Rebuilt Green, and the lead character is the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, a LEED® Gold... Read more

(PWGSC) has announced a series of initiatives to green its operations. The department has pledged, among other strategies, to cut its energy use by 60% over 1990 levels by March 2008, to achieve a LEED® Gold or BREEAM Four Leaves green building standard with all new construction, and to... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) will be accepting

feedback on the LEED® for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) rating system through Tuesday, July 13, 2004. The current draft includes significant modifications from the version that has been in use for the LEED-CI pilot program over the past two years. The official release is... Read more

In May, the City of Chicago announced the first two winners of its

GreenWorks Awards program:

•

Sanctuary Place, a permanent housing facility for homeless women with substance abuse issues, was named

2004 Outstanding Residential Project. Designed by Farr Associates, Sanctuary Place is owned by Interfaith Housing... Read more

first U.S. laboratory approved to test office equipment to the German Blue Angel standard (see

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 11). AQS, based in Atlanta, will test office equipment including printers, fax machines, and photocopiers for emissions of ozone, benzene, styrene, dust, and volatile... Read more

Smart growth policies are good for construction jobs, according to a study published by Good Jobs First, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center promoting best practices in economic development. The report, “The Jobs are Back in Town: Urban Smart Growth and Construction Employment,” counters the assumption that “smart growth equals no growth... Read more

The green-building consulting firm Paladino & Company, Inc. has hired

Kristin Ralff Douglas as director of business development and programs. Ralff Douglas will lead the expansion of Paladino’s Get to Green® training workshops and direct programs tailored to campus and multiple-building clients who are adopting a sustainable asset-... Read more

The City of Santa Monica Green Building Program has announced a

grant program to encourage green building in the private sector. The City offers a grant for any building certified under the LEED® Rating System for New Construction—$20,000 for each LEED Certified building, $25,000 for Silver, $30,000 for Gold, and $35,000 for Platinum.... Read more

Stanford University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is seeking applications for a tenure-track assistant professor or untenured associate professor

position focusing on the sustainable development of buildings and other infrastructure. The review of applications will begin September 15, 2004. More information is... Read more

Three conservation organizations have sued the federal government to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require maximum achievable

reductions in mercury and other toxic air pollutants emitted by coal- and oil-fired power plants. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA’s deadline for issuing these standards was December 20,... Read more

Environmental Science and Technology. The study examined... Read more

Following a four-year development process, the nonprofit Building Commissioning Association (BCA) unveiled its commissioning certification program on April 12, 2004. According to BCA, this is the first international commissioning certification program offered by a nonprofit organization. BCA anticipates that the certified commissioning... Read more

The U.S. Senate has voted against eliminating a tax incentive for renovating existing buildings. Intense lobbying by preservationists led to the defeat of a plan to sunset the portion of the

Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit that applies to pre-1936 Main-Street-style commercial buildings that are not designated historic. The... Read more

Citrus Elementary School in Ocoee, Florida has become the nation’s first school to publish an

online “Utility Report Card,” which tracks and evaluates the school’s electricity consumption. A joint effort of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Orange County public school system, the Walt... Read more

The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) has named

Douglas H. Reid its new executive director. Reid is leaving his current position as director of development at the University of Massachusetts College of Natural Resources and the Environment in Amherst. NESEA is online at www.nesea.org.

As explained in our feature article this month, certain brominated flame retardants, especially PBDEs, are being shown by scientists to pose significant risks to our health and the environment. Indeed, the arguments for banning PBDEs are so clear that

EBN calls for an immediate ban of all PBDEs, including the widely used deca form. This... Read more