Additional research would have revealed that the European Union disagrees with

EBN’s recommended general ban on certain brominated flame retardants (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 6)—which, through its generalization, could be dangerous for your readers, other builders, and their customers by reducing fire-safety protections.... Read more

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced in June that all new public buildings will be designed and built according to the Chicago Standard, a new set of guidelines derived from the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED

® Rating System. The Chicago Standard is intended not to replace LEED but to help designers make the easiest and most effective use... Read more

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) board of directors has announced the recipients of the

2004 Medal and Firm Awards, to be presented during ASLA’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City this November. Some of the winners are listed below; more information is online at www.asla.org.

•Peter W. Walker, FASLA, received... Read more

India’s president, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, inaugurated the CII Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Center on July 14. The Center became the first Platinum-rated building under LEED

® v.2 in late 2003 (see

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 12). Kalam praised the Center’s achievements and laid out a goal of

reducing the average energy... Read more

BuildingGreen has been selected by Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) to receive the 2004 Lewis Mumford Award for Environment. ADPSR instituted the Mumford awards in 1992 “to honor people and organizations that exemplify the ADPSR goals of peace, preservation of the natural and built environment, and socially... Read more

Storm Cunningham launched the nonprofit Revitalization Institute™ in April 2004. Based on principles outlined in Cunningham’s 2002 book

The Restoration Economy: The Greatest New Growth Frontier (see review,

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 2), the Revitalization Institute’s mission is “to advance restorative development of communities and... Read more

by Jason F. McLennan; Ecotone Publishing Company, Kansas City, Missouri, 2004; hardcover, 325 pages, $29.95

The Philosophy of Sustainable Design is a tremendously ambitious book. Author Jason McLennan, founder of the Elements consulting division of BNIM Architects (see

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 3), touches on all aspects of green design... Read more

On June 14, 2004, the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) released the new “Green Label Plus” independent testing program for indoor emissions from carpets. It took a year of sometimes contentious negotiations with California’s Sustainable Building Task Force and its Department of Health Services, Indoor Air Quality Section, to develop this new program... Read more

The nonprofit Architecture for Humanity (AFH) has announced

a competition to design a soccer facility in Somkhele, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The facility, to be run by medical professionals from the Africa Center for Health and Population Studies, will serve as a gathering place for youth aged 9 to 14, including the area’s first... Read more

The nonprofit product-testing organization Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL) plans to open

the nation’s first commercial wind turbine certification and test facility near Cheyenne, in rural Laramie County, Wyoming by the end of 2004. Distributed Generation Systems, Inc. will coordinate the design and construction of the facility,... Read more

Sloan Valve Company, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial plumbing equipment, has just introduced a unique, solar-powered, sensor-activated faucet. A small photovoltaic (PV) cell embedded in the top of the faucet powers the optical sensor. A lithium battery powers the opening and closing of the valve and provides back-up power... Read more

A coalition of corporate and nonprofit organizations launched the

Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition in April with the goal of “accelerating the economic development and environmental benefits of available onsite green energy technologies and energy efficiency applications and devices designed for Canada’s residential building sector.” The... Read more

Four workers were killed and several others injured on April 23, 2004 in an

explosion at a Formosa Plastics polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production facility in Illiopolis, Illinois. A fifth worker died of his injuries on May 13. The series of explosions, which destroyed most of the plant, “apparently followed a release of highly flammable... Read more

Ecoshack

, a green design laboratory based in Joshua Tree and Los Angeles, California, has announced a

competition to design “an environmentally sustainable camping shelter—a ‘green’ tent—for use in the Mojave Desert in and around Joshua Tree National Park.” One to five winning entries will each receive $500 and may be prototyped on... Read more

by Bettina von Hagen, Erin Kellogg, and Eugénie Frerichs. A publication of Ecotrust, Portland, Oregon, 2003; 120 pages, softcover, $21. Contact Ecotrust at 503-227-6225 or visit www.ecotrust.org/publications/.“This is a book about a building,” begins

Rebuilt Green, and the lead character is the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, a LEED® Gold... Read more

Canada’s federal Public Works and Government Services

(PWGSC) has announced a series of initiatives to green its operations. The department has pledged, among other strategies, to cut its energy use by 60% over 1990 levels by March 2008, to achieve a LEED® Gold or BREEAM Four Leaves green building standard with all new construction, and to... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) will be accepting

feedback on the LEED® for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) rating system through Tuesday, July 13, 2004. The current draft includes significant modifications from the version that has been in use for the LEED-CI pilot program over the past two years. The official release is... Read more

Portland, Oregon’s Office of Sustainable Development has recognized ten local businesses with BEST (

Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow) Awards for efficient use of resources, waste and pollution reduction, and sustainable business practices. The winners with a building-related focus are listed here; a list of all ten... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized

landmark regulations on off-road diesel fuel and the engines that burn it. Sulfur concentrations, which are currently unregulated in off-road diesel fuel, will be capped at 500 parts per million (ppm) in 2007 and 15 ppm in 2015; meanwhile, soot and smog limits will be capped... Read more

Under optimal conditions, an air-source heat pump can run at a theoretical 400% efficiency—delivering four times more energy than it uses. But as outdoor temperatures drop, conventional air-source heat pumps deliver less and less heat. By contrast, the multiple-stage Cold Climate Heat Pump™ (CCHP) from Nyle Special Products, LLC of Bangor, Maine,... Read more