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Leading Green Building Design Firm to be Acquired

Steven Winter Associates, Inc., one of North America’s premier green design and build firms announced it would be acquired by Maine & Maritimes (AMEX:MAM). Upon closing SWA will become part of The Maricor Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of MAM. The parties anticipate that the transaction will be completed during the fourth quarter of 2005. The Maricor Group and its subsidiaries, The Maricor Group New England, Inc. and The Maricor Group, Canada Ltd, are facilities infrastructure engineering, energy asset development, emissions reduction, and lifecycle asset management consulting service firms focused on building sciences, including energy efficiency with a strong commitment to sustainability and LEED green building ratings. Steven Winter Associates, Inc., headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, with offices in New York City, New York, Washington, D.C., Asheville, North Carolina, and Albany, New York, was founded in 1972 by Steven Winter, one of North America’s leading thought leaders regarding the “green” built environment and sustainable development solutions. SWA supports a wide array of private-sector clients, including developers, architects, and building owners from small residential to well-known sustainable buildings, such as Battery Park City, 4 Times Square, AOL/Time Warner and Hearst Headquarters, as well as federal, state and local governmental agencies, such as […]

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Wetland Issues Exposed in Wake of Hurricane Katrina

Seven months after the release of a national survey that showed most Americans did not believe a tsunami-like disaster could happen on U.S. soil, the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina has painted a more sobering picture. Louisiana’s wetlands represent 30 percent of the coastal wetlands in the lower 48, but 90 percent of the coastal wetland loss. This vast, disappearing region has historically served as a natural speed bump for hurricanes and the storm surge they produce. The state’s wetlands protect the world’s largest port system by tonnage and the infrastructure responsible for transporting 30 percent of the oil and natural gas consumed in the United States. In addition, coastal Louisiana provides essential habitat for animal, plant and marine species. Yet these protective wetlands have been disappearing at the rate of 24 square miles per year, leaving low-lying areas dangerously exposed to major storms. “Because of continuing land loss, many of coastal Louisiana’s populated areas, including New Orleans, are almost completely exposed to the Gulf of Mexico,” said Valsin A. Marmillion, a spokesperson for America’s WETLAND: Campaign to Save Coastal Louisiana. “The sad irony of the situation is that the Mississippi River levees, which were constructed to protect lives in […]

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