In December 2005 the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the election of six new members to its board of directors. They are:

Michael Deane of Turner Construction in the contractor category;

•

Lisa Shpritz of Bank of America in the finance category;

•

Bettina von Hagen of Ecotrust in the nonprofit category;

•

Mark MacCracken of Calmac Manufacturing Corporation in the manufacturers category; and

•

Rob Watson of the Natural Resources Defense Council and

Michelle Hucal of

Environmental Design & Construction Magazine in the at-large category.

Re-elected to a second three-year term were current board chair Kevin Hydes of Stantec and Joe Van Belleghem of Windmill Development Group, Ltd. Among those leaving the board is BuildingGreen president Alex Wilson, who is stepping down after serving a maximum two terms.

First waterless urinals, now waterless . . . clothes washers? Two students at the National University of Singapore’s School of Design and Environment have won the 2005 Design Lab Award at the international Electrolux Design Lab competition for their design of Airwash, a washing machine that uses neither water nor detergent. Airwash instead relies on negative ions, compressed air, and deodorants to clean clothing. More information is at designlab.electrolux.com/node959.asp.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reached a settlement with DuPont over the company’s alleged withholding of information about the health risks of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, also referred to as C8), which is used to make Teflon^® and other products (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 3 and

Vol. 13, No. 8). The settlement, which did not require DuPont to admit liability, includes $10.25 million in fines (the largest civil administrative penalty EPA has ever imposed); $5 million to fund a research program to evaluate the potential for nine of DuPont’s fluorotelomer-based products to break down to form PFOA; and $1.25 million to fund the Microscale and Green Chemistry Project in schools near the company’s Parkersburg, West Virginia, plant, where PFOA contaminated drinking water. More information is at www.epa.gov.

Peter Busby, AIA, managing director of Busby, Perkins+Will, based in Vancouver, British Columbia (a subsidiary company of Perkins+Will), has been named a member of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honor for lifetime achievement and service.

The architecture firm Perkins+Will has committed to buying renewable energy certificates (see

EBN

Vol. 11, No. 5) to offset the electricity use for all of its 17 North American offices. “The board of directors at Perkins+Will believes it was the right thing to do and was a great way to communicate Perkins+Will’s commitment to sustainability,” says Kim Chamness, AIA, associate principal.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched a website to inform consumers, state and local officials, and builders about cost-effective, durable, and energy-efficient solutions to disaster recovery and building reconstruction needs. The website, www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/disaster_recovery/, includes information on training opportunities as well as guidelines, fact sheets, and case studies developed by DOE, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and other organizations.

Guide to America’s Best Development Projects, which profiles a dozen projects the organization considers models for environmentally friendly, healthy, and livable communities. The report is available at www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/.

A research team led by Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Arizona State University has established the Center for Sustainable Engineering, supported by $1.7 million from the National Science Foundation and $350,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency. “We want this new Center to help the nation’s 1,500 engineering programs realize that being green may not be easy, but it is vitally important,” says Cliff Davidson, civil and environmental engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon. The Center’s first workshops are scheduled for July 2006 at Carnegie Mellon. For more information, visit www.csengin.org.

New College of California now offers an EcoDwelling concentration at its North Bay campus for both Masters and Bachelors degree programs. Classes take place on selected weekends to allow those with other weekday obligations (such as work) to attend. The program is being led by Carol Venolia, an early pioneer in green building with her

Building With Nature newsletter, which we reviewed in our very first issue (EBN

Vol. 1, No. 1) and which ceased publication in 2000. New College is online at www.newcollege.edu.

The Department of Architecture at the University of Minnesota has begun a new Sustainable Design program in its Department of Architecture. For more information, visit www.cala.umn.edu/architecture/.