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

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC), the organization most actively promoting green roofs in North America, has announced the winners of its second annual Awards of Excellence.

Winners were selected for industrial and commercial, institutional, and residential projects for both intensive (with more than 6” of growing medium) and... Read more

Awards & Competitions

2004 Design Competition for an Ecohouse. The competition is based on the principles described in the book

Ecohouse 2. Author Sue Roaf says the challenge is “to... Read more

EBN Archives is now in production and should be shipping by the end of May. The CD-ROM features 99 back issues of

Environmental Building News, from the very first, in 1992, through the end of 2003—more than 1,600 pages of reporting delivered in Adobe® PDF format. 

Find what you need using the fast and... Read more

The

Certified Wood and Paper Association (CWPA), which was formed in 2002 during a reorganization of the Certified Forest Products Council, ceased operations on April 15, 2004. According to a letter on the CWPA Web site by the Board of Directors, the organization was forced to dissolve due to lack of financial resources. Michael... Read more

Spokane, Washington-based Potlatch Corporation has become the first U.S.-based, publicly traded wood products company to have its forestlands certified according to standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Potlatch chairman and CEO L. Pendleton Siegel announced on April 20, 2004 that forestry operations on the company’s 668,000 acres... Read more

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Michael Holtz, president of Architectural Energy Corporation in Boulder, Colorado;

Peter... Read more

When I picked up my April 2004 issue of

Environmental Building News (

Vol. 13, No. 4) and saw the main article’s title, inwardly I groaned. I usually look forward to, read thoroughly, and then treasure the detailed completeness of each

EBN feature article. But “Which Grass is Greener? Comparing Natural and Artificial Turf... Read more

the work of architect Samuel Mockbee in a traveling exhibition. The exhibition, which will feature 12 models and more than 100 photographs of Mockbee’s work at Auburn University’s Rural Studio, will open in Washington, D.C. on May 22. For more information on Mockbee and his work, see the review of... Read more

David Nelson & Associates, LLC. Nelson is an architect and a highly respected lighting designer; he has a bachelor of science degree in architectural engineering from the University of Colorado and a master’s in... Read more

Shortly after celebrating the fourth anniversary of the LEED

® Rating System, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) awarded its

100th LEED certification—a Silver rating for the Bonneville Power Administration Ampere Annex in Vancouver, Washington—on April 14, 2004. And, on April 19, USGBC received a LEED registration for the St... Read more

Christine Ervin is stepping down from her leadership role.

Rick Fedrizzi, founder and president of Green-Think, Inc., and founding chairman of USGBC, has been selected to fill her position in an acting capacity. According to the Council, “The change is... Read more

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) announced the winners of the

2004 National Green Building Awards in March during their Green Building Conference in Austin, Texas.

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Tom Hoyt, co-owner of McStain Enterprises in Boulder, Colorado, was named

Green Advocate of the Year. Hoyt has built more than 8,000... Read more

New Jersey’s Renewable Energy Task Force, created by Governor McGreevey in January 2004, finalized in March plans to strengthen the State’s

renewable portfolio standard (RPS), which requires energy suppliers to provide a certain percentage of renewable power, including that from solar, wind, renewable biomass, landfill gas, geothermal,... Read more

® Rating System based outside the U.S. was officially launched in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 14, 2004 by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC). The program is now accepting project registrations and has, in fact, already received its first full application, from the City of Vancouver. The development of LEED-BC was... Read more