Major Cities Unite to Cut Building Pollution

Minneapolis isn't the only city "going green". This Buildings article sheds light on what other cities are doing to help the environment.

Doug Kerr, Flickr.com 

The mayors from 10 major U.S. cities announced they will undertake a united effort to significantly boost energy efficiency in their buildings.

The mayors will be participating in the new City Energy Project (CEP), an initiative from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Institute for Market. The following 10 cities will be CEP’s first participants: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Orlando, Philadelphia, and Salt Lake City.

HOW IT WORKS
Through this new project, the cities will develop their own locally tailored plans to advance energy efficiency and reduce waste in their large buildings, which can represent roughly 50% of their citywide square footage. These plans, which will include multiple integrated strategies, can make more progress in each city than any one program or policy could alone.

The CEP will offer energy expertise to help guide the cities through the planning, designing, and implementing processes. The energy efficiency solutions that CEP will help the cities develop are flexible to each city’s unique situation, supporting the following goals:

To read the full article, click here.

Testing Chemical-Free Cleaning Efficacy

According to this article on cleanlink.com, some studies show that the effectiveness of sanitizing technologies produce differing results when tested in working environments vs lab tests. 

soapylovedeb, Flickr.com 

Vince Elliott, president and CEO of The Chemical Free Cleaning Network, Baltimore, Md., and author of “Extreme Green Cleaning,” is no stranger to water-activated cleaning solutions; he’s been studying their efficacy for some time.

Recently, Elliott connected with a custodial cleaning executive overseeing a high-traffic facility to examine the following questions:
• Do the various water-activated sanitizing technologies actually reduce Reflective Light Unit (RLU) levels as measured by an ATP meter?
• How do the differing technologies compare to each other? Does one perform better or worse, or are they all basically the same?
• What differences in efficacy are there between plain tap water and water-activated technologies?

While Elliott’s research is ongoing, he has tested 760 surfaces in the facility so far and has learned a thing or two about the sanitizing products being used.

Click here to read more. 

One World Trade Center Officially U.S.’s Tallest Building

The One World Trade Center in New York will be the 3rd tallest building in the world upon completion. Look at what else this buildings.com article has to say about the new construction. 

Chicago’s Willis Tower can no longer lay claim to being the tallest building in the U.S.

Shannon, Flickr.com 

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat convened its Height Committee to rule on the official height of One World Trade Center (1WTC) in New York. The committee reached a consensus that the New York building’s height to its architectural top is 1,776 feet.

The two issues regarding the true height of the building were:

The nature of the mast structure on top of the tower.
The datum line (bottom point) from which the height to architectural top was determined.

Due to design changes that resulted in the removal of the architectural cladding around the mast at the top of the structure, it became unclear whether the structure was in fact a “spire” – a vertical element that completes the architectural expression of the building and is intended as permanent, or whether it was an antenna – a piece of functional-technical equipment that was subject to change.

To read more from this article, click here.

What You Need to Know About the FDA-Proposed Rule on Antibacterial Soap

From an article posted on issa.com, the FDA is reevaluating "active ingredients" in antibacterial soap due to its widespread use and pressing concerns from certain health care groups. 

Soap Bubbles, The Italian Voice 

After more than 20 years in the making, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sought to bring closure on its rulemaking regarding antibacterial hand and body soaps by issuing a proposed rule in the December 17, 2013, edition of the Federal Register, the official journal of the federal government of the United States.

The FDA’s proposed rule would require manufacturers of antibacterial hand and/or body washes to demonstrate that their products are safe for long-term daily use and are more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness and the spread of certain infections. Under the proposal, if companies do not demonstrate such safety and effectiveness, these products would need to be reformulated or relabeled to remain on the market.

The scope of the proposed rule is limited to antibacterial hand and/or body washes that are intended to be used with water. Hand sanitizers not intended to be rinsed off with water, antibacterial wipes, and antibacterial products used in health care settings will be the subject of future FDA rulemakings.

Click here to read the full article on issa.com