Following discovery of trace amounts of

perfluorooctanyl-based chemicals in water supplies and in humans, 3M Company announced that it is phasing out products that use these chemicals, including its Scotchguard™ anti-soil coating for carpets and other materials. These products represent about 2% of the company’s $16 billion in annual... Read more

The Electrolux Group held a 38% share in the predecessors of Electrolux LLC until 1968, when it sold its... Read more

unanimously adopted a proposal in April to meet all future electricity needs with no net emissions of greenhouse gases. The city’s municipal utility, Seattle City Light, will employ a combination of energy conservation, existing hydropower, and new renewables, including solar, wind, geothermal, and landfill gas. If... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on June 8 an agreement to phase out chlorpyrifos, commonly sold under the trade names Dursban® and Lorsban®. Chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate that affects the nervous system and can cause a variety of neurological problems, is the most widely used household pesticide in... Read more

The

Arctic ice cap has thinned by 40% over the past 40 years, according to preliminary findings presented at a May meeting of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States. Climate changes will make it difficult for native Alaskans to maintain subsistence life-styles, say researchers, because of declines in walrus seal populations... Read more

A study released in May by the Harvard School of Public Health links

air pollution from two coal-fired power plants—in Salem and Somerset, Massachusetts—to 43,000 asthma attacks and 159 premature deaths. More than 32 million people in New England, New York, and New Jersey are exposed to plant emissions. Both plants are owned by PG&E... Read more

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has made it easier for wood products to qualify for FSC certification. Effective May 15, several major changes took effect in FSC’s requirements for percentage-based claims.

First, composite wood products (chip and fiber) can carry the FSC logo if at... Read more

by Daniel D. Chiras, 2000. Chelsea Green Publishing Co., White River Jct., Vt. Paperback, 470 pages, $35.

... Read more

Nearly two-thirds of all roofs, both new and existing, are clad in asphalt shingles. The potential uses of... Read more

A proposal has been submitted in the Canadian House of Commons for a

nationwide ban on “cosmetic” pesticides for residential lawns—those used to get rid of dandelions or make the grass look greener. Dozens of small communities in Canada have already banned or severely limited use of such chemicals, according to a June 5... Read more

An EPA assessment scheduled for release in June will conclude that dioxin is a human carcinogen, according to a May 16 article in the

Washington Post. While dioxin emissions are way down from peak levels in the 1970s, reflecting the impact of a series of regulations on dioxin-emitting industries such as incinerators... Read more

BP Amoco and an unnamed group of other investors announced in May that they will invest up to $100 million in

GreenMountain.com, which sells green power to customers in California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The financing will help the company expand into Ohio, Texas, and other states that are deregulating their energy markets.

The LEED Green Building Rating System™ has only been officially “on the street” for a month, but it is already being used informally as a framework for green design of hundreds of projects. It is officially referenced in the building guidelines of several local governments and federal agencies, and unofficially used by many more. What is this... Read more

by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins. Little, Brown & Company, Boston, 1999. Hardcover, 396 pages, $26.95, or free online at

www.natcap.org.

As I was returning to the U.S. from a recent trip to Vancouver,

Natural Capitalism, sticking out of my shoulder bag, caught the attention of the... Read more

With some tree and shrub species, whether you specify males or females can make a huge difference for allergy sufferers. This point is one of the most intriguing to emerge from recent work of Thomas Ogren, a San Luis Obispo, California-based expert on flowering plants and pollen-related allergies.... Read more

US Century, the manufacturer of FlexShake, is no longer in business.

On May 6, 2000 in Philadelphia, members of The American Institute of Architects formally passed a resolution entitled “Sustainable Design.” This resolution was sponsored by John Corkill, Jr., AIA, a member of the Board of Directors, and the AIA’s National Committee on the Environment (COTE). Its stated... Read more

by Thomas Schmitz-Günter, Loren Abraham, and Thomas A. Fisher, 1999 (English edition). Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne, Germany. Hardcover, 478 pages, $39.95

Living Spaces is a large coffee-table-quality book that touches on nearly every aspect of environmentally sound and natural homes.

Compiled from... Read more

In the words of architect Rolf Kielman, AIA, a principal with Truex Cullins & Partners Architects, the 24,000 ft2 (2,200 m2) building “fits in quietly behind the historic fabric that is both the... Read more

In the

New Commercial Construction category, the winner was the Vermont Law School’s Oakes Hall designed by Truex... Read more