On May 29, 2003, the Resilient Floor Coverings Institute (RFCI) withdrew a lawsuit challenging New York State’s Green Building Tax Credit regulations (see

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 5) for excluding vinyl as an approved flooring material. The lawsuit, which was initiated in October 2000, was withdrawn just days before hearings were... Read more

, a state-sponsored program, recently received an

Innovations in American Government Award—the “Oscar” of government awards—and $100,000 to support its activities. The nation’s first independent, ratepayer-funded energy-efficiency utility, Efficiency Vermont has saved more than 99,000 megawatt hours of electricity in... Read more

After surveying its member companies, the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association estimates that the industry used nearly 2 billion pounds (900 million kg) of

recycled glass and blast-furnace slag in the manufacture of fiberglass and slag-wool insulation last year. Of that total, 58% was glass cullet and 42% was slag. Since... Read more

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 10), Environments... Read more

Following on the heels of a growing concern over mold contamination comes

Mold Dog™, a group that trains dogs to find and sit on 18 of the most common toxic molds. For details, visit

www.mold-dog.com or call 1-800-Mold Dog.

by Joseph W. Lstiburek, Ph.D., P.Eng.; Energy & Environmental Building Association, Minneapolis, MN, 2002. Available from EEBA, 952-881-1098,

www.eeba.org. Spiral-bound, 42 pages, $18 ($15 members).

EEBA Water Management Guide is a clear, concise booklet about preventing rain and groundwater entry into houses and light-... Read more

A manufacturing facility built with great green hopes is now spending most of its time making a more conventional product. Great Lakes MDF, LLC has purchased the Lackawanna, New York medium-density fiberboard (MDF) plant formerly owned by The CanFibre Group, Ltd. The plant initially relied on phenol-formaldehyde binders in place of conventional... Read more

The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Foundation has established a

Sustainable Design Education Fund to reimburse members of the interior-design community for taking classes, attending conferences, undergoing LEED™ accreditation, and participating in other activities related to sustainable design. The fund is made... Read more

The IRS has approved 501(c)(3) nonprofit status for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Until now, USGBC has been a 501(c)(6) “trade association,” but in October 2001 the Board decided to pursue a shift in status. President and CEO Christine Ervin believes the new designation ”will communicate to the public and potential funders that our... Read more

In late May 2003, winners of the first annual Green Roof Awards of Excellence were announced during the first national green roofs conference (see page 3). Award recipients and their projects are described below:

•  Katrin Scholz-Barth Consulting,  green roof consultant – Montgomery Park Business Center, Baltimore, Maryland: 30,000 ft2... Read more

I am continually surprised by how little emphasis the green building movement places on building science. As we examine the many priorities of green building—from land-use planning to energy efficiency, material selection, and indoor air quality—the basic science of how we design and build structures to ensure long life and healthy indoor... Read more

The Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), created last year by members of the carpet industry, government entities, and nonprofit organizations, has released its first annual report on progress toward the goal of diverting 40% of America’s post-consumer carpet from landfills by 2012. As a first step in the ten-year plan, CARE had hoped to... Read more

is the winner of this year’s

ASLA Medal, bestowed by the American Society of Landscape Architects. Haag was instrumental in saving Seattle’s Pike Place Market, now one of the city’s most popular attractions. A complete list of ASLA award winners is online at

www.asla.org.

A Quebec-based manufacturer of contract fabrics is the first to offer a line of polyester textiles that meet a stringent set of ecological criteria developed by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC). The Eco Intelligent™ fabrics from Victor Innovatex are made in accordance with MBDC’s “cradle-to-cradle” protocol. In this protocol, each... Read more

EPA unveiled the online Construction Industry Compliance Assistance Center (CICAcenter) in May, developed by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, in partnership with the Associated General Contractors of America, the National Association of Home Builders, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, and the Golf Course... Read more

PPG Coil and Extrusion Coatings has released a variant of its Duranar® coatings for metal roofs that contains special pigments to reduce solar gain. With these new “Duranar SPF” coatings, 98% of PPG’s standard colors meet the EPA Energy Star steep-roof threshold of 25% total solar reflectivity, whereas with standard Duranar coatings about half... Read more

SunPower Corporation has announced that their new A-300 crystalline-silicon solar cell converts over one fifth of the sunlight hitting it into electricity. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has verified a

20.4% conversion efficiency for the 125-millimeter, single-crystal A-300 cell, making it likely to become the most efficient... Read more

On May 9, 2003, the Board of Directors of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) unanimously passed a resolution titled “Support for Green Building.” The resolution lays out a number of issues and goals, which boil down to two primary objectives: to acknowledge and support the interest in green building among many builders and local... Read more