BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

December 1, 2004

Eighty teams were selected from the submissions to present poster sessions during Greenbuild 2004. These half-hour sessions took place during the lunch breaks on November 10 and 11. Three posters were recognized with Awards of Merit, two tied for Best of Show, and one poster was selected for the People’s Choice award.

Design for... Read more

News Analysis

December 1, 2004
The U.S. Green Building Council’s third LEED® rating system, LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) was launched at Greenbuild, following its approval by USGBC members. As with the other LEED products, LEED-CI begins its life as version 2, retroactively making the pilot version 1. LEED-CI is intended to serve tenants who have control only over... Read more

Product Review

This high-design, lightweight, formaldehyde-free panel is made of waste fiber left over after processing sorghum.

December 1, 2004

Kirei™ is a lightweight, formaldehyde-free panel made from waste fiber left over after processing sorghum, a grain crop grown widely in many parts of the world. The product was developed in Japan in the mid-1990s and introduced to the U.S. market in 2003. Kirei is a Japanese character meaning both clean and beautiful, according to Kirei USA... Read more

News Brief

December 1, 2004

The Emerging Green Builders (EGB) chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council announced during Greenbuild the winners of the third annual USGBC Design Competition, intended to recognize students and young professionals in the building industry. More than 130 teams, including more than 270 individuals from 16 countries, competed to design a... Read more

Product Review

November 1, 2004
There is great appeal to the idea of combining solar power generation with such building-component functions as glazing and roofing. Building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) glazing systems, available from several manufacturers, provide the combined functions of daylight transmission and power generation. (For more on BIPV applications, see

EBN... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004

Following endorsement by both houses of parliament, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Kyoto Protocol on November 4, 2004, allowing the 1997 agreement, which aims to limit greenhouse-gas emissions and slow climate change, to take effect for signatories around the world. In order to be set in motion, the agreement required ratification... Read more

News Analysis

November 1, 2004
Bill Browning, a well-known leader in the green building world and member of

EBN’s editorial advisory board, left the full-time employment of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) on July 1, 2004 to work with the John A. Clark Company on the development of Haymount. Haymount is a new town being developed outside of Washington, D.C. with an... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004

The Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Chicago) has announced its first-ever Sustainable Design Awards as part of its annual Design Excellence Awards program, which honors the construction and renovation work of local architects. “Sustainable design represents a movement, not a trend,” said Susan King, chair of AIA... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004
Kimpton Hotels has teamed up with eco-fashion authority Danny Seo to design “Eco Rooms” on dedicated “Eco Floors” at all of their 38 boutique hotels around the U.S. The Eco Rooms will conserve energy and water while playfully educating their occupants about environmental issues; a portion of room charges will be donated to environmental... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004

Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) has initiated a boycott of all prison design, construction, and renovation in protest of the prison-industrial complex and its effects on society. ADPSR works for peace, environmental protection, ecological building, social justice, and the development of healthy communities. For... Read more

News Analysis

November 1, 2004
People who live in sprawling cities are far less healthy than their counterparts in more compact areas, according to a study performed by the nonprofit

Rand® Corporation, based on information from Healthcare for Communities, a survey funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The survey analyzed health data for more than 8,600 adults living... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004

The

National Association of Home Builders is now accepting entries for the

2005 National Green Building Awards, which recognize individuals, companies, and organizations demonstrating a commitment to environmentally responsible residential construction. The submission deadline is December 15, 2004, and winners will be announced... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004

U.S. buildings are blamed for the deaths of nearly one billion birds each year, a statistic that bird experts will address during the first conference anywhere focused on designing buildings to be more bird-friendly. Chicago’s Department of the Environment, Department of Planning and Development, and Ornithological Society are planning the... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004

A multifaceted approach to controlling asthma can significantly reduce its symptoms, according to a study published on September 9, 2004 in the

New England Journal of Medicine. More than 900 inner-city children with allergenic asthma participated in the study, which compared the symptoms of a control group to those of a group in which... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004

The International Energy Agency (IEA) Solar Heating and Cooling Programme has presented its

Solar Award to

William Beckman, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin at Madison (UWM). Beckman was recognized for his contributions to the solar energy field, including co-developing the TRNSYS building-energy analysis and... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004

The U.S. Green Building Council is seeking applicants for the Mark Ginsberg Sustainability Fellowship. Established in honor of Ginsberg’s work in the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the three-month fellowship will focus on market developments and emerging trends in green building. Details are online at... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004
by Amory Lovins et al., with forewords by George P. Shultz and Sir Mark Moody-Stuart. The Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, Colorado, 2004; 328 pages, softcover, $40. Available for sale or free download from RMI ( www.rmi.org or www.oilendgame.org).

Winning the Oil Endgame is classic Amory Lovins and Rocky Mountain Institute. This highly... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004

DuPont has reached a tentative settlement in a three-year-old class-action lawsuit that could cost the company $343 million for exposing Ohio and West Virginia communities to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8 (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 3). In the agreement, DuPont will pay $108 million, including $23 million to cover... Read more

Feature

November 1, 2004
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s (CBF) Philip Merrill Environmental Center—the first LEED

® Platinum project—is widely featured as an icon of green building. Although the project isn’t perfect, on the whole it is a remarkable achievement, especially since most of the designers involved were new to green building. The success of the Merrill Center... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2004

Efficiency Vermont is now accepting applications for their

2005 Energy Efficient Design Awards, to be announced at the Better Buildings by Design conference in February 2005. To be eligible, projects must be located in Vermont and have been completed after January 1, 2001. Posters and registration forms are due December 22, 2004.... Read more