U.K. to Use Eco-friendly Plastic as Building Material
from BusinessGreen
A U.K. company claims it has developed a smarter way to use recycled plastic as a sustainable building material. I-plas, the name of the material and the company distributing it, has claimed its product is made from recycled polymers, which makes it versatile for a range of uses from bridges, footpaths and fences and even flood prevention.The company claims that it is the only business in the U.K. to produce the material which it says will not chip or splinter and is even vandal proof. One ton of i-plas saves about 1.66 tons of C02, whereas producing a ton of concrete generates almost a tonne of C02 emissions, the company claims. More

Undaunted, Skyscrapers Reach Higher
from BusinessWeek
The global financial crisis seems to have done little to dampen the sky-high ambitions of architects and developers racing to build the world's tallest buildings. Even as the U.S. credit crunch spilled across the Atlantic and beyond, the skyscraper boom continued to escalate. At Cityscape, Dubai's annual real-estate trade show, the government-backed property developer Nakheel unveiled new plans to build a US$38 billion, 3,000-ft. skyscraper in the city, dwarfing the most ambitious global projects to date in both size and cost. More

Work is a Pleasure in Tomorrow’s Office
from CNN
Workplace technology has changed dramatically in recent years and the offices we work in are finally set to catch up. The advent of laptops, wi-fi and BlackBerries means that high-tech workers are no longer tethered to their desks, and the office of the future will be designed to let workers roam. More

Europe Shows U.S. Wind Industry How It’s Done
from TheStreet.com
European wind-power firms see an opportunity in the United States' increasing interest in alternative energy. Indeed, the inroads that electricity-generating wind turbine technology has made in the U.S. are due in large part to the efforts of companies based in Europe. More

One-Third of Workers Called in Sick with Fake Excuses in the Last Year, an Annual Survey Shows
from Austin Business Journal
CareerBuilder.com's annual survey on absenteeism shows 33 percent of workers have played hooky from the office, calling in sick when they were well at least once this year. While the majority of employers said they typically don't question the reason for the absence, 31 percent reported they have checked up on an employee who called in sick and 18 percent said they have fired a worker for missing work without a legitimate excuse. The nationwide survey included more than 6,800 workers and 3,300 employers. More

Early Pandemic Flu Wave May Protect Against Worse One Later
from Infection Control Today
New evidence about the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 indicates that getting the flu early protected many people against a second deadlier wave, an article co-authored by an NIH epidemiologist concludes. American soldiers, British sailors and a group of British civilians who were afflicted by the first mild wave of influenza in early 1918 apparently were more immune than others to the severe clinical effects of a more virulent strain later in the year, according to the paper published in the Nov. 15 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases by medical historian John Barry, staff scientist Cécile Viboud, PhD, of the NIH’s Fogarty International Center and epidemiologist Lone Simonson, PhD, of the George Washington University. More

Google Shows Off 'Extraordinary' Building Plans
from Mountain View Voice
As if conquering the Internet weren't enough, Google has a new wonder in the works: a space-age structure that could be the greenest office building of all time. More

Solar Power Reaches a Magical Milestone—25 Percent Efficiency
from Daily Tech
A long awaited solar power milestone for unconcentrated silicon PV cells has been reached, thanks to steady improvement and research While many traditional fossil fuel technologies show slow growth in efficiency and design, solar power has instead yielded steady and rapid advances. While many question why a "killer app" solar product has not yet reached the market after years of hype, it is hard to deny the fact that solar costs both subsidized and unsubsidized have been dropping dramatically, being halved every 10 years. More

Holcim Honors Top Green Building Projects in North America
from GreenerBuildings
An arts and education center in New York, a day labor station in San Francisco and a lake restoration and research center in Canada are among the nine winners sharing US$270,000 in prize funds in the prestigious North American Holcim Awards competition. The North American contest is one of five regional competitions worldwide conducted by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, which is based in Switzerland. More