With the U.S. Green Building Council’s recent announcement that all new projects registering for LEED 2009 beginning later this week, on April 8, 2016, will need to satisfy increased minimum energy performance thresholds, everyone involved with LEED projects should promptly review their contract documents to determine the implications of this significant change in LEED, and accordingly what amendments to contracts may be necessary and proper.

If you have not been following the defamation case against Greenpeace, with a key ruling expected from a Canadian court in the coming days, now is the time to come up to speed. The case is Resolute Forest Products Inc., et al v. 2471256 Canada ...

With Zika virus sweeping through South and Central America and the warm weather of Spring coming to North America, the outbreak requires an immediate response by building owners applying pesticides.

The U.S. Green Building Council has just announced that all new projects registering for LEED 2009 beginning on April 8, 2016 will need to satisfy increased minimum energy performance thresholds. USGBC reported the results of the balloting with 78.6 percent of the consensus body voting ...

Recent foodborne illness outbreaks at Chipotle despite use of ingredients that are “organic, responsibly raised meats, pasture raised dairy,” and “non GMO” have left consumers looking for better and other standards for agricultural products. Almost on cue (despite being in the works for more than ...

It is not that a LEED certified building has an increased likelihood of liability arising from Zika, but rather it is that any building owner with an announced insect management plan may trigger liability. Moreover, without taking a position on whether aedes mosquitoes should be wiped off the face of the Earth with only their DNA kept for future research, building owners can do the right thing in protecting building occupants by applying mosquito killing insecticides.

A great deal of attention has been paid in recent days to a 5 year old Securities and Exchange Commission guidance, “Commission Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change,” which seeks to provide transparency to investors on the material risks posed by climate change. Recently ...

The current abstract impressionism of a regulatory scheme exits because of the perception that TSCA is no longer an adequate tool for providing protection against chemical risks, includes a patchwork of state laws that vary from the restrictive Washington state Children's Safe Products Reporting Rule to no regulation in some states, is made more complicated by non governmental programs like the USGBC’s LEED green building rating system that incorporates Materials & Resources credits including building product and material ingredient disclosure and optimization.