News Analysis
Product Review
EBN
Vol. 11, No. 10 and
Vol. 6, No. 8). We recently discovered another such product—made by Bricor Analytical, Inc. in Colorado Springs, Colorado. While quite different from the ETL products technologically, Bricor... Read more
News Brief
The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Foundation has established a
Sustainable Design Education Fund to reimburse members of the interior-design community for taking classes, attending conferences, undergoing LEED™ accreditation, and participating in other activities related to sustainable design. The fund is made... Read more
News Brief
The American Solar Energy Society has named
Ralph Knowles a “Passive Solar Pioneer.” Distinguished Professor Emeritus Knowles has spent the past 40 years at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture. Among Knowles’ contributions to passive design is the “solar envelope,” a zoning concept that ensures city buildings... Read more
News Analysis
News Brief
Applications are now being accepted for the first
Sustainable Design Leadership Awards, sponsored by the International Interior Design Association, the American Institute of Architects Interiors Committee, CoreNet Global, and Tandus™. The Operational Leadership Award is open to any business or organization and the Design Leadership... Read more
News Analysis
For the last three years a group of committed builders and other experts has been meeting under the purview of Building for Social Responsibility (BSR) in Vermont to create the nation’s most comprehensive—greenest—residential green building program yet. Vermont Built Green (VBG) is being piloted this summer with a huge array of green criteria.... Read more
News Brief
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by Leonard R. Bachman; John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2003. Hardcover, 479 pages, $75.
Integrated Buildings is an amazing book.... Read moreNews Brief
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The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) awarded this year’s
Environmental Sensitivity Awards to two architecture firms that specialize in... Read more
Feature
Water in all forms threatens buildings.
I am continually surprised by how little emphasis the green building movement places on building science. As we examine the many priorities of green building—from land-use planning to energy efficiency, material selection, and indoor air quality—the basic science of how we design and build structures to ensure long life and healthy indoor... Read more
News Brief
The IRS has approved 501(c)(3) nonprofit status for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Until now, USGBC has been a 501(c)(6) “trade association,” but in October 2001 the Board decided to pursue a shift in status. President and CEO Christine Ervin believes the new designation ”will communicate to the public and potential funders that our... Read more
News Brief
In late May 2003, winners of the first annual Green Roof Awards of Excellence were announced during the first national green roofs conference (see page 3). Award recipients and their projects are described below:
• Katrin Scholz-Barth Consulting, green roof consultant – Montgomery Park Business Center, Baltimore, Maryland: 30,000 ft2... Read more
News Analysis
On May 2, 2003, at the EnvironDesign® 7 conference in Washington, D.C., William McDonough announced the launch of a nonprofit organization to facilitate dissemination of the design approaches and resources his companies have developed. “We’re launching the GreenBlue program today to give away the cradle-to-cradle protocol freely,” McDonough... Read more
News Brief
SunPower Corporation has announced that their new A-300 crystalline-silicon solar cell converts over one fifth of the sunlight hitting it into electricity. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has verified a
20.4% conversion efficiency for the 125-millimeter, single-crystal A-300 cell, making it likely to become the most efficient... Read more
Product Review
Growing its collection of innovations in the flooring industry, Interface, Inc. has introduced FLOR™, a modular flooring system designed for use in homes. FLOR’s ten product lines represent a variety of fabrics, colors, textures, and patterns. According to Chip DeGrace, InterfaceFLOR’s vice president of marketing, “FLOR bridges hard surface and... Read more
News Analysis
Honeywell and BASF completed a major transaction on May 1, when Honeywell sold its worldwide engineering-plastics business to BASF in exchange for BASF’s worldwide nylon-fiber business and $90 million. With this transaction, BASF exited the fibers market to concentrate on plastics. The new Honeywell Nylon division will offer Honeywell’s Anso®... Read more
News Brief
The
University of Cincinnati invites applications for a tenure-track position in the School of Architecture and Interior Design (SAID) in the area of environmental technologies. For further information, contact: David Lee Smith, Professor of Architecture, david.smith@uc.edu, 513-556-5291.
News Brief
One hundred thousand homes have earned the Environmental Protection Agency’s
Energy Star® designation. Each home that meets the voluntary criteria uses an average of 30% less energy for heating, cooling, and water heating than a conventional home, saving homeowners about $200 to $400 annually. According to EPA, the program saves... Read more
News Analysis
The Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), created last year by members of the carpet industry, government entities, and nonprofit organizations, has released its first annual report on progress toward the goal of diverting 40% of America’s post-consumer carpet from landfills by 2012. As a first step in the ten-year plan, CARE had hoped to... Read more
News Brief
, a Martha’s Vineyard design/build firm, seeks a residential architect and/or designer committed to ecological design. For details, visit
www.somoco.com or e-mail John Abrams at jabrams@vineyard.net.





