BuildingGreen Report

News Analysis

January 2, 2007

After coming tantalizingly close to entering national distribution, TimberSIL, the silica-based nontoxic alternative to preservative-treated wood, and the company behind it, Timber Treatment Technologies, Inc. (TTT) of Springfield, Virginia, suffered serious setbacks in 2006. Those problems included the loss of the company’s principal... Read more

Op-Ed

January 2, 2007

We are pleased to announce a number of

EBN staffing changes.

Tristan Roberts has been promoted to senior editor and will continue to play a lead role with

EBN feature and news writing.

Jessica Boehland, with us for five years, most recently as managing editor, is now a full-time graduate student at Yale’s School... Read more

News Brief

January 2, 2007
Adobe Systems, Inc., of San Jose, California, has reached new heights in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Rating System by having three of its buildings achieve a LEED for Existing Buildings Platinum rating. The first of these buildings, the West Tower of the company’s headquarters, was certified in July 2006; two other buildings, the East... Read more

Case Study

Planetary Perspectives: Design for labs and offices for a team of climate researchers mimics natural systems to drive down energy use and carbon emissions.

January 2, 2007

This was the first program I’ve seen in which you can tell that someone approached the building with sustainability in mind,” says Scott Shell, of EHDD Architecture, in reference to the client’s concept document for the Department of Global Ecology, a new arm of the Washington, D.C. –based Carnegie Institution. Located alongside the venerable... Read more

Case Study

Circle of Life: A charity dedicated to nourishing families builds a new office as a model of harmony with nature.

January 2, 2007

Heifer international is a nonprofit organization that addresses global problems with an approach founded in sustainability. It gives livestock such as goats, cows, and chickens to families in need as a lasting source of food and income. In 2000, during a period of strong growth and with its 200-plus staff spread across five locations in Little... Read more

Feature

Rehabilitation of existing buildings is important to sustainability in buildings, but with historic buildings, green building and preservationism can diverge

January 2, 2007

It’s a common saying in the green building movement that “the greenest building is the one that isn’t built.” This ideal may be great, but with growing demand in many parts of the U.S.—and the world—for buildings, it’s often ignored. Meanwhile, millions of buildings already exist but are not being used to their full potential, despite... Read more

News Brief

December 5, 2006

In 1996,

Environmental Building News (EBN) looked at residential building science developments emerging from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) fledgling

Building America program. Started in 1994, the program consisted of four research teams working with several private-sector builder partners to build and test houses in... Read more

News Brief

December 5, 2006

The economic growth of China, India, and other emerging economies threatens serious long-term implications for Earth’s climate, concluded a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC, the world’s largest professional services firm. “The World in 2050” presents six possible approaches to growth but focuses on two: business as usual and “... Read more

News Brief

December 5, 2006

A team from Yale University’s Program on Forest Policy and Governance in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, in collaboration with Greg Norris of Sylvatica, Inc., has been hired by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). This team will provide research and outreach support to the LEED® Materials and Resources Technical Advisory... Read more

News Analysis

December 5, 2006
Legislation currently before the Washington, D.C. Council would enact green building requirements for both public and private sector projects, making it the first major U.S. city to do so. Bill B16-05015, the “District of Columbia Green Building Act of 2005,” received unanimous support in a preliminary vote. According to Barry Weise, J.D., a... Read more

News Brief

December 5, 2006
The Green Building Alliance (GBA), based in Pittsburgh, has announced its Green Building Products Initiative, a program to encourage manufacturers in western Pennsylvania to develop and promote green products. Part of the Pennsylvania Green Growth Partnership, GBA hopes to create a hub of green product manufacturing in the region. The initiative... Read more

Feature

December 5, 2006
Acknowledging that buildings are responsible for a large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions, both U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) leadership and many of the 13,000 USGBC members and other attendees at USGBC’s November 2006 Greenbuild conference in Denver expressed a clear and urgent intention to mitigate that contribution. With several... Read more

News Brief

December 5, 2006
Kirsten Ritchie, formerly the director of environmental certification for Scientific Certification Systems, Inc. (SCS), has joined Gensler as director of sustainable design. She will be based in Gensler’s main office in San Francisco. According to SCS communications director Alexander Winslow, senior staff at SCS, including Linda Brown, Ted Howes... Read more

News Analysis

December 5, 2006

After several years of conversations about a rating system grounded in life-cycle assessment, with regional variations and smarter credits, the LEED® 3.0 development process was at risk of collapsing under the weight of expectations. In response, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) chose to begin the process by getting all these... Read more

News Brief

December 5, 2006

The Communities and Local Government ministerial team in the United Kingdom has announced that it will release its new green building code, the Code for Sustainable Homes, by the end of 2006. Although the code is voluntary for private sector projects, all projects funded by the government will have to meet the code’s requirements. The code will... Read more

News Brief

December 5, 2006

As part of the 2006 Greenbuild conference in Denver, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the winners of its annual Leadership Awards. The awards, given in five categories, were presented to “select companies and individuals with exceptional vision, leadership, and commitment to the evolution of green building design and... Read more

News Brief

December 5, 2006
Interface, Inc., of Atlanta is building on its success as a consultant to Wal-Mart, Inc., and others by creating InterfaceRAISE™, a sustainability consulting firm. The new firm, led by Jim Hartzfeld and working with external partners such as ERS, Inc., also of Atlanta, will help companies envision, measure, and achieve sustainability goals. The... Read more

Product Review

December 5, 2006
The two-stage high-capacity heat pump that was introduced in 2004 (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 7) and then discontinued in 2005 (see

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 10) is back, and from more than one company. This product uses a booster compressor that makes it viable as an air-source heat pump even in very cold weather. David Shaw, designer... Read more

News Brief

December 5, 2006

Two players in the wood treatment industry are joining forces. Starting in January 2007, Rohm and Haas Company will operate a joint venture with Chemical Specialties, Inc. (CSI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Rockwood Holdings, Inc. The new venture will join Rohm and Haas’s wood biocides division with the wood protection chemicals division of... Read more

News Analysis

December 5, 2006
With the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) planning to certify 100,000 commercial buildings by 2010 with its LEED® Rating System (see Climate Change Dominates Greenbuild Conference Agenda), it needs to increase its pace, having certified only about 600 buildings over the last six years. Launched at its Greenbuild conference in November 2006,... Read more