The magazine

Scientific American has recognized the U.S. Green Building Council, based in Washington, D.C., along with the architecture firms FxFowle, P.C. (formerly Fox & Fowle), based in New York City; William McDonough+Partners, based in Charlottesville, Virginia; and Foster and Partners, based in London, among its annual “... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the winners of the fourth annual Leadership Awards program in conjunction with its Greenbuild conference in Atlanta. Designed to “recognize outstanding individuals and organizations that signify vision, leadership, and commitment to the evolution of green building design and construction,” the... Read more

In the late 1990s I was part of a team hired to consult on a model green elementary school for McKinney, Texas. The kickoff workshop for this project included the architects (a firm specializing in school design), our team of consultants, and teachers and other staff from the school district. As the workshop began, participants couched all... Read more

On November 8, 2005, Scientific Certification Systems, Inc., of Emeryville, California launched its Indoor Advantage program, which appears aimed to compete directly with Greenguard® (see EBN

Vol. 12, No. 10) in certifying products and materials for their low indoor air emissions. The program includes two levels: Indoor Advantage™ and... Read more

Designing a Sustainable and Secure World Awards, presented by Global Green USA, the U.S. arm of Green Cross International. The

Hearst Corporation was recognized in the “green building design” category for commissioning the... Read more

Hurricane Katrina and a long list of other natural disasters over the years—from the Northeast’s Blizzard of 1978 that killed 17 people and left tens of thousands of people without heat and water, to the Chicago heat wave that killed more than 700 people during a one-week period in 1995, to the January 1998 ice storm in Eastern Canada that... Read more

Winners of the second Excellence in Sustainable Design and Development Awards were announced in October 2005 during the Integrated Design/Integrated Development (IDID) Conference, held in Crawford Notch, New Hampshire. The winners were the

NRG Systems Offices and Manufacturing Facility in Hinesburg, Vermont, designed by William Maclay... Read more

TimberSIL™, the innovative, nontoxic wood-treatment process from Timber Treatment Technologies, LLC, that we reviewed in October 2004 (see

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Vol. 13, No. 10) and recognized as a 2004 Top-10 Green Product (see

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Vol. 13, No. 12), will be distributed nationally by Huttig Building Products, Inc., of St. Louis,... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) codified new efficiency standards for residential appliances and commercial equipment that were established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (see

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Vol. 14, No. 9). New requirements for small products, such as exit signs, take effect in 2006; requirements for larger appliances, such as... Read more

Sustainable Hotel Siting, Design, and Construction

, published by Conservation International and the International Business Leaders Forum, is intended to help the travel and leisure industry build more environmentally friendly hotels. The book was produced with the support of nine of the world’s leading hotel chains, including Hilton,... Read more

BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of the GreenSpec®Directory and Environmental Building News™, announced the fourth annual Top-10 Green Building Products during the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild Conference and Expo in November. The Top-10 represent the most exciting products added to GreenSpec in the past year. A press release about... Read more

The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), the world’s leading organization representing commercial real estate executives, has awarded its first Green Development Award to Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) for a 125,000 ft2 (11,600 m2) office building in Annapolis Junction, Maryland. The award was developed in... Read more

DuPont and Tate & Lyle have begun construction on a $100 million plant in Loudon, Tennessee, that will convert corn into 1,3 propanediol (PDO). The product, also known as Bio-PDO™, will replace petroleum-based PDO in the production of Sonora®, DuPont’s newest polymer, used in clothing, carpeting, plastics, and other products. The production... Read more

Wonderful Houses Around the Worldby Yoshio Komatsu, Shelter Publications, Bolinas, California, 2004. Flexcover or softcover, 48 pages, $14.95/$8.95.

In what it describes as the most ambitious energy conservation campaign in U.S. history, the California Public Utilities Commission in September 2005 authorized $2 billion in funding over the next three years for energy efficiency and conservation. The program’s provisions include financing strategies, online energy audits, and consumer rebates... Read more

The Fusiotherm® and Faser® lines of polypropylene pipe and pipe fittings made by Aquatherm Piping Systems, LLC, were awarded ESR 1613 listing by the International Code Council (ICC) in September 2005. This listing, according to Aquatherm’s Jim Brock, certifies that Aquatherm pipe and fittings meet all of the relevant plumbing codes. The... Read more