the nation’s largest rooftop solar electric system—located atop the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California.

The 1.18 MW photovoltaic (PV) system is an expansion of a 640 kW PV system that was completed in the summer of 2001. The PowerGuard® system, which covers... Read more

Beginning with the 2002-2003 academic year, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania will offer a

Master of Science degree program in Sustainable Design. The two-year program is intended for graduates and young professionals with degrees related to the built environment, including architecture, landscape architecture,... Read more

Two champions of high-performance buildings and sustainable design in academia,

Dr. Vivian Loftness and Dr. Hofu Wu, have been inducted into the College of Fellows of The American Institute of Architects. Dr. Loftness is a professor and Head of the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon. She is also a building performance and... Read more

during 2001, accounting for 59.3% of petroleum consumption during the year, according to EIA. The fraction of imports coming from OPEC countries in 2001 averaged 46.1%. By comparison, during the 1970s, our peak dependence on foreign petroleum reached 47.8%, but the fraction of this oil... Read more

I have been reading your article in the April 2002 issue of

Environmental Building News (

Vol. 11, No. 4) and generally agree with your take on the recent developments with SCS. However, as a Board member of the Silva Forest Foundation I must point out your error in describing SCS as “one of two organizations in North America... Read more

New York’s Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has released its “

Commercial/Institutional Environmental Guidelines 1.0,” outlining the requirements for future construction in its jurisdiction on the west side of Lower Manhattan. The Guidelines are based on the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED™ 2.0 rating system, with... Read more

Electric lighting has advanced tremendously in the past few decades, yet the leading technologies in use today still generate 90% of their output as heat (incandescent lighting), or rely on the toxic heavy metal mercury to operate (fluorescent and nearly all HID light sources). Clearly there is still progress to be made.

This article... Read more

The Los Angeles City Council agreed in April to commit to sustainable building techniques by adopting LEED™ certification standards for all new public works projects of 7,500 ft2 (700 m2) or larger. Council members hope the initiative will not only improve environmental performance of the city’s buildings, but also benefit taxpayers—largely... Read more

Pritzker Architecture Prize will be bestowed upon Australian architect

Glenn Murcutt, who is highly regarded for his ability to integrate the spare beauty of modernism at its best with great sensitivity to site, climate, and culture. Although he travels widely to teach and lecture, he has never accepted a commission... Read more

tradable renewable energy certificates (TRCs), allowing consumers... Read more

by F. Kaid Benfield, Jutka Terris and Nancy Vorsanger; foreword by Maryland Governor Parris Glendening. Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, 2001. Paperback, 212 pages, $20.00.

After seven months of making herself invaluable as an intern,

Jessica Boehland (pronounced “BEE-lend”) has agreed to accept a permanent position as

EBN’s

Associate Editor. Originally from Duluth, Minnesota, Boehland graduated in 2001 from Oberlin College, where she was a student in Dr. David Orr’s Environmental Studies... Read more

Atrazine, America’s most common herbicide,

disrupts hormones in frogs, according to findings published in the April 16 issue of

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The University of California–Berkeley team found lowered testosterone levels and hermaphroditism (possessing both male and female sex organs) in frogs... Read more

On Earth Day, The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) announced this year’s Top Ten Green Projects. The winning projects represent a wide range of function and location, and employ an array of environmental strategies. This year’s awards program was juried, for the first time, by invited jurors from... Read more

Edited by Joseph F. Kennedy, Michael G. Smith, and Catharine Wanek. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, 2002. Paperback, 288 pages, $26.95.

The Art of Natural Building: Design, Construction, Resources. Nor is it obsolete, argue editors Joseph F. Kennedy, Michael G.... Read more

by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. North Point Press, New York, 2002. Plasticback, 194 pages, $24.95.

Thank you for your comparison article on non-water using urinals (“Falcon Waterfree Urinals Compete with Waterless,”

EBN

Vol. 11, No. 2). It is great to see you bringing this very viable technology to your readers. I would like to respond with some additional facts your readers may be interested in.