In partnership with the International Interior Design Association and The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committees on the Environment and Interior Architecture, CoreNet Global has announced the 2006 winners of the Sustainable Leadership Awards.

HOK won the category for architecture and interior architecture or interior design... Read more

Humanity’s ecological footprint exceeds the planet’s capacity by 39%, according to Redefining Progress, a nonprofit policy organization based in Oakland, California. The ecological footprint is a measure of the amount of “nature” it takes to sustain a given population over the course of a year; comparing this footprint to the same area’s... Read more

In partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Energy Star® program, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) Foundation has launched the BOMA Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP), designed to educate BOMA members about energy conservation and reduce the industry’s annual $24 billion energy bill. BEEP has initially... Read more

In December 2005 an editorial in Environmental Building News introduced the concept of “passive survivability,” or a building’s ability to maintain critical life-support conditions if services such as power, heating fuel, or water are lost, and suggested that it should become a standard design criterion for houses, apartment buildings, schools... Read more

The City of Chicago is giving 600 Solargenix Energy, LLC, solar-thermal water heaters to health clubs, laundromats, affordable housing units, and other entities that use a lot of hot water. Recipients will be responsible for installation and maintenance costs. “High gas prices are not going away anytime soon, and we want to make businesses and... Read more

Thirty plants across the U.S. are now producing Energy Star® manufactured homes, according to the Manufactured Housing Research Alliance. A complete list is available at www.mhrahome.org/pages/es_plant_list.htm. Encouraging further development, the Internal Revenue Service has ruled that the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (see

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... Read more

Recognizing the role of construction in the global economy and planetary ecology, in February 2006 the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) launched the Sustainable Building and Construction Initiative (SBCI). Part of UNEP’s Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics (DTIE), SBCI will establish global baselines for green building,... Read more

CD-ROM released in 2005 by ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA; 610-832-9585; www.astm.org; $193.

ASTM International has released an updated version of its “Sustainability in Buildings” CD-ROM (see

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Vol. 12, No. 7 for a review of the first version). Sponsored by ASTM’s Subcommittee on Sustainability, the CD... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has approved tighter standards for dishwashers that carry the Energy Star® label. The new standard, which requires Energy Star dishwashers to be 41% more efficient than minimum federal standards, will take effect January 1, 2007. Current standards require Energy Star dishwashers to be 25% more efficient than... Read more

A study sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found no safe level of ground-level ozone, a component of smog linked to respiratory problems. The study, carried out by researchers at Yale and Johns Hopkins universities and published by

Environmental Health... Read more

Global Green USA, the U.S. affiliate of Green Cross International, has awarded two of its annual Millennium Awards to green building champions: William McDonough, FAIA, founding principal of William McDonough+Partners and cofounder of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, and Thomas C. Leppert, chair and CEO of Turner Construction. Also... Read more

A Rhode Island court found Sherwin Williams Co., Millennium Holdings, and NL Industries liable in February 2006 for creating a public nuisance by making lead-based paint before it was banned in 1978. Although the judge dismissed punitive damage claims, the jury ordered the companies to abate lead-based paint on an estimated 240,000 Rhode Island... Read more

BuildingGreen, Inc., is pleased to announce an agreement with McGraw-Hill Construction through which we will provide editorial guidance and articles for an upcoming magazine called

GreenSource. In addition to content for the magazine, BuildingGreen will provide strategic consulting and information to McGraw-Hill Construction’s Web-based... Read more

The Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) is inviting applications to its 21st World Habitat Awards, designed to recognize “practical, innovative, and sustainable solutions to current housing issues faced by countries of the global South as well as the North,” according to BSHF. “Projects are sought that view the term ‘habitat’ from a... Read more

The International Code Council (ICC) has developed Coastal Construction Flood Plain Inspector certification, which indicates “knowledge of general construction provisions, special high wind and load path continuity, special flood hazard areas, detached and accessory structures, and governmental regulations.” Certified individuals will be able... Read more