Certification Resource Center by the

Certified Forest Products Council

www.certifiedwood.org

www.forestworld.com

Ross Spiegel, president of Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and a board member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), has established a new

Environmental Task Team within CSI. The team aims to incorporate environmental considerations into CSI’s operations and format documents. Among its tasks are:

Our recent spurt in production at BuildingGreen—new editions of

GreenSpec,

EBN Archives and

Green Building Advisor—has brought home a message that we often convey to others: being environmentally responsible can be a challenge.

Design Sense 2001 award of £40,000 for their work on Sainsbury’s supermarket on the Greenwich Peninsula. The Studio eg Ecowork furniture line (see

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 9) was recognized in the same September 26, 2001 program with the

Corporate Prize for Sustainable Design.... Read more

Entries are due by December 1 for the

National Green Building Awards to be given at the 2002 National Green Building Conference, March 24–26 in Seattle. Award categories include: Green Advocate; Green Project of the Year—New Home; Green Marketing; Green Building Program of the Year; and Outstanding Green Product. For details, contact... Read more

by David Pearson. Gaia Books Ltd. and Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2001. Hardcover, 95 pages, $16.95.

Treehouses features arboreal residences from all over the world in a wide range of styles, scales, and levels. Some of these homes shelter activists who have taken up permanent residence in a tree in the... Read more

Mayor Richard Daley saw his first planted roofs several years ago while visiting Chicago’s sister city of Hamburg, Germany. At the same time, he was learning about urban heat islands (in which our urban areas maintain temperatures considerably higher than surrounding suburban and rural areas). He was particularly attuned to the urban... Read more

Arsenic has taken a big hit recently—from studies showing elevated levels in school playgrounds in Florida to public outcry about President Bush’s decision to relax drinking water standards for the element. Not surprisingly, product manufacturers are getting the message. In the July/August issue of

EBN (

Vol. 10, No. 7/8) we... Read more

The Devens Enterprise Commission, the permitting authority for redevelopment of the former Fort Devens army base in north central Massachusetts, has created

a green building incentive program tied to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED™ rating system. The program offers a 15% reduction in development permit fees, up to $10,000 per... Read more

mourns the loss of friend and green building champion David Kibbey, of Berkeley, California, who died on August 9, 2001 after a long battle with cancer. A native of Vermont, Kibbey was an artist, craftsman, scientist, and counselor. He designed and built beautiful spaces, edited the

Architectural Resource Guide product directory,... Read more

by Guy Dauncey with Patrick Mazza, 2001. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia. Paperback, 270 pages, $19.95.

Stormy Weather begins with an introduction providing clear and engaging explanations of global... Read more

At its August 19, 2001 meeting the Board of the U.S. Green Building Council voted unanimously to set a new course for updates to the LEED™ Rating System. “What we realized is that we’re overwhelmed by LEED’s popularity,” said LEED co-chair Rob Watson of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We wanted to ensure that LEED has a really solid... Read more

Through a new partnership with the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC), Home Depot stores across the U.S. will now contain

recycling stations for used portable rechargeable batteries. This partnership should provide a significant boost to the efforts of nonprofit RBRC to keep cadmium, lead, and nickel out of the... Read more

When we reported in

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 4 that annual energy use in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s recently constructed Cambria office building was coming in at 62,300 kWh, or $0.18/ft2 ($1.94/m2), we noted that this seemed too good to be true. Alas, this suspicion has been borne out. The incorrect energy... Read more

Vol. 10, No. 6). We are pleased to report that we were off by at least one! E-Crete, whose plant is located in Casa Grande, Arizona (near Phoenix), has been producing AAC blocks since December 2000. The... Read more

Kompan, Inc., the nation’s largest manufacturer of commercial wooden playground equipment, is

the latest manufacturer to abandon CCA-treated wood. Citing concern on behalf of customers, the company completed the switch to nonarsenic, nonchromium pressure-treated wood on September 15. Kompan is using Natural Select™ wood treated with... Read more

The tragedies of September 11th are almost too horrible to comprehend. We were fortunate at

EBN that no close friends or family members were killed or injured at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. Our staff joins the millions around this country and the world in mourning the loss of life that occurred that day. We hope and pray... Read more