Op-Ed
Please explain what makes “polyester yarn … impregnated with an acrylic-based material” fire resistant, as claimed in the article “PVC-Free Interior Shade Screening from Nysan” (
Vol. 12, No. 12). As far as we know, polyester and acrylics are both flammable.
Tim Burns, President
The Vinyl Institute
Arlington,... Read more
News Analysis
The Apollo Alliance, a unique coalition of labor, environmental, civil rights, business, and political leaders, has announced its vision of achieving energy independence in ten years. According to a study released by the Apollo Alliance in January, a $300 billion federal investment in renewable energy and green buildings over ten years would... Read more
News Brief
Continuing a trend of rapid growth, the
U.S. Green Building Council announced in early February that it had accepted its 4,000th member. USGBC membership—which is open only to companies and organizations, not to individuals—hit 2,000 in September of 2002 and 3,000 in May of 2003.
News Analysis
At the beginning of March 2004, the U.S. Green Building Council released a draft of the LEED
® for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Rating System for review by Council members during a 30-day comment period. LEED-EB is designed to certify the ongoing operations and maintenance of facilities, including upgrades to building systems. It is not... Read more
News Brief
A recent design team solicitation from the Architect of the Capitol placed a whopping
25% of its selection criteria on the teams’ green design capabilities. “We believe this level of emphasis is a new high-water mark for the federal government,” said Terrel Emmons, FAIA, director of Planning and Programming. The project, being procured... Read more
News Brief
™ vapor retarder, which changes permeability according to relative humidity, has been awarded an Innovative Housing Technology Award in the energy category from the NAHB Research Center and EH Publishing. CertainTeed is online at www.certainteed.com. See
EBN
Vol. 12, No. 11 for a review of MemBrain.
... Read moreNews Analysis
The
Hayward Corporation, which produces FSC-certified wood products and other green building materials (see
EBN
Vol. 9, No. 6 and
Vol. 10, No. 4), has achieved a LEED
® v2 Gold rating for its Hayward Building Systems plant in Santa Maria, California. The 55,000 ft
2 (5,100 m
2) facility... Read more
News Brief
A new program is making it easier for Puget Sound residents to make their homes more efficient. Through a partnership with Efficiency Services Group (a division of Portland General Electric), HomeStreet Bank has started the
Mortgage Options for Resource Efficiency (MORE™) program. Participants in the program receive custom home energy... Read more
News Brief
Civano, in southeast Tucson, Arizona, was named Best New Community in
Sunset Magazine’s annual Best Places to Live story. The 818-acre (330 ha), mixed-use community was designed around New Urbanist ideals, with a strong sense of community and place (see
EBN
Vol. 9, No. 7). The homes use 50% less energy... Read more
Feature
Op-Ed
Thank you for the excellent article on the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild conference (
Vol. 12, No. 12). I would like to take issue, however, with the claim that the conference was free of carbon dioxide (CO
2) emissions.
The chart accompanying the article shows that this claim was made because USGBC received a... Read more
News Brief
by Mark Francis, 2003, Island Press. Paperback, 90 pages, $25.
Another book about Village Homes? I have to admit to being skeptical when I picked up this new title, the first in a series of place-based case studies from the Landscape Architecture Foundation. But
Village Homes: A Community by Design is a real gem, and it does... Read more
News Analysis
The California Division of the State Architect (DSA) has issued an “Acceptance Criteria Document” for zero-water consumption urinal fixtures that is helping to clear the way for nonflushing urinals in California schools and state-owned buildings. With this document, “DSA addresses those sections of the code that were controversial, and says... Read more
News Brief
Meanwhile, University of Georgia researchers have found that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)—including fluoxetine and other common
antidepressants—delay both development in fish and metamorphosis in frogs. The affected animals eventually caught up with their drug-free peers, “but we know that in water, timing is... Read more
News Brief
Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) has begun the aged-testing component of its product rating program. CRRC has been providing third-party verification of both initial solar reflectance and initial thermal emittance of roofing products since September 2002 (see
EBN
Vol. 12, No. 7), and this aged-testing component adds another... Read more
News Analysis
EBN... Read more
News Brief
A recent study that compared development patterns to the health of over 200,000 people in 448 counties in major metropolitan areas around the U.S. found that
car-dependent suburbanites suffer from obesity and high blood pressure at a greater rate than city-dwellers. The report, “Relationship between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity,... Read more
News Brief
The Boston Society of Architects has approved the Institution Recycling Network (IRN) to offer American Institute of Architects
Learning Units in construction waste management. IRN, based in Concord, New Hampshire, is a cooperative organization that works to improve the financial and operating performance of recycling programs at... Read more
News Analysis
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City has rejected a Bush Administration plan to lower energy-efficiency standards for air-conditioners. The lawsuit,
Natural Resources Defense Council v. Abraham, was brought by NRDC, consumer groups, and attorneys general from ten states. Clinton Administration standards, which mandate... Read more
Feature



