Volume 9, Number 5

May 2000

Feature Article

Deconstruction: Back to the Future for Buildings?

According to U.S. EPA estimates, nearly 300,000 buildings are demolished in the United States each year. Much of the debris then enters the waste stream. Deconstruction involves the disassembly of a building in order to salvage and reuse its component parts. While not all buildings are suitable for deconstruction, we believe there is enormous potential for improving resource-efficiency through careful deconstruction. Thinking ahead to deconstruction also affects how we build in the first place.

This article examines the potential for salvaging materials from buildings, evaluates the costs and benefits involved, and provides a checklist for effective deconstruction.

What's Happening

New York State Green Building Tax Credit
On May 15, the first-in-the-nation, comprehensive green building tax credit was signed into New York state law. The program includes: a 5% to 8% tax credit on buildings over 20,000 square feet, a 30% tax credit on fuel cells, and a 100% tax credit on the marginal costs of building-integrated photovoltaics.(Bill Summary and Links...)

New Allergy-Risk Scale Developed for Plants
Thomas Ogren, a California-based expert on flowering plants and pollen-related allergies, has developed an innovative scale of the relative allergy risk of common landscaping plants. Among his findings: with some tree and shrub species, whether you specify males or females can make a huge difference for allergy sufferers.

AIA Convention Endorses Sustainable Design
Members of The American Institute of Architects have passed a resolution entitled "Sustainable Design." Its stated intent reads: "To acknowledge Sustainable Design as the basis of quality design and responsible practice for AIA architects, and therefore, to integrate Sustainable Design into AIA practices and procedures."

2000 Quality Building Council Awards
Three projects were honored with QBC Design Awards on April 18 at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's Building Energy 2000 conference in New Haven, Connecticut.

Projects

Vermont Law School's Oakes Hall: Green Building on a Budget
Seen from the outside, Oakes Hall is not one of those buildings that jumps out and screams "green." Inside, however, are some innovative features that provide dramatic energy and water savings. Performance data from the first year of operation show that Oakes Hall is living up to expectations.

Product News & Reviews

Recycled Synthetic Roofing Shingles
Recycled rubber and plastic shingles offer an appealing alternative to high-end roofing materials such as cedar shingles and shakes, natural slate, clay or concrete tiles, and standing seam metal roofs. There are currently four producers with established distribution networks offering six different products.

From the Library

Natural Capitalism
by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins
 
Living Spaces
by Thomas Schmitz-Günther, Loren Abraham, and Thomas A. Fisher

These and other books, videos and periodicals can be ordered online or directly from their publishers. Our Green Building Resource Guide provides links to those sources.

From the Editors

Perspective: Residential Green Growing Pains
Years were spent developing the scope, objectives, and standards of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program to make it comprehensive, equitable, and achievable. Can and should the same type of system be developed for the residential building industry?

Calendar of Events