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A Short History of Lighting

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Illustration from U.S. patent issued on January 27, 1880 to Thomas Edison.

Light is one of our most important energy needs. Historically--before the advent of electric lighting--the need for illumination governed architecture. Buildings were designed to facilitate natural daylighting. My office is in one of the old Estey Organ buildings on Birge Street, built in the late 1800s; it's just 28 feet wide, allowing natural light from the windows to reach fully into the building.

Going Green on Black Friday

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I found myself near Washington, D.C., on the day after Thanksgiving. Rather than try to prop up the economy at retail outlets or lounge in a hotel room all day, I headed to the National Building Museum to see its "Green Community" exhibit with my mother and sister. Appropriately, we took the light rail system into the city.

BuildingGreen Bulletin: Changing Behavior — December EBN

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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

Other's efforts to bring clarity to product certifications

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I promised participants at my GreenBuild session (Nutrition Labels for Products: Taking control of deciding what is green for you) a list of the efforts to bring clarity - through summaries, comparison tables, databases, whatnot - to the plethora of green building product certifications out there.

Homebuilder's Day speaker: Homebuilding "Not so much a system as a bad habit"

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Greenbuild 2008 included the first ever Green Homebuilder's Day, a conference within the much larger overall conference. Homebuilder's Day welcomed old hands and newcomers to the field of green building, and the sessions were full. BuildingGreen organized the event, which coincided with the announcement of our soon-to-be-available, residentially oriented Green Building Advisor. That this day of educational sessions took place at all is a good sign for the future of houses in America and for softening their environmental impact.

A Pedicab at Greenbuild

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(A Project Frog zero-energy classroom is in the background.)

"Listed on GreenFormat" - What Does That Actually Mean?

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There were quite a few of these placards in booths on the expo hall floor at Greenbuild. They were nice-looking signs, and seemed to give some green cred. But... no. As it says on GreenFormat's website, " GreenFormat is open to any manufacturer that wants to list a product." Now, I don't want to dis GreenFormat — BuildingGreen is actually working with CSI on this project, which is sort of an offshoot of their MasterFormat system — but being listed doesn't actually mean anything.

Being 22.1% (give or take) of the Top Ten Feels Darned Good!

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Preston Koerner, over at Jetson Green, posted his "Top 10 Tidbits from Greenbuild 2008." Check out numbers 2, 4, 6, and 7:

2.

Long-Time Energy Design Update Editor Joins BuildingGreen

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Posted live from Greenbuild. This announcement was actually made a couple weeks ago, but it flew pretty much under the radar. Martin Holladay of Energy Design Update (a publication with similarities to Environmental Building News) has joined the BuildingGreen team. This is a really. big. deal.

A "Year of Greenwash" Update

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Posted live from Greenbuild. I ran into Michelle Moore, senior vp of policy & public affairs for the USGBC, yesterday.

Jute Ceiling Tiles, Soon

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Posted live from Greenbuild. I mentioned Armstrong Ceiling Systems' booth earlier, and the fact that they don't use any wood that's not FSC, and that they don't have any added formaldehyde in any of their products. I didn't mention that all their ceiling tiles are Class A fire rated, because it started to feel I was cheerleading. There's one other thing that I didn't mention. In February, they're slated to roll out a ceiling tile made with 46% jute. The stuff goes from seed to harvest in 90 days; talk about rapidly renewable.

ASHRAE Standard 189 committee getting back on track, says USGBC

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Posted from Greenbuild '08. A month ago, EBN was the first to report the news that the ASHRAE Standard 189-P committee, which has been developing the nation's first code-level national green building standard for commercial buildings, had been unexpectedly disbanded by ASHRAE. At a special Greenbuild update today, Mark MacCracken, a USGBC representative to the committee, referred to reports of the committee's disbanding as "rumors." Come again?

Alex Wilson Receives USGBC Leadership Award

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Posted live from Greenbuild. This has been long in coming, and judging by the response of the audience this afternoon, I'm not the only one who thinks so. Yes, I work for the guy, but I'm no sycophant. He's one of the most focused, dedicated, knowledgeable people I've ever known. A press release sent out from the USGBC today said this:

Executive Editor of Environmental Building News, Alex Wilson, received the award in the Education category. For more than 25 years, Wilson has been bringing unbiased, reliable information, tools and resources to the building industry.

Major changes announced for LEED AP credential program

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7/1/09 Update: If you're looking to keep up to date on LEED 2009, I recommend checking out our own LEEDuser.com, which was recently launched Posted from Greenbuild '08. Update posted 11/24/08, below: Do existing LEED APs need to retake the exam? If you thought the proliferation of various different types of LEED rating systems was confusing, wait till you find out what the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) has in store for LEED Accredited Professionals (LEED APs), the folks who can pass an exam to be recognized as an expert in LEED.

2008 Top-10 Green Building Products

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Posted live from Greenbuild. Here's another little scoop for you. The press conference announcing this doesn't start for another 15 minutes... but since I'm the co-editor of GreenSpec, I'm going to take this liberty.

BOSTON, MA, November 20, 2008 — BuildingGreen, LLC, publisher of the GreenSpec® Directory and Environmental Building News™, today announced the 2008 Top-10 Green Building Products. This seventh annual award, announced at the U.S.