The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has released the first public comment draft of its “Proposed Standard 189, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.” This standard, being developed in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released version 2.0 of its EnergyPlus modeling software. Compatible with Windows and Linux operating systems, the new version of the software features additional weather and materials data, a new green roof simulation tool, and enhancements to its ventilation and mechanical systems modeling tools. More... Read more

Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability, software from the Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Free download from www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/software/bees.html or order from the U.S. EPA’s Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse, 202-566-0799, ppic@epa.gov. For further... Read more

Launched in March 2007 by Architecture for Humanity (AFH), the Open Architecture Network is an online, interactive database and workspace for designers and architects to share projects and ideas. Uploaded projects are protected by Creative Commons licenses, which allow authors and designers to grant some or all of their copyrights to the public... Read more

According to... Read more

The California Energy Commission (CEC) filed suit against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in April 2007 to require DOE to uphold California’s washing machine efficiency standards. In December 2006, DOE denied the State’s 2005 request for a waiver from federal washing machine standards; the waiver would have allowed California to enact... Read more

The Athena Sustainable Materials Institute has released a new life-cycle assessment (LCA) tool for assemblies. The EcoCalculator for Assemblies draws on results from Athena’s Impact Estimator for Buildings to give instant LCA results for over 400 building assemblies, including those for walls, roofs, floors, and windows. Commissioned by the... Read more

Drywall comes in three primary product types. Paper-faced drywall remains by far the dominant product for finishing interior walls. It is inexpensive and easy to work with (cutting panels by scoring and snapping). Environmentally, the paper is typically 100% post-consumer recycled, the gypsum core can be derived from flue-gas-desulfurization (... Read more

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) has recognized the Greenguard Children and Schools product certification program from the Greenguard Environmental Institute (GEI) as a means of improving indoor air quality in school buildings. GEI’s product certification program complies with California’s Department of Health Services... Read more

Products earning Cradle to Cradle (C2C) certification, a multifaceted program run by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), are now recognized in the LEED Rating System, following an April 2007 ruling by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The new “administrative credit interpretation ruling” allows projects to earn a LEED credit if... Read more

A report from the United Nations Environment Programme, titled “Buildings and Climate Change: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities,” details connections between the building industry and efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. According to the report, which focuses primarily on Europe, more rigorous energy efficiency standards there could... Read more

According to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Americans took more than 10 billion trips on local public transportation in 2006, reaching the highest level since 1957. Ridership was up 3% between the end of 2005 and the end of 2006, and up 28% in the decade since 1996. Over the last decade, the growth rate of public transit... Read more

BuildingGreen Suite.

•

EpiCenter, Artists for Humanity (Boston;... Read more

In a perfect world, energy simulations and design tools would be so well integrated that each time an architect moved a wall, added a window, or changed a lighting specification, the building’s predicted energy performance would be updated and displayed instantly. With that sort of real-time feedback, designers would quickly become skilled at... Read more