The North Carolina State Energy Office named Raleigh-based Innovative Design, Inc.,

North Carolina’s Energy Champion in March 2005. Led by Michael Nicklas, FAIA, Innovative Design has been incorporating active and passive solar design, energy efficiency, and other green features into its buildings since its beginnings in 1977. More... Read more

A class-action lawsuit against DuPont was finalized in February 2005, resulting in a $108 million settlement (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 11 for more on the tentative settlement). DuPont was charged with polluting the drinking water of several Ohio and West Virginia communities with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8,... Read more

Vista Award for excellence in the design and construction of environmentally sustainable healthcare facilities from the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE). The Boulder Community Foothills Hospital became the... Read more

U.S. net imports of petroleum reached a record level in 2004, coming in at 57.8% of all petroleum used, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), a statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. Just over 19% of those imports came from the Persian Gulf countries. EIA is online at www.eia.doe.gov.

EBN ran a chart titled “Some Existing and Forthcoming Straw Panel Products.” It included a dozen listings—ten were domestic, two were from overseas. At the time, eight of the ten domestic manufacturers weren’t yet in production; the other two had suspended production, but anticipated getting rolling again. A decade... Read more

The Northern California chapter of Architects, Designers, and Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) has announced a new scholarship to promote “solutions to problems of poor indoor air quality, electromagnetic fields, mold, and other environmental toxins,” in the hopes of preventing environmental illness including multiple chemical... Read more

EBN. “These are things that the average Joe can connect with: ‘Hey, my neighbor’s lights are blazing into my window,’ or ‘I’d like to go out... Read more

Not So Big House series, was named a 2005 Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Along with 65 other architects, Susanka will be invested during a ceremony on May 20. The complete list of 2005 Fellows is online at www.aia.org/fellows_default/.

•The Association... Read more

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 3) is seeking presentation proposals for its upcoming conference, Building Materials Reuse and Recycling: Decon ’05. The conference will be held November 7 and 8, 2005, in Atlanta, just before the U.S. Green Building Council’... Read more

The Marco Island City Council voted four to two in March 2005 to ban artificial turf, in response to a dispute between homeowner Ed Ehlen and his neighbors (see

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 2). While Ehlen argued that his synthetic lawn’s water savings made it environmentally friendly, the city council countered that the lawn’s rubber... Read more

With the March 2005 approval of Resolution 6644, Scottsdale, Arizona, became the first city in the nation to require that all new city-owned buildings achieve a LEED® Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The resolution applies to buildings of any size, as long as the green features have an anticipated payback period... Read more