BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

December 1, 2005

The Emerging Green Builders chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council announced the winners of their

Natural Talent Design Competition at Greenbuild 2005. This year’s competition, a partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, featured two categories: New Construction and Existing Buildings. The first place winners were:... Read more

News Brief

We at BuildingGreen have announced the Top-10 Green Building Products of 2005, representing our pick of the most exciting additions to the GreenSpec Directory over the past year.

December 1, 2005

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

News Brief

December 1, 2005

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

News Brief

November 1, 2005

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has signed into law a bill establishing green building standards for certain capital projects. The law, Int. 324-A, requires most new and renovated City buildings that cost more than $2 million to “be built according to green building standards that are as stringent as LEED,” according to an Office of... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2005

GeoPraxis®, Inc., a company that provides architectural, engineering, and construction software and services, has become Green Building Studio, Inc., taking on the name of the company’s online energy-analysis service. The firm’s utility and real-estate consulting business, including the online EnergyCheckup™ tool, meanwhile, has spun off but... Read more

Feature

November 1, 2005
The house I live in is 220 years old, having survived storms, fires, and droughts and having experienced the emergence of petroleum, electricity, automobiles, plastics, and nuclear power. It has been repaired, enlarged (around 1800), plumbed, wired, gutted, remodeled, insulated, and restored by generations of inhabitants—adapting to meet changing... Read more

Product Review

November 1, 2005
Toto, a leading toilet manufacturer whose toilets have consistently been among the best in terms of flush performance, introduced to North America the Aquia™ Dual-Max™ dual-flush toilet in May 2005. While this toilet has been available elsewhere for five or six years and is the most popular toilet in Thailand, where it is manufactured, according... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2005

The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) has expanded its Green Label Plus program, released in 2004 to recognize carpets with low emissions of indoor pollutants, to include adhesives. Green Label Plus supersedes the organization’s older “Green Label” program, which addressed carpets, carpet pads, and adhesives. Before receiving Green Label Plus... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2005

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 have announced a call for entries in the second annual New York City Green Building Competition. The competition is open to projects built in or designed for specific sites within the boroughs of New York City. Awards will be... Read more

News Analysis

November 1, 2005
Students from 18 schools in the U.S., Canada, and Spain converged on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in September 2005 to reconstruct the solar-powered homes that they had been designing and building on their own campuses over the past two years. The homes opened to visitors on October 7, and the final phase of the U.S. Department of Energy... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2005
EpiCenter, the Artists for Humanity, Inc., 23,500 ft2 (2,180 m2) headquarters in South Boston, Massachusetts, has achieved 53 points in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Rating System, earning the project a Platinum rating. Dedicated to “providing programs for youth empowerment through art and entrepreneurship,” the building includes fine... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2005
EBN

Advisory Board member Russell Perry, AIA, is now at SmithGroup’s Washington, D.C., office, after 11 years with William McDonough+Partners (WM+P). While at WM+P, Perry was project leader for several high-profile, aggressively green projects, including Ford’s River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan, and the National Collections Centre at... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2005

Among U.S. and Canadian members of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), 70% are implementing green concepts within their organization’s facility, according to a May 2005 online survey performed by IFMA. Full results are online at www.ifma.org/tools/research/survey_results.cfm.

News Analysis

November 1, 2005

The International Code Council (ICC), an organization focused on building safety and fire prevention, disappointed the green building community when it voted in late September 2005 not to adopt member-ratified changes to the 2004 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) that would have strengthened standards for wall insulation. The... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2005

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recognized the nonprofit Green Building Initiative™ (GBI) as an accredited national standards developer in September 2005. Following its accreditation, GBI submitted an application to establish its Green Globes™ commercial buildings rating system as an American National Standard. For more on GBI... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2005
Environmental Design and Construction magazine (ED+C) has announced the winners of its third annual Excellence in Design Awards. More information about the winners, including finalists and honorable mentions, is online at www.edcmag.com.

• The

Alberici Group Corporate Headquarters, 8850 Page, designed by Mackey Mitchell Associates, won... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2005

Green Builder® Media, LLC, plans to publish the first issue of Green Builder Magazine in January 2006. With 90,000 copies mailed to builders, contractors, and remodelers, and an additional 20,000 distributed at the International Builders Show, Green Builder will launch as the third largest magazine in the homebuilding industry, according to the... Read more

News Analysis

November 1, 2005

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

News Brief

November 1, 2005

The Greenguard™ Environmental Institute, a nonprofit certifier of products with low emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), has created the Greenguard Standard for Children & Schools™, which sets emissions criteria for building materials, furnishings, finishes, and cleaning products to be used in schools and daycare facilities.... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2005

Architecture for Humanity (AFH) was one of five recipients of the 2005 Index Design Award, honoring the best examples of “design to improve life for vast numbers of people.” AFH was recognized for its work with the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in Somkhele, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to design and build a soccer club that... Read more