Championing the
Changemakers

Additional research would have revealed that the European Union disagrees with

EBN’s recommended general ban on certain brominated flame retardants (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 6)—which, through its generalization, could be dangerous for your readers, other builders, and their customers by reducing fire-safety protections.... Read more

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced in June that all new public buildings will be designed and built according to the Chicago Standard, a new set of guidelines derived from the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED

® Rating System. The Chicago Standard is intended not to replace LEED but to help designers make the easiest and most effective use... Read more

The year 2004 may well be remembered in the elevator industry as a watershed year. After six years during which Kone fought alone to gain acceptance for high-efficiency machines located within the hoistway (see

EBN

Vol. 8, No. 7), now all the major manufacturers are on board. For low-rise applications, these machine-room-less elevators... Read more

On July 15, 2004 the California Department of Health Services (DHS) released its “

Standard Practice for the Testing of Volatile Organic Emissions from Various Sources Using Small-Scale Environmental Chambers.” This practice document supersedes the small-scale environmental chamber testing portion of California Specification 01350 and... Read more

BuildingGreen has been selected by Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) to receive the 2004 Lewis Mumford Award for Environment. ADPSR instituted the Mumford awards in 1992 “to honor people and organizations that exemplify the ADPSR goals of peace, preservation of the natural and built environment, and socially... Read more

Storm Cunningham launched the nonprofit Revitalization Institute™ in April 2004. Based on principles outlined in Cunningham’s 2002 book

The Restoration Economy: The Greatest New Growth Frontier (see review,

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 2), the Revitalization Institute’s mission is “to advance restorative development of communities and... Read more

“The competition goal is simple,” explains the

Green Dollhouse Web site: “Inspire lots of people (big and little) to take steps to make their own homes a little healthier and easier on the environment.” Design professionals and students are encouraged to design and build their own dollhouses for this competition, which was dreamed up by... Read more

On June 14, 2004, the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) released the new “Green Label Plus” independent testing program for indoor emissions from carpets. It took a year of sometimes contentious negotiations with California’s Sustainable Building Task Force and its Department of Health Services, Indoor Air Quality Section, to develop this new program... Read more

European and North American scientists and medical specialists issued a forceful warning on the threats of chemical pollution during a conference hosted in May 2004 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The

International Declaration on Diseases Due to Chemical Pollution, also called the Paris... Read more

A team of nine business, economics, and engineering students from the University of Victoria in British Columbia has won the grand prize in the first annual

University Student Hydrogen Design Contest, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Hydrogen Association, ChevronTexaco, Natural Resources Canada, and Swagelok Company. The... Read more

Sloan Valve Company, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial plumbing equipment, has just introduced a unique, solar-powered, sensor-activated faucet. A small photovoltaic (PV) cell embedded in the top of the faucet powers the optical sensor. A lithium battery powers the opening and closing of the valve and provides back-up power... Read more

Interface Engineering, Inc.

, a mechanical and electrical engineering firm with offices in Seattle, Washington; Portland and Salem, Oregon; and Sacramento, California, is in the process of

converting its entire vehicle fleet to hybrid cars. Interface is passing its fuel savings, estimated at 20 extra miles per gallon of gasoline (8.5 km/... Read more

The World Environmental Center has awarded

Johnson Controls, Inc. its 20th annual

WEC Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development for “providing global leadership in revolutionizing the way businesses and institutions approach the design, construction, and renovation of their facilities.”... Read more

Surprising both politicians and environmentalists, Russian President

Vladimir Putin made a strong statement in support of the Kyoto Protocol in May. The European Union (EU), which ratified the protocol in May 2002, has agreed to support Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization only if Russia ratifies the protocol. “The EU has... Read more

The nonprofit Architecture for Humanity (AFH) has announced

a competition to design a soccer facility in Somkhele, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The facility, to be run by medical professionals from the Africa Center for Health and Population Studies, will serve as a gathering place for youth aged 9 to 14, including the area’s first... Read more

The nonprofit product-testing organization Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL) plans to open

the nation’s first commercial wind turbine certification and test facility near Cheyenne, in rural Laramie County, Wyoming by the end of 2004. Distributed Generation Systems, Inc. will coordinate the design and construction of the facility,... Read more

A coalition of corporate and nonprofit organizations launched the

Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition in April with the goal of “accelerating the economic development and environmental benefits of available onsite green energy technologies and energy efficiency applications and devices designed for Canada’s residential building sector.” The... Read more

Four workers were killed and several others injured on April 23, 2004 in an

explosion at a Formosa Plastics polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production facility in Illiopolis, Illinois. A fifth worker died of his injuries on May 13. The series of explosions, which destroyed most of the plant, “apparently followed a release of highly flammable... Read more

Ecoshack

, a green design laboratory based in Joshua Tree and Los Angeles, California, has announced a

competition to design “an environmentally sustainable camping shelter—a ‘green’ tent—for use in the Mojave Desert in and around Joshua Tree National Park.” One to five winning entries will each receive $500 and may be prototyped on... Read more

by Bettina von Hagen, Erin Kellogg, and Eugénie Frerichs. A publication of Ecotrust, Portland, Oregon, 2003; 120 pages, softcover, $21. Contact Ecotrust at 503-227-6225 or visit www.ecotrust.org/publications/.“This is a book about a building,” begins

Rebuilt Green, and the lead character is the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, a LEED® Gold... Read more