BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

July 31, 2006
The nonprofit SustainLane.com has named Portland, Oregon, the most sustainable of the 50 largest cities in the U.S. Second and third went to San Francisco and Seattle, respectively, while Columbus, Ohio, was named least sustainable. The rankings were based on 13 factors: air quality, housing affordability, innovation, knowledge base and... Read more

News Brief

July 31, 2006
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded a grant to the American Horticultural Society (AHS) to update the map of plant hardiness zones, reflecting the average annual low temperatures across the country. More than three years after AHS completed the revised map, however, USDA has yet to publish it. The map is based on 16 years of data (... Read more

Product Review

July 31, 2006
Calling for a change from “turbine on a stick” wind generation equipment, which is unsuitable for most urban environments, AeroVironment, Inc., is introducing a new approach to small-scale wind generation that might best be described as turbines on the parapet. Founded by Paul MacCready, Ph.D., AeroVironment, based in Monrovia, California, has a... Read more

News Brief

July 31, 2006

The Chicago City Council established the Green Roof Improvement Fund in June 2006, which will encourage owners of existing downtown buildings to retrofit them with green roofs. The $500,000 fund will match the investments made by building owners, up to $100,000 per project. “With more green roofs than any other city in the United States,... Read more

Op-Ed

July 31, 2006

As Google™ has proven, the power of search engines on the Internet cannot be overestimated. We’re pleased to report that, having learned that lesson and using hardware and software from Google, we’ve now improved the search capability for our website at BuildingGreen.com and our

BuildingGreen Suite premium information service. Our new... Read more

News Brief

July 31, 2006
edited by Timothy G. Townsend and Helena Solo-Gabriele. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 2006. Hardcover, 501 pages, $139.95.

With greater awareness of environmental safety and health following the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ban on most lumber treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA), consumers, builders and architects... Read more

News Brief

July 31, 2006
Jason McLennan, principal at BNIM Architects, founder and director of Elements, BNIM’s sustainable design consulting division, and founder of Ecotone Publishing, has been named CEO of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, a chapter of both the U.S. and Canada Green Building Councils. McLennan will maintain a limited role at Elements and... Read more

News Analysis

July 31, 2006
Perfluorooctanoic acid, better known as PFOA or C8, has appeared in blood samples in polar bears, pregnant women across the U.S., and Chinese villagers. It is extremely resistant to breakdown, it is bioaccumulative, and an advisory panel to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called it a “likely carcinogen” (see

EBN

Vol.... Read more

News Brief

July 31, 2006

Building materials giant USG Corporation has joined the Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments, a group launched in 2003 to educate the marketplace and top management on the benefits of reducing the impact of facilities on the environment and building occupants. “By joining the Alliance, USG can work with like-minded companies to help... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006
A $1 million grant from the California Clean Energy Fund and $500,000 from PG&E Corporation will fund the Energy Efficiency Center at the University of California–Davis. The university will contribute $1.3 million in operating and research funds, faculty time, and office and laboratory space. Intended as “the world’s leading university center... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006
Changing student enrollment has led many school districts to rely on portable classroom units for overflow classes. Portable classrooms have traditionally been poor performers when it comes to energy and the environment. “These units use about three times as much energy per area as the school building itself and often compromise students’ and... Read more

Product Review

July 9, 2006
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs), based on semiconductor technology, have become the lighting technology of choice in outdoor signs, screens, traffic signals, and indicator lamps on vehicles and appliances. Until recently, however, high cost and product development obstacles have kept LEDs out of the residential lighting market. That may be about to... Read more

News Analysis

July 9, 2006

If a proposed regulation from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is adopted as planned on September 28, 2006, the U.S. market for particleboard and similar interior-grade panel products will change dramatically. The proposed regulation drastically reduces the allowable levels of urea-formaldehyde (UF) emissions from composite wood... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006

The U.S. Army has announced that, beginning in 2008, all of its new buildings will achieve Silver or higher ratings in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Rating System. LEED will supplant the Army’s own Sustainable Project Rating Tool (SPiRiT), which was modeled after LEED. The Army has also committed to certifying all of its housing once... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006
Environmental Design and Construction (

ED+C) magazine has announced the winners of its annual Excellence in Design Awards. This year’s jury included

ED+C staff members as well as Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC); Jim Nicolow, AIA, head of the sustainability initiative at Lord, Aeck &... Read more

News Analysis

July 9, 2006
On June 12, 2006, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson announced the launch of WaterSense, EPA’s new water efficiency program, noting that the program’s aim is “spreading the ethic of water efficiency and promoting the tools to make wise water choices.” Like EPA’s successful Energy Star™ program for energy-... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006

In a May 2006 announcement before the New York League of Conservation Voters, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a new Division of Sustainability that will operate within the Mayor’s Office of Operations. Bloomberg’s announcement, in which he called sustainability “a philosophy of realistic optimism,” follows his 2004 creation of a... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006
New York City’s first office tower to earn LEED® certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), 7 World Trade Center has earned a Gold rating in LEED for Core and Shell (LEED-CS). USGBC President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi congratulated the project team, noting that the building “will help us use the language of architecture to build a... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006
Carpet Monsters and Killer Spores: A Natural History of Toxic Moldby Nicholas P. Money. Oxford University Press, New York City, 2004. Hardcover, 178 pages, $19.95.

My Office is Killing Me!: The Sick Building Survival Guideby Jeffrey C. May. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2006. Paperback, 317 pages, $18.95.

In 2000,... Read more

News Analysis

July 9, 2006

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, which represents the 1,183 U.S. cities with populations of 30,000 or more, has called for all new buildings and major renovation projects to be climate neutral by 2030. The Conference unanimously adopted Resolution 50, “Adopting the ‘2030 Challenge’ for All Buildings,” during its 74th annual meeting, in June 2006... Read more