Workers are More Productive in Green Buildings, Study Says
GreenerBuildings
People who work in green buildings are more productive than employees who don't, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of San Diego's Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate and CB Richard Ellis.More

Australia 'Open' to Atomic Energy
BBC
There has been a significant shift in support for nuclear power in Australia, according to a poll. It has found that almost one in two people believe the technology should be considered as an alternative source of energy to coal or other fossil fuels.More

Russian Governor OK's Petersburg 77-story Skyscraper
The Associated Press
The governor of Russia's second city of St. Petersburg signed a decree allowing the construction of a hulking skyscraper for state energy giant Gazprom in the city's czarist-era center. Valentina Matviyenko said in televised comments that the 77-story glass-clad tower will be an "architectural masterpiece that future generations will be proud of."More

Employers' Wellness Rewards Come with Risks
The Wall Street Journal
Employers seeking to promote wellness in the workplace may have to rethink their rewards program—or run the risk of breaking new federal rules protecting individuals' genetic information. The recently issued guidelines prohibit health plans and employers from offering any financial rewards to any worker for participating in a health risk assessment that requests information about their family medical history. The rules apply to group health insurance with plan years beginning on or after Dec. 7.More

New Designs for Smarter Buildings: Small Solar Decathalon Home Inspires Big Ideas on How to Live More Sustainably
Science Daily
After two years of design, experimentation, fundraising and building, the University of Arizona's Solar Decathlon team has completed construction of its 800-square-foot solar-powered house on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.More

New Tower Takes Shape on Columbia Campus
The New York Times
The Pritzker Prize-winning architect José Rafael Moneo has had to contend with difficult sites before. At the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, Spain, for example, a project completed in 1986, he built a modern exhibition space over a still-buried portion of a largely excavated Roman town. In 2007 he finished an underground expansion of the early-19th-century main building of the Prado Museum in his hometown, Madrid.More

Cheaper Business Airfares Still a Tough Sell in Today's Economy
USA Today
Trying to lure business travelers back into more expensive seats, airlines have slashed business-class fares to foreign cities. Many business-class airfares to Europe this fall are 33 percent to 66 percent cheaper than a year ago, an analysis by FareCompare.com finds.More

Stadium Franco Sensi: Rome's Solar-powered Stadium
Inhabitat
Forget decorative crystalline stadium skins; Gino Zavanella's recently unveiled stadium is completely plastered in energy-generating photovoltaic panels. Stadium Franco Sensi, set to be built in Rome, Italy, will feature a museum of Rome's football team, restaurants, lounges and bars in addition to regular stadium seating.More

Biodiesel Returns More Energy to the Earth Than Ever, Study Finds
Reuters
Biodiesel is better than ever at harnessing the power of the sun and turning it into fuel. In fact, a study shows the fuel is returning more than four times the energy that it takes to make biodiesel. Newly published research from the University of Idaho and U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that for every unit of fossil energy needed to produce biodiesel, the return is 4.5 units of energy. This energy-in, energy-out ratio is "energy balance."More

Canada's Tallest Office Building Reaches for LEED® Gold
Building Design & Construction
Brookfield Properties Corporation, its Canadian-based subsidiary, BPO Properties Ltd., along with ownership partners Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Alberta Investment Management Corporation, announced that First Canadian Place in downtown Toronto will undergo a thorough renovation program, including a total recladding of the building's exterior with glass spandrel panels to replace the existing white marble. The project will begin immediately and is expected to be completed by the end of 2011.More

Efficiency can Reduce Water Shortages
The Christian Science Monitor
In the winter of 2005-06, a drought began in the Southeastern U.S. Over the following two years, the region experienced severe water shortages. Lawns went brown, streambeds ran dry, and lakes and reservoirs fell to record lows. By fall of 2007, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue had declared a state of emergency for 85 Georgia counties. Was the drought, which also seemed to extend laterally to the Southwest, the result of human-induced climate change?More