For the second time, the Holcim Awards, sponsored by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, are open to entries (see

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Vol. 15, No. 8). The awards recognize projects that meet housing and infrastructure needs without harming future generations. Projects are eligible for the competition if construction had not... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced in June 2007 its intention to commit $1 million to green building research, including areas such as human health and productivity, climate change mitigation, the business case for green building, and passive survivability. The structure and schedule for funding by USGBC have not been determined... Read more

The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, started in February 2007, continues to grow. Created by five states—Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington—the alliance grew to include Utah and, recently, the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba. The initiative requires the signatory states to work together to... Read more

At its annual convention in Baltimore, Maryland, in June 2007, the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) announced its forthcoming GreenFormat product data-reporting tool. GreenFormat is a Web-based questionnaire and product listing service that manufacturers can use to report on environmental aspects of their products. BuildingGreen, Inc... Read more

The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) will undertake a global project to encourage retrofitting buildings with energy-efficient technologies, former President Bill Clinton announced in May 2007. The program brings together several energy service companies and banks to help initiate and finance retrofit programs in 15 cities around the world,... Read more

Just as President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal led America out of the Great Depression in our grandparent’s day, a dramatic set of initiatives will be required if we are to prevent the Great Warming. Many have argued for something akin to the Apollo Project to carry out the research and development needed to advance low-cost renewable energy... Read more

ASTM International has published a new standard for investigations of indoor air quality problems in residential buildings. Standard D-7297 contains guidelines for an initial assessment of possible indoor air quality problems and a subsequent three-phase process for finding the sources of any problems. A first-phase walk through the house is... Read more

One can hardly pick up a magazine or turn on the television today without hearing something about climate change. The issue finally appears to be gaining traction in our nation’s collective consciousness. Much of the focus of reducing greenhouse gas emissions rightly centers on how we design and construct buildings. Indeed, the 2030... Read more

The term "volatile organic compound" (VOC) means different things to different people. In high school or college chemistry class we learned that VOCs are a class of carbon-based compounds that readily become volatile (gaseous) under ordinary (atmospheric) conditions. Thus, we learned that VOCs are any of those carbon-based compounds that smell... Read more

Following a successful nine-month pilot program, a mercury-thermostat recycling program is being rolled out nationwide. Created by the independent nonprofit Product Stewardship Institute and the industry-owned nonprofit Thermostat Recycling Corporation, the program works with municipal hazardous waste collection programs to collect thermostats... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released version 2.0 of its EnergyPlus modeling software. Compatible with Windows and Linux operating systems, the new version of the software features additional weather and materials data, a new green roof simulation tool, and enhancements to its ventilation and mechanical systems modeling tools. More... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the Watershed Plan Builder, an interactive, Web-based tool designed to help planners, stakeholders, and communities develop watershed management plans. The tool creates an outline of a watershed plan tailored to a specific project based on data entered by the user. This outline walks... Read more

Nuclear power is increasingly being touted as a leading solution to global climate change. Nuclear energy proponents—and a growing number of environmentalists—correctly point out that nuclear fission, the heat source in nuclear power plants, does not emit greenhouse gases. Given the clear need to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, nuclear... Read more

Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability, software from the Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Free download from www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/software/bees.html or order from the U.S. EPA’s Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse, 202-566-0799, ppic@epa.gov. For further... Read more

Launched in March 2007 by Architecture for Humanity (AFH), the Open Architecture Network is an online, interactive database and workspace for designers and architects to share projects and ideas. Uploaded projects are protected by Creative Commons licenses, which allow authors and designers to grant some or all of their copyrights to the public... Read more

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The California Energy Commission (CEC) filed suit against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in April 2007 to require DOE to uphold California’s washing machine efficiency standards. In December 2006, DOE denied the State’s 2005 request for a waiver from federal washing machine standards; the waiver would have allowed California to enact... Read more