Interface Flooring has sold more than a million square yards (840,000 m

2) of climate-neutral

Cool Carpet™ since its introduction in August 2003 (see

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 10). Through the Cool Carpet initiative, customers are funding greenhouse-gas reduction projects to offset the emissions resulting from the carpet... Read more

Please explain what makes “polyester yarn … impregnated with an acrylic-based material” fire resistant, as claimed in the article “PVC-Free Interior Shade Screening from Nysan” (

Vol. 12, No. 12). As far as we know, polyester and acrylics are both flammable.

Tim Burns, President

The Vinyl Institute

Arlington,... Read more

At the beginning of March 2004, the U.S. Green Building Council released a draft of the LEED

® for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Rating System for review by Council members during a 30-day comment period. LEED-EB is designed to certify the ongoing operations and maintenance of facilities, including upgrades to building systems. It is not... Read more

Kaplan, McLaughlin and Diaz), based in San Francisco, has been awarded the prestigious MIPIM Architectural Review Future Projects Award for the design of the Jie Fang Daily News and Media Group headquarters in Shanghai, China. The project employs numerous green systems, relying heavily on natural ventilation and... Read more

The

Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) was launched in December 2003, initiated by Meeting Strategies Worldwide, of Portland, Oregon. Recognizing that over a million meetings and events, and over 12,000 tradeshows, are held each year, GMIC is committed to “balancing economic, environmental, and community objectives as they relate to... Read more

The

Hayward Corporation, which produces FSC-certified wood products and other green building materials (see

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 6 and

Vol. 10, No. 4), has achieved a LEED

® v2 Gold rating for its Hayward Building Systems plant in Santa Maria, California. The 55,000 ft

2 (5,100 m

2) facility... Read more

In a unique agreement, the leaders of four architectural institutions have committed to sustainable design. The “

Barcelona Declaration on Sustainable Design” was signed at the Construmat Fair in Barcelona, Spain by Jaime Lerner, representing the International Union of Architects (and former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil); Paul Hyett, for... Read more

by Angela Dean. Gibbs Smith Publishers, Layton, Utah, 2003; 136 pages, softcover, $24.95

Homeowners wanting to understand what a green home is and custom home builders wanting to introduce green home ideas to potential clients could benefit... Read more

® landscape timbers, fencing, and pavers made from 100% post-consumer plastics, closed its doors in February. The Stamford, Connecticut company survived perennial capital shortages over its 15 years until an accident last April left owner Celeste Johnson unable to maintain sales streams, which plummeted more... Read more

Governor James E. McGreevey of New Jersey announced the adoption of

new stormwater-control regulations in January that are being hailed as the most comprehensive in the nation. The new rules establish a 300-foot (90 m) buffer around more than 6,000 stream miles (9,650 km) along high-quality waterways. They also establish a goal of... Read more

The California Division of the State Architect (DSA) has issued an “Acceptance Criteria Document” for zero-water consumption urinal fixtures that is helping to clear the way for nonflushing urinals in California schools and state-owned buildings. With this document, “DSA addresses those sections of the code that were controversial, and says... Read more

“Renewable energy sources could provide the equivalent to today’s production of both thermal and nuclear power combined.” While such a claim might be expected from environmentalists, this conclusion came from the

Clean Air Renewable Energy Coalition, a unique alliance of Canadian corporations (including energy producers Shell Canada, BP... Read more

The Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), representing 155,000 Inuit people in Russia, Canada, Greenland, and Alaska, is planning a human-rights legal case against Arctic states—particularly the United States—for their

complicity in global climate change. “What is at stake here is the cultural survival of Inuit as a people,” said ICC... Read more

EBN... Read more

In an appendix to the draft environmental impact statement for the

World Trade Center reconstruction project in lower Manhattan is a set of sustainable development guidelines that should help green the huge 16-acre (6.5 ha) development. Already, construction equipment on the site is using low-sulfur diesel fuel and high-performance... Read more

The year 2003 tied 2002 as the

second-hottest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). All five of the hottest years on record (since record-keeping began in 1880) have now occurred since 1997. Details are available on NOAA’s Climate Data Center Web site, at www.ncdc.noaa.gov.

... Read more