Please explain what makes “polyester yarn … impregnated with an acrylic-based material” fire resistant, as claimed in the article “PVC-Free Interior Shade Screening from Nysan” (

Vol. 12, No. 12). As far as we know, polyester and acrylics are both flammable.

Tim Burns, President

The Vinyl Institute

Arlington,... Read more

In a unique agreement, the leaders of four architectural institutions have committed to sustainable design. The “

Barcelona Declaration on Sustainable Design” was signed at the Construmat Fair in Barcelona, Spain by Jaime Lerner, representing the International Union of Architects (and former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil); Paul Hyett, for... Read more

by Angela Dean. Gibbs Smith Publishers, Layton, Utah, 2003; 136 pages, softcover, $24.95

Homeowners wanting to understand what a green home is and custom home builders wanting to introduce green home ideas to potential clients could benefit... Read more

Continuing a trend of rapid growth, the

U.S. Green Building Council announced in early February that it had accepted its 4,000th member. USGBC membership—which is open only to companies and organizations, not to individuals—hit 2,000 in September of 2002 and 3,000 in May of 2003.

A recent design team solicitation from the Architect of the Capitol placed a whopping

25% of its selection criteria on the teams’ green design capabilities. “We believe this level of emphasis is a new high-water mark for the federal government,” said Terrel Emmons, FAIA, director of Planning and Programming. The project, being procured... Read more

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 11), plans to build its newest manufacturing facility, in Chandler, Arizona, according to LEED

® standards. Charlie Popeck, cohost of the PBS show

Build It Green!, is acting as green building consultant on the 108,000 ft

2 (... Read more

™ vapor retarder, which changes permeability according to relative humidity, has been awarded an Innovative Housing Technology Award in the energy category from the NAHB Research Center and EH Publishing. CertainTeed is online at www.certainteed.com. See

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Vol. 12, No. 11 for a review of MemBrain.

The Apollo Alliance, a unique coalition of labor, environmental, civil rights, business, and political leaders, has announced its vision of achieving energy independence in ten years. According to a study released by the Apollo Alliance in January, a $300 billion federal investment in renewable energy and green buildings over ten years would... Read more

Thank you for the excellent article on the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild conference (

Vol. 12, No. 12). I would like to take issue, however, with the claim that the conference was free of carbon dioxide (CO

2) emissions.

The chart accompanying the article shows that this claim was made because USGBC received a... Read more

A new program is making it easier for Puget Sound residents to make their homes more efficient. Through a partnership with Efficiency Services Group (a division of Portland General Electric), HomeStreet Bank has started the

Mortgage Options for Resource Efficiency (MORE™) program. Participants in the program receive custom home energy... Read more

Civano, in southeast Tucson, Arizona, was named Best New Community in

Sunset Magazine’s annual Best Places to Live story. The 818-acre (330 ha), mixed-use community was designed around New Urbanist ideals, with a strong sense of community and place (see

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 7). The homes use 50% less energy... Read more

At the beginning of March 2004, the U.S. Green Building Council released a draft of the LEED

® for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Rating System for review by Council members during a 30-day comment period. LEED-EB is designed to certify the ongoing operations and maintenance of facilities, including upgrades to building systems. It is not... Read more

The

Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, which recently trademarked the name Built Green

® for its residential green building program (the largest in the nation), has issued a cease and desist request against Vermont’s

Building for Social Responsibility (BSR) over its use of the name Vermont Built Green for its own... Read more

Meanwhile, University of Georgia researchers have found that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)—including fluoxetine and other common

antidepressants—delay both development in fish and metamorphosis in frogs. The affected animals eventually caught up with their drug-free peers, “but we know that in water, timing is... Read more

Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) has begun the aged-testing component of its product rating program. CRRC has been providing third-party verification of both initial solar reflectance and initial thermal emittance of roofing products since September 2002 (see

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Vol. 12, No. 7), and this aged-testing component adds another... Read more

A recent study that compared development patterns to the health of over 200,000 people in 448 counties in major metropolitan areas around the U.S. found that

car-dependent suburbanites suffer from obesity and high blood pressure at a greater rate than city-dwellers. The report, “Relationship between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity,... Read more

The Boston Society of Architects has approved the Institution Recycling Network (IRN) to offer American Institute of Architects

Learning Units in construction waste management. IRN, based in Concord, New Hampshire, is a cooperative organization that works to improve the financial and operating performance of recycling programs at... Read more

Thank you for continuing to be the most informative green building publication available today! Your October feature article, “Air Filtration in Buildings” (

Vol. 12, No. 10), was a wealth of information.

Proper use of ozone generators for cleaning indoor air is misunderstood and misrepresented in too many articles. As a healthy... Read more

The California Division of the State Architect (DSA) has issued an “Acceptance Criteria Document” for zero-water consumption urinal fixtures that is helping to clear the way for nonflushing urinals in California schools and state-owned buildings. With this document, “DSA addresses those sections of the code that were controversial, and says... Read more