In July 2005 the Illinois Commerce Commission adopted Governor Rod Blagojevich’s sustainable energy plan, including a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requiring the state’s electric utilities to meet 2% of their electricity needs with renewable sources by the end of 2006. The requirement will increase by 1% each year until it reaches 8% in... Read more

Johnson Controls, Inc., an industry leader in control systems for heating, cooling, and ventilation equipment, and York International Corporation, a leading manufacturer of heating and cooling equipment, announced in August 2005 that Johnson Controls would acquire York. “The transaction will enable us to become a single source of integrated... Read more

ASTM International has published the

Standard Guide for the General Principles of Sustainability Relative to Building (E2432). “It is expected that the Guide will be referenced and used by federal, state, and local governments, architects, and others seeking to solidify and/or justify the tripartite—environmental, economic, and social—... Read more

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed a bill in September 2005 that expands tax credits for solar energy systems. The bill, which takes effect November 4 and expires in 2016, allows for tax credits of $3.00 per watt of installed solar electric output capacity. The credit is capped at half the cost of the installed system, up to $6,000.... Read more

Zero-energy has become a buzzword of the green building movement, used in advertising slogans, conference presentations, and technical papers. Despite the excitement over the phrase, however, we lack a common understanding of just what zero-energy means. And despite proclaimed achievability, few if any buildings can demonstrate that they in... Read more

Jessica Boehland, who has been with BuildingGreen since the fall of 2001—she joined us as an intern fresh out of Oberlin College and then moved through the ranks of associate editor and senior editor—has just been promoted to managing editor. In this role, along with continuing her research and writing for

EBN, she will manage the... Read more

Responding to feedback from users about their experiences with LEED®, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has initiated a high-level “LEED refinement process.” In the spring of 2005 the Council commissioned a study from USGBC founder David Gottfried about how to improve LEED. More recently, Council board members, LEED committee members,... Read more

King County, Washington, home to Seattle, is encouraging builders and developers to incorporate green strategies into their projects. Administered by the King County Department of Development and Environmental Services and the Department of Natural Resources and Parks, the new incentives include assistance during the permit review process,... Read more

Sharper Image Corp. has paid Consumers Union (CU), publisher of Consumer Reports, $525,000 to cover attorneys fees and other costs, ending a lawsuit against the nonprofit organization. Sharper Image sued CU for product disparagement after Consumer Reports described Sharper Image’s Ionic Breeze® Quadra air cleaner as ineffective in its October... Read more

The U.S. electric power grid reached a new record for power demand during the week ending July 23, 2005, according to a press release from the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the association of U.S. shareholder-owned electric companies, international affiliates, and industry associates worldwide. Overtaking the previous record, set in August... Read more

New labels demarcating “FSC Pure,” “FSC Mixed Sources,” and “FSC Recycled” products (see

EBN Vol. 14, No. 2) took effect for all FSC certificate holders on July 1, 2005. The labels are available in several languages to serve different markets. For more information, visit www.fsc.org or e-mail trademark@fsc.org.

“The study indicates there is no threshold for the adverse consequences of children’s exposure to lead,” says Bruce Lanphear, M.D., director of the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and lead author of a study on the effects of lead on children. Published in the July 2005 issue of... Read more

Through the new Massachusetts Green Communities™ initiative, MassHousing and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) are working with the nonprofit Enterprise Foundation to build 1,000 green affordable homes throughout the state. The Enterprise Foundation will provide up to $75 million in private equity to developers, from the sale of... Read more

In an online editorial, EBN Executive Editor Alex Wilson calls the new Energy Policy Act a "colossal failure."

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The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced a call for projects to pilot-test the LEED® for New Construction Application Guide for Retail, developed to tailor LEED credit language to retail projects and to define alternative compliance paths in some areas. The LEED for Retail Committee is seeking 25 to 50 retail projects—preferably... Read more

August 22, 2005, marks the first day of classes for the new American College of the Building Arts. In 1998 the School of Building Arts opened in Charleston, South Carolina, hoping to reverse a steady decline in the availability of craftsmanship training. Since the South Carolina commission on higher education licensed the school as a college in... Read more