Brent is the products and materials specialist at BuildingGreen, where he researches and writes about green building products, materials, and their health and environmental impacts. He also leads a team of editors who select industry-leading products for the company’s green building product database. A LEED AP BD+C, he has been researching and... Read more

One summer day a few years ago I was standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon expecting to look down and across at light and shadows melding with multicolored layers of bedrock, the whitewater from the Colorado River calmly glistening a mile below as it carves through rock and time itself... etc etc. Instead, I found my gaze drawn to a line of... Read more

Last week was great for learning about positive approaches to solving our collective climate change problems. First, I attended the MassImpact: Cities and Climate Change symposium at MIT on Friday (March 28, 2008). Then I got to see Michael Singer present some of his work at the down2earth event in Boston on Saturday. Pretty jam-packed. Jaime... Read more

for The New York Times

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Joel Krueger, AIA, hates it when people call the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center one of the greenest buildings in the world. To be fair, the project embodies the modern environmental movement’s conception of green: the net-zero-energy, carbon-neutral project earned 61 points, a new record, in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system. But... Read more

By Joann Gonchar

The Queens Botanical Garden (QBG) may not be as well known or as large as its counterparts in the Bronx and Brooklyn, but a new visitor and administrative center should raise the garden’s profile, especially as an institution focused on environmental stewardship. The 16,000-square-foot center, completed in September... Read more

Joel Krueger, AIA, hates it when people call the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center one of the greenest buildings in the world. To be fair, the project embodies the modern environmental movement’s conception of green: the net-zero-energy, carbon-neutral project earned 61 points, a new record, in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system.... Read more

Chief among factors determining the sustainable performance of a building are the amount of energy it consumes and how much of that energy is from renewable sources. Architects have long relied on engineers to perform the complex energy consumption estimations and select mechanical systems. This reliance is now transforming into collaboration... Read more

Emission Caps

EBN

Vol. 15, No. 7 and... Read more

EBN

Vol. 16, No. 6), Richard Renner, AIA, shifted his attention to retrofitting an existing building and attaining the same “lofty” level of certification. His own 1,400-ft2 (130-m2), two-bedroom live/work loft, located in a mixed-use neighborhood in Portland, Maine, is the first gut rehab in... Read more

In February 2008, President George W. Bush sent his proposed budget to Congress, which, if passed, would deliver a blow to some programs aimed at energy efficiency and renewable energy even as it increases the funding for others.

solid-state lighting (the broader category of lighting into which LEDs fall; see

EBN

Vol. 16, No.... Read more

A new study performed by University of Texas–Austin doctoral student Chi Phuong Hoang shows preliminary evidence that some green and biobased materials—often touted as low-emitting—may react with low levels of naturally occurring ozone to create “secondary” emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are harmful to human health. Hoang... Read more