Championing the
Changemakers

Waterless Co., LLC, manufacturer of No-Flush™ urinals (see

EBN

Vol. 7, No. 2), is offering $500,000 in discounts on its urinals to building owners, schools, colleges, cities, counties, state agencies, the military, and other facilities in areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. For more information, visit www.waterless.... Read more

A September 2005 report from New Ecology, Inc., and Tellus Institute demonstrates that green affordable housing is more cost-effective than conventional affordable housing. The report,

Costs and Benefits of Green Affordable Housing, features case studies of 16 green affordable housing projects around the country and lays out the long-... Read more

• The

Alberici Group Corporate Headquarters, 8850 Page, designed by Mackey Mitchell Associates, won... Read more

DuPont and Tate & Lyle have begun construction on a $100 million plant in Loudon, Tennessee, that will convert corn into 1,3 propanediol (PDO). The product, also known as Bio-PDO™, will replace petroleum-based PDO in the production of Sonora®, DuPont’s newest polymer, used in clothing, carpeting, plastics, and other products. The production... 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

A prominent... Read more

Architecture for Humanity (AFH) was one of five recipients of the 2005 Index Design Award, honoring the best examples of “design to improve life for vast numbers of people.” AFH was recognized for its work with the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in Somkhele, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to design and build a soccer club that... 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 has named Tom Hicks vice president of the LEED® Rating System. Hicks has served as director of LEED for Existing Buildings since November 2004 and before that spent nine years as principal architect and program manager of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star® commercial building rating system.... 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

Cellulose insulation manufacturer U.S. GreenFiber, LLC, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, acquired Bonded Insulation, located in Hagman, New York, in July 2005. The acquisition will allow GreenFiber to expand its manufacturing and distribution presence in the Northeast and in eastern Canada. “GreenFiber has the capacity to turn what has... Read more

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is inviting submissions for the 2006 National Green Building Awards, to be presented at the National Green Building Conference, March 12-14, 2006, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Entries are due December 23, 2005. For details, visit www.nahb.org/greenbuildingawards.

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

The Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability (MTS) is preparing to release its Sustainable/EPP Flooring Standard© for all hard-surface flooring, following a public meeting in Dallas, Texas, on November 1. MTS is also holding organizational meetings for two new standards it is seeking to develop: the Integrated Design Process... 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 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

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