A bill being debated in the California legislature would ban both bisphenol-A and certain phthalate plasticizers in baby products. Bill AB 319, introduced in the California legislature in February 2005 by Assemblywoman Wilma Chan of Oakland, would ban, effective January 1, 2007, the manufacture, sale, or distribution in commerce of any product... Read more

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 1).

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer has signed into law a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requiring public utilities to purchase at least 5% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2008. Eligible technologies include wind, solar, geothermal, small hydropower, most biomass, and fuel cells using one of these fuel sources. The RPS... Read more

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has revised its estimate of the size of the global market for FSC-certified products. Previously believed to fall somewhere between $3 billion and $5 billion (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 10), the market is now believed to be “in excess of $5 billion.” The revision is based on the results of a global... Read more

Ecotone Publishing has announced plans to publish

Who’s Green?, envisioned as “the preeminent resource book for locating firms, organizations, and institutions that are actively participating in the growth of the sustainable design and construction field,” according to Ecotone. It will include architecture, engineering, interior design... Read more

The organizers of the Rethinking Sustainable Construction 2006 (RSC06) conference, set for Sarasota, Florida, in September, are calling for “creative content” proposals, ranging from research papers to problem-solving workshops. The international conference is intended to “produce an agenda for the future of green buildings,” as described in... Read more

The U.S. distributor of the Uridan® nonflushing urinal, USA-GDK International, has abandoned the product, citing the relatively high price point (exacerbated by the recent drop of the dollar against the euro) and the unavailability of a vitreous china model as reasons for the slow sales. Uridan is seeking a new U.S. distributor. For more on... Read more

Lewis Mumford Award winners. The award for Peace went to Architecture for Humanity for its “passion and dedication connecting architects and designers with communities in need around the world.” The award for Development went to United Indian Health... Read more

What we do to our environment, we do to ourselves, the saying goes. Nowhere is this principle played out more dramatically than in our hospitals, where doctors and nurses work the front lines against environmental illness, treating patients for cancers caused by exposure to toxic materials, asthma triggered by breathing dirty air, and heat... Read more

Consumer Reports® launched a new, free website on Earth Day, April 22, 2005, to help consumers make environmentally responsible purchases. Greenerchoices.org began with a dozen products in several categories and plans to expand in the future. An additional “green ratings” feature details Consumer Reports’ findings on the energy-efficiency and... Read more

EBN ran a chart titled “Some Existing and Forthcoming Straw Panel Products.” It included a dozen listings—ten were domestic, two were from overseas. At the time, eight of the ten domestic manufacturers weren’t yet in production; the other two had suspended production, but anticipated getting rolling again. A decade... Read more

The Northern California chapter of Architects, Designers, and Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) has announced a new scholarship to promote “solutions to problems of poor indoor air quality, electromagnetic fields, mold, and other environmental toxins,” in the hopes of preventing environmental illness including multiple chemical... Read more

Not So Big House series, was named a 2005 Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Along with 65 other architects, Susanka will be invested during a ceremony on May 20. The complete list of 2005 Fellows is online at www.aia.org/fellows_default/.