Sustainable Building

Ecological design proposes a marriage of nature and technology, using ecology as the basis for design.  The strategies of conservation, regeneration, and stewardship can be applied at all levels of scale to produce revolutionary forms of buildings, landscapes, communities, cities and applied technologies. The Ecological Design Institute and Van der Ryn Architects create innovative design solutions

The Home Depot recently expanded its long-term commitment to the environment and sustainability by launching its Eco Options(SM) program in the United States. Eco Options is a classification that allows customers to easily identify products that have less of an impact on the environment and empowers them to help make a difference in their own

In coordination with the National Association of Development Organizations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will participate in a two-day public workshop March 29-30 at the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff, Ariz. to educate cities, towns, redevelopment agencies and community members located along the Route 66 corridor and northeastern Arizona on how to reuse and

Great article from Anne Stuhldreher of Stanford Social Innovation about Market Creek Plaza that we discussed here.

The Lifecycle Building Challenge is a web-based competition sponsored by EPA and its partners. Lifecycle building is the design of building materials, components, information systems and management practices that anticipate future use. Lifecycle design facilitates a building’s eventual disassembly or adaptation (instead of demolition) for maximum materials recovery. EPA and its partners are seeking lifecycle

Environmental Sustainability is a collection of articles by experts representing the broad spectrum that is the building industry. Facility owners, architects, engineers, designers, and consultants offer their unique insights on forces that drive the green economy and share their strategies for dealing with challenges and leveraging sustainability for success. Read about: Understanding owner/client expectations Overlooked

BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of the GreenSpec® Directory and Environmental Building News™, recently announced the 2006 Top-10 Green Building Products. This fifth annual award recognizes the most exciting products drawn from additions to the GreenSpec Directory and coverage in Environmental Building News. "The range of product types showing exemplary innovation is amazing," noted GreenSpec coeditor Alex

In Building Better II, the Sierra Club presents 10 outstanding examples of new development that use innovative and environmentally sensitive methods of stormwater management. Polluted stormwater runoff and sewer overflows associated with poor stormwater management are toxic to our rivers, bays and other bodies of water. As development occurs, public officials, planners, developers and others

Since fall 1998, the Brownfields and Land Revitalization Technology Support Center (BTSC, formerly called the Brownfields Technology Support Center) has responded to requests from EPA regions, states, localities, and tribes to provide support for brownfields sites. Recently, the BTSC has extended its support services to Superfund sites. The BTSC is a cooperative effort to provide

Create Range of Housing Opportunities and ChoiceProviding quality housing for people of all income levels is an integral component in any smart growth strategy. Create Walkable NeighborhoodsWalkable communities are desirable places to live, work, learn, worship and play, and therefore a key component of smart growth. Encourage Community and Stakeholder CollaborationGrowth can create great places

The Tech Block Wall System is a new sustainable method for building exterior walls for residential or commercial buildings.  Tech Block’s are manufactured using a safe, clean, non-toxic, non-polluting process, and the blocks are environmentally friendly in the following ways: The main ingredient of the blocks, polystyrene foam beads, takes decades to degrade when buried.