during 2000 reached an all-time high at 57.0% total imports (up from 56.6% in 1998 and 55.6% in 1999), according to the February 2001 edition of

Monthly Energy Review, published by the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy (

www.eia.doe.gov). Net petroleum imports (... Read more

, according to a story on MSNBC (January 20). More than a quarter of China is already desert, and sand dunes are now within 60 miles (96 km) of Beijing —and moving closer as quickly as 15 miles (24 km) per year! Last year many Beijing residents were hospitalized with... Read more

EBN

Vol. 4, No. 3). That product was based on the British product Stramit, which was invented in the 1940s and has been in... Read more

They have become a part of too many American landscapes: abandoned or irreversibly declining retail malls. The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has dubbed them “greyfields malls.” According to a recent analysis PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) conducted as a part of the CNU “Greyfields Mall Study,” there are more than 140 regional malls—sites... Read more

We have the Environmental Home Center—almost an ‘Eco-Home Depot’—where our clients can see and actually... Read more

The

Northeast Green Building Awards, sponsored by the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, were announced at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association’s (NESEA) Building Energy 2001 conference in Medford, Massachusetts on March 23, 2001. Listed below are the First Prize winners in each of the professional categories. Other winning... Read more

Oregon’s controversial

Measure 7, which requires payments to landowners when state or local government regulations reduce property value, has been declared unconstitutional. An Oregon Circuit Court judge ruled in February that Ballot Measure 7 violates Oregon’s Constitution. This ruling is expected to be appealed, and the Oregon... Read more

At a March 28–30, 2001 meeting in Racine Wisconsin, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) members and staff met to discuss coordination of the LEED™ Rating System’s various products (see

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 6). Participants at the meeting, which was hosted by the USGBC and The Johnson Foundation, were members of the overall LEED... Read more

I have read your article covering the SB2000 Conference in The Netherlands (

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 1), and the response from Nils Larsson, executive director of the International Institute for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE) in the following issue. I appreciate Nils’ statement that iiSBE intends to cooperate with the World... Read more

The Energy Star® program, a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has named

Johnson Controls among its 2001 Award Winners. Recognized for its commitment to pollution prevention by improving the energy performance of buildings throughout the U.S., the company provides building control... Read more

The Maine Hospital Association, in partnership with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Natural Resources Council of Maine, just signed an agreement to voluntarily eliminate the use of most mercury-containing supplies and medical equipment, as well as continuously reduce the use of

plastics containing PVC. The... Read more

by Jennifer Corson, 2000. Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, Vermont. Paperback, 157 pages, $24.95

Every once in a while, a book comes our way about building and the environment that just about anyone will find practical and delightful—Sarah Susanka’s most recent book, Creating The Not-So Big House, comes to mind.... Read more

On March 13, Governor Parris Glen-denning’s Executive Order made Maryland the first state to mandate sustainability measures for all government operations in clean energy, green buildings, pollution prevention, and alternative fuel vehicles (www.gov.state.md.us/gov/execords/2001/html/0002eo.html). The order features a new High Efficiency Green... Read more

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently issued new reports on

global climate change, with three very important outcomes. First, global average surface temperatures have increased by 0.6°C over the last 100 years, 0.15 degrees more than previously reported. The difference is largely due to relatively higher... Read more

was named Builder of the Year by the EnergyValue Housing Awards on February 9 at the International Builders Show in Atlanta. Also recognized were ten Gold Winners and ten Silver Winners, in a range of categories and climates. The Awards are managed by the NAHB Research Center in partnership with the National... Read more

world’s first commercial wave-power plant began operation in late November on the Scottish island of Islay, feeding approximately 500 kW of power into the United Kingdom power grid.

The technology was jointly developed by Wavegen, which built and owns the power station, and Queens University Belfast. The technology employed is known... Read more

is about to begin construction of a $70 million plant in southwestern Washington state to produce siding from urban wood waste and recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) from plastic bags and shrink wrap. Plant operation is set for early 2002. This brings Boise Cascade into the growing ranks of building product manufacturers... Read more

A lot of finger-pointing is going on in California these days. The rolling blackouts in January were due to deregulation gone awry … or failure to project rapid growth in demand … or permitting delays … or bottlenecks in power transmission. One thing is crystal clear, however: energy is back on the radar screen. People are talking about the oft... Read more