Photo by Pieter van de Sande on Unsplash
Fall is a time of change and transition. Actually, this whole year has been a time of change and transition, hasn’t it? Lots of people have transitioned to working from home, at least part of the time. That’s allowed some of you to also think about changing where you live, if you no longer have to be close to an office. And builders and building owners are getting serious about making the transition to zero energy. Millennials, meanwhile, are re-thinking their work-centric mindset and trying to make a change to avoid burnout.
Best Places to Live in the U.S.
This is a long list! U.S. News ranked the 150 best U.S. cities to live in on a combination of cost and quality of life. Click through to view lots of details about any city you’re interested in, from housing costs to transportation to entertainment and more.
The Best of Both Worlds
On a similar note, this article lists suburban areas that offer big-city amenities while remaining roomy and affordable. Zillow and Yelp teamed up to compare data and rank the top five towns.
Counting Down to Zero
The New Buildings Institute of Portland, Oregon released a report at the end of September with some encouraging numbers about net-zero buildings, as reported by CommercialPropertyExecutive.com. The number of net-zero buildings in the U.S. rose by 42 percent over 2018, to nearly 700. The 2020 Getting to Zero Buildings List includes both verified zero-energy buildings that have already achieved net-zero status, and “emerging” zero-energy buildings that are on track to meet their zero-energy goals.
A Bright Future for Solar Energy
Here are some encouraging words: “Solar PV is also now consistently cheaper than new coal- or gas-fired power plants in most countries, and solar projects now offer some of the lowest-cost electricity ever seen.” Click through to another news roundup from Elektrek to read more about solar’s bright future, plus clean generators for natural disaster victims and China’s greenhouse gas reduction plan.
Millennials and Burnout
Every recent generation has dealt with some level of overwork and burnout. But like so many other issues, it’s become the perfect storm for millennials as they grow to be the biggest part of the U.S. workforce. Here, Melody Wilding of Forbes interviews Anne Helen Petersen, author of Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation. The good news: there’s hope for a generation that wants to change its dysfunctional relationship with work. But it will take an intentional decision to change.
We hope you enjoyed this week’s links, and we’d love to hear from you! Do you have a tip for avoiding burnout? Has your work situation changed due to the pandemic, and have you considered moving as a result? Have a net-zero win you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments.
