BuildingGreen Report

Blog Post

Life-cycle assessment, environmental product declarations, and corporate social responsibility reporting are a great start. But can we talk about health?

March 15, 2012
Life-cycle assessment, environmental product declarations, and corporate social responsibility reporting are a great start. But can we talk about health?

Here at BuildingGreen, we're pretty excited about the rise of the product transparency movement (as you may have noticed from recent coverage in January's EBN and our related blog series) but... Read more

Blog Post

March 14, 2012
By any name--drywall, wallboard, or plasterboard--gypsum products may not be as innocent as we once thought. Drywall, which makes up 15% of demolition and construction waste, leaches toxins and releases hydrogen sulfide gas in landfills.

Virtually ubiquitous in our buildings, gypsum board is widely seen as an innocuous building material.... Read more

Blog Post

March 13, 2012
With the SECUSOL drainback solar hot water system, the heat exchanger coil in the tank doubles as the drainback tank. Photo: Wagner & Company. Click on image to enlarge.

I was in Boston last week for the annual Building Energy conference, sponsored by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Each year this conference provides an... Read more

Blog Post

March 13, 2012

Eleek strips miles out of its supply chain and carbon-intensive steps out of its manufacturing. That's good for the embodied energy of its cast aluminum luminaires and other hardware.

Wait a minute. Weren't we criticizing Eleek and its cast aluminum hardware in this blog a few weeks ago? We were--and that sparked a dialogue with one... Read more

Blog Post

March 6, 2012
An artist rendering of what Canal Street in Brattleboro could look like after major redesign to make it more pedestrian friendly; see below for a current photo. Source: Brattleboro Active Living Workshop Report. Click on image to enlarge. Brattleboro, Vermont hasn't been a good place to be a pedestrian recently. In the past nine months there... Read more

Blog Post

Lots of building products offer some help in keeping air, water, and heat in our buildings, but without attention to the joints, you lose critical continuity in your barriers.

March 6, 2012

This is part of an ongoing series. Read all the Sticky Business posts here.

To keep out the weather, don't head for the stickum first. Take a page from the fisherman's book and use weatherlapping, overhangs, and mechanical fasteners. Photo: Clinton Steeds. License: CC BY 2.0.

In just about... Read more

Blog Post

March 1, 2012
The latest EBN feature article is new available. Click on image to enlarge.

A new feature article in Environmental Building News examines how a focus on resilient design could advance green building more quickly than our current focus on sustainability.

Sometimes advancing sustainability feels like pushing a boulder uphill.... Read more

Blog Post

March 1, 2012
After months of controversy, the third public comment draft of LEED 2012 strengthens commitments to both FSC and local wood--while not budging on the importance of life-cycle assessment. This is Part 2 in our "Wood Wars" series. Part 1: Are FSC and LEED Killing American Jobs? A Look at the Evidence Part 3: Three Things You Need to Know About... Read more

Blog Post

February 29, 2012
Not all MSDSes are created equal. Because what they are required to report is minimal, manufacturers take very different approaches to how much they disclose. Looking for better information on chemicals of concern? An MSDS can be a good place to look. Then again, it can be a really bad place to look. Click for a PDF of the full non-information... Read more

News Brief

February 28, 2012

With this in mind, evolveEA, the Heinz Endowments, and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh conducted a survey of convention centers to better understand how they are addressing the demand for greener venues. Looking at convention centers’ business models, “Event Venue Benchmarking” identifies key market drivers and industry... Read more

Product Review

February 28, 2012
By Martin Solomon and Tristan RobertsAs much as 100 billion square feet of drywall could be produced worldwide in 2012, releasing millions of tons of greenhouse gases and putting this massive amount of material in our indoor environments. At the same time, major wallboard manufacturers have struggled to define and adopt measures of “green.”... Read more

Op-Ed

February 28, 2012

News Brief

February 28, 2012
By Erin WeaverNew numbers from the U.S. Green Building Council show LEED-certified projects being completed in different regions and in smaller numbers in 2011 than in 2010. Calculated for each state as square feet of newly certified space per capita, whether new construction or renovations, the numbers place Washington, D.C. solidly at the top... Read more

News Brief

February 28, 2012
By Erin WeaverA new meta-analysis published in

PLoS Biology, “Structural and Functional Loss in Restored Wetland Ecosystems,” reveals the relative ineffectiveness of wetlands restoration over the last century. Data from 621 sites throughout the world show that even 100 years after restoration attempts, wetlands’ biological structure and... Read more

News Brief

February 28, 2012
By Erin WeaverThe U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Program (BTP) is phasing out its 2008 Builders Challenge, to be replaced in April by Builders Challenge 2. The new standards for participation align with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new Energy Star Version 3, with additional guidelines involving savings, comfort,... Read more

News Brief

February 28, 2012

By Erin Weaver

A National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel of experts has issued a report expressing concern about the health and environmental effects of nanomaterials (see “Is Nano a No-No?”,

EBN Mar. 2008). The report points out that suspected risks are already being ignored, and as the nanotechnology market continues to... Read more

News Brief

February 28, 2012

By Erin WeaverDeutsche Bank has released a report analyzing actual energy savings achieved through multifamily retrofits and encouraging capital investment in energy retrofits of affordable housing in New York City. A collaboration of the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation and the Living Cities philanthropic organization, “Recognizing the... Read more

News Analysis

February 28, 2012

Architecture 2030 says new energy projections from the federal government show the building sector is on its way to achieving long-term goals in energy and carbon reductions.

The organization’s 2030 Challenge asks architectural firms to meet progressively rising standards in building energy use and emissions, with the ultimate goal of... Read more

News Analysis

February 28, 2012

By Paula MeltonThe Passive House standard, often admired for simplicity, has also been criticized for rigidity. Now that Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS) has achieved independence from Europe and started its own certification system, called PHIUS+ (see ”Passive House U.S. Develops Separate North American Certification,” EBN Dec. 2011), the... Read more

Feature

Resilience is the new green. With decades of green building experience, we are ready to face climate change.

February 28, 2012

Updated April 8, 2025; updates by Elene Drosos

I began an eight-month sabbatical in 2011 with a bicycle trip through the Southwest. I chose the Southwest in part because I wanted to have time to think about some of the vulnerabilities we face—particularly with climate change—and what we should do about it. From what climate... Read more