The U.S. Senate has voted against eliminating a tax incentive for renovating existing buildings. Intense lobbying by preservationists led to the defeat of a plan to sunset the portion of the

Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit that applies to pre-1936 Main-Street-style commercial buildings that are not designated historic. The... Read more

Citrus Elementary School in Ocoee, Florida has become the nation’s first school to publish an

online “Utility Report Card,” which tracks and evaluates the school’s electricity consumption. A joint effort of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Orange County public school system, the Walt... Read more

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC), the organization most actively promoting green roofs in North America, has announced the winners of its second annual Awards of Excellence.

Winners were selected for industrial and commercial, institutional, and residential projects for both intensive (with more than 6” of growing medium) and... Read more

EBN Archives is now in production and should be shipping by the end of May. The CD-ROM features 99 back issues of

Environmental Building News, from the very first, in 1992, through the end of 2003—more than 1,600 pages of reporting delivered in Adobe® PDF format. 

Find what you need using the fast and... Read more

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) announced the winners of the

2004 National Green Building Awards in March during their Green Building Conference in Austin, Texas.

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Tom Hoyt, co-owner of McStain Enterprises in Boulder, Colorado, was named

Green Advocate of the Year. Hoyt has built more than 8,000... Read more

On April 8, 2004 the California Division of the State Architect (DSA) released a draft of its first environmentally preferable product (EPP) standard—on composite panel products—for public review. Once the standard is finalized, products that conform to it will be eligible to be included in the DSA’s database of environmentally preferable... Read more

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

When I picked up my April 2004 issue of

Environmental Building News (

Vol. 13, No. 4) and saw the main article’s title, inwardly I groaned. I usually look forward to, read thoroughly, and then treasure the detailed completeness of each

EBN feature article. But “Which Grass is Greener? Comparing Natural and Artificial Turf... Read more

Emerging Green Builders has announced its second annual

USGBC Design Competition, intended to engage and recognize environmentally conscious students and professionals new to the building industry. In order to compete, current students and professionals with less than three years of experience in the building industry are invited to... Read more

Spokane, Washington-based Potlatch Corporation has become the first U.S.-based, publicly traded wood products company to have its forestlands certified according to standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Potlatch chairman and CEO L. Pendleton Siegel announced on April 20, 2004 that forestry operations on the company’s 668,000 acres... 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

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

Christine Ervin is stepping down from her leadership role.

Rick Fedrizzi, founder and president of Green-Think, Inc., and founding chairman of USGBC, has been selected to fill her position in an acting capacity. According to the Council, “The change is... Read more