The American Institute of Architects, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Architecture 2030, Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and U.S. Green Building Council have reached an agreement setting a baseline for the goals of the 2030 Challenge, which calls for an immediate 50% reduction in... Read more

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has released the first public comment draft of its “Proposed Standard 189, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.” This standard, being developed in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering... Read more

New European Union (EU) regulations of harmful chemicals have been toned down and made law. The final version of the Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) bill requires that persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT), and very persistent, very bioaccumulative (vPvB) chemicals manufactured in or imported into the EU... Read more

Following a successful nine-month pilot program, a mercury-thermostat recycling program is being rolled out nationwide. Created by the independent nonprofit Product Stewardship Institute and the industry-owned nonprofit Thermostat Recycling Corporation, the program works with municipal hazardous waste collection programs to collect thermostats... Read more

Emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other... Read more

Drywall comes in three primary product types. Paper-faced drywall remains by far the dominant product for finishing interior walls. It is inexpensive and easy to work with (cutting panels by scoring and snapping). Environmentally, the paper is typically 100% post-consumer recycled, the gypsum core can be derived from flue-gas-desulfurization (... Read more

The Athena Sustainable Materials Institute has released a new life-cycle assessment (LCA) tool for assemblies. The EcoCalculator for Assemblies draws on results from Athena’s Impact Estimator for Buildings to give instant LCA results for over 400 building assemblies, including those for walls, roofs, floors, and windows. Commissioned by the... Read more

The New York City (NYC) Department of Education and the NYC Construction Authority have announced the release of the NYC Green Schools Guide and rating system, designed to bring new school construction projects into compliance with Local Law 86, which sets green building requirements for all public buildings in the city. The new rating system... Read more

Noting that “it is the policy of the United States that federal agencies conduct their … missions in an environmentally, economically, and fiscally sound, integrated, continuously improving, efficient, and sustainable manner,” President George W. Bush signed an executive order titled “Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and... Read more

A bill passed by the Washington State Legislature places a limited ban on the use and sale of all polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants. The legislation includes a widespread ban, effective January 1, 2008, on the octa and penta forms of PBDE, which were voluntarily discontinued by the sole manufacturer, Great Lakes Chemical... Read more

In a perfect world, energy simulations and design tools would be so well integrated that each time an architect moved a wall, added a window, or changed a lighting specification, the building’s predicted energy performance would be updated and displayed instantly. With that sort of real-time feedback, designers would quickly become skilled at... Read more

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) announced in March 2007 that four firms have achieved accreditation by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to perform chain-of-custody certification audits for SFI and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) sustainable forestry certification systems. PEFC is an... Read more

According to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Americans took more than 10 billion trips on local public transportation in 2006, reaching the highest level since 1957. Ridership was up 3% between the end of 2005 and the end of 2006, and up 28% in the decade since 1996. Over the last decade, the growth rate of public transit... Read more

Energy Star, the federal energy efficiency program, has announced that it will no longer certify programmable thermostats. According to Energy Star spokesperson Jill Abelson, the thermostats have the potential to save homes $150 or more yearly when used properly, but in practice, homes with programmable thermostats don’t consume less energy... Read more