BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

November 1, 2002

Kane Hardwood, a Collins Company, has been awarded the

National Hardwood Lumber Association’s (NHLA) Forest Stewardship Award. Kane was recognized for its achievements in public education, political involvement, private landowner education, forest stewardship, and efficient resource utilization. Kane, which owns and manages over 125,000... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002

Capital E is seeking

case studies documenting specific benefits of green buildings, as part of a contract with California’s Department of General Services and other agencies to analyze the full costs and benefits of green buildings. Documented examples of benefits that are not always recognized, such as enhanced occupant health,... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002

The

Clean Water Act celebrated its 30th birthday on October 18. The law has enjoyed bipartisan support and has accomplished much to protect America’s water resources. Since its inception in 1972, for example, the act has slowed the rate of wetland loss by 75% and doubled the number of households served by sewage treatment plants.... Read more

News Analysis

November 1, 2002
The onslaught of wildfires in the western United States in recent years has persuaded the California Office of the State Fire Marshal to incorporate new fire performance requirements into the building codes of homes encroaching on California wildlands. The task of testing how roofs, walls, windows, and decks respond to fire has fallen to the... Read more

Feature

November 1, 2002
Like many communities, our town of Brattleboro was faced with a huge problem in its existing high school complex. The sprawling, dilapidated, 230,000 ft2 (21,000 m2) school for 1,600 students—actually a high school, middle school, and career education center all in one—was built in five stages between 1951 and 1991. It is a health hazard, the... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002

Land surface changes may be as much to blame for

global climate change as greenhouse gases, according to research by Roger Pielke Sr., professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, and his colleagues. The study, published in a recent issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London and released by... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002
Home Depot has expanded its solar power program, launched in 2001 in

California, to the East Coast. Visitors to select Delaware, New Jersey, and New York Home Depot stores can now choose between AstroPower’s SunUPS® and SunLine™ Solar Electric Home Power Systems. Home Depot is selling, installing, and servicing the systems under its “At-Home... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002

Under a September executive order signed by Governor Gary Locke, every Washington state agency must establish

sustainability objectives and prepare biennial sustainability plans. The newly named Sustainability Coordinator and Sustainability Advisory Council will organize the plans around energy and water efficiency and a shift to... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002

Ninth International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, Hal Levin, Editor. CD-ROM version: $100; 5-volume printed version: $200. Shipping additional. Download an order form:

www.indoorair2002.org.

If you’re doing research on indoor air quality issues, you shouldn’t be without this treasure trove of information. Every oral... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002

The

Oak Hill Fund, formed this year after the W. Alton Jones Foundation was split into three separate foundations, is seeking grant applicants for its Environmentally Sustainable Affordable Design Program. The program includes four initiatives:

•Education, for programs with academic institutions (including K–12);

•Sustainable and... Read more

Product Review

November 1, 2002
An increasingly familiar sight in new commercial construction, interior lightshelves are gaining popularity for their effectiveness at distributing daylight deep into a room while controlling glare. When coupled with a photosensor-controlled lighting system, lightshelves dramatically reduce the use of electric lights and therefore the cooling load... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002

Researchers at Smart Growth America and Rutgers and Cornell Universities have announced the results of the most

comprehensive study on sprawl ever undertaken. The research team created a sprawl index based on 22 measurable factors relating to residential density; neighborhood mix of homes, jobs, and services; strength of activity... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002

When The American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment first convened, it immediately identified as a top priority the need for information about the environmental impacts of building materials. With funding from the U.S. EPA and the technical expertise of Joel Ann Todd’s Scientific Consulting Group, AIA produced a series of... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002

A single-family home near the Twin Cities in Minnesota is the first to be constructed according to the American Lung Association’s recently revised

Health House® guidelines. The home, completed in September and open for tours, was designed with special attention to ventilation, air filtration, and moisture control. A second Health House... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002
The

Sewerage Commission-Oroville Region (SC-OR) wastewater treatment plant in Oroville, California, will begin operating on solar energy this month. A 3-acre (1.2 ha) field adjacent to the plant is home to a

520 kW solar power array, installed by Sun Power and Geothermal Energy of San Rafael, that will supply 80% of the plant’s energy... Read more

News Analysis

November 1, 2002

SierraPine Ltd., a Roseville, California-based company specializing in composite panels, is reformulating and renaming its Medite FR, a Class 1, fire-retardant medium-density fiberboard (MDF) panel. It was formerly manufactured with a polyurea resin matrix adhesive (MDI) rather than conventional formaldyhyde-based resins. The new product,... Read more

News Brief

November 1, 2002

Software package from the Athena™ Sustainable Materials Institute, PO Box 189, Merrickville, Ontario, K0G 1N0, Canada; 613/269-3795, 613/269-3796 (fax),

www.athenasmi.org Athena EIE software: $390; LCI Database reports: $325; package of both products with one-year interpretive support: $715; educational and multicopy discounts available... Read more

News Brief

October 1, 2002

In mid-September, membership of the

U.S. Green Building Council passed the 2,000 mark, up from 950 a year earlier—more than 100% growth!

News Brief

October 1, 2002
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony recently dedicated the Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, which is fitted with 7,000 ft2 (650 m2) of photovoltaic panels. The $600,000 system is expected to generate 66 kilowatts of electricity, offsetting 10 to 15% of the cathedral complex’s energy demand. It is the first of 16 solar systems to be... Read more

News Brief

October 1, 2002

The Atlanta International Museum of Art and Design (AIM) is now showing “Ecology, Economy, Equity: The Architecture of

William McDonough + Partners.” The exhibit, open through February 28, features architectural models, text panels, preparatory drawings, site plans, and interactive computer stations describing WM+P projects such as the... Read more