New York City’s Skyscraper Museum will be showing the exhibit “Green Towers for New York: From Visionary to Vernacular,” featuring the city’s existing green high-rises as well as some in design and construction, through May 2006. The Museum is online at www.skyscraper.org.

Ecotone Publishing, LLC, based in Kansas City, Missouri, announced in February 2006 that it will offset all carbon dioxide emissions related to its business operations. Ecotone, which publishes books about green design and construction, purchased 50 tons (45 tonnes) of carbon offsets to cover emissions caused by its travel, waste production,... Read more

The Emerging Green Builders chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is encouraging entries to its annual Natural Talent Design Competition. This year’s competition will be administered through USGBC’s regional chapters. “This is an exciting change,” says Joe Snider, chair of the Emerging Green Builders Committee. “Contest entrants... Read more

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration launched the Green California website, www.green.ca.gov, in February 2006. Rosario Marin, secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency, hopes the site will become “the primary ’go-to’ site—the new, centralized, electronic reference library—for engineers, architects, building... Read more

In little more than a decade, bamboo flooring has become a serious contender in the hardwood flooring market, and some believe that bamboo plywood is next. Lauded in environmental circles for its quick growth and the fact that it can be harvested without harming the plant, bamboo seems almost too good to be true. In fact, like any product, it... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has set tougher standards for clothes washers to qualify for the Energy Star® label, beginning January 1, 2007. The new standards increase the modified energy factor (MEF), the capacity of the clothes container divided by the total energy consumption per cycle, from 1.42 to 1.72 ft3/kWh per cycle. The new... Read more

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Vol. 11, No. 1), the only downside we found was that the noise might be a little . . . much. The sound of the Xlerator’s 16,000-ft/minute (5,000- m/minute) airstream being deflected off hands can reach 90 decibels. Since that sound level can be a problem in some... Read more

Environmental Building News (EBN) reported on the first building codes for strawbale construction (see

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Vol. 5, No. 1). The State of Nevada had recently passed a mandate requiring local jurisdictions to permit strawbale buildings, and California had approved voluntary guidelines that could be adopted at the... Read more

The New York State Education Department and the State University of New York (SUNY) have approved a new four-year undergraduate program in renewable and alternative energy applications, including wind, solar, geothermal, fuel cell, biofuel, and other emerging technologies. SUNY Canton will offer the program beginning with the fall 2006 semester... Read more

To help its 77,000 members meet their green design information needs, The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has signed an agreement with BuildingGreen, Inc. The agreement will bring

Environmental Building News (EBN) articles to AIA members through AIA Knowledge Community publications, including

AIArchitect, and through AIA’... Read more

2005 set a new record, according to estimates from the Munich Re Foundation, with more than $200 billion in economic losses due to weather-related disasters. Of that total, more than $75 billion was covered by insurance companies. Hurricane Katrina caused much of that loss, with damages estimated at $125 billion, of which about $45 billion was... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the winners of its annual EnergyValue Housing Awards, designed to promote and improve the energy efficiency of new homes in the U.S. The program is funded by DOE’s Building America Program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with support from several private sponsors, including... Read more

Greenpeace International unveiled the Music Wood Initiative at the January 2006 trade show of NAMM, the International Music Products Association. The Music Wood Initiative was created to limit the environmental and social degradation caused in the making of musical instruments. “If you walk through a music store, the instruments are comprised... Read more

Vol. 13, No. 1), quite a bit has happened in the area of standardized testing of toilet performance. The Maximum Performance (MaP™) testing that we reported on has been progressing at a rapid pace. Veritec Consulting, Inc., has now tested well over 200 toilet models, and the... Read more

A pilot study by Yale and Columbia universities ranked the U.S. 28th in environmental performance. The 2006 Environmental Performance Index ranked countries based on sixteen indicators related to environmental health, air quality, water resources, productive natural resources, biodiversity and habitat, and sustainable energy. New Zealand scored... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with dozens of government, industry, and nonprofit partners, is accepting applications for the 2006 P3 Award, a design competition for scientific and technical solutions to environmental challenges. “P3 highlights people, prosperity, and the planet—the three pillars of sustainability,”... Read more

On January 4, 2006, the Executive Committee of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) board of directors approved the charter of a Research Committee and appointed its initial five members. This is a core

organizational committee of the Council (as opposed to being a LEED® committee) that focuses on one of the USGBC’s six key goals in... Read more

The new energy tax credits outlined in the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 took effect on January 1, 2006. For more information on the provisions in the act, see

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Vol. 14, No. 9.