NSF’s Fly Ash Ruling and Post-Consumer Alchemy

Since when are coal-burning power plants “consumers”? A look at NSF’s dubious recycling definitions. BioCel carpet backing replaces petroleum-based polymers with those made from soybeans and contains Celceram fly ash as recycled content.Photo Credit: United Textile

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Heating With Wood Pellets

What to like and what not to like about pellet stoves and pellet boilers. Our Quadrafire pellet stove, which we can operate even during a power outage. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson

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How Many Bikes Really Fit on that Rack?

Sometimes bikers have to improvise where to leave their bikes, but many common bike racks may be worse than nothing. Bikers need wheel benders like a fish needs a bike lock.Photo Credit: forkergirl, October 28, 2002 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

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Why Fresh Air Helps You Think: Top 5 Stories This Week

Squeezing big box stores (and more people) into cities, living in a CO2 fog, and tallying up the value of green homes.

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LED and Power: Quality Matters

LED replacement lamps look super-efficient on payback charts and utility bills, but they may be sucking more power than you realize. LED replacement lamps like this one from Cree  have a high power factor; those intended for residential use often don't. Photo Credit: Cree, Inc.

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Heating With Wood Safely and Efficiently

Understanding wood stoves and wood heat so that you can educate your clients. Vermont Castings Encore-NC wood stove with an EPA emissions rating of 0.7 grams per hour. Click to enlarge.Photo Credit: Vermont Castings

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The Green Building Community Has Lost One of Its Pillars

Our friend and mentor, Malcolm Lewis, has passed away Malcolm Lewis will be sorely missed.Photo Credit: Harvey Mudd College

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The Most Moving Tree Story Ever Told: Top 5 Stories This Week

The Third World in U.S. cities, the greenest mile ever built in Chicago, and transplanting a really big tree in Texas. This historic oak tree is thriving in its new location after a Texas city moved it four months ago.Photo Credit: City of League City, Texas

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Good News and Bad News With the World Glut in Solar Panels

How China is affecting the world’s photovoltaic industry

Workers at a Suntech factory in China. Due to the glut in PV, Suntech has closed a quarter of it's manufacturing capacity.Photo Credit: Peter Parks, Getty Images for the New York Times

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Jailbreak Your Windows Instead of Buying Replacements: Top 5 Stories This Week

Healthy purchasing in Oregon, why unfixable windows are a waste of money, when driving was a war crime, and more. Can we bring back the days when car pooling was patriotic?Photo Credit: American Legion

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Free Webcast on Toxic Chemicals in Buildings: Now Available Online

Did you miss the live webcast? Get it here for free—and take a quiz for continuing education credits too. Guinea pigs everywhere want to know: do you know as much about toxic chemicals as a building professional should?

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A Growing Database of Healthier Building Products

The new Declare "nutrition label" and database will streamline the ardous task of finding Living Building Challenge-compliant products.

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Have Your Wood or Pellet Stove and Cleaner Air Too

Wood smoke is still a guilty pleasure in the northern U.S. and Canada. But newer wood stove technologies produce less smoke—and less guilt. This gravity-fed pellet stove from Wiseway produces few emissions and uses no electricity.Photo Credit: Wiseway Pellet Stoves

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A New Venture

Introducing the Resilient Design Institute: a new nonprofit organization that has been created in Brattleboro.

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Is the NYT Data Center Story in a Time Warp? Top 5 Stories This Week

Watch the plants! There are limits to their growth, and ours. Also: data center showdown, cargo bikes, and satellite photos of economic injustice.

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