The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) continued its tradition of greening Greenbuild during November’s conference in Atlanta. The convention center donated and composted leftover food, served water from large containers instead of individual bottles, provided 100% recycled paper towels and toilet paper, and reduced lights, power, and HVAC... Read more

Designing & Building with FSC Award to Goldman Sachs, a leading global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm, for its LEED® Certified building at 30 Hudson... Read more

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

In the late 1990s I was part of a team hired to consult on a model green elementary school for McKinney, Texas. The kickoff workshop for this project included the architects (a firm specializing in school design), our team of consultants, and teachers and other staff from the school district. As the workshop began, participants couched all... Read more

The Enterprise Foundation, a national nonprofit leading the charge to build green affordable housing (see

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Vol. 14, No. 3), will become Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., as of January 1, 2006. The organization is online at www.enterprisecommunity.org.

The magazine

Scientific American has recognized the U.S. Green Building Council, based in Washington, D.C., along with the architecture firms FxFowle, P.C. (formerly Fox & Fowle), based in New York City; William McDonough+Partners, based in Charlottesville, Virginia; and Foster and Partners, based in London, among its annual “... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the winners of the fourth annual Leadership Awards program in conjunction with its Greenbuild conference in Atlanta. Designed to “recognize outstanding individuals and organizations that signify vision, leadership, and commitment to the evolution of green building design and construction,” the... Read more

TimberSIL™, the innovative, nontoxic wood-treatment process from Timber Treatment Technologies, LLC, that we reviewed in October 2004 (see

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Vol. 13, No. 10) and recognized as a 2004 Top-10 Green Product (see

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Vol. 13, No. 12), will be distributed nationally by Huttig Building Products, Inc., of St. Louis,... Read more

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

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

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

A September 2005 report from New Ecology, Inc., and Tellus Institute demonstrates that green affordable housing is more cost-effective than conventional affordable housing. The report,

Costs and Benefits of Green Affordable Housing, features case studies of 16 green affordable housing projects around the country and lays out the long-... Read more

DuPont and Tate & Lyle have begun construction on a $100 million plant in Loudon, Tennessee, that will convert corn into 1,3 propanediol (PDO). The product, also known as Bio-PDO™, will replace petroleum-based PDO in the production of Sonora®, DuPont’s newest polymer, used in clothing, carpeting, plastics, and other products. The production... Read more

The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), the world’s leading organization representing commercial real estate executives, has awarded its first Green Development Award to Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) for a 125,000 ft2 (11,600 m2) office building in Annapolis Junction, Maryland. The award was developed in... Read more

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

In what it describes as the most ambitious energy conservation campaign in U.S. history, the California Public Utilities Commission in September 2005 authorized $2 billion in funding over the next three years for energy efficiency and conservation. The program’s provisions include financing strategies, online energy audits, and consumer rebates... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council, along with the Enterprise Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, the Trust for Public Land, and others, is planning a series of charrettes focused on rebuilding the Gulf Coast. The meetings will be held during the Greenbuild Conference, to take place in Atlanta November 9-11, 2005. Scholarships will allow 30 Gulf... Read more