BuildingGreen Report

News Analysis

April 1, 2001

They have become a part of too many American landscapes: abandoned or irreversibly declining retail malls. The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has dubbed them “greyfields malls.” According to a recent analysis PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) conducted as a part of the CNU “Greyfields Mall Study,” there are more than 140 regional malls—sites... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001

Beginning in January of this year, all new

homes sold in England and Wales have to display energy ratings. The ratings are required by the revised Building Regulations and Approved Inspectors Regulations 2000, which was formally approved last October. Home ratings are based on the Standard Assessment Procedure for Energy Rating of... Read more

Op-Ed

April 1, 2001

I have read your article covering the SB2000 Conference in The Netherlands (

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 1), and the response from Nils Larsson, executive director of the International Institute for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE) in the following issue. I appreciate Nils’ statement that iiSBE intends to cooperate with the World... Read more

News Analysis

April 1, 2001

At a March 28–30, 2001 meeting in Racine Wisconsin, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) members and staff met to discuss coordination of the LEED™ Rating System’s various products (see

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 6). Participants at the meeting, which was hosted by the USGBC and The Johnson Foundation, were members of the overall LEED... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001

According to the National Climate Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),

global temperatures in 2000 were 0.39°C (0.7°F) higher than the long-term (1880-1999) average. This makes 2000 the sixth hottest year on record (after 1998, 1997, 1995, 1990, and 1999). Land temperatures were 0.59°C (1.1°F) above... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001
Locoshop Angus, an abandoned locomotive workshop in Montreal that has been redeveloped in a multifunctional industrial center for small and mid-sized businesses, won two awards at the

National Post Design Exchange Awards Gala, held on January 25, 2001 in Toronto.

The project won a Gold Award in the category “Built Environments, Grand... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001

The worldwide

costs of climate change will reach $300 billion annually by 2050, predicts Munich RE, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies. These costs will result from more frequent tropical cyclones, land loss due to rising sea levels, and damage to fishing stocks, agriculture, and water supplies. In the U.S., an estimated... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001
EBN

is pleased to be honored by

Metropolitan Home magazine as one the

Design 100 Best of the Best: People, Places, Extraordinary Things in the “Design that Makes a Difference” category. Also recognized are architect (and

EBN Advisory Board member) Gail Lindsey, landscape architect Julie Bargmann, eco-designer Wendy... Read more

Feature

April 1, 2001
Long-time green architects Rob Harrison of Harrison Architects and George Ostrow of Velocipede Architects feel pretty lucky when it comes to specifying and obtaining green building materials. “We are in a unique position here in Seattle.

We have the Environmental Home Center—almost an ‘Eco-Home Depot’—where our clients can see and actually... Read more

Case Study

April 1, 2001
When the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) got involved with the design and construction of a building it was slated to lease as its Southcentral Regional Office Building (SCROB), DEP determined to make it a “Green Technology Model Project.”

With support from The Heinz Endowments, Alan Barak of the Penn Energy Project... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001

On March 13, Governor Parris Glen-denning’s Executive Order made Maryland the first state to mandate sustainability measures for all government operations in clean energy, green buildings, pollution prevention, and alternative fuel vehicles (www.gov.state.md.us/gov/execords/2001/html/0002eo.html). The order features a new High Efficiency Green... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001

by Jennifer Corson, 2000. Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, Vermont. Paperback, 157 pages, $24.95

Every once in a while, a book comes our way about building and the environment that just about anyone will find practical and delightful—Sarah Susanka’s most recent book, Creating The Not-So Big House, comes to mind.... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2001

The February 2001 issue of the influential publication

I.D.: The International Design Magazine focused on socially conscious design for its annual “

I.D. Forty” selection. Among the many inspiring designers featured were a number of architects and other professionals recognized for their ecological vision. They are (in order of... Read more

Product Review

March 1, 2001
According to a recent study by Ecos Consulting and the Natural Resources Defense Council, two of every three homes in the U.S. have at least one ceiling fan, and—on average—each fan consumes about 130 kWh per year. Ceiling fans can reduce energy consumption for cooling, but they are all notoriously inefficient. Except one. A much more energy-... Read more

News Analysis

March 1, 2001
Boise Cascade

is about to begin construction of a $70 million plant in southwestern Washington state to produce siding from urban wood waste and recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) from plastic bags and shrink wrap. Plant operation is set for early 2002. This brings Boise Cascade into the growing ranks of building product manufacturers... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2001
Capital E

is a new company created to provide intelligence on the distributed generation industry, with a particular focus on financial issues and investing. Technologies covered include fuel cells, photovoltaics, microturbines, and cogeneration. Among the company’s three principals are two leading advocates of energy efficiency in buildings... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2001
William D. (Bill) Browning

, Senior Associate of the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Green Development Services, has been named an honorary member of The American Institute of Architects—an honor bestowed on a few non-architects who have made a significant contribution to the architectural profession and to the AIA.

News Brief

March 1, 2001
by Joseph Lstiburek, P. Eng., 2000. Energy and Environmental Building Association, 10740 Lyndale Avenue South, Suite 10W, Bloomington, MN 55420-5615;

www.eeba.org. Spiral-bound paperbacks, 328 to 473 pages, $30 (EEBA members), $40 (non-members)

In 1997 (

EBN

Vol. 6, No. 5), we gave a pretty hearty thumbs-up to Joe... Read more

News Analysis

March 1, 2001

Taking just 119 days, the State of California recently passed Assembly Bill 970, which included emergency new standards for energy efficiency in new homes and commercial buildings. According to Don Kazama, the Building Standards Project Manager for the California Energy Commission (CEC), “We worked most holidays and an awful lot of overtime to... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2001
Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners

, an architecture firm in the U.K., has become the first firm we know of to adopt the International Standards Organization (ISO) 14001 environmental management standard. The firm applied the standard to an architectural practice by developing a system to ensure that environmental impacts are considered in its... Read more