Winners of the second Excellence in Sustainable Design and Development Awards were announced in October 2005 during the Integrated Design/Integrated Development (IDID) Conference, held in Crawford Notch, New Hampshire. The winners were the

NRG Systems Offices and Manufacturing Facility in Hinesburg, Vermont, designed by William Maclay... Read more

Hurricane Katrina and a long list of other natural disasters over the years—from the Northeast’s Blizzard of 1978 that killed 17 people and left tens of thousands of people without heat and water, to the Chicago heat wave that killed more than 700 people during a one-week period in 1995, to the January 1998 ice storm in Eastern Canada that... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) codified new efficiency standards for residential appliances and commercial equipment that were established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (see

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 9). New requirements for small products, such as exit signs, take effect in 2006; requirements for larger appliances, such as... Read more

In an announcement that sent shockwaves through the green building industry, the Dow Chemical Company announced on November 15, 2005, that Dow BioProducts, a division of Dow Canada, is shutting down. The Dow BioProducts plant in Elie, Manitoba, will stop producing its Woodstalk™ brand of products on December 8, according to Myra Dunn, the... Read more

The Public Utility Commission of Nevada recently approved Solargenix Energy’s amendments to power purchase agreements with Nevada Power Company and Sierra Pacific Power Company, clearing the way for Solargenix to complete the development of Nevada Solar One, the third-largest solar power plant in the world and the largest solar-electric power... Read more

Sustainable Hotel Siting, Design, and Construction

, published by Conservation International and the International Business Leaders Forum, is intended to help the travel and leisure industry build more environmentally friendly hotels. The book was produced with the support of nine of the world’s leading hotel chains, including Hilton,... Read more

BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of the GreenSpec®Directory and Environmental Building News™, announced the fourth annual Top-10 Green Building Products during the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild Conference and Expo in November. The Top-10 represent the most exciting products added to GreenSpec in the past year. A press release about... Read more

In what it describes as the most ambitious energy conservation campaign in U.S. history, the California Public Utilities Commission in September 2005 authorized $2 billion in funding over the next three years for energy efficiency and conservation. The program’s provisions include financing strategies, online energy audits, and consumer rebates... Read more

The U.S. Green Building Council, along with the Enterprise Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, the Trust for Public Land, and others, is planning a series of charrettes focused on rebuilding the Gulf Coast. The meetings will be held during the Greenbuild Conference, to take place in Atlanta November 9-11, 2005. Scholarships will allow 30 Gulf... Read more

Wonderful Houses Around the Worldby Yoshio Komatsu, Shelter Publications, Bolinas, California, 2004. Flexcover or softcover, 48 pages, $14.95/$8.95.

The WatterSaver heat-pump water heater from ECR International (sold under the Dunkirk brand) has been taken out of production due to tepid consumer response despite offering significant energy-savings potential. “We hate to see it go away, but it just didn’t grab enough of the market,” Karl Mayer, OEM sales manager for ECR International, told... Read more

A 13.6 million acre (5.5 million ha) forest in Alberta, Canada, managed by Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, Inc. (Al-Pac), has earned certification according to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards, making it the largest FSC-certified forest in the world. The announcement also makes Canada the leading country in the world for FSC-... Read more

P. Ole Fanger, D.Sc., director of the International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy at the Technical University of Denmark and fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE), has won the Pettenkofer Gold Medal, the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences’ highest honor for... Read more

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has signed into law a bill establishing green building standards for certain capital projects. The law, Int. 324-A, requires most new and renovated City buildings that cost more than $2 million to “be built according to green building standards that are as stringent as LEED,” according to an Office of... Read more

GeoPraxis®, Inc., a company that provides architectural, engineering, and construction software and services, has become Green Building Studio, Inc., taking on the name of the company’s online energy-analysis service. The firm’s utility and real-estate consulting business, including the online EnergyCheckup™ tool, meanwhile, has spun off but... Read more

The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) has expanded its Green Label Plus program, released in 2004 to recognize carpets with low emissions of indoor pollutants, to include adhesives. Green Label Plus supersedes the organization’s older “Green Label” program, which addressed carpets, carpet pads, and adhesives. Before receiving Green Label Plus... Read more

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 have announced a call for entries in the second annual New York City Green Building Competition. The competition is open to projects built in or designed for specific sites within the boroughs of New York City. Awards will be... Read more