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Green Home Builders to Increase by 30% in 2006

Results of a McGraw-Hill Construction/National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) survey indicate that 2005 saw a 20 percent increase in the number of home builders producing green, environmentally responsible homes. The study indicates that number will grow by another 30 percent this year. The new report – Residential Green Building SmartMarket Report – details these findings as well as additional information on the burgeoning green home movement. After several years of slow but steady growth across the country, green home building – which applies innovative and environmentally sensitive construction techniques and products to reduce energy and water consumption and improve residential comfort and safety – is rapidly moving into the mainstream. By 2010, the value of the residential green building marketplace is expected to boost its market share from $7.4 billion and 2 percent of housing starts last year to $19 billion-$38 billion and 5-10 percent of residential construction activity. “Green home building is not a fad, but a trend, and one that is increasing at rapid rates,” said Harvey Bernstein, vice president of Industry Analytics and Alliances for McGraw-Hill Construction. “The data we recently collected indicates builders will reach the tipping point by early next year, where more builders […]

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Pollution From Chinese Coal Casts a Global Shadow

By Keith Bradsher and David Barboza, June 11, 2006 HANJING, China ? One of China’s lesser-known exports is a dangerous brew of soot, toxic chemicals and climate-changing gases from the smokestacks of coal-burning power plants. In early April, a dense cloud of pollutants over Northern China sailed to nearby Seoul, sweeping along dust and desert sand before wafting across the Pacific. An American satellite spotted the cloud as it crossed the West Coast. Researchers in California, Oregon and Washington noticed specks of sulfur compounds, carbon and other byproducts of coal combustion coating the silvery surfaces of their mountaintop detectors. These microscopic particles can work their way deep into the lungs, contributing to respiratory damage, heart disease and cancer. Filters near Lake Tahoe in the mountains of eastern California “are the darkest that we’ve seen” outside smoggy urban areas, said Steven S. Cliff, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California at Davis. Unless China finds a way to clean up its coal plants and the thousands of factories that burn coal, pollution will soar both at home and abroad. The increase in global-warming gases from China’s coal use will probably exceed that for all industrialized countries combined over the next […]

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