Originally founded in Seattle in 1999, the Sustainable Building Advisor Program has grown into a national endeavor. Now available in several communities in Washington and Oregon, as well as in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the program is geared toward building professionals who are looking to extend their knowledge of green building practices.... Read more

After a court-issued remand, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced new emissions limits for mercury and total hydrocarbons for cement kilns built after December 2005. The new regulations will not apply to kilns built before that date, which are only required to meet standard industry practices for reducing emissions. EPA... Read more

This was the first program I’ve seen in which you can tell that someone approached the building with sustainability in mind,” says Scott Shell, of EHDD Architecture, in reference to the client’s concept document for the Department of Global Ecology, a new arm of the Washington, D.C. –based Carnegie Institution. Located alongside the venerable... Read more

It’s a common saying in the green building movement that “the greenest building is the one that isn’t built.” This ideal may be great, but with growing demand in many parts of the U.S.—and the world—for buildings, it’s often ignored. Meanwhile, millions of buildings already exist but are not being used to their full potential, despite... Read more

Heifer international is a nonprofit organization that addresses global problems with an approach founded in sustainability. It gives livestock such as goats, cows, and chickens to families in need as a lasting source of food and income. In 2000, during a period of strong growth and with its 200-plus staff spread across five locations in Little... Read more

Among the many announcements at the 2006 Greenbuild conference was the formation of the Green Cleaning Network, a nonprofit group dedicated to spreading information about green cleaning in hospitals, schools, offices, and other buildings (for more on green cleaning, see

EBN Vol. 14, No. 9). The founding members of the network include... Read more

Averting serious climate change would be far cheaper today than dealing with it in the future, according to a report commissioned by the British government and written by Sir Nicholas Stern, chief of Britain’s economic service and former chief economist of the World Bank. If we continue to allow unmitigated climate change, dealing with its... Read more

Despite strong opposition from industry groups, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a strict new lead bill into law, saying, “Protecting public health is a top priority.” Bill AB 1953 mandates that all pipes and fixtures carrying water for human consumption be “lead free” and lowers the levels of allowable lead in lead-free fixtures from the... Read more

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Vol. 8, No. 10). Making it work, however, has been a real challenge. Finally, after at least $15 million in federally supported research and... Read more

Three longtime leaders in the green building field, Bill Browning, Bob Fox, and Rick Cook, have formed a partnership, Terrapin Bright Green, LLC, to provide clients with consulting, strategic planning, and policy services. While Fox and Cook will continue work with their existing firm (Cook + Fox Architects in New York City), they are working... Read more

Green CommunitiesTM, a partnership between Enterprise Community Partners and the Natural Resources Defense Council (see

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Vol. 14, No. 3), is now offering grants of up to $5,000 for affordable housing developers who wish to incorporate green planning charrettes into their design processes. The grants, designed to pay for... Read more

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Vol. 14, No. 10) as an alternate path to achieve a credit for low-emitting carpets in the LEED® Rating System. As originally written, credit EQ 4.3, “Low-Emitting Materials: Carpet Systems,”... Read more

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) has announced the opening of its 2007 Top Ten Green Projects design competition. Online registration for the competition began November 10, 2006 and continues through the January 17, 2007 submission deadline. The deadline to take advantage of early... Read more

Building Design + Construction magazine, published in a white paper entitled “Green Buildings and the Bottom Line” (November 2006), reveal that green building activities are growing (no surprise there) but that expectations of future activity are much higher that actual activity. The online survey of 872 industry... Read more

A committee led by Bill Reed, AIA, and John Boecker, AIA, under the auspices of the Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability (MTS), has released a draft Whole Systems Integrative Process (WSIP) Standard Guide for public comment and ballot. Originally termed a standard on integrated design process, the document has been renamed to... Read more

After several years of conversations about a rating system grounded in life-cycle assessment, with regional variations and smarter credits, the LEED® 3.0 development process was at risk of collapsing under the weight of expectations. In response, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) chose to begin the process by getting all these... Read more