New Jersey’s Renewable Energy Task Force, created by Governor McGreevey in January 2004, finalized in March plans to strengthen the State’s

renewable portfolio standard (RPS), which requires energy suppliers to provide a certain percentage of renewable power, including that from solar, wind, renewable biomass, landfill gas, geothermal,... Read more

® 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

According to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy,

net petroleum imports into the United States reached a new all-time record in 2003: 56.1% of oil consumption. This represents a 5.1% increase over net imports in 2002, and a 1.1% increase over the previous record in 2001. Imports from OPEC represented... Read more

EBN

Vol. 8, No. 10), Southface Energy Institute designed the Communities program to address the environmental performance of individual homes as well as neighborhood design, site modification, and community education. Four... Read more

GreenVisions Consulting. Bren has been a leading advocate of green building and sustainable development in Virginia since the early 1990s, when he founded the Virginia Housing and the Environment Network (VaHEN). In his new role, he will consult and... Read more

Awards & Competitions

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

When the

Bush Administration attempted to lower energy-efficiency standards set by the Clinton White House (from SEER 13 to SEER 12), a coalition of consumer organizations and attorneys general challenged the move. The Second Court of Appeals in New York City rejected the Bush plans (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 2), but air-... 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

•

Michael Holtz, president of Architectural Energy Corporation in Boulder, Colorado;

Peter... Read more

In

EBN’s March feature article, “Wire and Cable” (

Vol. 13, No. 3), the sidebar “Is Fluorine Worse than Chlorine?” may have needlessly alarmed readers in its attempt to summarize the large amount of available information on perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in a short amount of text. The key point is that consumer and industrial... Read more

2 (67 m

2)

green construction trailer, stationed at the construction site of an office building outside Green Bay for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (designed to achieve LEED Silver certification). The Boldt team used improved insulation; energy-... Read more

The Roanoke Regional Housing Network is busy planning

C2C Home, an international housing design and construction competition based on the principles described in

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things by William McDonough, FAIA, and Michael Braungart (see book review in

EBN

Vol. 11, No. 5).... Read more

Stakeholder meetings for the two Task Groups working under the auspices of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee (TSAC) were held on February 17 and 18, 2004 in Washington, D.C. (see

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 12 for background). The two issues being examined are

the use of HCFC... Read more

A new ad campaign is targeting kids between the ages of 8 and 13 in an effort to reduce energy use in homes. The three-year campaign, funded by the Ad Council, Energy Outreach Colorado, and a number of other partners, uses television, radio, and Internet public-service announcements to

teach children to become

“Energy Hog... Read more

I saw your recent article “CCA Phaseout Relatively Smooth” (

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 2) and wanted to comment that, in addition to ACQ and copper azole, another group of products has seen a resurgence due to the CCA phaseout. Our company is involved in the manufacture and distribution of products, including dimensional lumber, sheeting... Read more

At a March 6, 2004 workshop in San Francisco the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) introduced their plan for a Center for Green Building Research. The proposed Center would be managed by EPRI, while LBNL would direct the research efforts. The organizers are seeking funding from federal and... Read more

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the NAHB Research Center have announced the names of the people who will work to develop the voluntary

Model Green Home Building Guidelines. The 59 stakeholders represent homebuilders, environmentalists, government agencies, and a number of trade organizations. Each stakeholder is... Read more

In a move that has surprised many, the U.S. Green Building Council will not issue a call for papers for the November

2004 Greenbuild conference in Portland. Instead, all presentations in the break-out sessions will be invited by the program committee. The Council

will issue a call for posters and has expanded the guidelines,... Read more

Rainwater Collection for the Mechanically Challenged benefits from the authors’ experience installing hundreds more systems... Read more