News Brief
Advances in wireless communication and Global Positioning System
(GPS) tracking are improving mass transit. A system created by NextBus sends users automated phone alerts when a designated bus is nearing their bus stop. The system has been extensively tested in San Francisco and was recently installed in Vail, Colorado. For information... Read more
News Brief
by James Wines, edited by Philip Jodidio, 2000. Taschen; Köln, Germany. Paperback, 240 pages, $24.99
“Without art, the whole idea of sustainability fails.” With this principle at its core,Green Architecture argues that technological approaches to reducing the environmental impacts of buildings are, in themselves, not enough to head off... Read more
News Brief
Scientists at NREL have achieved a
new efficiency record for cadmium telluride photovoltaic cells. The new record of 16.4% beat the previous mark of 15.8%, which had stood since 1992. Cadmium telluride is an increasingly attractive PV technology. First Solar’s new 100 MW CdTe plant in Toledo, Ohio began operation this spring (see
... Read moreNews Brief
energy simulation software. For many years, DOE-2 has been the standard energy modeling tool for large buildings and the benchmark against which other simulation tools are tested. It has some weaknesses, however, including being notoriously... Read more
News Brief
California gave a big boost to small power producers in the state by
increasing the cap on power-production systems that can feed power into the grid through
net metering provisions. The cap has been increased from 10 kilowatts to 1 megawatt. Net metering laws or regulations in more than 30 states allow power producers to “run... Read more
News Brief
by Norbert Lechner, 2001. John Wiley & Sons, New York. Hardcover, 640 pages, $85
The Second Edition ofHeating, Cooling, Lighting is one of the most useful and important books on building design in the last ten years. The book is not inexpensive, but it’s worth every penny. Norbert Lechner, an architecture professor at Auburn... Read more
News Analysis
Atlas Roofing Corporation, which in 1998 became the first polyisocyanurate insulation manufacturer to introduce an ozone-safe product (see
EBN
Vol. 7, No. 5), is still the only manufacturer to offer such a product. While most polyiso today is made with HCFC-141b, Atlas’s AC Ultra™ technology uses a mixture of hydrocarbons as the... Read more
Product Review
Made of 100% recycled EPS beads held in a cementitious matrix, Tech Block's new insulated concrete forms (ICFs) are similar in concept to the Rastra system.
There are quite a few insulated concrete form (ICF) systems on the market whose manufacturers make a variety of resource efficiency claims.
EBN came across an interesting newcomer, Tech Block, at this year’s Greenprints conference in Atlanta. Tech Block uses 100% recycled EPS in a cementitious matrix similar to the popular Rastra system... Read more
News Brief
The worldwide
costs of climate change will reach $300 billion annually by 2050, predicts Munich RE, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies. These costs will result from more frequent tropical cyclones, land loss due to rising sea levels, and damage to fishing stocks, agriculture, and water supplies. In the U.S., an estimated... Read more
News Brief
is pleased to be honored by
Metropolitan Home magazine as one the
Design 100 Best of the Best: People, Places, Extraordinary Things in the “Design that Makes a Difference” category. Also recognized are architect (and
EBN Advisory Board member) Gail Lindsey, landscape architect Julie Bargmann, eco-designer Wendy... Read more
News Brief
The
Architecture + Energy: Building Excellence in Sustainable Design awards program from the AIA/Portland Chapter recognizes the integration of design excellence with sustainable principles and conservation technology in commercial buildings. Historically restricted to buildings in the Northwestern U.S., this year the program invites... Read more
News Brief
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) are partnering to establish the
best available practices in
life-cycle assessment. The Life Cycle Inititative should go a long way toward harmonizing existing methods, databases, and life-cycle tools. This initiative... Read more
News Brief
by Richard Pinkham. Rocky Mountain Institute, 2000. Spiral-bound, 64 pages. Available printed for $12 plus shipping from RMI, 1739 Snowmass Creek Rd., Snowmass, CO 81654; 970/927-3851; or available for free in PDF format from the RMI Web site:
www.rmi.org
The term “daylighting” is far more commonly used to refer to natural lighting,... Read moreNews Analysis
Op-Ed
We are saddened to note the passing of two mavericks in the world of sustainability. On February 20, Donella (Dana) Meadows died suddenly of bacterial meningitis at age 59. In her late 20s, Dana was principal author of
Limits to Growth (1972), one of the first books to address the limits of population growth and resource extraction.... Read more
News Brief
FPL Energy of Florida is building a
300-megawatt wind farm—the world’s largest—on the border of Oregon and Washington. The 450-turbine wind farm, which will produce enough power for approximately 70,000 homes, should be completed by the end of this year. Power from the Stateline Wind Generating Project will be sold throughout the West... Read more
News Brief
during 2000 reached an all-time high at 57.0% total imports (up from 56.6% in 1998 and 55.6% in 1999), according to the February 2001 edition of
Monthly Energy Review, published by the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy (
www.eia.doe.gov). Net petroleum imports (... Read more
News Brief
, according to a story on MSNBC (January 20). More than a quarter of China is already desert, and sand dunes are now within 60 miles (96 km) of Beijing —and moving closer as quickly as 15 miles (24 km) per year! Last year many Beijing residents were hospitalized with... Read more
News Brief
The
Northeast Green Building Awards, sponsored by the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, were announced at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association’s (NESEA) Building Energy 2001 conference in Medford, Massachusetts on March 23, 2001. Listed below are the First Prize winners in each of the professional categories. Other winning... Read more
News Brief
Oregon’s controversial
Measure 7, which requires payments to landowners when state or local government regulations reduce property value, has been declared unconstitutional. An Oregon Circuit Court judge ruled in February that Ballot Measure 7 violates Oregon’s Constitution. This ruling is expected to be appealed, and the Oregon... Read more



