I found your recent feature article on flame retardants [

Vol. 13, No. 6] to be very enlightening. You have written it with your usual thoroughness. That’s why I subscribe to

EBN and why I tell my students to subscribe. I find so much of what you report to be valuable for clients and students.

[Sometimes] I assess houses... Read more

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. EPA Region 2 have announced the winners of the

first Green Building Design Competition for New York City. The competition was open to actual and theoretical projects designed for any specific site within the five boroughs of New York City. Winners were selected from more than 50... Read more

Storm Cunningham launched the nonprofit Revitalization Institute™ in April 2004. Based on principles outlined in Cunningham’s 2002 book

The Restoration Economy: The Greatest New Growth Frontier (see review,

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 2), the Revitalization Institute’s mission is “to advance restorative development of communities and... Read more

As part of its recently adopted

Green Building Strategy, the Vancouver, British Columbia city council approved a requirement that every new civic building larger than 500 m2 (5,000 ft2) achieve a Gold rating in the recently released LEED for British Columbia (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 5).

Portland, Oregon’s Office of Sustainable Development has recognized ten local businesses with BEST (

Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow) Awards for efficient use of resources, waste and pollution reduction, and sustainable business practices. The winners with a building-related focus are listed here; a list of all ten... Read more

Sloan Valve Company, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial plumbing equipment, has just introduced a unique, solar-powered, sensor-activated faucet. A small photovoltaic (PV) cell embedded in the top of the faucet powers the optical sensor. A lithium battery powers the opening and closing of the valve and provides back-up power... Read more

Interface Engineering, Inc.

, a mechanical and electrical engineering firm with offices in Seattle, Washington; Portland and Salem, Oregon; and Sacramento, California, is in the process of

converting its entire vehicle fleet to hybrid cars. Interface is passing its fuel savings, estimated at 20 extra miles per gallon of gasoline (8.5 km/... Read more

Surprising both politicians and environmentalists, Russian President

Vladimir Putin made a strong statement in support of the Kyoto Protocol in May. The European Union (EU), which ratified the protocol in May 2002, has agreed to support Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization only if Russia ratifies the protocol. “The EU has... Read more

A team of nine business, economics, and engineering students from the University of Victoria in British Columbia has won the grand prize in the first annual

University Student Hydrogen Design Contest, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Hydrogen Association, ChevronTexaco, Natural Resources Canada, and Swagelok Company. The... Read more

The nonprofit product-testing organization Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL) plans to open

the nation’s first commercial wind turbine certification and test facility near Cheyenne, in rural Laramie County, Wyoming by the end of 2004. Distributed Generation Systems, Inc. will coordinate the design and construction of the facility,... Read more

The World Environmental Center has awarded

Johnson Controls, Inc. its 20th annual

WEC Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development for “providing global leadership in revolutionizing the way businesses and institutions approach the design, construction, and renovation of their facilities.”... Read more

A coalition of corporate and nonprofit organizations launched the

Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition in April with the goal of “accelerating the economic development and environmental benefits of available onsite green energy technologies and energy efficiency applications and devices designed for Canada’s residential building sector.” The... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy disqualified ten compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) from the

Energy Star® program on May 4, 2004. According to Richard Karney,

Energy Star program manager, the products were disqualified “for failure to meet one or more of the key

Energy Star testing requirements, which include lamp life, initial... Read more

The nonprofit Architecture for Humanity (AFH) has announced

a competition to design a soccer facility in Somkhele, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The facility, to be run by medical professionals from the Africa Center for Health and Population Studies, will serve as a gathering place for youth aged 9 to 14, including the area’s first... Read more

Four workers were killed and several others injured on April 23, 2004 in an

explosion at a Formosa Plastics polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production facility in Illiopolis, Illinois. A fifth worker died of his injuries on May 13. The series of explosions, which destroyed most of the plant, “apparently followed a release of highly flammable... Read more

by Bettina von Hagen, Erin Kellogg, and Eugénie Frerichs. A publication of Ecotrust, Portland, Oregon, 2003; 120 pages, softcover, $21. Contact Ecotrust at 503-227-6225 or visit www.ecotrust.org/publications/.“This is a book about a building,” begins

Rebuilt Green, and the lead character is the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, a LEED® Gold... Read more

Under optimal conditions, an air-source heat pump can run at a theoretical 400% efficiency—delivering four times more energy than it uses. But as outdoor temperatures drop, conventional air-source heat pumps deliver less and less heat. By contrast, the multiple-stage Cold Climate Heat Pump™ (CCHP) from Nyle Special Products, LLC of Bangor, Maine,... Read more

Canada’s federal Public Works and Government Services

(PWGSC) has announced a series of initiatives to green its operations. The department has pledged, among other strategies, to cut its energy use by 60% over 1990 levels by March 2008, to achieve a LEED® Gold or BREEAM Four Leaves green building standard with all new construction, and to... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) will be accepting

feedback on the LEED® for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) rating system through Tuesday, July 13, 2004. The current draft includes significant modifications from the version that has been in use for the LEED-CI pilot program over the past two years. The official release is... Read more

Ecoshack

, a green design laboratory based in Joshua Tree and Los Angeles, California, has announced a

competition to design “an environmentally sustainable camping shelter—a ‘green’ tent—for use in the Mojave Desert in and around Joshua Tree National Park.” One to five winning entries will each receive $500 and may be prototyped on... Read more