Vol. 13, No. 1), quite a bit has happened in the area of standardized testing of toilet performance. The Maximum Performance (MaP™) testing that we reported on has been progressing at a rapid pace. Veritec Consulting, Inc., has now tested well over 200 toilet models, and the... Read more

Environmental Building News (EBN) reported on the first building codes for strawbale construction (see

EBN

Vol. 5, No. 1). The State of Nevada had recently passed a mandate requiring local jurisdictions to permit strawbale buildings, and California had approved voluntary guidelines that could be adopted at the... Read more

The New York State Education Department and the State University of New York (SUNY) have approved a new four-year undergraduate program in renewable and alternative energy applications, including wind, solar, geothermal, fuel cell, biofuel, and other emerging technologies. SUNY Canton will offer the program beginning with the fall 2006 semester... Read more

2005 set a new record, according to estimates from the Munich Re Foundation, with more than $200 billion in economic losses due to weather-related disasters. Of that total, more than $75 billion was covered by insurance companies. Hurricane Katrina caused much of that loss, with damages estimated at $125 billion, of which about $45 billion was... Read more

On January 4, 2006, the Executive Committee of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) board of directors approved the charter of a Research Committee and appointed its initial five members. This is a core

organizational committee of the Council (as opposed to being a LEED® committee) that focuses on one of the USGBC’s six key goals in... Read more

Tarkett AG, the world’s largest manufacturer of resilient flooring, has acquired Johnsonite, a producer of specialty flooring and flooring accessories. Johnsonite, based in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, makes flooring adhesives with low emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), entryway track-off systems, and flooring produced from recycled tires... Read more

Greenpeace International unveiled the Music Wood Initiative at the January 2006 trade show of NAMM, the International Music Products Association. The Music Wood Initiative was created to limit the environmental and social degradation caused in the making of musical instruments. “If you walk through a music store, the instruments are comprised... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the winners of its annual EnergyValue Housing Awards, designed to promote and improve the energy efficiency of new homes in the U.S. The program is funded by DOE’s Building America Program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with support from several private sponsors, including... Read more

A pilot study by Yale and Columbia universities ranked the U.S. 28th in environmental performance. The 2006 Environmental Performance Index ranked countries based on sixteen indicators related to environmental health, air quality, water resources, productive natural resources, biodiversity and habitat, and sustainable energy. New Zealand scored... Read more

Are you an experienced writer/editor with green building knowledge and excellent research skills? Do you have a knack for distinguishing meaningful information from hype? If so, you might consider joining the editorial team at BuildingGreen, Inc. We need to add a writer to our staff to keep up with our publishing schedule and commitments. The... Read more

In an effort to capitalize on the brand value of one of its many acquisitions, the financially troubled U.S. Plastic Lumber (USPL) company has been renamed Trimax Building Products, Inc. The rechristening follows the purchase of the company by a private equity firm, American Pacific Financial Corp., according to a January 16, 2006,

... Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with dozens of government, industry, and nonprofit partners, is accepting applications for the 2006 P3 Award, a design competition for scientific and technical solutions to environmental challenges. “P3 highlights people, prosperity, and the planet—the three pillars of sustainability,”... Read more

The historic Van de Kamp Bakery building, in the Los Angeles Community College District’s Glassell Park, has become the first project in the U.S. to achieve a rating in the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), which was developed in the U.K. The building, set to begin renovations in summer 2006, is also... Read more

Peter Busby, AIA, managing director of Busby, Perkins+Will, based in Vancouver, British Columbia (a subsidiary company of Perkins+Will), has been named a member of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honor for lifetime achievement and service.

The Building Envelope Institute, a nonprofit professional association based in Cary, North Carolina, was created in October 2005 “to serve the common interests of individuals involved in issues related to the performance of building envelope systems.” Details, including a list of the organization’s officers, directors, and 13 founding members,... Read more

The Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers has initiated a committee on sustain-ability to advance the understanding of sustainability in the structural engineering community and incorporate sustainability into relevant standards and practices. “This is an exciting development for the structural... Read more