Body & Soul Magazine, the awards honor books “that contribute significantly to conscious living... Read more

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order in June 2005 committing the state to reduce its greenhouse gases to 2000 levels by 2010. While this short-term goal is only about half as aggressive as compliance with the Kyoto Protocol would be, the governor’s longer-term goals are ambitious. California will reduce its... Read more

The nonprofit SustainLane has released the results of a study ranking 25 U.S. cities based on performance in 12 sustainability categories: transportation, air quality, tap-water quality, LEED® buildings, food and agriculture, zoning, land use, solid-waste diversion rate, land-use planning, city innovation, energy and climate, and knowledge base... Read more

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom signed the “Precautionary Purchasing Ordinance” into law in June 2005, requiring city departments to consider public health and environmental responsibility when making purchases, which amount to about $600 million each year. “By exercising our economic power, San Francisco can encourage market development of... Read more

The organizers of the Rethinking Sustainable Construction 2006 (RSC06) conference, set for Sarasota, Florida, in September, are calling for “creative content” proposals, ranging from research papers to problem-solving workshops. The international conference is intended to “produce an agenda for the future of green buildings,” as described in... Read more

Lewis Mumford Award winners. The award for Peace went to Architecture for Humanity for its “passion and dedication connecting architects and designers with communities in need around the world.” The award for Development went to United Indian Health... Read more

EBN Vol. 10, No. 2) to require that all new municipal facilities achieve LEED® Gold certification (joining only Scottsdale, Arizona, and Vancouver, British Columbia, in calling for Gold). Major retrofits and existing occupied buildings will... Read more

The Council of the District of Columbia has enacted a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) that applies to all retail electricity sales in Washington, D.C. The two-tiered system establishes yearly benchmarks for tier-one and tier-two resources. By 2022, all utilities must generate 11% of their electricity from tier-one resources, including solar... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy has released version 1.2.2 of its EnergyPlus modeling software, compatible with Windows and Linux operating systems. The new version features more weather files and the ability to model more complex ventilation designs, among other enhancements. Details are at www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/.

Stains and sealants can reduce the cancer risk posed by decks and playground equipment treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA), according to preliminary results from a study being undertaken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. “Oil- or water-based stains that can penetrate wood... Read more

A bill being debated in the California legislature would ban both bisphenol-A and certain phthalate plasticizers in baby products. Bill AB 319, introduced in the California legislature in February 2005 by Assemblywoman Wilma Chan of Oakland, would ban, effective January 1, 2007, the manufacture, sale, or distribution in commerce of any product... Read more

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm issued an executive directive in April 2005 requiring that all new buildings for state agencies, universities, and community colleges be certified according to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Rating System. The directive also requires that all buildings owned or operated by the state reduce their... Read more

Twenty Middlebury College students have teamed up with the nonprofit Green House Network to create the

Flat Earth Award, designed to publicly expose well-known climate-change naysayers “for their denial of the facts on global warming.” This year’s nominees were Michael Crichton, whose 2004 novel,

State of Fear, portrays climate... Read more