The

California Energy Commission (CEC) may no longer collect information about the energy efficiency of air conditioners, heat pumps, water heaters, and furnaces, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled in June. The case was filed by the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, the Association of Home... Read more

Thank you for your review of

Integrated Buildings in the July

EBN (

Vol. 12, No. 7). I hope your attention helps spread interest in the complimentary and multidimensional aspects of integrated design in architecture, especially to the notions of green. I ended the book with Chapter 11,

Green Buildings, because... Read more

As part of its 21st annual

Lighting Design Awards, the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) is introducing a sustainability award to highlight “the growing importance of sustainable design to the profession of lighting design and to the world in which we live.” Applications for IALD’s 2004 design awards are due... Read more

In the process of designing a large open-plan office building for a corporate client, Gensler’s designers suggested taking a look at a smaller project they recently completed for the same client. In the earlier project, they found that partially closed-in “teaming areas” they had created in the corners were rarely used because they didn’t offer... Read more

A ubiquitous flame retardant is finding its way into San Francisco Bay fish, according to a study recently conducted by a California state toxics lab for the nonprofit organization Environmental Working Group (EWG). Used as a flame retardant in products ranging from computers to carpets, PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) are known to cause... Read more

Produced by the California Energy Commission, this video series is available free of charge at

www.energyvideos.com. The videos may be viewed online using Windows Media Player, ReaPlayer, or Quick Time Player. The series is also available from the CEC on DVD.

I’m happy that chromated copper arsenate (CCA) preservatives are finally being phased out [see

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 3], but one small problem remains: There is no way to tell wood treated with ammoniacal copper quaternary (ACQ) or other alternative treatments from that treated with CCA once it’s been installed and the stapletags... Read more

Responding to Bush administration interest in ethanol and hydrogen, the

American Solar Energy Society (ASES) has reconstituted its Renewable Fuels and Transportation Division. Paul Notari, founder of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society and former president of ASES, will serve as chair of this new division.

Sixty-one buildings are now certified under LEED™ versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.1; and nearly 900 projects have registered for certification. There are now over 4,000 LEED-accredited professionals, and more than 10,000 people have participated in LEED training workshops. The pilot programs for LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) and LEED for... Read more

Over the past year, three companies have begun marketing a low-density, open-cell polyurethane foam insulation made, in part, from soybeans. By far the best organized and established of these is BioBased Systems of Spring Valley, Illinois. Experienced users tell EBN that BioBase 501 works just as well as its petrochemical-based competitors, and... Read more

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The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) awarded this year’s

Environmental Sensitivity Awards to two architecture firms that specialize in... Read more

The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) has developed a voluntary

certification program for installers of photovoltaic (PV) systems. NABCEP plans to hold its first exam on October 25; in order to participate, candidates must complete their applications by July 31. For details or to apply for certification,... Read more

EBN

Vol. 11, No. 10 and

Vol. 6, No. 8). We recently discovered another such product—made by Bricor Analytical, Inc. in Colorado Springs, Colorado. While quite different from the ETL products technologically, Bricor... Read more

A manufacturing facility built with great green hopes is now spending most of its time making a more conventional product. Great Lakes MDF, LLC has purchased the Lackawanna, New York medium-density fiberboard (MDF) plant formerly owned by The CanFibre Group, Ltd. The plant initially relied on phenol-formaldehyde binders in place of conventional... Read more

, executive director of Red Feather Development Group, has been named

Greatest American Hometown Hero in the first

Volvo for Life Awards. Struck by reports of poverty on America’s Indian reservations, Young founded the Red Feather Development Group in 1995 to teach Native American communities to construct energy-... Read more

Sunlight can convert triclosan, a disinfectant used in antibacterial and antimicrobial soaps and other products, into dioxin, according to a paper in the May 30, 2003 issue of the

Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry. Photodegradation of triclosan in the absence of chlorine can produce a relatively benign form of... 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 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

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Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities, the first national conference on green roofs, was held May 29–30 in Chicago, drawing more than 500... Read more