BuildingGreen Report

News Analysis

August 29, 2006
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a nonprofit that offers third-party certification standards for wood from responsibly managed forests, has released a new international certification standard for buildings that use FSC-certified wood. Announced in July 2006, with three projects in Europe already certified through a pilot program, the... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006

Announced in February 2006 (see

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Vol. 15, No. 3) by the Greenguard Environmental Institute™, the Greenguard Mold Protection Program™ recently signed up its first buildings, two luxury condominium towers under construction in Orange Beach, Alabama. Certification requires the developers to follow best-practices guidelines set... Read more

Feature

August 29, 2006
If there is a more tedious job than watching paint dry, it might be sitting outside a stainless-steel chamber while paint is drying inside it. But analytical chemistry tools are now available that make it possible for technicians to “see” what comes off of drying paint—and many other building products—in ways that weren’t possible in the past.... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006
General Electric Company (GE) gave Hammel, Green, and Abrahamson, Inc. (HGA) its 2005 Award for Sustainable Design in July 2006. Part of GE’s Edison Award program, the Award for Sustainable Design was created to recognize lighting designs that minimize the use of energy, maximize the use of daylight, avoid nighttime light pollution, and ensure... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006

Leonardo Academy, Inc., has announced its intention to develop standards for quantifying and documenting emission inventories, offsets, and reduction credits. A nonprofit, the Leonardo Academy helps companies and organizations quantify their emissions footprints, calculate emission reductions from energy-efficiency projects, determine how to... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has struck a partnership with the ACE Mentor Program of America, an organization dedicated to attracting high-school students into the architecture, construction, and engineering professions. The partnership provides USGBC members the opportunity to participate as mentors. “Students are the future of the... Read more

Product Review

August 29, 2006
The idea of combining electricity generation with the production of useful heat—referred to as combined heat and power (CHP) or cogeneration—has long been attractive. With typical fossil-fuel-fired, utility-scale power production, roughly 60 to 70% of the total energy is lost as waste heat. By capturing that thermal energy, overall efficiency can... Read more

Op-Ed

August 29, 2006

I have been following the struggle that the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) continues to have with the timber industry concerning the rigidity of the LEED® Rating System, and I am writing today to express my sincere concerns about Alex Wilson’s recommendations for adjusting MRc6 and MRc7 of LEED [see

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Vol. 15, No. 6].... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has awarded The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies up to $2 million to measure how transportation projects promote economic development; protect public health, safety, and the environment; and enhance the architectural design and... Read more

News Analysis

August 29, 2006
At the same time that his former vice-president’s documentary film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is raising awareness of global climate change, former President Bill Clinton recently helped launch a partnership that takes aim at a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions: urban areas. The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) is a new program... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006
U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords (I–VT) recently introduced the High-Performance Green Building Act of 2006, which would authorize spending of $50 million over five years to codify existing federal green building initiatives and enhance federal promotion of green building. The bill would require environmental and efficiency standards for all buildings... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006
edited by Architecture for Humanity. Metropolis Books, New York, New York, 2006. Paperback, 336 pages, $35.00.

In 1999, Cameron Sinclair and his mentor Charles Lauster felt called to respond to the conflict in Kosovo, which resulted in the damage or destruction of more than half of the housing stock in the region. Their response took the... Read more

News Analysis

August 29, 2006
There is a widespread belief that sustainable design is more time-consuming for the design team and therefore not as profitable as conventional projects. But that isn’t the case, at least according to one firm’s data. An internal study at HOK of the firm’s profitability on 15 green projects found that they were, on average, 25% more profitable... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006
Delta Air Lines’ Terminal A at Boston’s Logan International Airport has become the first airline terminal to earn LEED® certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The terminal, which earned 26 points in LEED, or a Certified-level rating, was designed by HOK and C&R/Rizvi, Inc., and guided by Delta and the Massachusetts Port Authority... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006

The Royal Institute of British Architects – U.S.A. (RIBA-USA) recently announced “Building a Sustainable World: Life in the Balance,” an international competition to develop concepts for sustainable communities, from small towns to large urban subdivisions, that respond effectively to predicted shifts in global climate. Although there are no... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006

Lead-containing paint, banned in the U.S. in 1978, is still common in several Asian countries, according to a study published in the September 2006 issue of

Environmental Research. Researchers tested new paint in China, India, and Malaysia, and found that two-thirds of it contained 0.5% or more lead by weight, the U.S. threshold in... Read more

Op-Ed

August 29, 2006

Thank you for your excellent article on measurement and verification [M&V; see

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Vol. 15, No. 6]. My experience is that getting this data and actually using it is really difficult to accomplish. The NRG Systems building the article mentions is

such an unusual case. The building owners are leaders in their sector of... Read more

News Brief

August 29, 2006
In July 2006, the newly founded Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC) held its first board meeting in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) with most of its six founders and 41 member organizations in attendance. Mohsen Aboulnaga, Ph.D. was named the chairman and CEO of the new organization, which aims to increase the awareness and practice of... Read more

News Analysis

August 29, 2006

The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) has given top honors to the American Lung Association’s Healthy House Builder Guidelines (see

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Vol. 11, No. 11) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star® with Indoor Air Package (see

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Vol. 12, No. 5) for protecting the health and safety of... Read more

Product Review

August 29, 2006
A unique and powerful tool that aids salvage and reuse of wood, the Nail Kicker™ by Reconnx, Inc., of Boulder, Colorado, has recently been reissued. Like the original, the new model NR101-V2, which retails for $250, works much like standard pneumatic nail guns—but from the other end of the nail. The sleeve of the Nail Kicker slips over the exposed... Read more