LEED buildings are energy hogs?

When the Illinois study looked at cases where engineers had taken the time to labor over sophisticated energy models, it found that 75 percent of those buildings fell short of expectations. The fault presumably lay with building managers who made numerous small mistakes—overheating, overcooling, misusing timers, miscalibrating equipment.

Looks like an interesting article, although I'd have to cast doubt on the thoroughness of their research, given that they spelled Rick Fedrizzi's (he's the CEO of USGBC) name wrong in the first sentence.

Link

Via Planetizen

Wetland Machine

I'm not sure this would be legal in Colorado, but it's still cool.

Some of the runoff gets in an underground cistern. During dry weather, this storage tank provides water to the pond. During heavy rains, excess water flows from the pond into the rain garden, simulating the hydrological dynamics of a floodplain environment. Water seeps through the soil and gets naturally filtered.

Link

Via Pruned