Just in time for Earth Day, The American Institute of Architects announced the Top Ten Green Projects for 2003. Winning entries include residential, commercial, and educational projects. The awards program was cosponsored this year by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Building Museum, and hosted online by BuildingGreen, Inc. Full... Read more

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California diverted 48% of its waste stream from landfills in 2002, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board. A total of 34 million tons (31 million tonnes) of solid waste were diverted last year, a fourfold increase since 1990, when the Integrated Waste Management Act took effect in the state. This law requires every local... Read more

EBN that... Read more

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has named the Energy Center of Wisconsin winner of its

2002 Continuing Education Award for Excellence. The private, nonprofit Energy Center has worked with more than one third of the state’s 1,500 architects through its continuing education programs in an effort to improve the energy... Read more

Environmentalists won an important victory on April 3, when the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted in favor of small-scale renewable-energy production. All net-metered solar and wind systems generating less than 1 MW of electricity, along with some hydrogen fuel cells, are exempt, according to CPUC’s decision, from paying a... Read more

On March 25, 2003, the U.S. Green Building Council published a notice with several changes and adjustments to the recently released version 2.1 of its LEED™ Rating System for New Construction (see

EBN

Vol. 11, No. 12). Designers working on projects that are seeking LEED certification are advised to visit the Council’s Web site... Read more

almost another system. Taco®, the nation’s largest... Read more

Clearview Elementary School in Hanover,... Read more

complex because multiple forest certification programs exist, with similarities and differences; almost as quickly as architects and specifiers can get a handle on the features of these programs, they change. It is... Read more

San Mateo County Green... Read more

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has announced its annual accolades for green power programs. Over 300 energy utilities in 32 states now sponsor green power programs, through which consumers opt to pay a premium price for electricity to support renewable energy. Relying on statistics provided by the utilities, NREL has developed... Read more

New U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) clean water regulations, demanding that construction sites larger than one acre (0.4 ha) obtain a

National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, became effective March 10. (The rule has applied to sites larger than 5 acres/2 ha since 1990.) The regulations were not enacted... Read more

Both the number and the severity of droughts and storms are on the rise, according to a new report by the World Water Council. These and other manifestations of global climate change have contributed to a

tenfold increase in economic losses from weather-related catastrophes over the past five decades. The 1990s saw more significant... Read more

Environmental Building News

Archives. This seventh-edition CD-ROM includes more than ten years of EBN—from the first issue in mid-1992 through the end of 2002. Packed with more than 1,500 pages of green building information, the

Archives are fully searchable and provide instant access to every... Read more

The

Southface Energy Institute has announced that it will work with architectural consultant

Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates (TVS) in the design and construction of a new commercial addition to their Energy and Environmental Resource Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The new facility, which will include indoor and... Read more

Smithfield Foods, Inc.—America’s largest producer of hogs and leading processor and marketer of fresh pork and processed meats—plans to build a $20 million

facility to convert swine waste into biodiesel fuel as part of the BEST BioFuel partnership. The facility will convert manure into biomethanol, which can be used to produce biodiesel... Read more

I was just looking at the February issue of

Environmental Building News (

Vol. 12, No. 2) and couldn’t help but notice the article about paints made from vegetable oil (“American Pride – Paint Made from Vegetable Oil”). I have to say that someone appears to have pulled the wool over someone’s eyes. Making paints from vegetable... Read more

Meanwhile, American Bio-Fuels, LLC, is doing their part to revolutionize biodiesel production. Bio-Fuels is constructing the

first continuous-flow biodiesel facility in the country. At peak production, the Bakersfield, California plant is expected to produce 35 million gallons (132.5 million liters) of biodiesel per year, making it the... Read more