The Lewis and Clark State Office Building, home to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, achieved 53 points in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED^® for New Construction Rating System, earning a Platinum rating. Located in Jefferson City, Missouri, the 120,000 ft² (11,148 m²) building restores the former site of a state surplus property depot and a prison building, both of which were deconstructed prior to the new construction. The site features bioswales, native plantings, and a 50,000-gallon (190,000-l) rainwater storage tank. The building, designed by BNIM Architects, is expected to use about three-fifths the energy of a conventional building.

New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to turn over information about the levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in paints and similar products. Because VOCs contribute to smog and respiratory problems, EPA has limited the amount of VOCs that paints, stains, and varnishes can contain. EPA allows exemptions, however, if companies report the amounts by which they exceed the limits and pay a so-called “pay to spray” fine. DEC requested information on those exceedances via the Freedom of Information Act, but EPA has refused to release it on the grounds that it constitutes confidential business information. “The state is entitled by law to this critical information so it can effectively implement its clean-air programs to preserve public health and the environment,” says New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who believes EPA is violating both the Freedom of Information Act and the Clean Air Act.

A study sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found no safe level of ground-level ozone, a component of smog linked to respiratory problems. The study, carried out by researchers at Yale and Johns Hopkins universities and published by

Environmental Health Perspectives, found that an increase of ten parts per billion in day-to-day ozone concentrations causes a 0.3% increase in mortality—about 2,000 additional deaths per year in a city the size of New York, according to Yale’s Michelle Bell, Ph.D., lead author. “We found strong evidence that if there is any safe level for ozone’s impact on mortality, it is at very low concentrations, nearing natural background levels,” she says. EPA is currently reviewing its acceptable level of ozone; 100 million Americans live in areas exceeding that level. Along with motivating stricter regulations on outdoor emissions of ozone, this new information increases the importance of eliminating indoor ozone-generating equipment—including, most obviously, ozone generators, which continue to be marketed as air purification devices (see

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 10). The study is online at www.ehponline.org/docs/2006/8816/abstract.html.

New Mexico has become the first state in the U.S. to join the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the nation’s only market-based cap-and-trade system designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The state hopes to reduce its emissions to 2000 levels by 2012, 10% below 2000 levels by 2020, and 75% below 2000 levels by 2050. CCX membership is legally binding, so New Mexico must purchase credits to offset any emissions above its reduction goals. “We want to save money, use energy wisely, and help combat climate change,” says Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. “By joining CCX, state government is setting an example that I hope other municipalities and businesses will follow.” CCX is online at www.chicagoclimatex.com.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration launched the Green California website, www.green.ca.gov, in February 2006. Rosario Marin, secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency, hopes the site will become “the primary ’go-to’ site—the new, centralized, electronic reference library—for engineers, architects, building managers, contractors, purchasing agents, and other business and government officials and environmentalists in their quest for a green California.” The website is intended as a clearinghouse of information on designing, constructing, benchmarking, and operating green buildings, and on purchasing environmentally friendly products and services.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has launched a new website designed to “guide building professionals through the green building process, from putting together a business case to design, construction, and marketing.” “Increasingly,” says Rob Watson, director of NRDC’s green building programs, “building professionals are interested in building green but need focused information to understand the green design process and make the case to their colleagues, clients, and investors.” The site is online at www.nrdc.org/buildinggreen/.

New York City’s Skyscraper Museum will be showing the exhibit “Green Towers for New York: From Visionary to Vernacular,” featuring the city’s existing green high-rises as well as some in design and construction, through May 2006. The Museum is online at www.skyscraper.org.

Conservation International (CI) and George Washington University (GWU) are collaborating in the development and implementation of the Ecotourism Learning Program, designed to “provide a set of tools, knowledge, and standards to help communities create ecotourism destinations that successfully attract tourists while protecting the natural environment and improving their welfare.” The program will target projects in key biodiversity and wilderness locations around the world. More information about the program is online at www.ecotour.org/xp/ecotour/.

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) plans to air a new television series called Building Green, beginning in spring 2006. Billed as a “home improvement program about building gorgeous homes that are healthier, more energy efficient, and better for the environment,” the show’s first season documents the creation of a 4,500 ft² (420 m²) strawbale home (that of co-producer and host, Kevin Contreras) in Montecito, California. More information about the program is online at www.buildinggreentv.com.

In January 2006, New York City’s New School opened the Tishman Environment and Design Center, which will offer an undergraduate program in environmental studies. “One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Center will be the critical role of design,” says Joel Towers, former director of sustainable design at the Parsons School of Design and newly named director of the Tishman Center. “Design and design processes will be central to how we structure research, imagine possible future scenarios, and construct specific interventions that address the limits of human adaptation to a changing environment,” notes Towers. The New School is online at www.newschool.edu.