Green Building Discussion

Topic: Announcements

Discussion Participants:

• Environmental Showcase Houses
• Symposium on "cleaner chemical products"
• Conference proceedings available
• Green Building Primer on web
• Toronto Healthy House open for tours

 

All postings are the opinion of the writer, and BuildingGreen can take no responsibility for their accuracy or appropriateness.

Environmental Showcase Houses

From: Marc G. von Keitz
Sent: Monday, December 09, 1996 2:23 PM

I myself am trying to promote the ideas of 'green building' to the consumer and homebuyer with the help of Green Homes Marketspace website.

As one approach we have monthly presentations of "Green Homes" with descriptions of the features that make these houses energy-efficient, health-conscious, and environmentally sound. For December we have prepared the "Environmental Showcase Home" commisioned by the Arizona Public Service Company, which some of you might already know.

If any of you has the time to take a look at it, I would greatly appreciate some feedback that could help me improve these presentations. Please keep in mind that the descriptions of the home are geared towards the lay person and might be lacking the level of detail that would be desirable for a technical audience.

I would also like to encourage suggestions for future "Homes of the Month".

Another Green Homes Marketspace project is the development of real estate listings specifically for "green homes". We have developed an interactive webpage form that allows the user (builder, real estate agent, private seller) to enter all the relevant information on-line. Graphic files can be submitted via ftp or pictures can be sent by mail. We have included a wide number of descriptive fields and supplemented each field with a help section. To build momentum for this service, the listings will be free for at least the next few month. If you have any suggestions to make the service more useful for the buyer or seller of a 'green' home, let me know.

Thanks for reading and I am looking forward to your comments.

Best regards,

Marc von Keitz Green Homes Marketspace, Inc. Phone: (612) 823 7275 3501 Bryant Ave. S. Fax: (612) 379 1613 Minneapolis, MN 55408 Email: vonkeitz@ghm.com WWW: http://www.ghm.com

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Symposium on "cleaner chemical products"

Scott Butner
butner@battelle.org

A forthcoming industry symposium will feature presentations by a number of experts in the design of "inherently cleaner and safer" chemical products and processes. The one-day symposium, to be held in Philadelphia on January 30, 1997, is being sponsored by the Pennsylvania Chemical Industry Council (PCIC) - a trade association for chemical manufacturers and chemical distributors.

The symposium chairperson will be Dr. Joseph Fiksel of Battelle Memorial Institute, whose recent book "Design for Environment: Creating Eco-Efficient Products and Processes," was published by McGraw-Hill in October, 1995. Speakers from Battelle, Rohm and Haas, and the University of Michigan will explore how chemical firms can simplify processes, eliminate waste, and reduce resource consumption throughout the product life cycle, thus contributing to the bottom line via increased efficiency and reduced operating costs.

For more information about the agenda or registration, please contact Michelle Cash at the Pennsylvania Chemical Industry Council: 717-232-6681, or visit Battelle's web site at http://www.estd.battelle.org/

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Conference proceedings available

From: ZowWatt@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 1996 5:07 PM

||||||||| RECYCLING THE RESOURCE |||||||| Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on ||||||| Ecological Engineering for Wastewater Treatment |||||| (School of Engineering Waedenswil-Zurich, Sept 1995) ||||| J. Staudenmann, A. Schoenborn, C. Etnier (Eds.) |||| Sept 1996, 500 pp, Transtec Publications, Switzerland ||| publishers price: CHF 180.00 (ca. US$ 140.00) || ISBN 0-87849-741-2 | 20% DISCOUNT (US$ 110.00) FOR DIRECT ORDERS AT THE EDITORS !!

Dear collegues

On this conference, held in Waedenswil-Zurich (Switzerland) in September 1995, scientists, engineers and decision makers from more than 30 countries discussed new perspectives and technologies for solving environmental problems under the rubric of ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING.

The book "Recycling the Resource" focuses on approaches that include a recycling loop for water, nutrients, energy, and other resources in wastewater. By using nature as a model, ecological engineering tries to integrate (natural or constructed) ecosystems and aquatic organisms to produce goods and services in partnership with nature, and thus converting so called wastes into valuable resources.

The contributions of around 100 authors on almost 500 pages represent the state of the art in Ecotechnology and give a perfect overview in the fields of AQUACULTURES for Wastewater Treatement, RECYCLING Challenges and Solutions, the Social Side and POLITICS and MARKETS, and in special FLOATING AND SUBMERSED PLANTS in Wastewater Treatment. Beside Plenary and Workshop papers, all Poster and Case-study presentations are included, and a keyword and author index makes it easy to find necessary information.

------- FOR MORE DETAILS... ...and a list of the authors and titles please visit the publishers homepage at http://www.ttp.ch/titles/741.htm or send e-mail to Juerg Staudenmann <100340.2504@compuserve.com>.

------- FOR DIRECT ORDERING AT THE DISCOUNT PRICE... ...of US$ 110.00 please send (by regular mail!):

1. Your full name and address (where to send the book(s)) 2. the number of desired books (US$ 110.00 each) and 3. the money IN ADVANCE (for discount conditions we have to do it this way) either in cash (no additional fee) or as international bank cheques (additional US$ 15.- per cheque for handling) for "Ingenieurschule, CH-8820 Waedenswil"

send it to: | School of Engineering ISW | J. Staudenmann | P.O. Box 335 | CH-8820 Waedenswil, Switzerland

Sincerely, Juerg Staudenmann School of Engineering ISW P.O. Box 335 CH-8820 Waedenswil, Switzerland Fax +41 - (0)1 / 789 99 50, e-mail: 100340.2504@compuserve.com

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Green Building Primer on web

From: ZowWatt@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 1996 2:05 PM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Howard Associates Issues Green Building Primer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Howard Associates, a member of Coop America and subscriber to the Green Business Pledge, has recently placed green building guidelines (primer) on its web-site:

http://www.nrg-builder.com/greenbld.htm

The result of 5 years of research and application of nearly 20 years of field experience in energy efficient and renewable technologies in housing, we believe these practical and easy to understand guidelines will help homebuilders, developers and consumers better understand what green housing is all about.

We would appreciate review and comment on these guidelines since they will facilitate a major track in our technology and information transfer practice.

The author, Bion Howard, has for many years been involved in model energy codes, ASHRAE policy and research committee activities, and has served on the staffs of NAHB and the Alliance to Save Energy. Most recently Howard worked to rollout the US EPA Energy STAR Homes program. The guidelines contain similar criteria to the ASTM Standard Guide for Residential Green Building (2nd. draft) now undergoing balloting. [ASTM - American Society fo Testing and Materials]

A member of ASHRAE, ASTM and EEBA, Bion Howard is an environmental engineer, former home-builder, and senior program manager. He is current ly a member of the Suburban Maryland Building Industries Association, affiliate of the National Association of Home Builders. (Note: mention of organizations does not constitute an endorsement of these guidelines by an organization) .............................................................................. .............................. Bion D. Howard, Principal Howard Associates LLC / dba Building Environmental Science and Technology P.O. Box 1007, Upper Marlboro, MD 20773

e-mail: bhoward2@sprynet.com / zowwatt@aol.com

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Toronto Healthy House open for tours

From: John Kingsley
Sent: Monday, November 18, 1996 8:37 PM

Howdy,

I just read in the newspaper on the weekend that the Toronto Healthy House was officially opened on Nov. 12.

If anyone will be in the Toronto area you might want to go for a tour. The tours run until April 97.

To find out about the home check out:

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/HealthyHousing/Toronto/index.html

[Warning: the pages tend to be a little flashy with lots of animated GIFs (which drive me nuts!) and not too much technical info]

One neat thing is that you can book a tour online at:

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/cgi-cmhc/tour.cgi?month=0?lang=1

For an excellent detailed description of the water/wastewater system used in the home check out:

http://mha-net.org/msb/html/papers-n/palo01/wastewa.htm

(thanks to Norbert)

cheers, John