BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

January 1, 2002

Receive an award from His Majesty the King of Sweden if your project is a winner in the

Stockholm Partnerships for Sustainable Cities competition! Projects contributing to sustainability in any of 12 categories can be submitted via a Web-based form for the competition, and all valid submissions will be viewable online at

www.... Read more

News Brief

January 1, 2002
by Lester R. Brown, 2001. W. W. Norton & Company, New York. 352 pages, $27.95 hardback; $15.95 paperback.

Eco-Economy is not only a book you should buy and read. It is a book you should buy extra copies of to give to policy makers, educators, corporate executives, and friends.

I was so impressed with a pre-publication copy that I... Read more

News Brief

January 1, 2002

by Amy Vickers, 2001, WaterPlow Press, PO Box 2475, Amherst, MA 01004-2475; 413/253-1520, 413/253-1521 (fax), www.waterplowpress.com. Hardcover, 464 pages, $99.95.

Much more than a “handbook,” this is a veritable encyclopedia of water conservation methods and equipment in buildings, landscapes, and beyond.

Vickers has drawn on... Read more

Feature

January 1, 2002

During judging of the Northeast Green Building Design Competition last spring, I was struck by the number of residential entries with really stellar passive solar design and super-high-performance building envelopes. Clearly, I thought as I began reviewing the features, we’ve come a long way in high-performance residential green building since... Read more

News Brief

January 1, 2002

Both first-place winners of the 2002 ASHRAE Technology Awards utilize lake water for cooling on a large scale. The first project, providing a whopping 86% energy savings for a large campus, was designed and constructed by a team of engineers led by Lanny Joyce of the Cornell University Department of Utilities and Energy Management in Ithaca,... Read more

News Brief

January 1, 2002

In a December 19, 2001 letter to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Affairs, the U.S. Green Building Council clarified that the lack of any LEED credits for the exclusion of vinyl flooring should not “be taken as reliable evidence that PVC is considered environmentally benign.” The letter was signed by Christine Ervin, President and CEO... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2001

David L. Crawford is a recipient of the

2001 Presidential Award from the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), for his work in creating awareness of sky brightness and light pollution, and leadership in promoting outdoor lighting to reduce sky brightness. The award was presented at the August 6, 2001 Honors Luncheon... Read more

Op-Ed

November 1, 2001

I read with interest and concern your article on Plastics in Construction (

Vol. 10, No. 7/8). As always, EBN goes out of its way to present an even and fair picture of the issues and alternatives. Emphasis in the article was on alternatives and LCA, which are important areas for exploration. I think, however, that in this case, you were... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2001

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters, previously cited in

EBN as the first (so far, the only) building to earn a LEED™ Platinum rating, now has more high-profile kudos. The building is one of 11 winners of the

5th Annual Business Week

/Architectural Record Awards, selected from among 192 applicants and 19 finalists... Read more

Product Review

November 1, 2001

While green roofs can be created using a wide range of components and configurations, nearly all involve an integral relationship between the roof membrane and the growing medium—typically through an intermediate drainage layer. Often, green roof systems are sold as part of a new roofing package. Introduced in August, GreenGrid™ takes a... Read more

News Analysis

November 1, 2001
Effective October 8, 2001, businesses in Oregon can get a tax credit for buildings that achieve a Silver rating or higher under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED™ Rating System. These substantial tax credits, amounting to as much as $142,900 for a 10,000 ft2 (930 m2) Platinum-rated project (see table), “should be enough to pay extra initial... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2001

On June 1

commercial clothes washers with volumes of 3.5 ft

3 (100 l) or less were added to the list of Energy Star®-qualified products. Until then, the program was limited to residential washers. To qualify, a washer must have a Modified Energy Factor (MEF) of 1.26 or higher—the same as the standard for residential washers. This... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2001

Centex Homes, one of the nation’s largest home builders, announced in October

one of the biggest corporate gifts ever to The Nature Conservancy, which celebrated its 50th anniversary on October 22. Centex will provide $2.25 million over three years to support preserves in the states of Texas, Florida, and California. This pledge amounts... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2001

Certification Resource Center by the

Certified Forest Products Council

www.certifiedwood.org

ForestWorld

www.forestworld.com

The Certified Forest Products Council (CFPC) is a nonprofit organization working to increase awareness of, and develop markets for, products from environmentally sound forest operations. Although... Read more

News Analysis

November 1, 2001
Several companies that emerged over the past five years to produce particleboard and medium-density fiberboard from straw have had a rough go of it. One of the largest—Elie, Manitoba-based Isobord Enterprises—was in receivership when the assets were bought by Dow Chemical Canada in the Spring of this year. As supplier of the MDI resin to Isobord,... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2001

Ross Spiegel, president of Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and a board member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), has established a new

Environmental Task Team within CSI. The team aims to incorporate environmental considerations into CSI’s operations and format documents. Among its tasks are:

• developing a... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2001
Architects Chetwood Associates recently received the

Design Sense 2001 award of £40,000 for their work on Sainsbury’s supermarket on the Greenwich Peninsula. The Studio eg Ecowork furniture line (see

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 9) was recognized in the same September 26, 2001 program with the

Corporate Prize for Sustainable Design.... Read more

Product Review

November 1, 2001
Whirlpool Corporation, which manufactures half of all residential clothes washers sold in the U.S. and is the world’s largest manufacturer of major home appliances, was slow to join other manufacturers with water- and energy-saving clothes washers. But during 2001 the company introduced two entire lines of efficient washers. In February, the... Read more

News Analysis

November 1, 2001

The Sustainability Subcommittee (E06.71) of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee E06 on Performance of Buildings has released two Standards documents and is preparing others. Under the leadership of subcommittee chair Dru Meadows, Standard E 2114-01, “Standard Terminology for Sustainability Relative to the Performance... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2001

Entries are due by December 1 for the

National Green Building Awards to be given at the 2002 National Green Building Conference, March 24–26 in Seattle. Award categories include: Green Advocate; Green Project of the Year—New Home; Green Marketing; Green Building Program of the Year; and Outstanding Green Product. For details, contact... Read more