Vegetated roofs remain small oases amid a desert of more conventional roofs, but according to a survey by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a nonprofit industry organization, 3.1 million ft² (290,000 m²) of green roof were installed in 2008, reflecting a growth rate of 35% over 2007.

Chicago distinguished itself for the third year in a row as the city with the most green roof—over half a million square feet—installed in the year covered by the survey. Washington, D.C., New York, and Vancouver, British Columbia, also placed high in the rankings.

A dramatic example of growing public policy support for green roofs is Toronto’s green roof bylaw, passed in May 2009, which sets a construction standard for the roofs and establishes minimum percentage requirements for green roof area on new large residential buildings, schools, commercial and industrial buildings, and nonprofit housing.

Enterprise Community Investment, a leader in financing green affordable housing, has received $95 million in tax credit authority through the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 made $1.5 billion in NMTC awards available; these were allocated to Enterprise and 31 other development entities.

The NMTC program, established in 2000, makes tax credits available to investors in community development projects in low-income areas; these tax credits are allocated through organizations like Enterprise. Although Enterprise has been focused on housing, it will use the New Markets tax credits to attract investors to commercial and mixed-use developments in economically distressed communities.

Annual energy-related emissions of CO₂ fell by 2.8% in 2008, while total energy consumption fell 2.2%, according to a report recently released by the Energy Information Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This decline was the largest since 1982, which saw a drop of 5.3% due to similar economic conditions and high fuel prices.

The sharpest drop in 2008 came in the transportation sector, where emissions fell by 5.2%. The only sector to see a rise in emissions was the commercial sector, including stores, office and government buildings, schools, and hospitals, whose combined emissions were 0.5% higher.

Since the summer of 2008, Smith & Fong of San Francisco has been offering bamboo plywood certified to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards (see

EBN May 2008). Now, the U.S. Green Building Council has declared that the FSC-certified bamboo can be counted toward the 50% certified wood requirement of Materials and Resources Credit 7 (MRc7) in LEED 2009.

According to the credit interpretation ruling, if project teams use certified bamboo to fulfill this requirement, all bamboo products in the building must be counted as part of the wood total. Using bamboo to fulfill MRc7 does not preclude teams from also using bamboo in pursuit of MRc6, which deals with rapidly renewable materials.

The credit interpretation ruling is available at www.usgbc.org; more information on the bamboo products is available at www.plyboo.com.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has released a new standard to address the challenges of using computer modeling programs to optimize a building design’s energy efficiency while minimizing the risk of moisture and mold problems.

Standard 160-2009, “Criteria for Moisture-Control Design Analysis in Buildings,” is intended for use on commercial buildings (although it could be used for homes as well) and describes methods of calculating conditions for a model that will give the most accurate picture of a building’s moisture performance. The standard will likely be used to inform prescriptive building code language; a draft version of the standard was already used to craft requirements for vapor barriers in one code.

Standard 160 will be subject to ongoing review and revision; it is available for $39 at www.ashrae.org/bookstore/

SolFocus, a manufacturer of concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems, announced in May 2009 that its SF-1000P module is the first such product to meet the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62108 standard, which was published in 2007.

The module consists of glass reflectors mounted on a two-axis tracking system that focus sunlight on multi-junction photovoltaic cells. Satisfying the IEC 62108 standard indicates that the module does not suffer undue power degradation, has adequate electrical insulation and ground-path continuity, and is able to withstand the elements and mechanical loads such as snow, ice, and wind. SolFocus expects that buyers, investors, and developers will see meeting the standard as a sign that its CPV technology is reliable and ready for larger-scale use.

Mandated by Congress in 1996, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program is finally up and running. EPA announced in April 2009 a final list of 67 pesticides that will be screened for their ability to disrupt hormones. Used commonly in outdoor applications, many of these chemicals are also used indoors to treat carpets, indoor plants, and insect infestations. EPA has also finalized the procedures it will use to test these chemicals; the procedures were revised after a 2007 public comment period. More information is available at www.epa.gov/endo/

BuildingGreen is making its unofficial LEED for New Construction Accredited Professional (LEED AP) practice exam available to BuildingGreen Suite members hoping to take the exam before it changes on June 30, 2009. This practice test is unforgiving, which means if you pass it, you’re very likely to sail through the real thing! If you have questions about any of the questions, they’ve probably been asked and answered already in the related BuildingGreen.com blog post and comments. This is the only LEED AP sample exam we know of that has been vetted in a public forum and updated continuously as improvements are identified.

After June 30, no LEED for New Construction exams will be offered until the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) releases a new one in the fall. Candidates passing the new exam will be subject to the new accreditation rules, including having to demonstrate actual LEED project experience.

BuildingGreen is making its unofficial LEED for New Construction Accredited Professional (LEED AP) practice exam available to BuildingGreen Suite members hoping to take the exam before it changes on June 30, 2009. This practice test is unforgiving, which means if you pass it, you’re very likely to sail through the real thing! If you have questions about any of the questions, they’ve probably been asked and answered already in the related BuildingGreen.com blog post and comments. This is the only LEED AP sample exam we know of that has been vetted in a public forum and updated continuously as improvements are identified.

After June 30, no LEED for New Construction exams will be offered until the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) releases a new one in the fall. Candidates passing the new exam will be subject to the new accreditation rules, including having to demonstrate actual LEED project experience.

Download BuildingGreen’s practice exam here:

For more information:

Green Building Certification Institute

www.gbci.org

 

The 2008 John Wiley & Sons book

Biophilic Design, edited by Stephen Kellert, Judith Heerwagen, and Martin Mador (with a chapter by

EBN executive editor Alex Wilson), has received the 2008 American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence in the Architecture and Urban Planning category. The book addresses how buildings can help to connect people to nature.

 

Shaw Industries Group, the world’s largest carpet manufacturer, and DAK Americas, the nation’s second-largest maker of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin and its largest producer of polyester staple fiber, are building a PET container recycling plant that the companies expect to be the largest in the U.S.

The joint venture, Clear Path Recycling, will begin construction of the plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in mid-2009 and is expected to be recycling 160 million pounds (73 million kg) of PET annually by early 2010 and 280 million pounds (130 million kg) by 2012. Shaw and DAK plan to use most of the recycled PET in their own products; about 25% will be sold to other companies. Shaw estimates the recycling operation will yield energy savings of 2.5 trillion Btus (2.6 trillion kJ) annually and save more than a million cubic yards (760,000 m^³) of landfill space each year.