With a background in finance and law and four young boys, Anna Hackman was an unlikely candidate to become a blogger who specializes in green building.

Buildings eat up a huge amount of energy—about two-fifths of the country’s total use—so to suppress their appetite for power, efficiency entrepreneurs are churning out a suite of nifty technologies, like automatically shading windows, smarter thermostats, and high-tech heating and cooling systems. But a new report from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preservation Green Lab concludes that constructing new, energy-efficient buildings almost never saves as much energy as renovating old ones

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced the top 10 states for LEED-certified building space per capita in 2011 but none of the top 10 states is even close to the amount of LEED certified space in the nation’s capital. According to the USGBC, Washington, D.C.

When people learn that I am a?green building consultant, almost without exception, they ask me if I do a lot of work with

More on the debate about the real meaning of green building

Last year the U.S. Green Building Council, home of the LEED Rating Systems, launched a new initiative aimed at educational institutions – The Center for Green Schools. The initiative was created in order to inform educators about the benefits of sustainable, healthy and energy efficient schools.

Are underground “earthscrapers” the future of green building? We also have landmines as tools of preservation, bacteria-powered lighting, and more.

Photos via Jeff Casper What do you do when you don’t have a tree to build a treehouse in? Answer: build a “treeless” treehouse

Photos: Matthew Hofmann Tiny homes , retrofitting old trailers into eco-friendly mobile homes are becoming more widespread as people are questioning the need for ” stuff ” and a mortgage

Greenbuild 2011: Opening Keynote Celebration from U.S.