The Emerging Green Builders subcommittee of the USGBC is steering the

first annual USGBC Design Competition. Participation is limited to current students of all disciplines and graduates with no more than three years’ experience in the industry. Winners will be announced at USGBC’s Greenbuild conference this November. Watch for details... Read more

The Environmental Council of Concrete Organizations is crisscrossing North America this August with a

“Road Show” on the role of concrete in sustainable design. The faculty includes two lecturers from the U.K. and one American, representing expertise in urban planning, architecture, engineering, and materials research. The speakers,... 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 American Solar Energy Society has named

Ralph Knowles a “Passive Solar Pioneer.” Distinguished Professor Emeritus Knowles has spent the past 40 years at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture. Among Knowles’ contributions to passive design is the “solar envelope,” a zoning concept that ensures city buildings... Read more

For the last three years a group of committed builders and other experts has been meeting under the purview of Building for Social Responsibility (BSR) in Vermont to create the nation’s most comprehensive—greenest—residential green building program yet. Vermont Built Green (VBG) is being piloted this summer with a huge array of green criteria.... Read more

A number of state legislatures are reviewing

bills related to indoor air quality this session. Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Virginia are considering legislation specifically addressing mold contamination.

Applications are now being accepted for the first

Sustainable Design Leadership Awards, sponsored by the International Interior Design Association, the American Institute of Architects Interiors Committee, CoreNet Global, and Tandus™. The Operational Leadership Award is open to any business or organization and the Design Leadership... Read more

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by Leonard R. Bachman; John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2003. Hardcover, 479 pages, $75.

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

On May 2, 2003, at the EnvironDesign® 7 conference in Washington, D.C., William McDonough announced the launch of a nonprofit organization to facilitate dissemination of the design approaches and resources his companies have developed. “We’re launching the GreenBlue program today to give away the cradle-to-cradle protocol freely,” McDonough... Read more

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center has announced the winners of its third annual National Green Building Awards, “to honor and encourage builders, programs, advocates, and products in the advancement of environmentally friendly residential construction.” This year’s winners are:

Growing its collection of innovations in the flooring industry, Interface, Inc. has introduced FLOR™, a modular flooring system designed for use in homes. FLOR’s ten product lines represent a variety of fabrics, colors, textures, and patterns. According to Chip DeGrace, InterfaceFLOR’s vice president of marketing, “FLOR bridges hard surface and... Read more

Honeywell and BASF completed a major transaction on May 1, when Honeywell sold its worldwide engineering-plastics business to BASF in exchange for BASF’s worldwide nylon-fiber business and $90 million. With this transaction, BASF exited the fibers market to concentrate on plastics. The new Honeywell Nylon division will offer Honeywell’s Anso®... Read more

In our listing of green champions who were inducted into The American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows this year, we unfortunately omitted

Fulton (Tony) Gale, FAIA. Gale has been a stalwart champion of energy efficiency and sustainable design for decades and, as Seattle’s City Architect, was a driving force behind Seattle’s... 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.

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