Following five years of litigation, Arizona courts have upheld residents’

right to install solar water heaters and photovoltaic panels. When residents of an Avondale, Arizona master-planned community installed solar panels to heat their swimming pools, Garden Lakes Community Association retaliated by filing a lawsuit requiring removal... Read more

is seeking volunteers and donations as they prepare for a

Middle East refugee crisis stemming from the war in Iraq. Iran, bordering both Iraq and Afghanistan—and already estimated to house more refugees than any other country—is bracing for the possible influx of over one million additional Iraqis in coming... Read more

The Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, will offer a course in

International Sustainable Building and Urban Design this September. The course, intended for mid-career professionals, will include expert workshops, excursions in Germany and Belgium, and participation in the... Read more

Robert Fox has left his position as senior principal with Fox & Fowle Architects to open a new firm:

Robert Fox Architect. At his new firm, Fox intends to focus on “environmentally responsible, high-performance buildings for a select group of clients in New York City.” “So far, the response has been terrific,” Fox reports, “and it... 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 Bush Administration has rolled out the Integrated Sequestration and Hydrogen Research Initiative, a $1 billion partnership between government and industry to design, build, and operate a coal-fired electricity and hydrogen production plant. The 275-megawatt prototype plant, known as FutureGen, will rely on coal gasification to produce... Read more

BP Solar is directing a new marketing campaign toward California homeowners. To encourage demand for residential photovoltaic systems, BP Solar offers financing options; access to California Energy Commission rebates; a full planning, installation, and commissioning service; and an indoor display screen allowing customers to monitor energy... 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

Clearview Elementary School in Hanover,... 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

EBN mourns the death of Jeffrey Cook, Regents Professor of Architecture at Arizona State University in Tempe and a pioneer in low-energy, passive solar design, who died of colon cancer on March 27. He chaired several early Passive Solar Conferences, was the founding editor in 1980 of the

Passive Solar Journal, and was a founder of the... Read more

Vol. 11, No. 11), designers pursuing LEED™ Indoor Environmental Quality Credit 4.4 have been at a loss for fire-retardant panel products. This credit requires that composite wood and ag-fiber products contain no added urea-... 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

The American Society of Landscape Architects will celebrate the second annual

National Landscape Architecture Week April 19 to 27. The week, which encompasses both Earth Day (April 22) and the birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted (April 27), will be marked by public events across the nation. Information on chapter events will be posted at... Read more

In Volume 11, No. 12, EBN included Kalwall® R-20 (RSI-3.1) with Nanogel in its list of ten best new green building products. Certainly the first commercial use of aerogel is a remarkable milestone. It is very worthy of an EBN award.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has announced a call for papers for its ninth

Performance of Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings conference, to be held December 5–10, 2004 in Clearwater Beach, Florida. The conference will be organized along two tracks: “principles” will be devoted to research, while “practices” will explore applications... Read more