In one sense, schools face shrinking budgets like everyone else. From another angle, however, it appears that they are still more likely to allocate significant portions of those budgets for projects that a) look good in the community, and b) save money.

Schools seem to go to extremes when it comes to their mechanical systems. For many, the trend has been to ignore them, fix them on the cheap to remain within constrained budgets, and operate them in ways that often provide a disservice to the very budgets they try to conform to. However, lately they have been trending green, as examples to the students and the community.

A group of nearly 550 individuals packed the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas for the 2011 HVAC Excellence National HVACR Educators and Trainers Conference (NHETC). The NHETC is an annual event dedicated to providing continuing education for HVACR educators and trainers.

The data center for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently benefited from an “extreme home makeover” as it moved from leased office space to the lab’s ultra energy efficient Research Support Facility (RSF). The lessons learned are expected to help data centers across the nation green up their ones and zeros.

Americans continue to misunderstand phrases commonly used in environmental marketing and advertising, giving products a greater halo than they may deserve. At the same time, most Americans are willing to punish a company for using misleading claims, according to the 2011 Cone Green Gap Trend Tracker, by Cone LLC.

The continuing expansion of a retailer into products needing refrigerators and freezers, and growing desires by supermarkets to demonstrate environmental correctness are among the latest trends in retail refrigeration.

ARS/Rescue Rooter, a privately held, nationwide provider of air conditioning, heating, plumbing, and attic insulation services, announced that is deploying 21 clean-burning propane autogas cargo and cutaway vans in the Los Angeles and Houston areas.

IGS Energy, one of the largest residential retail natural gas suppliers in the United States, announced that its new Dublin headquarters has earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification, the highest level attainable.

The ESCO Group sponsored an event to bring congressional and HVACR industry leaders together in Washington, D.C.