Eighty teams were selected from the submissions to present poster sessions during Greenbuild 2004. These half-hour sessions took place during the lunch breaks on November 10 and 11. Three posters were recognized with Awards of Merit, two tied for Best of Show, and one poster was selected for the People’s Choice award.

•

Design for... Read more

Kirei™ is a lightweight, formaldehyde-free panel made from waste fiber left over after processing sorghum, a grain crop grown widely in many parts of the world. The product was developed in Japan in the mid-1990s and introduced to the U.S. market in 2003. Kirei is a Japanese character meaning both clean and beautiful, according to Kirei USA... Read more

The Emerging Green Builders (EGB) chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council announced during Greenbuild the winners of the third annual USGBC Design Competition, intended to recognize students and young professionals in the building industry. More than 130 teams, including more than 270 individuals from 16 countries, competed to design a... Read more

Following endorsement by both houses of parliament, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Kyoto Protocol on November 4, 2004, allowing the 1997 agreement, which aims to limit greenhouse-gas emissions and slow climate change, to take effect for signatories around the world. In order to be set in motion, the agreement required ratification... Read more

EBN... Read more

The Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Chicago) has announced its first-ever Sustainable Design Awards as part of its annual Design Excellence Awards program, which honors the construction and renovation work of local architects. “Sustainable design represents a movement, not a trend,” said Susan King, chair of AIA... Read more

Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) has initiated a boycott of all prison design, construction, and renovation in protest of the prison-industrial complex and its effects on society. ADPSR works for peace, environmental protection, ecological building, social justice, and the development of healthy communities. For... Read more

The Noisette Company, LLC announced in August 2004 the formation of the Noisette Urban Alliance, a network of 15 manufacturers organized to aid in the redevelopment of the 3,000-acre (1,200 ha) Noisette District of North Charleston, South Carolina (see

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 5). The Alliance includes Herman Miller, Inc., Interface,... Read more

The

National Association of Home Builders is now accepting entries for the

2005 National Green Building Awards, which recognize individuals, companies, and organizations demonstrating a commitment to environmentally responsible residential construction. The submission deadline is December 15, 2004, and winners will be announced... Read more

U.S. buildings are blamed for the deaths of nearly one billion birds each year, a statistic that bird experts will address during the first conference anywhere focused on designing buildings to be more bird-friendly. Chicago’s Department of the Environment, Department of Planning and Development, and Ornithological Society are planning the... Read more

A multifaceted approach to controlling asthma can significantly reduce its symptoms, according to a study published on September 9, 2004 in the

New England Journal of Medicine. More than 900 inner-city children with allergenic asthma participated in the study, which compared the symptoms of a control group to those of a group in which... Read more

Caulking installed during the 1960s and ’70s threatens public health, according to a study published in the July 2004 issue of

Environmental Health Perspectives. The warning was spurred by the discovery of high polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) levels in Boston-area buildings. The U.S. government banned the production of these chemicals in... Read more

The International Energy Agency (IEA) Solar Heating and Cooling Programme has presented its

Solar Award to

William Beckman, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin at Madison (UWM). Beckman was recognized for his contributions to the solar energy field, including co-developing the TRNSYS building-energy analysis and... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council is seeking applicants for the Mark Ginsberg Sustainability Fellowship. Established in honor of Ginsberg’s work in the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the three-month fellowship will focus on market developments and emerging trends in green building. Details are online at... Read more

DuPont has reached a tentative settlement in a three-year-old class-action lawsuit that could cost the company $343 million for exposing Ohio and West Virginia communities to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8 (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 3). In the agreement, DuPont will pay $108 million, including $23 million to cover... Read more

® Platinum project—is widely featured as an icon of green building. Although the project isn’t perfect, on the whole it is a remarkable achievement, especially since most of the designers involved were new to green building. The success of the Merrill Center... Read more