BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

May 1, 2004
David Nelson, AIA, IALD, after 11 years with Clanton & Associates in Boulder, Colorado, has formed his own company,

David Nelson & Associates, LLC. Nelson is an architect and a highly respected lighting designer; he has a bachelor of science degree in architectural engineering from the University of Colorado and a master’s in... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 2004

Shortly after celebrating the fourth anniversary of the LEED

® Rating System, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) awarded its

100th LEED certification—a Silver rating for the Bonneville Power Administration Ampere Annex in Vancouver, Washington—on April 14, 2004. And, on April 19, USGBC received a LEED registration for the St... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 2004
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced this year’s inductees to the College of Fellows, among the highest honors bestowed on AIA members. Five of this year’s Institute Fellows are noteworthy green designers:

Michael Holtz, president of Architectural Energy Corporation in Boulder, Colorado;

Peter... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 2004

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.

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

News Brief

May 1, 2004

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

Op-Ed

May 1, 2004
Version 8.0 of the

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

News Brief

May 1, 2004

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

Op-Ed

May 1, 2004

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

News Analysis

May 1, 2004

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

News Brief

May 1, 2004
EarthCraft House Communities is now in its pilot phase. Building on their successful EarthCraft House program (see

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

Op-Ed

May 1, 2004

In

EBN’s March feature article, “Wire and Cable” (

Vol. 13, No. 3), the sidebar “Is Fluorine Worse than Chlorine?” may have needlessly alarmed readers in its attempt to summarize the large amount of available information on perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in a short amount of text. The key point is that consumer and industrial... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2004

PBS will begin airing a new television series this June focused on green building. Energy Wise Healthy Home will track the design and construction of a new home over the course of 26 half-hour episodes. The home is expected to earn Energy Star

® Home certification and American Lung Association Healthy House certification in its final... Read more

Op-Ed

April 1, 2004

I saw your recent article “CCA Phaseout Relatively Smooth” (

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 2) and wanted to comment that, in addition to ACQ and copper azole, another group of products has seen a resurgence due to the CCA phaseout. Our company is involved in the manufacture and distribution of products, including dimensional lumber, sheeting... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2004

The first modules of the

U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database (see

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 11) are now fully public and available at www.nrel.gov/lci/. This release represents a major milestone in the effort to produce public data for use in environmental life-cycle assessments, and should eventually help make it possible to... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2004
Oscar J. Boldt Construction recently completed work on a 720 ft

2 (67 m

2)

green construction trailer, stationed at the construction site of an office building outside Green Bay for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (designed to achieve LEED Silver certification). The Boldt team used improved insulation; energy-... Read more

News Analysis

April 1, 2004

At a March 6, 2004 workshop in San Francisco the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) introduced their plan for a Center for Green Building Research. The proposed Center would be managed by EPRI, while LBNL would direct the research efforts. The organizers are seeking funding from federal and... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2004

The Roanoke Regional Housing Network is busy planning

C2C Home, an international housing design and construction competition based on the principles described in

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things by William McDonough, FAIA, and Michael Braungart (see book review in

EBN

Vol. 11, No. 5).... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2004

Stakeholder meetings for the two Task Groups working under the auspices of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee (TSAC) were held on February 17 and 18, 2004 in Washington, D.C. (see

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 12 for background). The two issues being examined are

the use of HCFC... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2004

A new ad campaign is targeting kids between the ages of 8 and 13 in an effort to reduce energy use in homes. The three-year campaign, funded by the Ad Council, Energy Outreach Colorado, and a number of other partners, uses television, radio, and Internet public-service announcements to

teach children to become

“Energy Hog... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2004

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the NAHB Research Center have announced the names of the people who will work to develop the voluntary

Model Green Home Building Guidelines. The 59 stakeholders represent homebuilders, environmentalists, government agencies, and a number of trade organizations. Each stakeholder is... Read more