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Overview Health Care Affordable Housing Municipal Purchasing U.S. Green Building Council Overview PVC Plastic Pressure Treated Wood Overview Environmental Justice Sign up to receive our biweekly email with insights and analysis on building materials and environmental health. Newsletter Archive	HBN Donation Premiums Donate $100 or more through a single gift or monthly pledge and receive a free copy of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, by Robin Guenther and Gail Vittori, or a free copy of Sustainable Commercial Interiors, by Penny Bonda and Katie Sosnowchik, a retail value of $70. Pledge at least $5 per month for one year or make a gift of at least $60 and receive your choice from our other special premium gifts! Click here to donate to HBN. DVD Selections NEW DVD: Everything's Cool Release Date: December 2007 The team that brought us BLUE VINYL presents EVERYTHING'S COOL, a film of "wit and passion" (LA Times) about America finally "getting" global warming, follows a group of global warming messengers on a high stakes quest to find the iconic image, the magic language, the points of leverage that will finally create the political will to move the United States from its reliance on fossil fuels to the new clean energy economy - AND FAST. BLUE VINYL, New DVD Edition Award-winning cinematographer Dan Gold joins with Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand to co-direct a sobering, shockingly funny and uniquely personal search for the truth about the vinyl siding on her parent's Long Island home. The result is a deeply personal and vital expose that has been called "scary and hilarious" by the New York Times and "one of Sundance's best documentaries" by Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times. The Environmental Building News dubbed it the green building movement's first "cult classic." The new DVD edition of this HBO Feature Documentary, winner of a Sundance Film Festival award and an Emmy nomination, includes an epilogue, a new short film "Habitat for Humanity," and other special bonus features. Click here to donate to HBN. Book Selections Doubt Is Their Product For nearly a decade, the chemical, plastics and timber industries have been attacking efforts by the US Green Building Council to establish LEED™ credits that would discourage the use of materials such as vinyl and unsustainably harvested timber. A new book will change your perspective on these enduring controversies. In Doubt Is Their Product, Dr. David Michaels, a former Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety and Health under President Clinton, exhaustively documents the rise of the product defense industry and its strategy of using scientific discipline to establish controversies rather than establish facts, as a means of frustrating efforts to address public health risks from asbestos, benzene, aspirin (Reye's syndrome in children) global warming and vinyl. Sustainable Healthcare Architecture Written by Gail Vittori and Robin Guenther, recognized national experts in the design of hospitals and other health care facilities that are sustainable, Sustainable Healthcare Architecture is destined to be considered the definitive guide to learning about sustainable practices for healthcare and LEED-HC. Building upon the authors' combined expertise, the book includes LEED-HC information and guidelines, as well as case studies of the best projects, and contributed essays by acknowledged experts on topics related to sustainable design for healthcare. Sustainable Commercial Interiors In Sustainable Commercial Interiors, coauthors Penny Bonda, a noted expert on interior design and sustainability, and Katie Sosnowchik, an interior design editor and innovator, share their passion for environmental advocacy while offering designers and architects the technical knowledge important for success in this evolving discipline. Based on the premise that designers, with their power to create, have responsibilities beyond others, Sustainable Commercial Interiors is a vital tool for both novice and veteran green-minded practitioners. Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design Is there a greener gender? Studies show that women are more likely than men to support environmental causes through voting, activism, and consumer choices. In Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design, Kira Gould and Lance Hosey explore the unique contribution of women to the field of sustainable design through informal conversations with architects, designers, consultants, policymakers, educators, and students, finding that women may be changing how we all see our world and our work. Who's Green 2008 The Directory of Who's Green in the Design and Construction industry. Who's Green? 2008 is the annual directory published by Ecotone Publishing, designed to serve as the pre-eminent resource book for locating firms, companies, organizations and institutions that are actively participating in the growth of the green building industry. With special content including an interview with USGBC President, Rick Fedrizzi, Who's Green 2008 contains contact information and profiles for the principal organizations involved in the North American green building industry. The Making of a Conservative Environmentalist If you can find another book endorsed by both Greenpeace and Republican strategist and commentator Mary Matalin, let us know. In 1989, President George Bush appointed lawyer and former diplomat Gordon Durnil as the US chairman of the International Joint Commission (IJC), an American-Canadian organization charged with protecting the environment of the Great Lakes, the world's second-largest freshwater resource. The experience transformed the conservative Republican Durnil into a Republican conservationist. Under his leadership, the IJC recommended a phase-out strategy for chlorinated products. In this book, Durnil tells his story, examines the strategies and tactics of environmental groups and big business, and explains why political conservatives should be leading the effort to take precautionary steps to eliminate persistent toxic chemicals from the environment. The Assault on Reason In New York Times bestselling The Assault on Reason former U.S. Vice President Al Gore argues that there is a trend in U.S. politics towards ignoring facts and analysis when making policy decisions. Gore also suggests the average citizen must be proactive in "restoring democracy" and expresses hope that the medium of the Internet will supersede television, and what he argues is its inherent bias, creating a "marketplace of ideas" that has not been present since the replacement of the printed word with mass media. Blessed Unrest In his recent book Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawken locates the green building movement in the context of what he calls the "largest social movement in human history" for environmental and social justice. Hawken provides insightful context and analysis, a new framework for letting us see some of the old debates with a new set of eyes and a new hope. Greed to Green Greed to Green is the story of David Gottfried's twenty-year journey from successful real estate developer to pioneer of the green building movement. With a forward from Paul Hawken, this inspirational story teaches us that we can change our industries, and ourselves and help the planet in the process. New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape Recommended to us by Andres Duany, AIA, the New Urbanist leader tapped to lead the first post-Katrina design workshops in the Gulf States region, this book is important reading for those interested in the rebuilding of New Orleans. In his now classic work of historical geography, published in 1976, Pierce F. Lewis, past president of the American Association of Geographers, documents the rise and expansion of what he calls the "impossible but inevitable" city of New Orleans through four major historic periods. This revised and greatly expanded second edition predates Hurricane Katrina, but presciently frames the very debates that rage today concerning environment, race, wealth and power. Philosophy of Sustainable Design This book is intended as a starting point for anyone involved in the building industry who is on a journey to learn how they can build more responsibly. We found it to be an excellent primer for those of us who are not green building professionals, but who want to understand more about this rapidly growing field. We also like it because it forecasts the end of PVC plastic, also known as vinyl, building materials. Tapping into the work of many pioneers and 'green design philosophers', author and architect Jason McLennan clearly presents a framework for people to understand Sustainable Design and how ultimately it will become the future of architecture and design. The Ecological Engineer: Volume One, KEEN Engineering "Engineering is sexy!" proclaims architect and author Jason McLennan. He and co-author David R. Macaulay succeed admirably in their goal of presenting the profession "with as much fanfare and clarity as the architecture that cloaks it." This inaugural volume of Ecotone Publishing's new Ecological Engineer series highlights the work of KEEN engineering to illustrate the leadership potential of the engineering profession in producing functionally outstanding structures, systems and technologies, in a way that embraces the emerging philosophy of sustainable design. Organized into three critical sections - Practice, Principles and Projects - the book provides a valuable resource and touchstone for engineers, architects and other building professionals who hope to embrace an ethic that is responsible to both people and the environment. Click here to donate to HBN.
Copyright 2007, Healthy Building Network. All Rights Reserved. A project of The Institute for Local Self-Reliance.