BuildingGreen Report

Blog Post

February 8, 2008
EBN has long been printed on recycled paper, and for the last two-plus years, since January 2006, we have noted in our newsletter that our paper is certified 100% post-consumer recycled content according to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) (as seen in this image at the bottom of the page). We have often written about FSC, and... Read more

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February 7, 2008

The GreenSpec review team has been debating the relative environmental merits of steel cabinets as compared to other alternatives. (GreenSpec is reserved for the very top green products — and within that top few percent, those products that rise above the rest.) Generally speaking, the up-side is that steel cabinets don't support mold; are low... Read more

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February 6, 2008

In November 2007, the Research Committee of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) released A National Green Building Research Agenda, in which it set priorities for green building research and called for funding of this research. (BuildingGreen's Alex Wilson is a member of this committee.) The agenda outlined four major areas of research:... Read more

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February 4, 2008
I had the great pleasure to speak on a panel last week as part of the nationwide Focus the Nation series. Billed as the largest campus teach-in in U.S. history with events at over 1,000 colleges and universities, it was timed to inject climate change into local, state, and national political debates in the thick of the presidential primary season... Read more

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January 28, 2008

Press release:

U.S. Green Building Council to Co-Sponsor Nationwide Carbon Webcast Focusing on Global Climate Change Face It Webcast to be Broadcast Live at 9:00 AM on January 30, 2008 Washington, DC (January 28, 2008) — The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) will co-sponsor a nationwide webcast on climate change, called Face It,... Read more

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January 25, 2008
The amount of energy the sun gives to the Earth on a constant basis is about 1.4 kilowatts per square meter at the Earth's outer atmosphere. Insolation is the amount of solar radiation that actually reaches a given spot on the Earth. On a sunny day, that insolation can be about 12 kilowatt hours per square meter. That's the same amount of energy... Read more

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January 22, 2008
There are a couple big-picture links I want to put right out front. You can come back to them later, but I want you to be aware of them in case they're not already on your radar. Energy Information Administration — Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government 2007 Buildings Energy Data Book OK. The Energy Star people have been putting... Read more

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January 22, 2008

Twice each month, BuildingGreen publishes an email news bulletin with current news and product information briefs. Sign up here — it's free. We will never share or sell your email address, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

Read the current bulletin

Blog Post

January 21, 2008

In his book Your Green Home, Alex Wilson refers to radiant floors as "a great heating option for a poorly designed house." He goes on to explain that the heating requirements of an extremely well-insulated home with a properly airtight envelope, even in most cold climates, will most likely result in an overheated house if the radiant floor is... Read more

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January 18, 2008
Some smart people on the greenbuilding email list (along with just about everyone else on the internet) have been discussing the Nano — at $2,500, the world's cheapest car — which is being introduced by Tata Motors in India, which apparently has visions of marketing it internationally. You can read the whole thread in the archives. Here are some... Read more

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January 16, 2008
This interior features Plyboo bamboo flooring and cabinets made with Plyboo panels.

On the heels of the announcement of the market introduction of Smith & Fong's no-added-formaldehyde PlybooPure bamboo flooring and panel products in the current issue of Environmental Building News, Dan Smith of Smith & Fong — the makers of Plyboo... Read more

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January 15, 2008
Innovation point for the Hearst Tower in New York: reduced steel in the structure. In the first few years of LEED, you could count the Platinum-rated buildings on one hand. Now it's hard to keep up with the announcements. There are several reasons for this evolution — more experienced project teams making better buildings, and more buildings... Read more

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January 15, 2008

Notes from BuildingGreen's breakfast gathering at Greenbuild for partners and Sustainable Design Directors from forward-thinking firms around the U.S.

Overarching IssuesSeveral topics seemed to permeate the conversations among all of the breakfast attendees. Expanding the Reach of Green Design: Many attendees discussed how to get... Read more

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January 14, 2008

Back on November 5, Nadav Malin posted here about "the imminent creation of the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI)." The USGBC is now distributing the following press release:

LEED AP Credential Now Administered Through GBCI.org Over the last seven years, the LEED Professional Accreditation program has verified that more than... Read more

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January 8, 2008

The folks who make Waterless No-Flush urinals (we've had one in our office since 1998) have been distributing the following quiz.

"Large areas of western United States and even parts of Canada are either in a drought or have received considerably less rainfall than normal. It has not yet been determined if this is simply a temporary... Read more

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January 8, 2008

I'll be interviewed about GreenSpec and Green Building Products this evening on Santa Fe Public Radio, KSFR, at 7:10 p.m. (Eastern time), for 15 or 20 minutes. Tune in if you'd like — 101.1 FM if you're in New Mexico (pretty much anywhere between Taos and Albuquerque)... or streaming on the web (looks like you'll need Windows Media Player,... Read more

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January 7, 2008
"There's one thing worse than being young and full of stormy tantrums, and that's being old and backward-looking and crotchety." So said Bruce Sterling (author, thinker, critic, doer) in this year's annual rollicking and roving discussion of the state of the world at The Well — the still-kicking "Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link" founded by Stewart... Read more

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January 7, 2008
The U.S. Green Building Council has announced its Greenbuild keynote speaker for 2008: Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It's an interesting choice, following on the heels of Vice President Al Gore being given half of the Nobel Prize for peace, that reinforces the connection between social justice and environmental performance. What will Tutu have to say... Read more

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January 4, 2008
I mentioned this in passing the other day, but it deserves to be given more attention. Following up on its February 2007 webcast, "The 2010 Imperative Global Emergency Teach-in" that reached an audience of a quarter-million to illuminate the role of building design education in global warming, Architecture 2030 — the non-profit research... Read more

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January 4, 2008
An interesting conversation about what lies beyond LEED has been happening over the last few days on the Big Green email list. Some excerpts of the exchange follow. (I've done some editing, and added links. Check the December '07 and January '08 Big Green archives for the complete, unedited exchange.) We have a project where the client is asking... Read more