On March 25, 2003, the U.S. Green Building Council published a notice with several changes and adjustments to the recently released version 2.1 of its LEED™ Rating System for New Construction (see

EBN

Vol. 11, No. 12). Designers working on projects that are seeking LEED certification are advised to visit the Council’s Web site... Read more

Environmentalists won an important victory on April 3, when the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted in favor of small-scale renewable-energy production. All net-metered solar and wind systems generating less than 1 MW of electricity, along with some hydrogen fuel cells, are exempt, according to CPUC’s decision, from paying a... Read more

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On March 5, the province of Quebec adopted North America’s most stringent restrictions on the use of pesticides. The new Pesticide Management Code immediately prohibits the use of the most harmful insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides on public, semipublic, and municipal green spaces except golf courses. By April 2006, this prohibition will... Read more

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almost another system. Taco®, the nation’s largest... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a list of 30 “Waste Minimization Priority Chemicals” to replace a draft list of chemicals that EPA identified in 1998 as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic. Because of their resistance to deterioration and propensity to build up as they move through the food chain, these chemicals... Read more

Canadian forest-products giant Tembec has completed FSC certification of its 5-million-acre (2 million ha) Gordon Cosens Boreal Forest in northeastern Ontario. This forest, certified by SmartWood, is now the largest North American forest operation to carry FSC certification. By 2005, Tembec intends to certify all 32 million acres (13 million ha... Read more

Whether or not Iraq’s mammoth oil reserves have anything to do with our war to oust Saddam Hussein, our dependence on foreign oil is indisputably bad for this country. We spend over $100 billion annually on petroleum imports, accounting for roughly 20% of our balance-of-trade deficit (2002). The entire U.S. economy shudders whenever temporary... Read more

Smithfield Foods, Inc.—America’s largest producer of hogs and leading processor and marketer of fresh pork and processed meats—plans to build a $20 million

facility to convert swine waste into biodiesel fuel as part of the BEST BioFuel partnership. The facility will convert manure into biomethanol, which can be used to produce biodiesel... Read more

Meanwhile, American Bio-Fuels, LLC, is doing their part to revolutionize biodiesel production. Bio-Fuels is constructing the

first continuous-flow biodiesel facility in the country. At peak production, the Bakersfield, California plant is expected to produce 35 million gallons (132.5 million liters) of biodiesel per year, making it the... Read more

Two leaders in the St. Louis green-design community have joined forces to start their own firm,

Hellmuth & Bicknese Architects, LLC, specializing in sustainable design. The firm is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, and principals Dan Hellmuth, AIA, and Ralph Bicknese, AIA, are among the founders of USGBC’s St. Louis... Read more

complex because multiple forest certification programs exist, with similarities and differences; almost as quickly as architects and specifiers can get a handle on the features of these programs, they change. It is... Read more

Several new developments at the American Society for Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning (ASHRAE) reflect the Society’s growing focus on issues of sustainability. These include the creation of a new technical committee (TC) on the topic, the signing of a partnering agreement with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the... Read more

American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment. This guide is available free of charge as a series of Web pages and downloadable PDF files. Visit

www.aia.org/cote_rfps.

The federal Energy Star

® program is promoting the use of

energy-efficient, low-voltage transformers in new construction and renovations. Low-voltage transformers, which convert the electricity supplied by a utility or larger transformer to the voltage needed by lights, appliances, and equipment, continuously drain energy, even... Read more

Vol. 11, No. 11), designers pursuing LEED™ Indoor Environmental Quality Credit 4.4 have been at a loss for fire-retardant panel products. This credit requires that composite wood and ag-fiber products contain no added urea-... Read more

Environmental Building News

Archives. This seventh-edition CD-ROM includes more than ten years of EBN—from the first issue in mid-1992 through the end of 2002. Packed with more than 1,500 pages of green building information, the

Archives are fully searchable and provide instant access to every... Read more