When The American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment first convened, it immediately identified as a top priority the need for information about the environmental impacts of building materials. With funding from the U.S. EPA and the technical expertise of Joel Ann Todd’s Scientific Consulting Group, AIA produced a series of... Read more

A single-family home near the Twin Cities in Minnesota is the first to be constructed according to the American Lung Association’s recently revised

Health House® guidelines. The home, completed in September and open for tours, was designed with special attention to ventilation, air filtration, and moisture control. A second Health House... Read more

Sewerage Commission-Oroville Region (SC-OR) wastewater treatment plant in Oroville, California, will begin operating on solar energy this month. A 3-acre (1.2 ha) field adjacent to the plant is home to a

520 kW solar power array, installed by Sun Power and Geothermal Energy of San Rafael, that will supply 80% of the plant’s energy... Read more

The

Santa Fe Public Utilities Committee believes it has found a way to stretch the city’s limited water supply to satisfy an ever-growing population. If the committee’s controversial “

toilet tax” is accepted by the City Council, builders will have to replace 8–12 toilets in existing Santa Fe buildings with low-flow models to... Read more

is leaving his position as research consultant for the Green Development Services division of the

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) to work for a leading U.K. firm of green consulting engineers and landscape architects,

Battle McCarthy Ltd. After a stint in London, Shepherd will be setting up a U.S. office for that firm... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and The American Institute of Architects (AIA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in October, continuing and expanding their partnership that

promotes energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources in the built environment. Details are available from DOE’s Chris Kielich at 202/586-5806.... Read more

executive editor Alex Wilson testified in October before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which has jurisdiction over all U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) programs. Wilson joined Claire Barnett, founder and director of the Healthy Schools Network, and Lois Gibbs, director of the Center for... Read more

Torrance, California will soon be home to a 501 kW rooftop PV system. The array, to be installed by PowerLight Corporation, will bedeck 52,000 ft2 (4,800 m2) of the Toyota Motor Sales USA headquarters. Details are available online at

www.powerlight.com.

SierraPine Ltd., a Roseville, California-based company specializing in composite panels, is reformulating and renaming its Medite FR, a Class 1, fire-retardant medium-density fiberboard (MDF) panel. It was formerly manufactured with a polyurea resin matrix adhesive (MDI) rather than conventional formaldyhyde-based resins. The new product,... Read more

Specialized, energy-intensive lighting techniques can benefit seniors, according to the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Researchers at the LRC developed a set of

lighting principles for older adults and put them to the test at two assisted-living facilities. The results of the study... Read more

International Forest Products (Interfor) surprised Canadian wilderness advocates in October with the announcement that they would

stop logging the Elaho Valley of British Columbia, about 125 miles (200 km) north of Vancouver. The valley is home to the spotted owl, possibly Canada’s most endangered species. Fewer than 25 breeding pairs... Read more

The Energy Star™ Commercial Buildings program recognizes buildings that perform in the top 25% of their class in terms of energy use. As part of that program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set up a Web-based tool called

Portfolio Manager. Users enter information from their energy bills into Portfolio Manager, which... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $1.5 million in grants to 30 entities in 19 states as part of the

Million Solar Roofs Initiative. The new partnerships will combine grant money with private funds to support solar energy through education, the development of financing options and building codes, and construction. Details can be... Read more

Software package from the Athena™ Sustainable Materials Institute, PO Box 189, Merrickville, Ontario, K0G 1N0, Canada; 613/269-3795, 613/269-3796 (fax),

www.athenasmi.org Athena EIE software: $390; LCI Database reports: $325; package of both products with one-year interpretive support: $715; educational and multicopy discounts available... Read more

California Governor Gray Davis signed legislation in September committing the state to supply

20% of its retail power sales with renewable energy by 2017. Lauded by environmentalists, the bill, SB 1078, is criticized by most renewable energy companies, who complain of ambiguities and complexities. Ten percent of the state’s energy... Read more

As I follow the Bush Administration’s policies on energy and its steadfast opposition to the Kyoto Treaty on global climate change, I can’t help wondering what happened to the ‘can-do’ attitude that made America such a great place. Our founding fathers were willing to look beyond their self-interests as they declared their independence from... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council will host its first

Young People’s Forum at its upcoming Green Building International Conference and Expo in Austin, Texas. Young professionals in the green building movement will have a chance to network and learn from one another during the two-hour seminar on November 13. For more details, e-mail... Read more

Rarely the focus of much attention, water heating accounts for surprisingly large energy loads and environmental impacts. Water heating is typically the second largest energy expenditure in homes (behind space heating) and the fourth largest in commercial buildings (behind lighting, heating, and cooling). In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, a... Read more