Chemicals ubiquitous in consumer products that interfere with human hormones are costing millions of dollars in direct and intangible health costs, according to an economic analysis—and that’s just based on estimates of the havoc they wreak on the male reproductive system.

A report funded by the Nordic... Read more

Progress is being made at the 675 colleges and universities that have signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment since its launch in 2007, according to an update from the organization. The pledge sets interim reduction targets to cut gross greenhouse gas emissions 14.4 million metric tons by... Read more

Use less energy and less water. Produce less waste. Avoid toxic chemicals.

Green building often sounds like a checklist of things not to do, which is not particularly inspiring, especially for creative professionals like architects, engineers, and interior designers. Often, the people who are talking... Read more

For a little while, zero-VOC paint was good enough for most green projects. Now, designers concerned about healthy products and trying to meet Living Building Challenge and LEED disclosure requirements are demanding deeper information on paint ingredients, and at least one manufacturer is providing it.

... Read more

The 2015 International Green Construction Code (IgCC) will have a compliance option based on an outcome-based approach, officials announced recently.

Previously, building energy codes relied on two main pathways to demonstrate compliance: prescriptive measures, where individual building components met... Read more

Even as other household appliances have become more efficient, residential clothes dryers have been stuck in the past, with their decades-old electric-resistance heat and tumble-dry technology mostly unchanged for the last 40-plus years. Dryers are now the largest energy-consuming standard appliance in most U.S. homes, and they... Read more

“If there were a LEED Titanium, we’d probably get it.”

But despite its super-greenness, homeowner Abel B’han’s Manhattan townhouse renovation is not going to get Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification. As the “petals”—LBC’s term for its major requirements—fall away one by one, he’s gradually... Read more

A friend, colleague, green building pioneer, and all-around great guy, Muscoe Martin, AIA, died on December 28, 2014, at age 59, after a long battle with brain cancer.

We first got to know Muscoe when he worked for Susan Maxman, FAIA, who, as the first woman president of the American Institute of... Read more

Half of New York City could be certified under the Living Building Challenge (LBC), which includes prerequisites for net-positive (beyond net-zero) energy, net-positive water, and 18 other tough... Read more

The price isn’t always right, at least when it comes to water: for a variety of reasons, water is priced at a premium in relatively wet locations ($3.42 per m3 in Amsterdam) and cheaply in dry ones ($0.28 m3 in desert-like Mumbai). Mispricing has the potential to misguide the market, incentivizing businesses to locate water-... Read more

The National Ready-Mix Concrete Association has released an environmental product declaration (EPD) showing average cradle-to-gate impacts of a variety of concrete mixes nationwide and by region. The document makes it easier for project teams to assess the environmental impact of one of the most common building materials and... Read more

A recent study commissioned by UL Environment, “Under the Lens: Claiming Green,” examines which types of green claims—third-party validated, legitimate but not independently verified, or just plain greenwash—today’s consumers buy into.

The picture shows that people largely get it: given the choice... Read more

Material health organizations have been all been pushing hard to get more manufacturers to disclose and optimize the ingredients in their products, but with multiple platforms like Health Product Declarations (HPD), Cradle to Cradle (C2C), GreenScreen, and Pharos all getting traction, the leaders of those organizations have... Read more

After years of wrangling between health advocates and the chemical industry on the issue of material transparency and health, a new working group of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has commenced talks aimed at working out these differences. As previously reported in EBN (Chemical Industry, USGBC Announce Ceasefire), the... Read more

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has broadened its advocacy focus to include climate resilience and material health.

Released in December 2014, the group’s revised position statements on environmental responsibility—guiding declarations that help clarify which programs, activities, and... Read more

Researchers at the University of California–San Diego have designed a silicon-based coating they claim features 90% conversion efficiency for concentrating solar power (CSP), a solar thermal technology used at the industrial scale to create steam for turbine-generated power.

The material includes a... Read more

Camera opens on a brightly lit cancer ward at a veterans’ hospital in Pittsburgh. An assistant turns on the water so a doctor can wash her hands. Camera follows the tap water upstream, into the faucet and the hospital’s plumbing system, where a sinister slime creature clings to the walls of the pipes. As the creature laughs... Read more

When word spread that the chemicals used to make high-performance foam insulation were actually massive contributors to global warming, polyisocyanurate (polyiso) manufacturers were among the first to reformulate. But it turns out that pentane, the new blowing agent, has a problem of its own: a... Read more

Civil engineers focused on public health are warning of unintended consequences from common water and energy conservation measures, including low-flow fixtures, aerators, and low water-heater setpoints. If not managed carefully through vigilant operations and maintenance, these strategies can contribute to life-threatening... Read more