San Francisco officials hope to lead the nation in the installation of rooftop photovoltaic systems by having 10,000 systems in place within a decade. (About 770 systems are currently installed.) The City’s Board of Supervisors has approved $3 million per year for ten years to provide taxable incentive payments to residents and businesses... Read more

The Green Communities Act, passed by the Massachusetts Legislature and signed into law on July 2, 2008, promises to “reduce electric bills, promote the development of renewable energy, and stimulate the clean energy industry that is taking root here in the Commonwealth,” according to Governor Deval Patrick.

Alpen Energy Group, the Colorado-based manufacturer of high-performing windows (see

EBN

Vol. 16, No. 10) and recipient of a 2007 BuildingGreen Top-10 Award, was acquired in June 2008 by Serious Materials, Inc., of Sunnyvale, California. Serious Materials, previously Quiet Solution, Inc., produces acoustic drywall and plywood... Read more

In May 2008 the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced that it would be outsourcing LEED certification to the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) and, through GBCI, to independent certification bodies (see EBN Vol. 17, No. 6). USGBC has now named the ten companies that will be certifying LEED buildings beginning in January 2009... Read more

Rocky Mountain Institute, 2008. 29/17 minutes, $5. Also available for viewing online at www.bet.rmi.org/video/.

Property management and real estate investment firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) acquired ECD Energy and Environment Canada in July 2008. Toronto-based ECD was responsible for launching Green Globes, a program that aims to compete with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System (see

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 3). The acquisition... Read more

Fresh off a series of acquisitions early in 2008 that provide energy modeling capabilities to complement their building information modeling (see EBN Vol. 17, No. 3), both Autodesk and Bentley are at it again. This time, Autodesk bought Ecotect and its related tools from Square One Research, while Bentley has obtained the exclusive worldwide... Read more

In response to a request by government agency Health Canada, the nonprofit Council of Canadian Academies has released a study on the risks of nanomaterials (see EBN Vol. 17, No. 3 for more on nanotechnology). The group found that nanomaterials are too new and unstudied for a full risk assessment, but it believes existing regulatory mechanisms... Read more

When we hear “formaldehyde,” a lot of us probably think of the liquid preserving frogs awaiting dissection, back in high school. That liquid, called formalin, is a solution of about 40% formaldehyde and 60% water. Formaldehyde is a simple organic compound, consisting of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. At atmospheric temperature and pressure it... Read more

Like a lot of people, I'm often running late. One of our two cars--a five-year-old Honda Civic Hybrid--has a digital readout showing fuel economy. Because I travel so much (ironically hopping on a plane or driving hours to... Read more

Rarely a day goes by that I don't hear people complaining about how much money they're spending on gasoline. Indeed, filling up costs three times what it did just a couple years ago; it's understandable... Read more

Rarely a day goes by that I don't hear people complaining about how much money they're spending on gasoline. Indeed, filling up costs three times what it did just a couple years ago; it's understandable... Read more

U.S. sales of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) have almost doubled from 2006 to 2007, and the lamps now account for more than 20% of lightbulbs sold. But while compact fluorescent lamps are an big improvement over traditional incandescent bulbs in terms of energy use, recycling of the bulbs—necessary to recapture their mercury content—has been... Read more