In recognition of the United Nations’ “International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer” on September 16, the nonprofit Global Environment & Technology Foundation released

a comprehensive report on “The State of Stratospheric Ozone Depletion.” The report is available online at

www.getf.org.

According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials, Energy Star® programs have prevented the release of over 150 million tons (136 million tonnes) of carbon emissions. Moreover,

every dollar spent on Energy Star returns $70 in benefits. Despite its success and bipartisan support, including recent praise from the White House,... Read more

On September 4, 2003, DuPont Textiles & Interiors, a wholly owned subsidiary of DuPont, announced that it will be called INVISTA™, effective immediately. The name change is designed to give INVISTA an identity independent of its parent company, DuPont, as a step towards a more complete separation. DuPont is in exclusive negotiations with... Read more

As EBN readers know, Interface... Read more

The

Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) is seeking a new executive director as current head

Warren Leon begins work as program director for public awareness and education at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Renewable Energy Trust. A full job description and application information for the NESEA position... Read more

Few things are as fundamental to human well-being as the air we breathe. This issue of EBN features air filtration, a complex and important topic. Lurking behind the filtration technologies and life-cycle cost analyses, however, is an ethical and social minefield.

Portland, Oregon builder

Renaissance Homes has agreed to build exclusively to Portland General Electric Earth Advantage™ standards. Each home (up to 300 over the next two years) will be certified to Earth Advantage standards, using at least 15% less energy than required by Oregon’s strict energy code in addition to meeting criteria for... Read more

Over one million acres (400,000 ha) of

Washington state forests will soon be certified to both Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) standards, the Pinchot Institute for Conservation reported in August. Lanoga Corporation, the country’s third-largest supplier of lumber and building products to the... Read more

Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daly has recruited

Sadhu Johnston, founder and executive director of the Cleveland Green Building Coalition (CGBC), to fill a newly created position overseeing the greening of Chicago. Johnston began work on October 1. In related news, CGBC is seeking a new executive director; details are online at

www.... Read more

the Chicago Departments of Environment and Housing held the

Green Homes for Chicago competition to solicit green, single-family home designs (see EBN

Vol. 10, No. 1). Designs were judged on affordability, energy efficiency, sustainability, and how well they fit the economic and social context of surrounding communities... Read more

Air filtration gets a whole lot more attention than it used to. Over the past two years, the health concerns of those working or living near Ground Zero after the destruction of the World Trade Center and the anthrax attacks that followed in Washington, D.C., have given air filtration a high profile. Add to this the rising incidence of asthma... Read more

This article contained misinformation about the cost of testing and certification under Greenguard. The statement that it could cost a company "over one million dollars per year" to certify a product line was based on an unconfirmed statement from a manufacturer. In fact, the most any one company has paid to date is $180... Read more

The Thermostat Recycling Corporation (TRC) has recovered 1,947 pounds (883 kg) of

mercury from 221,000 discarded mercury-switch thermostats since it began operating in 1998. Under the program, established by Honeywell, General Electric, and White Rodgers, HVAC contractors can drop off any brand of mercury-switch thermostats, free of... Read more

A year ago we reported that a flawed U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) test resulted in misleading reports on the efficiency of residential dishwashers (

Vol. 11, No. 9). The trouble was that while some dishwashers adjust their wash cycles to match the dirtiness of their loads, all dishwashers were tested by washing a load of already clean... Read more

The Northern Hemisphere is warmer now than it has been at any point in the past 2,000 years, according to a study by British and American researchers published in

Geophysical Research Letters this August. Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) acknowledged in a July press release that global warming is causing... Read more

Environmental Building News since there is always something new and useful to learn.

Indeed, your July feature article (

Vol. 12, No. 7), “Moisture Control in Buildings: Putting Building Science in Green Building,” gave me something totally new to study and reflect upon.

Joe... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning a

national program to promote water efficiency, in the hopes of reducing both water use and water and wastewater infrastructure needs nationwide. As part of the program, EPA is considering a water-efficiency label similar to the successful Energy Star label. More information on... Read more

The

ozone hole over Antarctica had reached a record size by early September and may break the all-time record of 11 million square miles (28.5 million km2) before shrinking as the austral summer begins, according to British Antarctic Survey scientist Jonathan Shanklin, one of the hole’s discoverers in 1985. Hopes were raised that the... Read more

In the process of designing a large open-plan office building for a corporate client, Gensler’s designers suggested taking a look at a smaller project they recently completed for the same client. In the earlier project, they found that partially closed-in “teaming areas” they had created in the corners were rarely used because they didn’t offer... Read more

... Read more