Ben Shepherd

is leaving his position as research consultant for the Green Development Services division of the

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) to work for a leading U.K. firm of green consulting engineers and landscape architects,

Battle McCarthy Ltd. After a stint in London, Shepherd will be setting up a U.S. office for that firm... Read more

Environmental Building News

executive editor Alex Wilson testified in October before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which has jurisdiction over all U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) programs. Wilson joined Claire Barnett, founder and director of the Healthy Schools Network, and Lois Gibbs, director of the Center for... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and The American Institute of Architects (AIA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in October, continuing and expanding their partnership that

promotes energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources in the built environment. Details are available from DOE’s Chris Kielich at 202/586-5806.... Read more

The Energy Star™ Commercial Buildings program recognizes buildings that perform in the top 25% of their class in terms of energy use. As part of that program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set up a Web-based tool called

Portfolio Manager. Users enter information from their energy bills into Portfolio Manager, which... Read more

Torrance, California will soon be home to a 501 kW rooftop PV system. The array, to be installed by PowerLight Corporation, will bedeck 52,000 ft2 (4,800 m2) of the Toyota Motor Sales USA headquarters. Details are available online at

www.powerlight.com.

Specialized, energy-intensive lighting techniques can benefit seniors, according to the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Researchers at the LRC developed a set of

lighting principles for older adults and put them to the test at two assisted-living facilities. The results of the study... Read more

An increasingly familiar sight in new commercial construction, interior lightshelves are gaining popularity for their effectiveness at distributing daylight deep into a room while controlling glare. When coupled with a photosensor-controlled lighting system, lightshelves dramatically reduce the use of electric lights and therefore the cooling load... Read more

International Forest Products (Interfor) surprised Canadian wilderness advocates in October with the announcement that they would

stop logging the Elaho Valley of British Columbia, about 125 miles (200 km) north of Vancouver. The valley is home to the spotted owl, possibly Canada’s most endangered species. Fewer than 25 breeding pairs... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $1.5 million in grants to 30 entities in 19 states as part of the

Million Solar Roofs Initiative. The new partnerships will combine grant money with private funds to support solar energy through education, the development of financing options and building codes, and construction. Details can be... Read more

A Sunoco gas station in Markham, Ontario has opened

Canada’s first solar car wash. The Canadian government and Suncor Energy Products Inc. are teaming up to convert standard car-wash stations to use solar systems similar to residential solar water heaters. Car-wash stations use an average 69 gallons (260 l) of hot water—roughly the... Read more

Kane Hardwood, a Collins Company, has been awarded the

National Hardwood Lumber Association’s (NHLA) Forest Stewardship Award. Kane was recognized for its achievements in public education, political involvement, private landowner education, forest stewardship, and efficient resource utilization. Kane, which owns and manages over 125,000... Read more

Capital E is seeking

case studies documenting specific benefits of green buildings, as part of a contract with California’s Department of General Services and other agencies to analyze the full costs and benefits of green buildings. Documented examples of benefits that are not always recognized, such as enhanced occupant health,... Read more

The

Clean Water Act celebrated its 30th birthday on October 18. The law has enjoyed bipartisan support and has accomplished much to protect America’s water resources. Since its inception in 1972, for example, the act has slowed the rate of wetland loss by 75% and doubled the number of households served by sewage treatment plants.... Read more

The onslaught of wildfires in the western United States in recent years has persuaded the California Office of the State Fire Marshal to incorporate new fire performance requirements into the building codes of homes encroaching on California wildlands. The task of testing how roofs, walls, windows, and decks respond to fire has fallen to the... Read more

Land surface changes may be as much to blame for

global climate change as greenhouse gases, according to research by Roger Pielke Sr., professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, and his colleagues. The study, published in a recent issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London and released by... Read more

Software package from the Athena™ Sustainable Materials Institute, PO Box 189, Merrickville, Ontario, K0G 1N0, Canada; 613/269-3795, 613/269-3796 (fax),

www.athenasmi.org Athena EIE software: $390; LCI Database reports: $325; package of both products with one-year interpretive support: $715; educational and multicopy discounts available... Read more

If products or materials have memories, what kinds of stories will they tell us? The Design Resource Institute has announced a call for entries that explore this question in their

6th

International Design Resource Awards Competition. Judging criteria will include reused, recycled, or sustainably harvested content as well as... Read more

Update: (October 24, 2005)

To the best of our knowledge, this product is no longer available.

The idea of using a heat pump, instead of electric heating elements, to heat water is very compelling. “Heat-pump water heater technology gives you a quantum leap in efficiency, with energy savings around 55%,” says John Tomlinson of Oak Ridge... Read more

Heat waves and high humidity across the eastern states pushed American

electricity demand to an all-time high during the week ending August 3. The record 90,640 gigawatthours (GWh) beat the previous high of 88,120 GWh, set during the week ending August 11, 2001.

Higher than anticipated industry costs for photovoltaic panels together with funding and budgeting shortfalls have forced the

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) to delay new PV installations under its “PV Pioneer” program. SMUD’s recent allocation of $4.4 million (and potentially $1.9 million more) to the program will allow... Read more