The architecture firm KMD (

Kaplan, McLaughlin and Diaz), based in San Francisco, has been awarded the prestigious MIPIM Architectural Review Future Projects Award for the design of the Jie Fang Daily News and Media Group headquarters in Shanghai, China. The project employs numerous green systems, relying heavily on natural ventilation and... Read more

The

Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) was launched in December 2003, initiated by Meeting Strategies Worldwide, of Portland, Oregon. Recognizing that over a million meetings and events, and over 12,000 tradeshows, are held each year, GMIC is committed to “balancing economic, environmental, and community objectives as they relate to... Read more

Many of us living and working in parts of the country without access to inexpensive natural gas rely on fuel oil for heating. In the Northeast, for example, 36% of homes and 38% of commercial buildings are heated with oil. The Upper Midwest also uses a lot of fuel oil, while Alaska relies on both heating oil and kerosene. It was in Alaska in mid-... Read more

The

Hayward Corporation, which produces FSC-certified wood products and other green building materials (see

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 6 and

Vol. 10, No. 4), has achieved a LEED

® v2 Gold rating for its Hayward Building Systems plant in Santa Maria, California. The 55,000 ft

2 (5,100 m

2) facility... Read more

Interface Flooring has won a 2003 Product Prize from the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). Interface was recognized for its leadership in the sustainability movement. “Ray Anderson’s passion and role as a spokesperson for the movement has been infectious,” noted the ASID awards jury. ASID is online at www.asid.org. Interface is at... Read more

Even the greenest of architects and builders seldom give much consideration to wiring in buildings. Sure, we’d like to use products with minimal environmental and health impacts, but how significant can wiring be? We don’t really install that much wiring, relative to other materials. And there isn’t much choice anyway, is there? Don’t fire codes... Read more

In a unique agreement, the leaders of four architectural institutions have committed to sustainable design. The “

Barcelona Declaration on Sustainable Design” was signed at the Construmat Fair in Barcelona, Spain by Jaime Lerner, representing the International Union of Architects (and former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil); Paul Hyett, for... Read more

Obex, Inc., manufacturer of NovaWood

® landscape timbers, fencing, and pavers made from 100% post-consumer plastics, closed its doors in February. The Stamford, Connecticut company survived perennial capital shortages over its 15 years until an accident last April left owner Celeste Johnson unable to maintain sales streams, which plummeted more... Read more

by Jennifer Roberts. Gibbs Smith Publishers, Layton, Utah, 2003; 160 pages, hardcover, $39.95

by Angela Dean. Gibbs Smith Publishers, Layton, Utah, 2003; 136 pages, softcover, $24.95

Homeowners wanting to understand what a green home is and custom home builders wanting to introduce green home ideas to potential clients could benefit... Read more

Continuing a trend of rapid growth, the

U.S. Green Building Council announced in early February that it had accepted its 4,000th member. USGBC membership—which is open only to companies and organizations, not to individuals—hit 2,000 in September of 2002 and 3,000 in May of 2003.

Thank you for the excellent article on the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild conference (

Vol. 12, No. 12). I would like to take issue, however, with the claim that the conference was free of carbon dioxide (CO

2) emissions.

The chart accompanying the article shows that this claim was made because USGBC received a... Read more

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), freight trucks and locomotives use 35 billion gallons (1.5x10

11 liters) of diesel fuel each year, emitting over 350 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Facing a predicted 25% increase in these numbers by 2012, EPA launched a new program in February focused on making America’s... Read more

The December 31, 2003 deadline to end most sales of chromated copper arsenate (CCA) preservative came and went with little fanfare. As of January 1, 2004, wood-treating companies can no longer buy CCA for treating dimension lumber and other wood products covered in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreement for phaseout (see

EBN... Read more

The Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), representing 155,000 Inuit people in Russia, Canada, Greenland, and Alaska, is planning a human-rights legal case against Arctic states—particularly the United States—for their

complicity in global climate change. “What is at stake here is the cultural survival of Inuit as a people,” said ICC... Read more

In an appendix to the draft environmental impact statement for the

World Trade Center reconstruction project in lower Manhattan is a set of sustainable development guidelines that should help green the huge 16-acre (6.5 ha) development. Already, construction equipment on the site is using low-sulfur diesel fuel and high-performance... Read more

The NanoLux™ compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), just introduced by Westinghouse Lighting Corporation, open up dramatic new design opportunities for fluorescent lighting. These CFLs incorporate tiny electronic ballasts in the screw base so that the smallest lamp is about half the size of a standard incandescent bulb.

The product line includes 34... Read more

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City has rejected a Bush Administration plan to lower energy-efficiency standards for air-conditioners. The lawsuit,

Natural Resources Defense Council v. Abraham, was brought by NRDC, consumer groups, and attorneys general from ten states. Clinton Administration standards, which mandate... Read more

The year 2003 tied 2002 as the

second-hottest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). All five of the hottest years on record (since record-keeping began in 1880) have now occurred since 1997. Details are available on NOAA’s Climate Data Center Web site, at www.ncdc.noaa.gov.

... Read more

When NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) opened its new office in Santa Monica, California on November 13, 2003, they had a lot to celebrate. After years of bouncing from one rented office space to another, NRDC now has a permanent Southern California office—named after Robert Redford, actor, Santa Monica native, and NRDC board member since... Read more

Barbara Lippiatt, developer of the Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) life-cycle analysis software tool, was honored on December 5, 2003 with a

U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal for her work. Lippiatt is an economist in the Office of Applied Economics of the Building and Fire Research Laboratory at the National... Read more