The skin's the thing for conserving a building's energy

It has been estimated that a third of the world's energy is consumed by buildings, a third by transportation, and a third by industry. With gasoline prices rising and electrical blackouts plaguing California and threatening the rest of the country, conserving energy in all areas seems more and more of a necessity. That's why a Harvard professor of design technology and management, Spiro Pollalis, became one of the founders of BuildingEnvelopes.org, a web portal based at Harvard and supported by a worldwide consortium of universities, research centers, and industry professionals. This nonprofit research portal, http://www.buildingenvelopes.org, has been created to serve as a resource for state-of-the-art information about innovative building facades and environmental technologies.