Maryland has adopted a Consumer Benefits Act in May that offers tax credits to employers who provide staff with

incentives not to commute by car—such as subsidizing public transit or providing a cash benefit instead of free parking.

Previously, the FTC maintained two categories for measuring energy... Read more

Tax credit legislation supporting green buildings was recently signed into law in New York (see EBN

Vol. 9, No. 5), and the push for similar legislation seems... Read more

Following discovery of trace amounts of

perfluorooctanyl-based chemicals in water supplies and in humans, 3M Company announced that it is phasing out products that use these chemicals, including its Scotchguard™ anti-soil coating for carpets and other materials. These products represent about 2% of the company’s $16 billion in annual... Read more

Federal minimum standards for the energy efficiency of domestic clothes washers are to increase by 35%. The two-step process requires manufacturers to meet new modified energy factor (MEF) standards. MEF calculates energy used while accounting for remaining moisture content in the clothes—the drier the... Read more

unanimously adopted a proposal in April to meet all future electricity needs with no net emissions of greenhouse gases. The city’s municipal utility, Seattle City Light, will employ a combination of energy conservation, existing hydropower, and new renewables, including solar, wind, geothermal, and landfill gas. If... Read more

The Electrolux Group held a 38% share in the predecessors of Electrolux LLC until 1968, when it sold its... Read more

The

Arctic ice cap has thinned by 40% over the past 40 years, according to preliminary findings presented at a May meeting of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States. Climate changes will make it difficult for native Alaskans to maintain subsistence life-styles, say researchers, because of declines in walrus seal populations... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on June 8 an agreement to phase out chlorpyrifos, commonly sold under the trade names Dursban® and Lorsban®. Chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate that affects the nervous system and can cause a variety of neurological problems, is the most widely used household pesticide in... Read more

A study released in May by the Harvard School of Public Health links

air pollution from two coal-fired power plants—in Salem and Somerset, Massachusetts—to 43,000 asthma attacks and 159 premature deaths. More than 32 million people in New England, New York, and New Jersey are exposed to plant emissions. Both plants are owned by PG&E... Read more

by Daniel D. Chiras, 2000. Chelsea Green Publishing Co., White River Jct., Vt. Paperback, 470 pages, $35.

... Read more

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has made it easier for wood products to qualify for FSC certification. Effective May 15, several major changes took effect in FSC’s requirements for percentage-based claims.

First, composite wood products (chip and fiber) can carry the FSC logo if at... Read more

The LEED Green Building Rating System™ has only been officially “on the street” for a month, but it is already being used informally as a framework for green design of hundreds of projects. It is officially referenced in the building guidelines of several local governments and federal agencies, and unofficially used by many more. What is this... Read more

US Century, the manufacturer of FlexShake, is no longer in business.

On May 15, the first-in-the-nation, comprehensive green building tax credit was signed into New York state law (see

EBN

Vol. 8, No. 5). A modest fund—$25 million over nine years—has been established to support the program. “The significance does not lie in the amount, it lies in the... Read more

by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins. Little, Brown & Company, Boston, 1999. Hardcover, 396 pages, $26.95, or free online at

www.natcap.org.

As I was returning to the U.S. from a recent trip to Vancouver,

Natural Capitalism, sticking out of my shoulder bag, caught the attention of the... Read more

With some tree and shrub species, whether you specify males or females can make a huge difference for allergy sufferers. This point is one of the most intriguing to emerge from recent work of Thomas Ogren, a San Luis Obispo, California-based expert on flowering plants and pollen-related allergies.... Read more

On May 6, 2000 in Philadelphia, members of The American Institute of Architects formally passed a resolution entitled “Sustainable Design.” This resolution was sponsored by John Corkill, Jr., AIA, a member of the Board of Directors, and the AIA’s National Committee on the Environment (COTE). Its stated... Read more

A crew of five works steadily —lowering rafters, pulling nails, cleaning mortar off bricks, bundling oak strip flooring—turning an old building into carefully stacked lumber, palleted bricks, and windows organized by size. They call themselves a deconstruction services team. They take buildings apart in pretty much the reverse order of their... Read more

In the words of architect Rolf Kielman, AIA, a principal with Truex Cullins & Partners Architects, the 24,000 ft2 (2,200 m2) building “fits in quietly behind the historic fabric that is both the... Read more