The

National Conference on Building Commissioning is now accepting nominations for the third annual Benner Award, a prize for excellence in efforts to make commissioning business as usual. Nominations are due March 1, 2001. Criteria and instructions are available at:

www.peci.org/ncbc/2001/benner.html.

The Real Goods Solar Living Center in Hopland, California covers 12 acres (4.9 ha) with carefully restored wetlands, oak-savanna habitat, organic gardens, and edible landscaping. Where once there were flash-flood-prone gullies almost devoid of soil, today visitors to the demonstration center can listen to songbirds as they walk along the paths or... Read more

On January 15, 2001 Maharaj Muthoo took over as the new Executive Director of the

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Dr. Muthoo has a doctorate from the University of Oxford and has devoted the past 30 years to issues of social and economic development and environmental management. For 15 years, he was the Director of Forestry Operations... Read more

Recycled-content EPS Insulation from Polar Industries

Polar Insulation Foam Panel Products

Polar Industries of Prospect, Connecticut, manufactures a line of rigid foam insulation building products using recycled expanded polystyrene (EPS). EPS scrap from Polar building product and packaging plant operations, as well as waste... Read more

Newsbriefs

Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell Architects (BNIM), a leader in the sustainable design movement, has moved its downtown Kansas City headquarters to the landmark Power & Light Building. BNIM will occupy the first three stories of the building. With its renovation of the space and signing of a ten-year lease, the firm hopes to... Read more

Austin Promotes Smart Growth

Austin, Texas now has two-plus years of experience with its innovative incentive program to encourage smart growth. With this point-based system, a developer can earn enough points to waive some or all of the city’s development fees and increase the ceiling on city-paid infrastructure improvements needed for the... Read more

Awards & Competitions

The Van Geet residence in Idaho Springs, Colorado received a first place Technology Award from the

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) at its 2001 Winter Meeting in Atlanta. Total cost of heating and powering the home during 1999 was $100, thanks to passive and... Read more

The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has established the

New Jersey Green Homes office. Residing within the Division of Housing and Community Resources, the office’s mission is “to fundamentally improve the environmental performance, energy efficiency, quality, and affordability of housing in New Jersey.” The Green Homes... Read more

Green Building on the Move

EBN has received notice of quite a few new green builder programs, prompting us to take stock of this indicator of growth in the green building market. The list below includes local and state programs for rating private-sector buildings, primarily homes. There are many more programs—alliances, networks,... Read more

David E. Brown, Mindy Fox, and Mary Rickel Pelletier, editors. Earth Pledge Foundation, 149 East 38th Street, New York, NY 10016, 212/573-6968,

www.earthpledge.org. Available through Chelsea Green Publishing Co. Paperback, 324 pages, $17.

This small, elegantly produced handbook provides a great panorama of the theory and practice of... Read more

iiSBE Isn’t Out to Compete

I appreciated the good coverage you provided on the SB2000 conference and the GBC process (

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 1). You also quoted David Gottfried as expressing a concern that iiSBE’s organizers were “...actively undermining his efforts to promote the World Green Building Council. “ I think a little... Read more

A ballot initiative that passed in Oregon on November 7, 2000 is worrying both environmentalists and fiscal conservatives.

Measure 7, approved by a margin of 54% to 46%, amends the Oregon constitution to require state and local governments to reimburse private property owners when regulations reduce the value of their property. It... Read more

The City of Portland, Oregon’s new Office of Sustainable Development has formulated a series of initiatives aimed at greening both municipal and private-sector buildings. The new office was created in September 2000 by combining the City’s Energy Office with the Solid Waste and Recycling Division and adding a Green Building Division. The City’s... Read more

On December 5,

the nation’s smallest commuter rail system began operation in Burlington, Vermont. The Champlain Flyer carries passengers just 13 miles (21 km)—between downtown Burlington and Charlotte. The rail service is initially free, but a charge will be imposed by April, when frequency of train trips is expected to increase to 10... Read more

The

Earth Day Top Ten design competition that we announced last November (

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 11) has been recast due to last-minute intervention by The American Institute of Architects’ top brass. It is now named the “

AIA Top Ten,” with a new submission deadline of March 31, 2001. Details should be online by the... Read more

Ray Anderson

has announced that he is stepping down as CEO of Interface, Inc., effective July 1, 2001. He will stay on as Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board. Succeeding Anderson as CEO will be

Daniel T. Hendrix, presently Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

In an unrelated... Read more

Temple-Inland’s Green Drywall

For the first time, builders and architects can specify gypsum wallboard with a certified recycled content of 99%. Temple-Inland—with distribution to most areas of the Southeast, Southwest, and Midwest—earned Scientific Certification System’s green cross and globe emblem for wallboard products being manufactured in... Read more

Richard Z. Donovan,

founder and director of the SmartWood Program at the Rainforest Alliance, has been promoted to Chief of Forestry. He will serve as the Alliance’s official representative to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and will continue to be involved in SmartWood certification activities as a “troubleshooter,” forest assessor, policy... Read more

New planning guidelines, released by the National Forest Service on November 9 emphasize forest health over logging. Under the new guidelines, which became effective immediately,

“sustainability” becomes the overall goal of forest planning. This means that forests are to be managed for the long-term and that forest uses, such as logging... Read more

Oakes Hall at Vermont Law School

(see

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 5) won a second-place award in the 2000 ASHRAE Technology Award competition (Institutional Buildings – New category). The award was shared by systems consultant Marc Rosenbaum, P.E. of Energysmiths in Meriden, New Hampshire, and the building’s mechanical engineers Kohler... Read more