From photographer Kevin Bauman's website. See them all.

The toilet from St. Thomas Creations in the video below doesn't qualify for GreenSpec — it's a 1.6gpf toilet (the federal minimum), and GreenSpec requires 1.28gpf or less — but it sure is fun to watch it flush stuff. (More fun than miso in condoms, anyway.) What do I mean by "flush stuff"?

Over the past few weeks, we've been looking at wood burning--a popular and affordable heating option in rural New England. Ten or 15 years ago, a new option started showing up. Driving along country roads, we began to see shed-like structures with smoke... Read more

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By David R. Macaulay

The rich and varied desert landscape of the McDowell-Sonoran Preserve links vital open space, wildlife corridors, and adjacent communities in central Arizona. Lost Dog Wash Trailhead, the southern gateway to the preserve, is at once a visitors’ center, an outdoor education facility, and access point for... Read more

Sustainable buildings don’t always look green, but the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, is one that does. Covering the 400,000-square-foot building, which replaces a complex damaged beyond repair by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, is an undulating 2.5-acre living roof dotted with porthole-like skylights.... Read more

Cross-linked polyethylene tubing, known as PEX, has become a common choice for water-supply piping in buildings, holding 40% of the nationwide market, according to one manufacturer. It has not been allowed statewide in California, however, due in part to various environmental concerns. Following the completion of an environmental impact report... Read more

LEED 2009 codifies a broadening of what had been a credit for “carpet systems” to a credit for “flooring systems.” The credit, which originally recognized the indoor air quality benefits of using Green Label-certified carpet, was broadened in October 2006 to include resilient and hard-surface flooring materials certified through the FloorScore... Read more

In October 2008, its work was suspended and its members were dismissed (see

EBN Nov. 2008). Now, the committee charged with developing Standard 189, the first minimum, code-enforceable standard for green buildings, is back to work after being significantly reformed.

The first hospital to achieve Platinum certification in LEED for New Construction, Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, succeeds both in meeting high environmental standards and in creating an environment conducive to healing. The hospital also seems to have realized measurable benefits in attracting and retaining personnel.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced new draft specifications for certifying high-efficiency urinals under its WaterSense label. Launched in 2006, the WaterSense certification and labeling program designates water-efficient products that have been third-party tested to meet EPA standards (see

EBN July 2006).

Graywater is wastewater that has been used in clothes washers, showers, bathtubs, and lavatory sinks. In some parts of the country graywater may be collected using separate drainage pipes, then filtered and temporarily stored (without treatment) before being distributed in subsurface outdoor irrigation. There are also systems that direct... Read more

In February 2009, amid a wave of executive actions establishing his administration’s priorities, President Barack Obama ordered the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to raise the federal standards for energy efficiency in a variety of appliance categories.

Whitestone Research recently released the results of a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) evaluating the cost-effectiveness of retrofitting an older building to meet the requirements of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, which mandates that federal buildings reduce their energy consumption 30% by 2015 (... Read more