The California Public Utilities Commission recently approved a budget that will funnel $3.1 billion to energy-efficiency efforts statewide over the next three years—an initiative that the commission says is the largest such program in American history.

The budget will fund, among other things, the California Statewide Program for... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced new procedures for minimizing the risk of exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in buildings.

According to EPA, between the years of 1950 and 1978 (when PCBs were phased out of use in the United States) the oily chemical was often added to caulking—used to seal gaps in... Read more

President Obama set federal agencies on a path to sustainability by signing an executive order on October 5, 2009. The order breaks new ground in federal climate action by requiring agencies to set 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets by the end of 2009 and meet a number of other environmental goals. It also requires agencies to... Read more

When you can and when you cannot count one material as contributing to more than one credit in the Materials and Resources category of LEED has confused me for years. Even the LEED Reference Guide doesn't lay it out clearly. So, after sorting it out for LEEDuser, I thought laying it out in a table might help.

There's a revolution underway with electric water heating. It could be just as significant as the shift from top-loaders to horizontal-axis front-loaders that we've seen in the laundry appliance industry.

For years, electric water heaters were simply insulated tanks with a... Read more

I'm writing this from San Francisco, where I've been at the West Coast Green Conference. This is the fourth year of... Read more

The membership of the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) has approved the current version of the LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) rating system. The system must be approved by all three participating organizations—CNU, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)—before it can be launched for... Read more

Mechanical systems need to be tuned up periodically to keep them operating smoothly and efficiently. That's true with our cars, and it's true with our heating systems. If you haven't done so already, now is the time... Read more

Thanks for the excellent investigative reporting on the hidden chemical hazards in the life cycle of polystyrene and the persistent halogenated flame retardant HBCD that comes along with it (see EBN Aug. 2009). Just as we ignored carbon dioxide’s persistence and accumulation in our atmosphere and caused ourselves major climate change... Read more

EBN advisory board member, was the founding chairman of The American... Read more

I just finished reading your excellent article "Designing for Adaptation" (see EBN Sept. 2009) and I want you to know that I think it is one of the best articles on the rationale for green building practices I have ever read. Thank you for this valuable resource. I have benefited from EBN immensely over the past few years and want you to know... Read more

Mike Italiano, U.S. Green Building Council cofounder and current CEO of the Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability, recently announced a new set of underwriting standards for investors interested in backing commercial green building projects.

In an expanded effort to ensure continual performance of LEED projects, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently launched its Building Performance Initiative, which will work in conjunction with the Council’s decision to revoke certification under the 2009 rating system—and beyond—if a building’s performance is inconsistent (see

EBN to take a deeper look at alternative insulation materials, particularly relating to their toxicity and life-cycle impacts.

Research by the Green Science Policy... Read more