Making plastic from corn, soy, or sugarcane has some advantages--but fixing the petroleum problem barely touches what's wrong with PVC.

What if all of the common plastics in use today were made from renewable materials rather than from fossil fuels? Would they start looking better in the eyes of environmentalists?

This is no idle question. The plastics industry is exploring a wide range of approaches to sourcing today's typical plastics from biobased feedstocks, and their use in common products isn't too far off on the horizon. We're already seeing these entering the market. An early example is Coca Cola's "plant bottle," which uses PET or HDPE made from ethylene derived from renewable sources instead of fossil fuels.

Biobased PVC on its way

Some of these "drop-in" biobased options are already available, such as the HDPE produced by Braksem from Brazilian sugarcane. Others, like Solvay Indupa's plans to use sugarcane ethanol to manufacture PVC, are still in the planning stage--but more changes are on the way.

Are biopolymers green?

Finding alternatives to nonrenewable fossil fuels is certainly worth applauding; we can't get to a truly sustainable society without that. But that one accomplishment, if achieved, is still far from the whole story. In an earlier blog post and in this May's feature article, "Biobased Materials: Not Always Greener," (login required) EBN lays out an array of concerns.

Biobased materials, while sometimes better, have unique environmental and social impacts--some related directly to biobased sourcing and others related to impacts during manufacturing and use and after its useful life is over. Like any product, one using biobased materials would ideally have data to show that the overall impact is reduced relative to alternatives, and for some products the sourcing is the least of our concerns. Take biobased PVC, for example.

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Reflections on the founding of BuildingGreen and our evolution as a company.

Last week, I reflected on Earth Day and how concern for the environment inspired me in school and then led to my focus on renewable energy starting in the mid-1970s. This brought me to Brattleboro in 1980 to work for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, which I did from 1980 through 1985.

To continue:

In 1985 I was ready to leave the nonprofit world and see if I could make it focusing on writing as a career--with a continued focus on the environment. I had been writing for a few publications during my stint with the New Mexico Solar Energy Association and NESEA, most notably a monthly column on energy for the Journal of Light Construction, but I didn't know if I could make a livelihood out of that.

Indeed, when I started out on my own I worked two days a week for a local restoration builder. As my writing picked up I gradually shifted to writing full time. I was doing a mix of free-lance writing for six or seven magazines, but learned pretty quickly that free-lance writing is a tough row to hoe. I supplemented that writing with various technical writing projects for state energy offices, utility companies, nonprofit organizations, and a few manufacturers.

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Windows are a big investment, and while they may look great on paper, how well do they hold up once installed? Do they meet your performance specifications? How responsive was the company to answering your questions and responding to complaints?

The GreenSpec team has already combed the world of windows available in the U.S. and Canada for manufacturers that can meet our tough performance specifications.

Now we need your help in providing ratings based on your actual experience as a customer--things like like whether the window failed the year after it was installed and the distributor won't return your phone call, or whether the manufacturer easily met your specs and installation was a dream. Please take five minutes and provide confidential 1–5 star ratings on windows you have experiences with.

Our team will compile your ratings and share them in aggregate with anyone who participates in this poll, as well as subscribers to GreenSpec and BuildingGreen's other publications.

Take the poll now and rate your windows!

From early interest in conservation in the late-60s and being an Earth Day organizer in 1970, to my work with solar energy in New Mexico and then Vermont, I've followed a green career path.

With Earth Day this past Sunday, I'm inspired to reflect on what motivated me--some 45 years ago(!)--to focus on a career of environmental protection and improvement, a career that has led me to a significant focus on more sustainable energy solutions. Back in the late 1960s at age 12 or 13, I became immersed in "conservation" and decided that this would be my life career. This was before the modern "environmental" movement really began, and "conservation" was the term used to describe environmental protection.

Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring had come out in 1962 (50 years ago this year) and awakened the public to environmental concerns with pesticides like DDT--I consider Carson to have really ushered in the modern environmental movement. I read the book in my early teens and became a activist fighting for the banning of persistent chlorinated pesticides.

Those were the activist days of the '60s, and I became the Earth Day organizer in my junior high school in Wayne, Pennsylvania. I remember putting up mimeographed flyers (yea, there was paper waste!) in the hallways of our school promoting the huge Earth Day celebration that was to happen in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, then spending the day there absorbing the energy and listening to the speakers. That was in 1970. A lot has happened since.

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One might think that an unfinished wood floor is devoid of synthetic chemicals. It sure looks that way--but toxic preservatives may lie in plain sight.

Moist lumber is susceptible to fungal staining. This staining does not cause physical decay, but it looks bad. Commonly called "blue stain," the offending fungi may be yellow, orange, purple, gray, or red in addition to shades of blue. The stain penetrates into the sapwood and cannot be removed by resurfacing.

Lumber mills can prevent these blemishes without chemical treatment through standard air-drying practices or, especially in moist climates, kiln drying. 

However, a lot of lumber is treated with biocides called anti-sapstain treatments. While preventing visible blemishes, these can disfigure the toxicological profile of an otherwise benign product.

What is this stuff?

Anti-sapstain formulations have been used for millennia. Egyptians used powdered subcarbonate of soda to prevent the staining of papyrus, according to independent wood scientist Mike Freeman. During the Shang Dynasty in China, wood ash dissolved in water was used to prevent mildew growth on chopsticks.

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High-VOC content is still the norm in clear wood finishes, but depending on the application you can minimize exposure and maximize durability.

Clear finishes can help protect woodwork against aging, scratches, moisture, and the chemicals found in common cleaners. There are natural, low-toxicity options for residential furniture, and factory-applied chemical finishes for commercial architectural woodwork, but there is no environmentally perfect finish.
Here at GreenSpec, when considering which coatings to list, we look for finishes that are low-VOC; contain no heavy metals, phthalates, or aromatic solvents; and/or are natural products with less environmental burden. Durability and ease of maintenance are important, too, so select the least toxic alternative with the greatest durability for the end use.

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The latest dynamic glazing from Sage Electrochromics allows variable tinting on demand.

I've examined state-of-the-art windows and glazing systems over the past four weeks. This week, I'll cover an innovative product that may help define the state-of-the-future: a dynamic glazing called SageGlass that can be tinted on demand. To understand what's so exciting about such a product, let's look at conventional high-performance windows.

When we select a window for a particular application we have to determine what performance properties will be best for that particular application--on average. In the winter and for daylighting in all seasons, we usually want to maximize sunlight transmission, while in summer and for certain windows at particular times of day we usually want to restrict solar gain to control glare or unwanted heat gain.

By carefully choosing the glazing, we can do a pretty good job at balancing those differing priorities--but it is always a matter of compromise. If we want to be able to vary the sunlight coming through a window we have historically had to rely on a separate system, such as an interior window blind or exterior shading system. In an office building, these systems can get pretty complex.

Enter dynamic glazings

With dynamic, or switchable, glazing, we can adjust the solar and visible transmittance properties of the glazing according to the conditions. Dynamic glazing can be passive, with tinting controlled by temperature (thermochromic) or by sunlight (photochromic), or they can be controlled by electricity (electrochromic). With the latter, tinting is actively managed by the user, though the process can be automated.

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Free Webcast

Top-20 LEED-EBOM Documentation Mistakes--And How to Avoid Them

Wed. April 25 | 2 p.m. Eastern Time

Getting LEED-EBOM certification is all about documentation: At a lot of documentation. It's a lot of work, and yet--there are so many pitfalls, unknowns, and blind alleys that it's common for LEED review comments to hang projects up with tons of issues. Such problems are a frustration--at worst, they can cost a LEED certification, or certification level, that you worked hard for.

In our latest webcast, LEEDuser is pleased to offer a free presentation addressing exactly this issue: common LEED-EBOM documentation mistakes, and how you can avoid them.

From signatory issues to lamp inputs

This live, hour-long webcast will be presented by Jenny Carney and Ben Stanley, two of the LEED-EBOM experts at YR&G Sustainability--one of the top LEED-EBOM consulting groups in the world, with experience both submitting and reviewing LEED-EBOM documentation. Some of the issues they will cover are as follows.

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Free LEEDuser Webcast

Behind the Scenes on LEED 2012: New Developments in Credit Documentation, Reference Guides, and More

Thurs. April 26, 2012 | 3 p.m. EDT

As we've seen from the LEED 2012 drafts and public comment periods, major changes are underway for the LEED rating systems. So many changes resulted from the 3rd public comment period, in fact, that USGBC announced a 4th public comment period, to run May 1–15.

At the same time, credit documentation, Reference Guide development, and other education work for LEED 2012 are all underway concurrent with the public comment period and balloting process. According to USGBC, this work is "operating under the guiding principles of creating intuitive and flexible documentation that focuses on collecting key data points for certification, Reference Guide content that enables project team understanding and achievement of requirements, and education for the successful implementation of new and challenging content in LEED 2012."

A first look at 2012 documentation

LEEDuser is excited to offer the general public one of the first opportunities to look "behind the scenes" at development of the nuts-and-bolts documentation pieces that will become the underpinning of LEED 2012. Please join us in this free webcast, with invited presenters from USGBC.

Q&A session

If you're wondering how development of LEED 2012 documentation and educational materials will impact your project, this is a great opportunity to get your questions answered. Chrissy Macken and Doug Gatlin from USGBC (and possibly other guest presenters) will take your questions in an extended session moderated by LEEDuser's Tristan Roberts.

About the presenters

Chrissy Macken
Manager of LEED Technical Development
U.S. Green Building Council

As Manager of LEED Technical Development at the U.S. Green Building Council, Chrissy Macken works on the technical revisions and maintenance of the LEED certification system. In addition to assisting in the management of the LEED 2012 program delivery at Greenbuild 2012, Chrissy manages the technical development to the integrative process credits and coordinates the LEED weightings – point allocation – process for all LEED credits.

Doug Gatlin
Vice President for Market Development
U.S. Green Building Council

As the Vice President for Market Development at the U.S. Green Building Council, Doug Gatlin has oversight for deploying the family of LEED rating systems in all the major commercial market segments and for managing overall customer relations for LEED and the Council's new pilot initiative, the Portfolio Program. Doug has 15 years experience in energy and environmental policy and has worked on climate change response strategies and voluntary pollution prevention programs for most of his career.

Tristan Roberts
Editorial Director
LEEDuser

The session will be moderated by Tristan Roberts. Tristan is editorial director for BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of LEEDuser, BuildingGreen.com, Environmental Building News. and GreenSpec. He is well known on the LEEDuser discussion forums for his explanations of LEED credit tricks and tips, and is a sustainability expert with years of experience writing about key topics in green building. He will gladly share how many LEED APs it takes to change a light bulb.

National Architecture Week is gone but not forgotten. Our readers have immortalized the occasion in green building poetry.

Last week we collected poetic responses to the convergence of National Poetry Month and National Architecture Week, asking our readers to write haiku about sustainable design. What a great response we had!

There were a lot of funny and touching submissions, some of which you can read on Twitter at #GreenBuildingHaiku and others of which you can see in the comments section on the original blog post announcing the contest. Here are our top three picks, in no particular order, with several Honorable Mentions to follow.

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