BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

April 1, 2005
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) announced the winners of its 2005 National Green Building Awards in March during its Green Building Conference in Atlanta. “Green building is a way of life for these award winners,” said Ray Tonjes, homebuilder and chairman of NAHB’s Green Building Subcommittee.

• Cannon Beach Cottage, a 2,268 ft2... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2005
Decreased intelligence caused by fetal exposure to mercury costs the U.S. economy $8.7 billion each year in lost productivity, according to a study published in

Environmental Health Perspectives. About 15% of that cost burden can be attributed to the emissions of coal-fired power plants, according to the study, which was performed by... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2005
The Sherwin-Williams Company, the nation’s largest paint manufacturer, has dropped its challenges of Pennsylvania’s new air-quality regulations. The state’s new coating standards set limits for emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in 48 distinct categories, including paints, primers, and stains. The regulations are anticipated to reduce... Read more

Product Review

April 1, 2005
In the 1800s heyday of commercial forestry in the U.S., huge numbers of logs were floated on rivers to downstream sawmills. Some of that old-growth timber became saturated and sank—and many of these “sinker logs,” protected by cold water and a lack of exposure to oxygen and light, are still in excellent condition after a century or more on river-... Read more

News Analysis

April 1, 2005
The National Architectural Accrediting Board, Inc., (NAAB) is responsible for ensuring that architectural degrees granted in the United States are provided by programs that meet accepted standards. In this mission, it represents the interests of the general public and four organizations that serve the architectural profession:

•The Association... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2005
The Building Materials Reuse Association (formerly the Used Building Materials Association, see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 3) is seeking presentation proposals for its upcoming conference, Building Materials Reuse and Recycling: Decon ’05. The conference will be held November 7 and 8, 2005, in Atlanta, just before the U.S. Green Building Council’... Read more

News Analysis

April 1, 2005
Both the National Gypsum Company, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the USG Corporation, based in Chicago, have agreed to purchase reclaimed, reprocessed gypsum from the Danish company Gypsum Recycling International A/S (GRI) for use in new drywall. GRI, which was launched in 2001 and is currently operating in Scandinavia and Holland, will... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 2005

The Marco Island City Council voted four to two in March 2005 to ban artificial turf, in response to a dispute between homeowner Ed Ehlen and his neighbors (see

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 2). While Ehlen argued that his synthetic lawn’s water savings made it environmentally friendly, the city council countered that the lawn’s rubber... Read more

Feature

April 1, 2005
To those of us entrenched in the green building world the benefits seem obvious. Why would anyone choose to build in a way that isn’t comfortable, healthy, and energy efficient? In the process of designing and building green, however, we keep running into others who are not yet as convinced. For those situations, it’s useful to be able to spell... Read more

Op-Ed

March 1, 2005

Green interiors expert Penny Bonda and BuildingGreen’s Nadav Malin have teamed up to offer the

Green Guru Tour of NeoCon. On this tour, a group of dedicated design professionals will join Bonda and Malin as they visit the showrooms of leading furniture and furnishing manufacturers. They will sit down for in-depth conversations with top... Read more

Product Review

March 1, 2005
Like VOCs and mold, unwanted noise can cause indoor environmental quality (IEQ) problems in our buildings. Along with the direct impacts of noise, such as hearing impairment, a host of other health effects are increasingly attributed to noise. These include elevated blood pressure and heart rate, cardiovascular constriction, sleep loss, labored... Read more

News Analysis

March 1, 2005
A Web-based green building performance tool from Canada, Green GlobesTM, is being introduced to the U.S. market as an alternative to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Rating System. The Green Building Initiative (GBI), established to promote the use of the National Association of Homebuilders’ (NAHB) Model Green Home Building Guidelines (see... Read more

Op-Ed

March 1, 2005

“Insulation: Thermal Performance is Just the Beginning” [

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 1] was another very informative article. Some specific comments:

1) Regarding polysio insulation, if the conductivity of the hydrocarbon blowing agent is indeed lower than HCFC-141b, then the insulation performance should be better, not worse.

... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2005
The City of Chicago has adopted new regulations aimed at reducing the amount of construction and demolition (C&D) waste sent to landfills. All contractors will be required to recycle at least 25%, by weight, of all C&D waste in the city by January 1, 2006, according to Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation. On January 1, 2007, the... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2005
The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) is seeking applications for the first-ever Collaborative Building Awards: Honoring Teams Creating Green Buildings. Supported by the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, the awards are designed to recognize “outstanding teamwork in the creation of integrative, high-performance buildings.” All... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2005

A bill being considered by the Oregon legislature could be the first in the U.S. to ban the deca form of the polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) class of flame retardants. If passed and signed into law, the ban of decaBDE would take place by 2008. The proposed law would also ban by 2006 the penta and octa forms of PBDE, two chemicals that have... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 2005

A national renewable portfolio standard requiring that 20% of all energy used in the U.S. come from renewable sources by 2020 would dramatically improve the economy, according to a study released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The plan would create a net gain of more than 157,000 jobs while saving families and businesses $49... Read more

Op-Ed

March 1, 2005
Seattle’s Traugott Terrace transitional and low-income housing project became the 100th in-depth green project case study available in the

BuildingGreen Suite. Case studies are published through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) High Performance Buildings Database. Selected projects in the database are also featured on:

•DOE High... Read more

Op-Ed

March 1, 2005
Following the publication of our feature article “Productivity and Green Buildings” (see EBN

Vol. 13, No. 10), I received a letter from Donald Aitken, a highly respected green-building and renewable-energy consultant and a longtime friend. Don wrote to fill a gap in green-building lore and was kind enough to allow us to share his story with our... Read more

Product Review

March 1, 2005
Wisconsin-based power-tool manufacturer Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation introduced its new V28 line of portable power tools with 28-volt lithium-ion batteries at the International Builders’ Show in January 2005. Most portable power tools today use nickel-cadmium (NiCad) batteries, which contain the toxic heavy metal cadmium. Nickel-metal-... Read more