BuildingGreen Report

News Analysis

April 1, 2001
One of Canada’s largest forest products companies, Tembec Inc., agreed in late January to work with World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWF) on certifying all of its forest operations according to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards. The company controls more than 13 million hectares (50,000 square miles) across the country, an area larger than the... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001

Beginning in January of this year, all new

homes sold in England and Wales have to display energy ratings. The ratings are required by the revised Building Regulations and Approved Inspectors Regulations 2000, which was formally approved last October. Home ratings are based on the Standard Assessment Procedure for Energy Rating of... Read more

Feature

April 1, 2001
Long-time green architects Rob Harrison of Harrison Architects and George Ostrow of Velocipede Architects feel pretty lucky when it comes to specifying and obtaining green building materials. “We are in a unique position here in Seattle.

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

News Brief

April 1, 2001

According to the National Climate Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),

global temperatures in 2000 were 0.39°C (0.7°F) higher than the long-term (1880-1999) average. This makes 2000 the sixth hottest year on record (after 1998, 1997, 1995, 1990, and 1999). Land temperatures were 0.59°C (1.1°F) above... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001
Locoshop Angus, an abandoned locomotive workshop in Montreal that has been redeveloped in a multifunctional industrial center for small and mid-sized businesses, won two awards at the

National Post Design Exchange Awards Gala, held on January 25, 2001 in Toronto.

The project won a Gold Award in the category “Built Environments, Grand... Read more

Product Review

April 1, 2001
The idea of an acoustic building panel made without binders from an agricultural waste material is highly attractive. Several years ago, such a product was available in North America from Stramit USA, LLC (see

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

Op-Ed

April 1, 2001

We are saddened to note the passing of two mavericks in the world of sustainability. On February 20, Donella (Dana) Meadows died suddenly of bacterial meningitis at age 59. In her late 20s, Dana was principal author of

Limits to Growth (1972), one of the first books to address the limits of population growth and resource extraction.... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001

The worldwide

costs of climate change will reach $300 billion annually by 2050, predicts Munich RE, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies. These costs will result from more frequent tropical cyclones, land loss due to rising sea levels, and damage to fishing stocks, agriculture, and water supplies. In the U.S., an estimated... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001
EBN

is pleased to be honored by

Metropolitan Home magazine as one the

Design 100 Best of the Best: People, Places, Extraordinary Things in the “Design that Makes a Difference” category. Also recognized are architect (and

EBN Advisory Board member) Gail Lindsey, landscape architect Julie Bargmann, eco-designer Wendy... Read more

Case Study

April 1, 2001
When the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) got involved with the design and construction of a building it was slated to lease as its Southcentral Regional Office Building (SCROB), DEP determined to make it a “Green Technology Model Project.”

With support from The Heinz Endowments, Alan Barak of the Penn Energy Project... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2001

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

News Brief

April 1, 2001

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

News Brief

March 1, 2001

The February 2001 issue of the influential publication

I.D.: The International Design Magazine focused on socially conscious design for its annual “

I.D. Forty” selection. Among the many inspiring designers featured were a number of architects and other professionals recognized for their ecological vision. They are (in order of... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2001
Capital E

is a new company created to provide intelligence on the distributed generation industry, with a particular focus on financial issues and investing. Technologies covered include fuel cells, photovoltaics, microturbines, and cogeneration. Among the company’s three principals are two leading advocates of energy efficiency in buildings... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2001
William D. (Bill) Browning

, Senior Associate of the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Green Development Services, has been named an honorary member of The American Institute of Architects—an honor bestowed on a few non-architects who have made a significant contribution to the architectural profession and to the AIA.

Feature

March 1, 2001

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

News Brief

March 1, 2001
by Joseph Lstiburek, P. Eng., 2000. Energy and Environmental Building Association, 10740 Lyndale Avenue South, Suite 10W, Bloomington, MN 55420-5615;

www.eeba.org. Spiral-bound paperbacks, 328 to 473 pages, $30 (EEBA members), $40 (non-members)

In 1997 (

EBN

Vol. 6, No. 5), we gave a pretty hearty thumbs-up to Joe... Read more

Product Review

March 1, 2001
According to a recent study by Ecos Consulting and the Natural Resources Defense Council, two of every three homes in the U.S. have at least one ceiling fan, and—on average—each fan consumes about 130 kWh per year. Ceiling fans can reduce energy consumption for cooling, but they are all notoriously inefficient. Except one. A much more energy-... Read more

Op-Ed

March 1, 2001

The February [

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 2] cover story on site restoration and the editorial on hospice ecology in Hawaii were excellent. In the piece on Hawaii and its loss of habitat and native species, your question of how this relates to green building is so important. It goes to the heart of what is “green” and what is “sustainable... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2001
Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners

, an architecture firm in the U.K., has become the first firm we know of to adopt the International Standards Organization (ISO) 14001 environmental management standard. The firm applied the standard to an architectural practice by developing a system to ensure that environmental impacts are considered in its... Read more