The Royal Institute of British Architects USA (RIBA–USA) has announced the winners of its international design competition “Building a Sustainable World: Life in the Balance.” The competition asked entrants to conceive self-sustaining communities that respond to the challenges of global climate change (see

EBN

Vol. 15, No. 9).... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced in July 2007 that it had reached a total of 10,000 member companies, signaling large growth in the previous year. The 2007 figure represents a growth of 2,800 members over 2006 numbers; USGBC gained a total of 4,800 members between 2002 and 2006. Member companies include architects,... Read more

SierraPine, which manufactures the Medex, Medite II, and Arreis lines of architectural fiberboards and moldings made of recycled and recovered wood free of added urea-formaldehyde, has begun producing particleboard using a phenol-formaldehyde (phenolic) binder rather than the conventional urea-formaldehyde (UF) binder. The new particleboard,... Read more

A study published in

Forest Products Journal in June 2007 found that wood treated with copper azole or alkaline copper quaternary compound (ACQ) to both above-ground and ground-contact levels is prone to damage from brown-rot fungi. Both chemicals were introduced to replace chromated copper arsenate for residential use several years ago... Read more

In July 2007 the New Buildings Institute (NBI) released its Advanced Buildings

Core Performance Guide. The guide describes a series of energy-efficiency measures, selected by NBI using a comprehensive energy-modeling exercise, as the most cost-effective ways to achieve 20%–30% energy savings in buildings throughout the U.S. This guide... Read more

One of the largest waste collection and recycling companies operating in the U.S., Waste Management, Inc., has acquired an existing business, LampTracker, which offers a mail-back recycling program for fluorescent lamps. The company sells special containers for collecting and shipping fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent lamps, and other... Read more

Fear of infection is hardly a new phenomenon, but it seems to have risen to a fever pitch in recent years. Modern medicine appeared to have all but conquered infectious disease decades ago—but in the last three decades our society’s confidence in that victory has unraveled. Diseases like AIDS, anthrax, “mad cow disease,” severe acute... Read more

I read with interest your article on photoactive titanium dioxide (TiO2) in concrete [see

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Vol. 16, No. 5]. I have been following the product launch for several years, have published articles on the technology, and have spoken about the material at an American Concrete Institute’s nanotechnology conference. My research has... Read more

The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) will undertake a global project to encourage retrofitting buildings with energy-efficient technologies, former President Bill Clinton announced in May 2007. The program brings together several energy service companies and banks to help initiate and finance retrofit programs in 15 cities around the world,... Read more

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Buildings with large expanses of glazing can suffer dramatic cooling energy requirements and create glare problems for occupants. Façade shading systems... Read more

ASTM International has published a new standard for investigations of indoor air quality problems in residential buildings. Standard D-7297 contains guidelines for an initial assessment of possible indoor air quality problems and a subsequent three-phase process for finding the sources of any problems. A first-phase walk through the house is... Read more

Members of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) approved a measure that effectively increases the minimum energy performance of LEED-certified projects by 14% for new buildings and 7% for major renovations. Introduced in November 2006, the measure requires all projects to obtain a minimum two out of ten points in the energy optimization... Read more

Both houses of the Connecticut legislature and Governor M. Jodi Rell have approved a bill expanding the state’s ban on pesticide use on school grounds and playing fields. A similar bill, passed in 2005, prohibited the use of pesticides on public and private elementary school grounds starting in 2006, but gave schools until July 2008 to... Read more

At its annual convention in Baltimore, Maryland, in June 2007, the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) announced its forthcoming GreenFormat product data-reporting tool. GreenFormat is a Web-based questionnaire and product listing service that manufacturers can use to report on environmental aspects of their products. BuildingGreen, Inc... Read more

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The International Code Council (ICC) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) have agreed to create a green building educational manual for code... Read more

Just as President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal led America out of the Great Depression in our grandparent’s day, a dramatic set of initiatives will be required if we are to prevent the Great Warming. Many have argued for something akin to the Apollo Project to carry out the research and development needed to advance low-cost renewable energy... Read more

In passing the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act, Congress required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to test pesticides for disruption of the human endocrine system, which produces and regulates hormones. After years of delays, EPA announced in June 2007 that it would test 73 pesticides that people commonly encounter in homes and... Read more