The Path of Painted Potties.” After gracing the streets of Santa Fe during June and July, 75 creatively decorated toilets vied for honors in various categories, including TP Cruisers (for mobile entries) and Best Use of... Read more

are far less likely than permanent classrooms to be healthy environments, according to California’s Air Resources Board and Department of Health Services. During their two-year study, the state found portable classrooms to have inadequate ventilation and lighting levels; elevated particulate matter, moisture,... Read more

Sixty-one buildings are now certified under LEED™ versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.1; and nearly 900 projects have registered for certification. There are now over 4,000 LEED-accredited professionals, and more than 10,000 people have participated in LEED training workshops. The pilot programs for LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) and LEED for... Read more

The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) has announced the

2003 Innovation and Special Recognition Award winners. IREC gave Innovation Awards to the

Sustainable Natural Alternative Power (SNAP) Program in Chelan County, Washington; the

Chicago Solar Partnership; and the

Utah Wind Power Campaign. IREC also... Read more

... Read more

Portland General Electric has expanded its

Earth Advantage™ program for green homes in the Northwest. In addition to satisfying the basic level of performance, homes can now achieve gold certification for performing especially well in indoor air quality, energy efficiency, or water conservation; or platinum certification for going... Read more

New Urbanist

Jeff Speck took over as director of design at the

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in August. Speck spent the past decade at the Miami, Florida firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, most recently as director of town planning for the firm. Along with Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Speck co-authored... Read more

Thank you for your coverage of Vermont Built Green in July 2003 (

Vol. 12, No. 7). I would like to correct the sentence that reads “Efficiency Vermont, a utility-funded demand-side management program in the state, currently covers all of the costs for Vermont Energy Star® compliance.” The Vermont Energy Star Homes service is jointly... Read more

The current

“safe” level of lead exposure, endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, is not actually safe, according to a study recently published in the

New England Journal of Medicine. The study found that any level of blood lead concentration negatively affects children’s IQ... Read more

In the process of designing a large open-plan office building for a corporate client, Gensler’s designers suggested taking a look at a smaller project they recently completed for the same client. In the earlier project, they found that partially closed-in “teaming areas” they had created in the corners were rarely used because they didn’t offer... Read more

I really support

EBN and eagerly anticipate reading it. Your articles are very careful about stating supported facts and not just passing along marketing hype. However, I call your attention to the June 2003 (

Vol. 12, No. 6) article “Honeywell Controls the Nylon 6 Market”: The article ends with the statement “Nylon 6 is... Read more

Maine made history in June, when, by passing “An Act to Provide Leadership in Addressing the Threat of Climate Change,” it became the nation’s

first state to legislate a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Maine plans to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, 10% below 1990 levels by 2020, and 75–80% below 1990 levels over the long... Read more

The

use of ground granulated blast-furnace slag in cement reached a record 22.9 million metric tons (25.2 million tons) in 2002, up 22% from 2001, according to the Slag Cement Association (SCA). Blast-furnace slag, a mixture of nonmetallic minerals, is created in the reduction of iron ore to iron. According to SCA, using slag cement in... Read more

The

California Energy Commission (CEC) may no longer collect information about the energy efficiency of air conditioners, heat pumps, water heaters, and furnaces, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled in June. The case was filed by the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, the Association of Home... Read more

As part of its 21st annual

Lighting Design Awards, the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) is introducing a sustainability award to highlight “the growing importance of sustainable design to the profession of lighting design and to the world in which we live.” Applications for IALD’s 2004 design awards are due... Read more

Thank you for your review of

Integrated Buildings in the July

EBN (

Vol. 12, No. 7). I hope your attention helps spread interest in the complimentary and multidimensional aspects of integrated design in architecture, especially to the notions of green. I ended the book with Chapter 11,

Green Buildings, because... Read more

Produced by the California Energy Commission, this video series is available free of charge at

www.energyvideos.com. The videos may be viewed online using Windows Media Player, ReaPlayer, or Quick Time Player. The series is also available from the CEC on DVD.

Responding to Bush administration interest in ethanol and hydrogen, the

American Solar Energy Society (ASES) has reconstituted its Renewable Fuels and Transportation Division. Paul Notari, founder of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society and former president of ASES, will serve as chair of this new division.