The Green Building Initiative (GBI), which administers the Green Globes rating system for commercial buildings, announced in April 2010 that the rating system had secured the approval of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to become an accredited national standard.

How much does LEED certification cost in commercial construction? Earning LEED certification involves several types of costs, and you have to consider each separately to get an accurate picture.

Let’s envision the cost of LEED as an inverted pyramid with four levels from bottom to top. The bottom level is both the smallest (in size and... Read more

The 40th anniversary of Earth Day came and went a week ago with relatively little fanfare. We are focused on other things: high unemployment, a moribund economy, and residual sniveling over health insurance reform. But 40 years is an important milestone.

I was the Earth Day coordinator at my junior high school in Wayne, Pennsylvania, 40... Read more

On March 4, 2010, Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Mark Pryor of Arkansas introduced legislation to create the Building Star program, which would offer incentives and rebates for energy efficiency improvements to commercial buildings. The creators of the bill argue that it would create 150,000 jobs with $6 billion in federal investment, and... Read more

What happens when project teams buck the conventional, linear design and construction process in favor of an integrated approach? According to proponents of integrated design, they produce buildings with higher environmental performance at lower costs. Integrated design gets more design team members around the table, inviting... Read more

According to a recent study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, nanoparticles can cross the human placenta. Often thought of as a barrier that can protect a developing fetus from the mother’s exposure to environmental pollutants, the placenta was found to be permeable to nanoscale particles of polystyrene.

I read with some concern the enthusiastic article about active chilled beams (EBN Apr. 2010). When I looked into these for a lab I was informally reviewing, they required outside ventilation air to deliver heating and cooling at unoccupied times in the building—when ventilation air often is not required at all, unless you have an air system... Read more

Two pieces of federal legislation introduced in April 2010 would, if passed, radically update the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the federal law giving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to regulate new and existing chemicals that may pose an environmental or health risk.

Action is warranted,... Read more

UPDATE May 10, 2010:The deadline for proposals to participate in the partnership program has been extended to May 14, 2010, at 3 p.m. EDT.The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a new initiative to reduce energy use in new and existing buildings across the commercial building sector and is currently accepting applications for... Read more

A recent report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) shows significant growth in overall U.S. solar electric capacity for 2009, with the industry climbing a total of 37%.

SEIA cites residential and utility market demand, declining technology prices, and related policy advances as the primary drivers behind the increase,... Read more

The American Recovery and... Read more

Americans spend a lot of... Read more

After a long wait, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has opened a second public comment period for its LEED for Healthcare rating system.

The new LEED for Healthcare draft includes changes to almost every one of its 62 credits and prerequisites, although most of the changes are minor and are about aligning LEED for Healthcare with... Read more

False-flush is a fairly common occurrence with sensor-activated... Read more

We've just released a neat new report on what it costs to achieve specific LEED credits. Based on the current LEED-NC 2009 rating system, "The Cost of LEED" draws on the experience of veteran cost estimators to provide prices for specific measures a project team would consider. The report helps a team understand the implications of... Read more

I was active in the solar energy movement back in the late 1970s and early '80s, when, indeed, a whole lot of... Read more

All right, I'll admit it. The fact that the Netherlands-based revolving-door manufacturer Boon Edam has a model that uses human power to generate electricity is mostly a gimmick. By entering or leaving through the NRG+ Tourniket, a generator built into the revolving door mechanism powers three LED spotlights in the ceiling of the door.