News Brief
Clearview Elementary School in Hanover,... Read more
News Brief
San Mateo County Green... Read more
Op-Ed
News Analysis
News Brief
New U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) clean water regulations, demanding that construction sites larger than one acre (0.4 ha) obtain a
National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, became effective March 10. (The rule has applied to sites larger than 5 acres/2 ha since 1990.) The regulations were not enacted... Read more
News Brief
Both the number and the severity of droughts and storms are on the rise, according to a new report by the World Water Council. These and other manifestations of global climate change have contributed to a
tenfold increase in economic losses from weather-related catastrophes over the past five decades. The 1990s saw more significant... Read more
News Brief
The
Southface Energy Institute has announced that it will work with architectural consultant
Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates (TVS) in the design and construction of a new commercial addition to their Energy and Environmental Resource Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The new facility, which will include indoor and... Read more
Op-Ed
Environmental Building News
Archives. This seventh-edition CD-ROM includes more than ten years of EBN—from the first issue in mid-1992 through the end of 2002. Packed with more than 1,500 pages of green building information, the
Archives are fully searchable and provide instant access to every... Read more
News Brief
Smithfield Foods, Inc.—America’s largest producer of hogs and leading processor and marketer of fresh pork and processed meats—plans to build a $20 million
facility to convert swine waste into biodiesel fuel as part of the BEST BioFuel partnership. The facility will convert manure into biomethanol, which can be used to produce biodiesel... Read more
News Brief
Meanwhile, American Bio-Fuels, LLC, is doing their part to revolutionize biodiesel production. Bio-Fuels is constructing the
first continuous-flow biodiesel facility in the country. At peak production, the Bakersfield, California plant is expected to produce 35 million gallons (132.5 million liters) of biodiesel per year, making it the... Read more
Op-Ed
I was just looking at the February issue of
Environmental Building News (
Vol. 12, No. 2) and couldn’t help but notice the article about paints made from vegetable oil (“American Pride – Paint Made from Vegetable Oil”). I have to say that someone appears to have pulled the wool over someone’s eyes. Making paints from vegetable... Read more
News Analysis
BP Solar is directing a new marketing campaign toward California homeowners. To encourage demand for residential photovoltaic systems, BP Solar offers financing options; access to California Energy Commission rebates; a full planning, installation, and commissioning service; and an indoor display screen allowing customers to monitor energy... Read more
News Brief
Two leaders in the St. Louis green-design community have joined forces to start their own firm,
Hellmuth & Bicknese Architects, LLC, specializing in sustainable design. The firm is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, and principals Dan Hellmuth, AIA, and Ralph Bicknese, AIA, are among the founders of USGBC’s St. Louis... Read more
News Brief
American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment. This guide is available free of charge as a series of Web pages and downloadable PDF files. Visit
www.aia.org/cote_rfps.
AIA’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) has put together a brief but beneficial guide to greening requests for proposals and qualifications (... Read moreOp-Ed
EBN mourns the death of Jeffrey Cook, Regents Professor of Architecture at Arizona State University in Tempe and a pioneer in low-energy, passive solar design, who died of colon cancer on March 27. He chaired several early Passive Solar Conferences, was the founding editor in 1980 of the
Passive Solar Journal, and was a founder of the... Read more
News Brief
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Document 220/K-02-001, Sandra Mendler, HOK, principal author. Available at no charge from: US EPA, Office of Administration and Resources Mgmt., MD-C-604-05, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; or as a PDF file from:
www.epa.gov/rtp/new-bldg/environmental/environmental.htm. Paperback, 75 pages
The... Read moreNews Brief
Edited by David Gissen. Princeton Architectural Press, New York, and National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., 2002. Hardcover, 192 pages, $40
Princeton Architectural Press and the National Building Museum have jointly publishedBig & Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century, a bound version of the museum... Read more
News Analysis
DuPont Antron® is the first carpet fiber to be independently certified as an “environmentally preferable product.” Antron was certified by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) of Oakland, California, based on an environmentally preferable product (EPP) specification for carpet fiber that SCS developed. The specification includes factors such... Read more
News Brief
Report from Buildings magazine and Corporate Realty, Design & Management Institute, 2002, 46 pages. Order at
www.squarefootage.net or by calling 800-452-4480, $495 + $7.50 s+h
Measuring the Success of Greenis a report documenting the results from an online survey of a broad range of building professionals conducted in the 3rd... Read moreOp-Ed
In Volume 11, No. 12, EBN included Kalwall® R-20 (RSI-3.1) with Nanogel in its list of ten best new green building products. Certainly the first commercial use of aerogel is a remarkable milestone. It is very worthy of an EBN award.
However, what is not worthy of the award is the R-20 claim. The R-20 claim is almost certainly only for the... Read more

