BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

July 31, 2006
New York Institute of Technology’s (NYIT) entry in the 2005 Solar Decathlon found a permanent home in June 2006 at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in Kings Point, New York. The NYIT team, which was the only team in the 2005 competition to use a hydrogen fuel cell for power, has dubbed the 800 ft2 (74 m2) house America’s first solar-... Read more

News Brief

July 31, 2006
edited by Timothy G. Townsend and Helena Solo-Gabriele. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 2006. Hardcover, 501 pages, $139.95.

With greater awareness of environmental safety and health following the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ban on most lumber treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA), consumers, builders and architects... Read more

Feature

July 31, 2006
The treated wood industry is in the midst of major changes today. The leading treated wood product, chromated copper arsenate (CCA), was taken off the market for many uses at the beginning of 2004 (see

EBN

Vol. 11, No. 3). The mainstream, copper-based replacements for CCA corrode fasteners more rapidly than CCA, increasing the risk of... Read more

News Brief

July 31, 2006

Exposure to air pollution before birth can cause developmental delay in children, according to a study performed by Columbia University’s Center for Children’s Environmental Health and published by

Environmental Health Perspectives in April 2006. The study measured the exposure of pregnant women living in the Washington Heights, Central... Read more

News Brief

July 31, 2006
The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction—supported by Holcim, Ltd., one of the world’s largest suppliers of cement, aggregates, concrete, and construction-related services—has announced the winners in the first Holcim Awards program, an international competition designed to recognize projects that “embody approaches to meet the present-... Read more

News Brief

July 31, 2006
Virginia Avenue Park in Santa Monica, California, recently earned a Silver rating in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® for New Construction rating system, becoming the first park in North America to achieve LEED certification. The park, which opened in November 2005, was designed by Koning Eizenberg Architecture in Santa Monica and Spurlock... Read more

News Brief

July 31, 2006

Building materials giant USG Corporation has joined the Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments, a group launched in 2003 to educate the marketplace and top management on the benefits of reducing the impact of facilities on the environment and building occupants. “By joining the Alliance, USG can work with like-minded companies to help... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006
Changing student enrollment has led many school districts to rely on portable classroom units for overflow classes. Portable classrooms have traditionally been poor performers when it comes to energy and the environment. “These units use about three times as much energy per area as the school building itself and often compromise students’ and... Read more

News Analysis

July 9, 2006

The Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) was created in 2002 to help the industry meet the carpet recycling and reuse goals set forth by the Memorandum of Understanding for Carpet Stewardship (MOU), a voluntary agreement signed by members of the carpet industry, government entities, and nongovernmental organizations. How successful is CARE?... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006

The U.S. Army has announced that, beginning in 2008, all of its new buildings will achieve Silver or higher ratings in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Rating System. LEED will supplant the Army’s own Sustainable Project Rating Tool (SPiRiT), which was modeled after LEED. The Army has also committed to certifying all of its housing once... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006
Environmental Design and Construction (

ED+C) magazine has announced the winners of its annual Excellence in Design Awards. This year’s jury included

ED+C staff members as well as Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC); Jim Nicolow, AIA, head of the sustainability initiative at Lord, Aeck &... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006

In a May 2006 announcement before the New York League of Conservation Voters, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a new Division of Sustainability that will operate within the Mayor’s Office of Operations. Bloomberg’s announcement, in which he called sustainability “a philosophy of realistic optimism,” follows his 2004 creation of a... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006
New York City’s first office tower to earn LEED® certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), 7 World Trade Center has earned a Gold rating in LEED for Core and Shell (LEED-CS). USGBC President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi congratulated the project team, noting that the building “will help us use the language of architecture to build a... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006
Carpet Monsters and Killer Spores: A Natural History of Toxic Moldby Nicholas P. Money. Oxford University Press, New York City, 2004. Hardcover, 178 pages, $19.95.

My Office is Killing Me!: The Sick Building Survival Guideby Jeffrey C. May. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2006. Paperback, 317 pages, $18.95.

In 2000,... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006

Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner in Stuttgart, Germany, under the leadership of Stefan Behnisch, is now Behnisch Architekten. The firm’s Venice, California, office, led by Stefan Behnisch and Christof Jantzen, AIA, has also changed its name, to Behnisch Architects. Founded in 1989, the firm has long been recognized as a leader in architectural... Read more

News Analysis

July 9, 2006

If a proposed regulation from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is adopted as planned on September 28, 2006, the U.S. market for particleboard and similar interior-grade panel products will change dramatically. The proposed regulation drastically reduces the allowable levels of urea-formaldehyde (UF) emissions from composite wood... Read more

Product Review

July 9, 2006
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs), based on semiconductor technology, have become the lighting technology of choice in outdoor signs, screens, traffic signals, and indicator lamps on vehicles and appliances. Until recently, however, high cost and product development obstacles have kept LEDs out of the residential lighting market. That may be about to... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006

In May 2006, the U.S. Senate confirmed Dirk Kempthorne to succeed Gale Norton as head of the Department of the Interior, which manages 20% of all land in the U.S. Kempthorne, who has served in the U.S. Senate and as governor of Idaho, has worked to open national lands to logging, mining, and drilling; the League of Conservation Voters (LCV)... Read more

News Brief

July 9, 2006
The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) has announced the winners of its first annual

Smart Environments Awards. Co-sponsored by

Metropolis magazine, the awards were intended to recognize the most environmentally and socially responsible, beautiful, and functional interior designs of the past five years. The winners are:... Read more

News Analysis

July 9, 2006
On June 12, 2006, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson announced the launch of WaterSense, EPA’s new water efficiency program, noting that the program’s aim is “spreading the ethic of water efficiency and promoting the tools to make wise water choices.” Like EPA’s successful Energy Star™ program for energy-... Read more