Projects are having trouble with performance of low-VOC finishes on gym floors, but there are ways to avoid problems.

Wood athletic floors, while unparalleled for all types of play, are typically finished with solvent-based polyurethane coatings that emit high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC). They need to be finished when installed and then refinished about every ten years.

BuildingGreen is pleased to announce the launch of the 2030 Challenge for Products Information Hub. Launched by Architecture 2030 in February 2011, the 2030 Challenge for Products is a call to action to reduce not only the operational energy of buildings but also the embodied energy of the products that go into them.

We grumbled when GBCI overhauled the LEED AP program, introducing specialities, fees, and difficult-to-navigate credential maintenance. Is this the silver lining?

A lot can change in two hours. At 8 a.m. Sunday, I walked the length of our half-mile driveway here in southern Vermont, checking the culverts and water bars, all fortified and cleared the day before. All good. The brook next to our driveway was raging, but staying within its banks. The Green River was doing the same across the town road.

A "red list" of chemicals is supposed to make the screening process simple.

I have been having a lot of fun feeding worms my garbage. We have something you could either call a "worm bin" or a "home vermicomposting system," and we throw our food scraps, banana peels, melon rinds, moldy bread--you name it--into that. There are a couple pounds of worms in the bin, and they gratefully accept the waste, eat it, and turn it into worm castings, which is basically organic matter that is broken down in such a way that it's very good for our garden.

Many professors use EBN feature articles as course material. We're always looking for ways to make their lives easier.

We are already adding blankets to our beds here in Vermont, and it's still dark when my husband and I get up for our early-morning run. Looks like time to wean the kids off their late-to-bed/late-to-rise schedule and remember the meaning of the phrase "school night."

Home unimprovement, noun. During renovation, the removal from a building of misguided features or home "improvements" added during previous renovations.

Most solar thermal systems installed in cold climates use antifreeze, but Ritter XL Solar is engineering its systems with water.

A lawsuit filed in October 2010 against the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and its LEED rating systems has been dismissed in a strongly worded ruling issued August 16.

As I was hosing down the dirt driveway in front of my house last week to keep the dust down with some guests due to arrive, I got to thinking about Chicken Dinner Road.

Try this little perceptual experiment now: look at yourself in a mirror (or your computer or phone camera). Then look at your left eye, and then your right eye, and then back and forth several times. What do you see?

If someone else is around, ask them to look at you, and look back and forth between your eyes.

Do you have comments or questions on this draft? Discuss them below with your fellow LEED professionals. Substantive comments posted here during USGBC's second public comment period  will be submitted to USGBC and considered "official" public comments.

More information on LEED 2012 certification and the second public comment

Performance (PF)

 Do you have comments or questions on this draft? Discuss them below with your fellow LEED professionals. Substantive comments posted here during USGBC's second public comment period  will be submitted to USGBC and considered "official" public comments.

More information on LEED 2012 certification and the second public comment

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)

Major Changes