I enjoyed your review of green building programs throughout the U.S. (“State and Local Green Building Programs,”

EBN

Vol. 11, No. 6). However, ours wasn’t on it! Of course, it is difficult to keep up with all the amazing things happening in the field of green building.

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld Vermont’s first-in-the-nation

mercury labeling law by denying an attempt by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) to have the 1998 law declared unconstitutional. Vermont’s Mercury Reduction Act requires manufacturers to label mercury-containing products that are sold in the state and... Read more

The Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) has released its 2002

Residential Home Appliance Programs National Summary. The summary details various incentive programs around the country designed to promote energy-efficient clothes washers, dish washers, refrigerators, and room air conditioners. The programs together apply to over 77.2... Read more

Energy Star® performance rating for hotels, enabling hotel owners to benchmark their energy performance against similar hotels nationwide on a 1–100 scale. Hotels with energy performance of 75 or more points can carry the Energy Star label. The first two hotels to qualify were the... Read more

Beginning with the 2003 fiscal year, all new U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) facilities will be designed and built to achieve at least basic LEED™ certification; higher-level certification (Silver, Gold, Platinum) is encouraged. The GSA’s Federal Building Fund includes $276 million in appropriations for 2003 and is responsible for... Read more

At a recent conference, I was in the uncomfortable position of listening from the front row while a speaker criticized the

Guideline Specifications that we publish as part of our

GreenSpec Directory. While acknowledging that they include a lot of useful information, the speaker pointed out example after example of passages that... Read more

The Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College in Ohio opened its doors in January 2000. Designed by William McDonough + Partners with Kevin Burke as project architect and a dream team of consultants, the project was guided by uncompromising goals that emerged from courses and public meetings led by Professor David... Read more

Amid the dramatic success and rapid market penetration of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED™ 2.0 Rating System, there are concerns that the extensive documentation requirements—some applications have arrived in multiple three-ring binders—are an obstacle for users. To address this concern, the Council is preparing to release an update to... Read more

New York’s Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has released its “

Commercial/Institutional Environmental Guidelines 1.0,” outlining the requirements for future construction in its jurisdiction on the west side of Lower Manhattan. The Guidelines are based on the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED™ 2.0 rating system, with... Read more

The City of Lubbock, Texas is replacing substandard and deteriorating

low-income housing with homes constructed of insulated concrete forms (ICFs). The city’s Energy Savings Reconstruction Program is partially funded through state, federal, and private partnerships, including support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban... Read more

I have been reading your article in the April 2002 issue of

Environmental Building News (

Vol. 11, No. 4) and generally agree with your take on the recent developments with SCS. However, as a Board member of the Silva Forest Foundation I must point out your error in describing SCS as “one of two organizations in North America... Read more

Generally not known for regulatory zeal, New Hampshire has become the

first state to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. On May 9, Gov. Jeanne Shaheen signed into law House Bill 284 (the “Clean Power Act”), establishing limits for carbon dioxide—along with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury—emitted by existing... Read more

, according to the results of a recent survey by

Metropolis magazine. Fifty-four percent of 500 Web site respondents agree that within 5 years, to be considered “good,” any design will have to address sustainability, and a whopping 93% of practicing design professionals... Read more

On May first, the American Lung Association (ALA) reported that 142 million Americans—more than 50% of the population—are now

living in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone air pollution (smog). According to the organization’s

State of the Air 2002 report, a failing grade was received by nearly 400 of the 678 counties that... Read more

by Bjørn Berge, translated by Filip Henley. First published in Norwegian in 1992, revised and expanded English edition published 2000 (hardcover), 2001 (paperback) by Butterworth-Heinemann, a division of Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd. 480 pages, paperback, $49.95

Ecology of Building Materials is... Read more

, compared with 2000, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA) data from the U.S. Department of Energy. Consumption totaled 96.96 quads (102.3 x 1018 J). Nuclear power production climbed 1.8% to 8.15 quads (8.6 x 1018 J), while solar and wind power output grew by 20.6% to 0.146 quads (0.... Read more

2002 Sustainability Award from Civic Trust.

Located between an industrial area and suburban housing, the campus features energy-efficient, mixed-use buildings with green roofs. The buildings’ energy efficiency is due in part to a close collaboration between the... Read more

DuPont Commercial Flooring has created the DuPont™ Antron® Sustainability Advisory Council, a volunteer network of multidisciplinary experts who will help the company understand and manage the total environmental impact of its Antron fiber over the entire life cycle of commercial flooring applications. Members of the Council are: Penny Bonda of... Read more