The feedback has also led to warmer wards in the cold weather, an end to noisy vacuum cleaning first thing in the morning, and better access to TV remote controls.

BBC: How one question can change the NHS

Long before he became the bleeding edge of the green building industry, David Borchardt, the Chief Sustainability Officer at Rockville, MD-based Tower Companies, earned his spurs cleaning up many of the most polluted Cold War weapons sites in the United States.

FORBES: The Towering Heights of Green Building

The appearance of more radioactive soil at Hanford illustrates the difficulties the federal government faces in cleaning up nuclear-waste sites, many of them the legacy of Cold War-era research.

WSJ: Toxic Radioactive Find Adds to Hanford Cleanup Woes