The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) has named

Douglas H. Reid its new executive director. Reid is leaving his current position as director of development at the University of Massachusetts College of Natural Resources and the Environment in Amherst. NESEA is online at www.nesea.org.

On Earth Day, April 22, Connecticut governor John Rowland signed Executive Order 32,

requiring state facilities to use 20% renewable power by 2010, 50% renewable power by 2020, and 100% renewable power by 2050. “With my order today, we can begin to clean our air, improve the health of our children, and ensure our long-term energy... Read more

Citing demand from project owners and the belief that it’s “the right thing to do,” Allied Waste Industries, Inc. is weaving the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Rating System into its day-to-day operations. In the Great Lakes region, through SunSet Waste Services, and in the Northeast region, through BFI Waste Services, Allied Waste is... Read more

I kept thinking of Yogi Berra’s line “It’s déjà vu all over again” as I pored over dozens of scientific papers, reports, and articles on flame retardants and talked with experts over the past month. Current concerns about certain flame retardants—especially brominated flame retardants—bear striking resemblance to concerns expressed in the 1970s... Read more

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC), the organization most actively promoting green roofs in North America, has announced the winners of its second annual Awards of Excellence.

Winners were selected for industrial and commercial, institutional, and residential projects for both intensive (with more than 6” of growing medium) and... Read more

Version 8.0 of the

EBN Archives is now in production and should be shipping by the end of May. The CD-ROM features 99 back issues of

Environmental Building News, from the very first, in 1992, through the end of 2003—more than 1,600 pages of reporting delivered in Adobe® PDF format. 

Find what you need using the fast and... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced on April 15 that president and CEO

Christine Ervin is stepping down from her leadership role.

Rick Fedrizzi, founder and president of Green-Think, Inc., and founding chairman of USGBC, has been selected to fill her position in an acting capacity. According to the Council, “The change is... Read more

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retail company, plans to test a range of

green building strategies at two new supercenters in Aurora, Colorado and McKinney, Texas. The retailer plans to partner with colleges and universities to measure the success of the technologies; results will then be shared with the broader design and retail industries, and... Read more

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected this year’s Top Ten Green Projects from among an especially strong pool of submissions. The 2004 jury, chaired by Sandy Mendler, AIA, included Susan Ubbelohde, Tony McLaughlin, Don Watson, FAIA, and William Moorish. Full project information is online at www.aiatopten.org/hpb/ or in the... Read more

The first LEED

® Rating System based outside the U.S. was officially launched in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 14, 2004 by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC). The program is now accepting project registrations and has, in fact, already received its first full application, from the City of Vancouver. The development of LEED-BC was... Read more

When I picked up my April 2004 issue of

Environmental Building News (

Vol. 13, No. 4) and saw the main article’s title, inwardly I groaned. I usually look forward to, read thoroughly, and then treasure the detailed completeness of each

EBN feature article. But “Which Grass is Greener? Comparing Natural and Artificial Turf... Read more

The

Certified Wood and Paper Association (CWPA), which was formed in 2002 during a reorganization of the Certified Forest Products Council, ceased operations on April 15, 2004. According to a letter on the CWPA Web site by the Board of Directors, the organization was forced to dissolve due to lack of financial resources. Michael... Read more

Scientific Certification Systems, Inc.has released an

Indoor Air Quality Performance certification program for interior products. The program is designed to demonstrate product conformance with the indoor emissions limits associated with California’s Section 01350 specification, as well as emission criteria in the LEED

® Rating... Read more

Catherine Shawn, an energetic and inspiring advocate of green building and director of the highly regarded High Performance Buildings Salon lecture series held throughout New York State, died of breast cancer on April 5, 2004. Shawn was the creator of the Go2Buildings.com Web site and environmental clearinghouse, which brought designers, builders... Read more

The National Building Museum plans to showcase

the work of architect Samuel Mockbee in a traveling exhibition. The exhibition, which will feature 12 models and more than 100 photographs of Mockbee’s work at Auburn University’s Rural Studio, will open in Washington, D.C. on May 22. For more information on Mockbee and his work, see the review of... Read more

Awards & Competitions

Architectural Press and Elsevier Publishers, in conjunction with Teachers in Architecture and the Circle 33 Housing Group, have announced the

2004 Design Competition for an Ecohouse. The competition is based on the principles described in the book

Ecohouse 2. Author Sue Roaf says the challenge is “to... Read more

We have almost a heaven and hell,” says Pauline Souza, of Chong Partners Architecture in San Francisco, describing her firm’s successes and frustrations at greening their work. Mid-sized and large design firms carry a lot of cachet, and clients tend to follow their advice more readily than they follow the suggestions of sole practitioners or small... Read more

Energy and Environmental Policies of the Bush AdministrationTo say that I’m discouraged with energy and environmental policy trends is an understatement. As someone with a generally optimistic outlook, I keep assuming that the policies of the current Administration can’t get any worse. But then I open the morning paper or turn on the radio and... Read more

David Nelson, AIA, IALD, after 11 years with Clanton & Associates in Boulder, Colorado, has formed his own company,

David Nelson & Associates, LLC. Nelson is an architect and a highly respected lighting designer; he has a bachelor of science degree in architectural engineering from the University of Colorado and a master’s in... Read more

Shortly after celebrating the fourth anniversary of the LEED

® Rating System, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) awarded its

100th LEED certification—a Silver rating for the Bonneville Power Administration Ampere Annex in Vancouver, Washington—on April 14, 2004. And, on April 19, USGBC received a LEED registration for the St... Read more