BuildingGreen Report

Case Study

December 1, 2003
National Geographic Society Upgrades Facilities with LEED-EB

The National Geographic Society’s (NGS) Headquarters, an 835,000 ft2 (77,600 m2) complex of buildings in Washington, D.C., was recognized at Greenbuild with a Silver rating under the LEED-EB pilot program.

The oldest building in the complex dates from 1902, with a major... Read more

News Analysis

December 1, 2003

In late September,

Haworth, Inc. and

Interface, Inc. closed a deal transferring the assets of Interface Architectural Resources (InterfaceAR) to Haworth. The acquisition, which includes certain inventory, real estate, fixed assets, and intellectual property of InterfaceAR, gives Haworth the most complete line of raised access... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2003

Ten years ago, in

EBN

Vol. 2, No. 6, we devoted precisely two sentences to alerting our readers that the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Green Building Council were planning a Green Building Conference, to take place in Gaithersburg, Maryland in February 1994. “The conference will cover assessment... Read more

Case Study

December 1, 2003
Pittsburgh Convention Center Earns Gold

Just in time to host Greenbuild 2003, the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh was awarded 39 points in the LEED® Rating System, qualifying it for Gold certification. At nearly 1.5 million ft2 (140,000 m2), the Lawrence Center is the largest LEED-certified building. The $385 million... Read more

Product Review

December 1, 2003
After being introduced a couple years ago and having to cease production due to financial difficulties, IceStone™ is back in production in Brooklyn, New York. Using technology developed by the late Tim McCarthy of the Great Harbor Design Center, IceStone is producing a terrazzo-like countertop material made from a minimum of 75% recycled glass, 17... Read more

News Analysis

December 1, 2003
Sloan Valve Company of Franklin Park, Illinois and

Falcon Waterfree Technologies of Grand Rapids, Michigan have announced an alliance that should bring waterfree urinals closer to the mainstream. Falcon will manufacture and supply both vitreous-china waterless-urinal fixtures and replacement cartridges to Sloan, who will bring them to market. “... Read more

Case Study

December 1, 2003
LEED Platinum in India

A business center in India has become the first project to receive a Platinum rating under version 2 of the LEED® Rating System. Located in Hyderabad, in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, the 17,000 ft2 (1,600 m2) Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre is over 90% complete and expected to open this month.

... Read more

Case Study

December 1, 2003
Cal/EPA Shines in LEED-EB Pilot

The Joe Serna, Jr. California Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters Building in Sacramento was designed and built in 1999, just prior to the release of the LEED Rating System, with a strong emphasis on energy efficiency. Since that time, it has been managed with a progressive green focus, so it was... Read more

News Analysis

December 1, 2003

In an effort to walk the talk of sustainability, the U.S. Green Building Council sought to green the Greenbuild conference itself. Holding the event in a LEED Gold-rated conference center was a great first step.

In addition, conference programs, name-badge holders, and cloth bags were made of recycled materials. Hotels were asked to... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2003
by David Gottfried, foreword by Paul Hawken, WorldBuild Publishing, 2003. 260 pages, softcover, $15.95

I didn’t really expect to like this book. Maybe it’s because David Gottfried is a developer and developers tend to be so self-promoting. Or maybe it’s because I’ve read too many articles and books by nice people who fancied themselves as... Read more

Feature

December 1, 2003
The U.S. Green Building COUNCIL’s LEED® Rating System continues to grow and mature, generating new interest and challenging the ability of staff and volunteers to keep it working smoothly. The original LEED Rating System for new construction and major renovation—now called “LEED-NC”—has one or two newly certified projects each week, and... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2003
We at BuildingGreen have selected our second annual Top-10 new green building products! Announced during Greenbuild, the awards represent the most exciting products added to our

GreenSpec Directory during the past year. This year’s winners cover a wide spectrum of products and applications, and highlight the ongoing innovation in the building-... Read more

Product Review

December 1, 2003
In our November issue (EBN

Vol. 12, No. 11), we ran a product review of straw-particleboard casework from Case Systems, Inc. of Midland, Michigan. At Greenbuild, we learned of a similar ag-fiber casework product that has been around even longer.

LSI Corporation of America, based in Minneapolis, introduced an option for ag-fiber-based... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2003

California’s former Governor Davis signed the bill AB 1685 in October, extending the California Public Utilities Commission’s Self-Generation Incentive Program for an additional four years. The bill allocates roughly $500 million through 2008 for businesses and local governments to install distributed electricity-generation systems. Over the... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2003

The Council also announced a new fellowship at Greenbuild, named in honor of Mark Ginsberg, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Building Technologies State and Community Programs. In recognition of Ginsberg’s lifetime contribution to green building, the fellowship will allow one intern to work at USGBC in... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2003

EPA announced in early November that it will drop investigations into 50 power plants accused of violating the Clean Air Act. Under the new policy, EPA will pursue only those investigations in which the plants are accused of violating new, more lenient standards set to take effect in December (see EBN Vol. 12, No. 10). The change could also... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2003

FPL Energy, LLC recently dedicated two new wind farms in the western U.S. The New Mexico Wind Energy Center, near Fort Sumner, is the world’s third-largest wind farm, producing 204 MW of electricity—enough to power 94,000 homes. The High Winds Energy Center, located along the Montezuma Hills in Solano County, California, is the largest wind... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2003

BuildingGreen is honored to be among the winners of the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) Best Practice Sustainability Awards, announced at Greenbuild:

• Special Achievement in Communications: BuildingGreen, Inc.;

•  Innovative Daylighting System: Solar Components Corporation and  Kalwall Corporation;

•  ... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2003

In the run-up to the Greenbuild conference, USGBC and The Pittsburgh Project, a Christian community-development organization that operates after-school and summer programs for Pittsburgh children, collaborated on a straw-bale construction clinic. Led by David Eisenberg, author of The Straw Bale House Book and executive director of the... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2003

The Boston City Council unanimously passed a resolution in October establishing city purchasing guidelines that favor materials that do not produce dioxin, a potent human carcinogen and endocrine disrupter. Dioxin is released when chlorinated products, including chlorine-bleached paper and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), are manufactured and... Read more