breathe a sigh of relief that the risks of a nuclear meltdown at Oyster Creek Plant and landslides in New Jersey were not realized, the greatest environmental impacts of Hurricane Sandy might have been manifested in water contamination.