Championing the
Changemakers

The International Living Buildings Institute (ILBI), along with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has announced a design competition for Living Cities.

Entries are due February 1, 2011, and must include photo-realistic, three-dimensional renderings of the proposed town or urban neighborhood, and must show how a future city... Read more

Homes in California must have carbon monoxide (CO) detectors installed by July 2011 under a new bill signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on May 7, 2010.

The latest versions of California building and residential codes already demand that new dwellings in the state come equipped with CO detectors beginning in January 2011;... Read more

Today's op-ed piece in the New York Times presents a remarkably balanced viewpoint on LEED and green building issues. Unfortunately it also has a major blindspot.

First, the good points about the article, "Don't LEED Us Astray" (I love it that even the esteemed Times can't help but get in on not-very-subtle LEED punning). The author,... Read more

Niagara Conservation has introduced a new toilet that's unlike anything on the market. It uses passive "vacuum-assist" technology to deliver a very quiet, effective flush that consumes just 0.8 gallons (3.0 liters)--making it, I believe, the most water-conserving of any flush toilet on the market.

Who knew there would be so many ways to... Read more

Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) associated with energy use were down 7% in 2009 compared to 2008, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). That’s the largest single-year decline in emissions since the agency began keeping data on energy consumption (from which GHG are derived) in 1949, more than 60 years ago.

... Read more

A report commissioned by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) argues that the Obama administration has the legal authority to use 30 existing federal programs worth over $72 billion to improve energy efficiency in U.S. building stock.

The report recommends reforming appraisal and underwriting practices at lenders Freddie Mae and... Read more

Since 2008, Chinese-manufactured drywall has been blamed for severe corrosion and sulfur odors in homes, particularly in warm, humid southern states. Now a federal judge, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, has awarded seven Virginia families a total of $2.6 million in damages caused by drywall from one Chinese manufacturer. In another case, he... Read more

LEDs are light-emitting diodes. Many... Read more

Welcome to our new blog dedicated to the issues of water, water efficiency, and water policy.

When we talk about the environment and environmentally responsible building, it’s almost always energy that takes the spotlight, with water pretty far down the list. But it’s not hard to see just how much of a back seat driver water can be:... Read more

The company began shipping Sustainable Insulation? on a... Read more

Much attention is focused on efficient lighting--from CFLs and LEDs to advanced controls. But for daytime lighting you can avoid electricity use altogether--with daylighting. Most daylighting is provided with windows or skylights (roof windows that are installed in the plane of the roof). For a lot of applications, there's another, easier... Read more

The Green Building Initiative (GBI), which administers the Green Globes rating system for commercial buildings, announced in April 2010 that the rating system had secured the approval of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to become an accredited national standard.

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA-COTE) has announced its Top Ten Green Projects for 2010. Full profiles of these projects are available at www.aiatopten.org and at www.buildinggreen.com.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in looking closely at the health and environmental effects of bisphenol A (BPA), a known endocrine disruptor. Although the largest risk for human exposure to BPA is through canned food products, the chemical is also used in the manufacture of... Read more

Modular wiring systems are designed to allow an electrician to simply plug... Read more