E-mail Forums Expanding

The e-mail discussion group on green building, cosponsored by

EBN, Iris Communications, and CREST, has been going strong since September 1996. The number of participants has been surprisingly stable at just over 500, including subscribers to the digest version, which compiles all the day’s posts into one long... Read more

San Francisco Promotes Green Buildings, Dioxin Awareness

On July 3, 1999 the City of San Francisco became one of the nation’s first municipalities to have a green building ordinance on the books for City-owned projects. The additions to the San Francisco Municipal Code, known as the Resource Efficient Building Ordinance, consists of two... Read more

Newsbriefs

A

Texas bill on electric utility restructuring, signed into law by Governor George W. Bush on June 18, mandates the development of renewable electric power generation. The law requires a total of 2,000 megawatts (MW) of new power production from renewables by 2009, with incremental levels specified by 2003, 2005, and 2007.... Read more

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Newsbriefs

The Smithsonian Institution has opened an outdoor exhibit showing off

the technology, science, and art of solar power. The... Read more

Conflicting Reports on the Safety of Phthalates

Two new reports on common plasticizers used in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products offer very different conclusions about the safety of these chemicals. A panel of scientists and physicians convened by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) and led by former U.S. Surgeon General C.... Read more

Lots of little glitches keep popping up during

testing for Y2K preparedness. One recent glitch was not so little. In the San Fernando Valley of California, 4 million gallons (15 million l) of raw sewage were spilled onto a 10-acre (4 ha) section of the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area when a gate controlling sewage transfer from a main... Read more

Awards & Competitions

The

Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College, designed by William McDonough + Partners, has received the 1999 American Architecture Award of the Chicago Atheneum Museum of Architecture. The 13,500 ft2 (1,250 m2) building is now nearing completion.

Newsbriefs

A last-minute deal

saved over 100 community gardens in New York City from being auctioned off to developers in May. The City had been planning to sell the lots for development, claiming that they were unused and unwanted, in spite of the fact that some have been thriving gardens for decades. The deal involved sales of the... Read more

On June 28, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued

a new rule regarding the disposal of fluorescent lamps. Under the new rule, fluorescent lamps will be treated as “universal waste,” a designation that will reduce the regulatory burden on businesses that generate such wastes. EPA issued the first universal waste rule in 1995 to... Read more

Pedal Controls Save Water, Time

“What’s up with your faucet?” is a typical question from friends who are visiting for the first time since our Pedalworks™ faucet control was installed. When an uninitiated person tries to turn on the kitchen faucet, they get the impression that our water has been shut off. Once we show them the pedal and... Read more

Executive Order on Green-ing Federal Facilities

On June 3, President Clinton released an Executive Order on “Greening the Government Through Efficient Energy Management.” Recognizing that with more than 500,000 buildings the Federal Government is the nation’s largest energy consumer—roughly $8 billion per year—the Executive Order calls for... Read more

Two and a half months ago, a ship left Thailand loaded with Portland cement. It spent three weeks crossing the ocean and another week going through the Panama Canal before docking in New Orleans, where its cargo was transferred to barges. These barges then spent six weeks traveling up the Mississippi to Minneapolis, where the cement is now... Read more

Video, 28 minutes. Produced by the Environmental Fund of Pennsylvania for the “GreenWorks for Pennsylvania” television show. Available on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Web site.

This new video tells the story of creating the new South Central Office Building in Pennsylvania, a privately owned, 73,000-square-... Read more

The Dumont Residence in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan took top honors in the Residential Buildings category of Canada’s 1999 National Energy Efficiency Awards on May 19. The home features extremely high insulation levels, heat-recovery ventilation, passive solar orientation, and a large active solar hot water system, which also contributes to space... Read more

Newsbriefs

On April 6, the Canadian government announced that it is extending its

Commercial Buildings Incentive Program (CBIP) to multi-unit residential buildings. This program offers owners or developers a one-time incentive payment equal to two years’ projected energy savings for buildings that exceed the Model National Energy Code... Read more

The Green Development Services arm of the Rocky Mountain Institute received a

National Award for Sustainability from Renew America and the President’s Council on Sustainable Development at the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America in Detroit, Michigan in early May. The award announcement cites the organization’s far-reaching... Read more

New VOC Limits for Coatings in Southern California

New VOC Emission Limits (grams per liter)

At its May 14 meeting, the Governing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District approved a new set of limits for volatile organic compound (VOC) levels in architectural coatings. These amendments to the District’s Rule 113... Read more

Awards & Competitions

Michael Totten, a Senior Researcher at the World Resources Institute and

EBN Advisory Board member, has received the

1999 Lewis Mumford Award for Environment from Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR). Totten was honored for his work in pioneering the use of digital tools for... Read more

IAQ Test Kit from Air Quality Sciences

Indoor air quality testing, as most experts will tell you, is immensely complex. Different testing procedures are required for different types of contaminants, and the equipment used for identifying and measuring biological and chemical contaminants, particularly VOCs, is very expensive. The new IAQ... Read more

Newsbriefs

Santa Monica has become the first city in the U.S. to be powered by green power. Through California’s competitive electricity market, the city decided to purchase power exclusively from geothermal sources.