Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) has initiated a boycott of all prison design, construction, and renovation in protest of the prison-industrial complex and its effects on society. ADPSR works for peace, environmental protection, ecological building, social justice, and the development of healthy communities. For... Read more

The Noisette Company, LLC announced in August 2004 the formation of the Noisette Urban Alliance, a network of 15 manufacturers organized to aid in the redevelopment of the 3,000-acre (1,200 ha) Noisette District of North Charleston, South Carolina (see

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 5). The Alliance includes Herman Miller, Inc., Interface,... Read more

The

National Association of Home Builders is now accepting entries for the

2005 National Green Building Awards, which recognize individuals, companies, and organizations demonstrating a commitment to environmentally responsible residential construction. The submission deadline is December 15, 2004, and winners will be announced... Read more

U.S. buildings are blamed for the deaths of nearly one billion birds each year, a statistic that bird experts will address during the first conference anywhere focused on designing buildings to be more bird-friendly. Chicago’s Department of the Environment, Department of Planning and Development, and Ornithological Society are planning the... Read more

A multifaceted approach to controlling asthma can significantly reduce its symptoms, according to a study published on September 9, 2004 in the

New England Journal of Medicine. More than 900 inner-city children with allergenic asthma participated in the study, which compared the symptoms of a control group to those of a group in which... Read more

Caulking installed during the 1960s and ’70s threatens public health, according to a study published in the July 2004 issue of

Environmental Health Perspectives. The warning was spurred by the discovery of high polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) levels in Boston-area buildings. The U.S. government banned the production of these chemicals in... Read more

The International Energy Agency (IEA) Solar Heating and Cooling Programme has presented its

Solar Award to

William Beckman, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin at Madison (UWM). Beckman was recognized for his contributions to the solar energy field, including co-developing the TRNSYS building-energy analysis and... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council is seeking applicants for the Mark Ginsberg Sustainability Fellowship. Established in honor of Ginsberg’s work in the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the three-month fellowship will focus on market developments and emerging trends in green building. Details are online at... Read more

DuPont has reached a tentative settlement in a three-year-old class-action lawsuit that could cost the company $343 million for exposing Ohio and West Virginia communities to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8 (see

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Vol. 13, No. 3). In the agreement, DuPont will pay $108 million, including $23 million to cover... Read more

Efficiency Vermont is now accepting applications for their

2005 Energy Efficient Design Awards, to be announced at the Better Buildings by Design conference in February 2005. To be eligible, projects must be located in Vermont and have been completed after January 1, 2001. Posters and registration forms are due December 22, 2004.... Read more

® Platinum project—is widely featured as an icon of green building. Although the project isn’t perfect, on the whole it is a remarkable achievement, especially since most of the designers involved were new to green building. The success of the Merrill Center... Read more

The wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) has been extended through the end of 2005 as part of a tax package signed by President Bush in October 2004. The PTC makes available a tax credit of 1.8 cents for each kilowatt-hour of electricity generated by wind turbines. Although the PTC had expired at the end of 2003, the recent extension is... Read more

National Design Awards. Recognized for the creation of “buildings, spaces, and places with completely positive intentions,” the architecture firm

William McDonough + Partners was given the

Environment Design Award.... Read more

EBN... Read more

Energetech America, LLC has announced plans for “GreenWave Rhode Island,” America’s first wave-energy project. The 500 kilowatt project will tap the power of an “oscillating water column” to force compressed air through a turbine. An existing undersea cable will then transmit the power to the New England electrical grid. The structure will be... Read more

Ten years ago, when the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) opened their doors in Oaxaca, Mexico,

Environmental Building News welcomed it as an organization with “the potential to become the global watchdog of forest management through an entirely voluntary process” (see

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Vol. 3, No. 5). We also pointed out controversy... Read more

College Publishing of Glen Allen, Virginia has announced that the inaugural edition of the

Journal of Green Building will be published in Spring 2005. The peer-reviewed, technical journal will “provide a high-quality, interdisciplinary forum for advancing the state of knowledge about green building and high performance, sustainable... Read more