Expert Columns

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, momentum for clean hydrogen continued to build in 2024 across the United States and globally, with costs going down, scale ramping up, and key technologies improving in performance.

In 2024, Google pursued a range of actions to procure more energy and drive new technological and market innovations to meet growing electricity demand affordably, sustainably and reliably.

Located in Washington County, Maine, Sunrise Opportunities (Sunrise) is a rural, grassroots nonprofit organization serving families, seniors, and people with disabilities for over 60 years, operating an older housing stock across seven buildings in one of the coldest climates in the U.S. In this column from Better Buildings, learn how Sunrise planned for HVAC heat pump installation through a capital needs planning process, maintaining oil heating as a backup during the coldest months, and engaging residents to understand the new technology.

According to the Carbon Leadership Forum, buildings and construction account for 40% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. When it comes to decarbonizing buildings, Amazon focuses on two critical areas: the materials and methods used in construction, and the energy consumption and operational impacts throughout a building's lifecycle. From fulfillment centers to data centers to grocery stores, Amazon is testing and scaling new tech to push toward net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Cement in concrete is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions but is also integral to the data centers behind Meta's technologies and programs. As the company focuses on reducing its emissions and achieving net zero emissions across its value chain in 2030, it is exploring new approaches to data center design to minimize environmental impact.

Using energy and building performance data to implement no-cost operational improvements and achieve utility cost savings, Louisville Metro Government (LMG) reduced building energy use and spending. In this column from Better Buildings, learn about LMG's focused effort on utility billing analysis, building audits, and building automation systems.

As Microsoft works to advance the sustainability of its business, the company is also advancing the sustainability of the datacenter infrastructure needed to deliver cloud and AI innovations. In this column from Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa, learn about how Microsoft is working to decarbonize datacenters by focusing on how it builds, scales and operates, as well as its investments to help scale markets for low-carbon building materials.

The State of Maryland needed a way to manage and promote energy savings initiatives across a wide portfolio. In this column from Better Buildings, learn how the state's Office of Energy & Sustainability created a working group of 20 state agencies and university campuses to share energy savings technologies and practices.

Resource Efficient Decarbonization (RED) emerged from New York's Empire Building Challenge and focuses on energy reduction as a first step, while keeping multiple retrofit options open for building owners and managers as technology and regulation evolves. Here is how facility managers and commercial and industrial leaders, including those in hard-to-electrify sectors, can make the business case for building decarbonization in their organization using this phased, holistic approach.

As scope 3 emissions reporting becomes of increased interest, Marriott International (Marriott) decided to improve its data management practices by implementing an AI solution. In this column from Better Buildings, learn how this solution helped the Marriott achieve a 5-10% reduction in scope 3 emissions and a decrease in the number of labor hours required.