Sustainable North

From the New York Times on Friday, May 29, 2009:
Building green can open the door to plenty of legal pitfalls, a new study warns.
The study, by Harvard Law School’s Environmental Law & Policy Clinic and sponsored by Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox, a Philadelphia law firm, says that green building raises a number of liability [...]

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From the Washington Post on Thursday, February 5, 2009:
Seeking to jump-start the housing market, the Senate added new tax relief for homebuyers to its $900 billion economic stimulus bill yesterday as the legislation moved toward a final vote.

The amendment, offered by  Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), represents a significant victory for Republicans. GOP lawmakers have complained [...]

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From businessweek.com, posted on January 6, 2009 and retrieved on Friday, January 30, 2009:
When the homebuilding industry descends on Las Vegas on Jan. 20 for its annual trade show, a highlight as always will be a project called the New American Home. This model house—a new one gets built each year—serves as a showcase for [...]

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From the Anchorage Daily News on Wednesday, January 21, 2009:

 A key gauge of homebuilders’ confidence sank to a new low this month, as the deepening U.S. recession and rising unemployment erode chances for a housing turnaround.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index released Wednesday dropped one point to a record 8 in [...]

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From buildingGreen.com, retrieved on Tuesday, December 23, 2008:
Three of the products this year save energy, including a low-cost, solar water-heating system; a combination heating, water heating, and heat-recovery ventilation system; and a system for monitoring real-time energy (and water) use in buildings. Water saving products are represented by a line of rainwater storage tanks—the first [...]

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From Builder 2008, on October 21, 2008:
Efforts to make buildings more energy-efficient will create millions of new jobs, researchers surmised, and will also have a greening effect on the job responsibilities of an estimated 111 million people worldwide who already work in construction. High-performance projects and upgrades could generate up to 3.5 million additional green jobs [...]

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From the New York Times, on Friday, October 31, 2008:
Building a green home, with features like solar panels and top-of-the-line insulation, involves significant up-front costs.
Added onto that is the cost of certifying your home — a stamp of approval that the home meets green standards.
Some architects and builders voice concerns that LEED for Homes — a relatively [...]

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As mentioned in an article on nytimes.com from Friday, September 26, 2008, two architects have proposed a “nutrition label” to address “the need for a universal sustainability-labeling standard (much like F.D.A. labels on food) that would empower homebuyers to make smarter, more sustainable homebuying decisions.”
To read a q&a about green prefab construction, click here.
To read [...]

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From the Toronto Star, September 13, 2008:
Pity the three little pigs: They could have saved themselves all kinds of hassles if they’d only built their straw house properly in the first place and passed on the brick.
Of course, straw and mud isn’t the standard form of construction in Canada these days. So when Joshua Thornton, [...]

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The first of a two-part series, “A Greener Future”, from the LA Times, September 14, 2008:
Innovations in designing green chemicals are emerging in nearly every U.S. industry, from plastics and pesticides to toys and nail polish. Some manufacturers of cosmetics, household cleaners and other consumer products are leading the charge, while others are lagging behind.
For [...]

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