The First Healthy Building

The first Healthy Building News for 2007 is a week late. On the eve of publication last week, our scheduled topic was rendered moot by the US EPA’s decision to prohibit the residential use of a toxic pressure treated wood formula known as ACC (acid copper chromate). Its main ingredient, hexavalent chromium, is the human carcinogen that made Erin Brockovich a household name.

The urgency of the pending EPA decision had itself bumped our original topic for the 2007 inaugural issue — highlighting the positive implications of the ambitious USGBC initiatives unveiled last November at GreenBuild. The EPA’s surprise but welcome decision brings our thesis full circle: the growing weight of the evidence suggests that the climate of the green building movement is changing, for the better.

Consider this: the US EPA did not move to restrict the use of arsenic-based pressure treated wood until nearly a decade after the green building movement’s journal of record, Environmental Building News, suggested it should be phased out.

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Make Ur Life Green

The concept of “green” buildings is catching on in the commercial painting contractors business, despite the economic crisis that is gripping the country and the whole world these days. Even as new construction projects are declining, the demand for green buildings is increasing. Building owners and commercial painting contractors are more and more interested in the significant benefits that a green building can bring.

Green buildings use environment-friendly materials and methods to construct. Green buildings are not only sustainable and eco-friendly, but also provide huge savings during its construction and post-construction phases. Once the building is operational, long-terms savings continue to be realized in terms of lesser utility bills and maintenance costs. With green buildings, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) estimates an average ROI of 20%.