The Green Building Initiative (GBI), which administers the Green Globes building rating system, and The American Institute of Architects (AIA) have signed a memorandum of understanding that expresses their intent to work in concert to promote green building.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) will offer a new exam, starting in June, for Commissioning Process Management Professionals. Intended to help building owners and others find qualified people to lead the commissioning process, the certification considers people- and project-management... Read more

Businesses seeking competitive advantage through sustainability are the target market for Ecoimpact, a partnership of Penny Bonda, FASID; Diana Horvat, IIDA; and Ken Wilson, FAIA. The Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm will offer such services as LEED training, industry analysis, tax-incentive guidance, and marketing help. Bonda is the... Read more

Six high-profile environmental advocacy groups have joined forces to create a water certification label intended to change the way water is managed and valued worldwide. The “Water Stewardship” label, announced in March 2009 at the 5th annual World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, will assure consumers that the water used to manufacture... Read more

Thermal comfort is hard to define and even harder to achieve. The most common complaint about workplace environments is that they are too cold. This would be a fairly simple problem to fix if the second most common complaint weren’t that the same spaces are too hot.

According to ASHRAE Standard 55, which defines thermal comfort in... Read more

Mayor Phil Gordon is on a mission to make Phoenix, Arizona, the first carbon-neutral city in the U.S. In a State of the State address in March 2009, he laid out a 17-point plan to achieve this goal (see below). His plan includes energy conservation, renewable energy generation, mass transit, urban planning, agriculture incentives, and water... Read more

Beginning in the 1970s, PBDEs were widely used as flame retardants in... Read more

When Congress approved the federal budget for fiscal year 2008, it also instructed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to mandate reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. EPA has now proposed a rule that would require companies in many industries to report their emissions to EPA, accounting for 85%–90% of emissions in the U.S.

Representing a standard of consumer product performance for 100 years,

Good Housekeeping magazine’s Seal of Approval is expanding to consider environmental impacts. The new Green Good Housekeeping Seal will launch in the second half of 2009, according to the magazine’s publishers. Although the criteria for judging products have not been... Read more

There’s a tendency in the green building industry to focus too much on the high-profile, glamorous features at the expense of sensible measures that achieve most of the environmental benefit. The subject of our feature article this month, building-integrated wind—capping buildings with turbines that spin out a few kilowatt-hours from the... Read more

Charles Hostler Student Center: An athletic facility and gathering space at the American University of Beirut, designed... Read more

The appeal of integrating wind turbines into our buildings is strong. Rooftops are elevated above ground, where it’s windier; the electricity is generated right where it’s needed; and wind energy can make a strong visual statement. Dozens of start-up wind turbine manufacturers have latched onto this idea since it fits well with a strong public... Read more

Which is better: a gas or electric range? Most serious cooks prefer gas, because it delivers heat instantly and is highly controllable. With typical electric cooktops, it takes longer for the burner to respond when turned on and when the setting is adjusted.

I used to be in... Read more

Which is better: a gas or electric range? Most serious cooks prefer gas, because it delivers heat instantly and is highly controllable. With typical electric cooktops, it takes longer for the burner to respond when turned on and when the setting is adjusted.

I used to be in... Read more

Last week's column looked at efficient but also very expensive ground-source heat pumps; this week we'll look at a less expensive option that's becoming more common even in our climate: air-source... Read more