After over a year of renovation supervised by Wilkinson Blender Architecture, a 120-year-old building in Chicago is ready to house both living quarters for its owners and a recording studio for their record label. The two-story building has registered for LEED for Homes certification and features several renewable-energy systems that will provide around 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year—enough to provide half of the building’s energy needs. A large photovoltaic array joins three wind turbines on the roof, which also contains a garden and patio. The project uses 15 wells in conjunction with a ground-source heat pump; the wells were drilled from within the basement using a small, portable drilling rig, since the urban lot prevented the use of any large machinery.

Fresh on the heels of “greening” the Governor’s Mansion following the January 1, 2007, inauguration of her husband, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, First Lady Silda Wall Spitzer is now working to help other New York residents do the same. The First Lady has proposed legislation to grant up to $10,000 for new or renovated homes that meet “green building criteria.” New York’s Deputy Secretary for the Environment, Judith Enck, said the grants would encourage “typical middle-class homeowners to embrace LEED standards in their homes.” Spitzer said that part of the intention is to defray the costs of improving energy efficiency. Grants would be awarded at a rate of $5/ft² ($50/m²) for up to $10,000 per home, a formula modeled after the state’s incentive for greening commercial buildings.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has created a new website, Energy Star Quantity Quotes, to help those wishing to purchase Energy Star appliances and equipment in bulk. After registering with the website, purchasers can request price quotes from Energy Star partner companies; the website currently has supplier listings for light bulbs, lighting fixtures, and appliances such as clothes washers, refrigerators, and room air-conditioners. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which collaborates with DOE on the Energy Star program, hopes to add more categories of products, such as windows, doors, and skylights, although there is currently no timeline for this expansion. Quantity Quotes is online at www.quantityquotes.net.

In the first official federal statement about the chemical’s risks, a panel of scientists for the Center for Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, part of the National Institutes of Health, concluded in August 2007 that bisphenol-A poses “some concern” for human health. After looking at more than 500 animal studies of the chemical, used to make the hard plastic polycarbonate found in water bottles, translucent building panels, and high-impact glazing, the panel agreed that there is a risk that it causes neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants, and children. The panel expressed “minimal” and “negligible” concerns about various reproductive effects of the chemical, which mimics estrogen. These findings will be forwarded to the National Toxicology Council, which will determine whether bisphenol-A should be considered toxic to humans and issue a report with its recommendations for regulation of the chemical. More information is available at http://cerhr.niehs.nih.gov/chemicals/index.html.

The American Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning, and Refrigerating Engineers (ASHRAE), the U.S. Green Building Council, and the U.K.-based Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers are working together to provide guidance for measuring and reporting building performance. After a literature review, due out on September 1, 2007, the group will create baseline criteria for energy use, water use, air quality, thermal comfort, and acoustics. According to ASHRAE, the final report will be completed no sooner than the group’s annual winter meeting in January 2008.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized new Energy Star specifications for commercial dishwashers and ice machines. Starting on October 11, 2007, manufacturers will be able to qualify their dishwashers for the Energy Star label; the specification for ice machines will not take effect until January 1, 2008. According to Gwen Dobbs with ICF International, a contractor working with EPA on the specifications, about 25% of models currently on the market should qualify for the Energy Star label. More information is at www.energystar.gov; search for “commercial dishwashers” or “ice machines.”

Developers and builders in Babylon, New York, are preparing to register their buildings for LEED certification to comply with a 2006 local law that goes into effect in December 2007. The law requires all new commercial buildings larger than 4,000 ft² (400 m²) to achieve at least a LEED Certified rating. In addition, projects applying for building permits must pay three cents per square foot (32 cents/m

²), up to $15,000, to a town fund used to support and promote green building; if the building achieves LEED certification, the fee is refunded. If the building fails to achieve certification, the fee is forfeited and serves as the penalty for noncompliance with the law. According to Peter Cardona, past chair of Long Island’s USGBC chapter, the law has been well received by townspeople and developers alike. Cardona noted that the neighboring town of Islip is considering a similar law.

The corporate headquarters for Armstrong World Industries, a flooring, ceiling, and cabinet manufacturer based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has earned a Platinum certification through LEED for Existing Buildings. The nine-year-old building, which achieved 64 points out of a possible 85, features onsite renewable power generation, waterless urinals, extensive daylighting, and native landscaping. The project earned an innovation point for the acoustical quality of its open-plan office spaces, which achieved an

articulation class—a measurement of reflected speech noise from one partitioned workspace to another—of 200 using Armstrong’s own Optima ceiling panels. The average articulation class for open-plan offices is 150–180, according to the company, and the best possible score is 250.

At its annual conference in New York in July 2007, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) announced a seven-point energy savings challenge for its more than 16,500 members. The challenge calls for BOMA members to decrease energy consumption in existing buildings by 30% across their portfolios by 2012 and benchmark every building’s energy performance and water usage at least once a year using the Energy Star benchmarking tool. BOMA features education for maintenance personnel, energy audits, and improved building maintenance as chief strategies in the plan. More information is available at www.boma.org.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has announced the creation of the National Green Building Program, which will be launched in February 2008. The first iteration of the program will be based on the Green Home Building Guidelines written by NAHB (see

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 2); the National Green Building Standard being developed by NAHB with the International Code Council (see

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Vol. 16, No. 3) will be incorporated into the program when it is available. The national building program will allow builders to submit their projects for certification and have them verified by a third party. In addition, local building certification programs whose criteria meet or exceed those of the NAHB program will be able to use the national program to certify projects. More information is

available at www.nahb.org/greenbuildingprogram.