BuildingGreen Report

Blog Post

December 21, 2007

Twice each month, BuildingGreen publishes an email news bulletin with current news and product information briefs. Sign up here—it's free. We will never share or sell your email address, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

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Blog Post

December 21, 2007

[Clicking an image in this post will load a larger version of the image. A slideshow of the images in this post, and more, is also available. Previous posts in the "Notes from Sweden" series include #1: How They Get Around, #2: Western Harbor in Malmo, and #3: The Scandinavian Green Roof Institute in Malmo.] In Brattleboro, Vermont, I'm... Read more

Blog Post

December 20, 2007

We wish all of you a happy, life-changing year ahead, and thank you for all the good, important work you do and choices you make. We had our annual holiday party for staff and their guests on Wednesday evening; it's something we look forward to every year. If there was enough room, we'd have you all over. That's part of the reason we've... Read more

Blog Post

December 13, 2007
SG Blocks of Charleston, NC, refabricates sea-truck shipping containers into modular construction units, and has been getting buzz on the likes of Bob Vila's show, the NBC Nightly News, and other newsy outlets. It's not an original notion, but they seem to have had the most success so far in commercializing it. Or the idea of commercializing it,... Read more

Blog Post

December 12, 2007

[Clicking an image in this post will load a larger version of the image. A slideshow of the images in this post, and more, is also available. Previous posts in the "Notes from Sweden" series include #1: How They Get Around, and #2: Western Harbor in Malmo.]On a wide-ranging tour of interesting projects, programs, and companies in the Skåne... Read more

Blog Post

December 11, 2007

[Clicking an image in this post will load a larger version of the image. A slideshow of the images in this post, and more, is also available. Previous posts in the "Notes from Sweden" series include #1: How They Get Around.] It's enough to make architects go weak at the knees. I'm not an architect, but wandering around Malmo's Western Harbor (... Read more

Blog Post

December 11, 2007
The answer to this question is... MIT might, but only if it wants to. I went to a "lecture" at MIT a few days ago — part of the "Critical Issues" series put on by, of all groups, the MIT Women's League. (Kira Gould, author of Women In Green would have a field day with this!) The idea for the evening was to present ways in which MIT might think... Read more

Blog Post

December 9, 2007

[Clicking an image in this post will load a larger version of the image. A slideshow of the images in this post is also available.]Despite the light drizzle and the fading light of Sweden's mid-afternoon dusk when I arrived in Lund, it was immediately clear that the prevalent form of transportation here is bicycling. Bicycles are everywhere.... Read more

Blog Post

December 5, 2007
From www.StoryOfStuff.com: "From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the... Read more

Blog Post

December 4, 2007
The latest offering from Wiley's series of books on sustainable design just arrived on my desk: Sustainable Healthcare Architecture by Robin Guenther and Gail Vittori. The book is wide-ranging, with plenty of case studies and essays from green building luminaries. Flipping through its pages, I came across an essay by Bob Berkebile, in which he... Read more

Blog Post

December 4, 2007

Twice each month, BuildingGreen publishes an email news bulletin with current news and product information briefs. Sign up here—it's free. We will never share or sell your email address, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

Read the current bulletin

News Analysis

December 4, 2007

Following the tremendous response to its Living Buildings Challenge (see

EBN

Vol. 15, No. 12), the Cascadia Region Green Building Council unveiled its new “Living Site and Infrastructure Challenge” at Greenbuild 2007 in Chicago. This new system is modeled closely on its predecessor, with the same “all prerequisites, no credits”... Read more

News Brief

December 4, 2007

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has recognized several green building pioneers with its annual Leadership Awards, presented at the Greenbuild Conference and Expo in Chicago in November 2007.

• In the Community category,

EBN advisory board member

Gail Lindsey, FAIA, founder of Design Harmony in Raleigh, North Carolina, was... Read more

News Brief

December 4, 2007

A bill signed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would provide rebates to residents and businesses to support the installation of 200,000 solar water heating systems in the state by 2017. The bill, which takes effect on January 1, 2008, requires the State’s energy commission to evaluate data from a pilot project run by the California... Read more

Product Review

December 4, 2007
The green building community loves to hate vinyl composition tile (VCT). Along with the PVC and phthalate plasticizer content (about 15% by weight), VCT requires regular waxing and periodic stripping to maintain an attractive, protective wear layer. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from just one cycle of stripping and waxing VCT,... Read more

News Analysis

December 4, 2007
On May 4, 2007, a two-mile-wide tornado ripped through Greensburg, Kansas, demolishing 90% of the small town’s structures. Within a week, nearby resident Daniel Wallach founded Greensburg GreenTown (GBGT). Its mission is to provide the residents of Greensburg with the resources, information, and support they need to rebuild as “the greenest town... Read more

News Brief

December 4, 2007
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) has released a draft of its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) and is hoping to start a pilot phase of the system in January 2008. A self-certifying system, STARS allows colleges and universities to track and report on various aspects of... Read more

Explainer

December 4, 2007
Nearly every green publication (including, unfortunately, our own) has, on occasion, confused units of electric power (kilowatts) with units of energy (kilowatt-hours). It’s an easy mistake to make for those who are not steeped in the engineering of energy flows. But the basic principles are not that complicated—and are worth getting straight.

... Read more

News Analysis

December 4, 2007
When the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) first rolled out the LEED for Homes rating system pilot in 2005, it faced a number of challenges, including creating a provider network, training raters, keeping registration and certification fees low, and convincing homebuilders and homeowners that certification was worth the expense (see

EBN... Read more

News Brief

December 4, 2007
The Forest Stewardship Council–US (FSC–US) has appointed Corey Brinkema, the former executive director of the Green Institute in Minneapolis, as president of the organization. He has experience running a business unit with FSC chain-of-custody certification and was instrumental in the creation of Minnesota GreenStar, a residential green building... Read more