Northglenn, a Denver suburb, opens a net zero, all-electric city hall with a mass timber structure

An adaptive reuse to create LEED Platinum offices, a park that honors veterans, and a grand national plaza are among the seven projects named winners of the 2013 Great Places Awards. The Environmental Design and Research Association  recognize professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design, with special attention paid to the relationship between physical form and human activity or experience.

A building energy labeling program that allows the industry to zero in on opportunities to lower building operating cost and make informed decisions to increase value has been expanded to include an As Designed label. The Building Energy Quotient (bEQ) program is now two labels in one: an As Designed label that rates the building’s potential energy use under standardized conditions—independent of the building’s occupancy and usage—and an In Operation label that rates the building’s actual measured energy use as influenced by the building’s occupancy and usage.

In an effort to accelerate sustainable development around the world, the U.S. Green Building Council is offering free LEED certification to the first projects to certify in the 112 countries where LEED has yet to take root.

The new training facility for IBEW/NECA is the first commercial building retrofit designed to meet the U.S. Department of Energy’s requirements for a net-zero energy building.

NBBJ has released renderings of a revised plan for Amazon's new three-block headquarters in Seattle. The proposal would replace a previously approved six-story office building with a three-unit "biodome."

Broad Sustainable Building has completed a long and arduous approval process, and is starting excavation and construction on Sky City in June, 2013. The proposed "world's tallest building" will be a mixed-use project that could accommodate life and work needs of up to 30,000 people.

The next version of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system will expand water-savings targets to appliances, cooling towers, commercial kitchen equipment, and other areas.

Lilker Associates Consulting Engineers (lilker.com), a multidisciplinary MEP engineering firm with offices in Manhattan and Long Island, announces the acquisition of EMO Energy Solutions (EMO), a Falls Church, VA-based company in the DC Metro area specializing in energy audits, energy modeling, commissioning and LEED® consultation services.