BackPage Primers

Weighting Environmental Impact Categories

Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) score products or design options across a series of environmental impact categories. To compare two products with different impact profiles, it becomes necessary to weight those categories, a difficult process.
Environmental Building News—January 1, 2009

Defining Recycled Content

Accepted definitions bring some clarity to the term "recycled content," but still leave gray areas that are open to interpretation by product manufacturers.
Environmental Building News—December 1, 2008

Reducing Heat Flow Through Windows

Bringing daylight into a building through windows usually means a loss of heat; low-emissivity coatings, multiple panes, and gas fills can make windows more energy-efficient.
Environmental Building News—November 1, 2008

Foam-in-Place Polyurethane Insulation

Sprayed polyurethane foam offers several advantages over other forms of insulation, including R-value and airtightness. Installation, R-value, and ozone safety vary with the type of foam used.
Environmental Building News—October 1, 2008

Vapor Retarders and Air Barriers: Managing Moisture in Building Envelopes

Air barriers, which prevent air leakage, and vapor retarders, which control moisture diffusion, are both important for controlling moisture in a building envelope.
Environmental Building News—September 1, 2008

All About Formaldehyde

A naturally occurring organic compound used in binders for composite wood products, among other things, formaldehyde can create serious health problems in those exposed to high concentrations.
Environmental Building News—August 1, 2008

Comparing Fuel Costs

One would think comparing the costs of different heating fuels would be simple, but figuring out the amount heat available in a given quantity of fuel—and the associated cost—can be tricky.
Environmental Building News—July 1, 2008

CO2 and Other Greenhouse Gases

The family of greenhouse gases extends beyond CO2, with each gas contributing to global warming to some degree.
BuildingGreen.com—June 17, 2008

Life-Cycle Assessment: Tracing a Product's Impacts

Life-cycle assessment—accounting for all of the environmental impacts of a product from its manufacture to its disposal—is a simple concept, but using it to compare products in practice can be difficult.
Environmental Building News—June 1, 2008

Evaporative Coolers

As water evaporates, it absorbs heat. Direct and indirect evaporative coolers use this property to cool homes efficiently.
Environmental Building News—May 1, 2008
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Ezkote Green

Mark Piepkorn says, “Looks like we were following the same path at the same time. :)” More...

Mark Piepkorn says, “Hi Tom - yeah, this is confusing. It's made by a subsidiary of US Mix, US Spec. Through some convoluted...” More...

Tom Curtin says, “found it at us spec.com” More...

Tom Curtin says, “Does not appear on manufactuer website!!” More...


CBRE Experiments With One-Day Energy Reductions

Allyson Wendt says, “Ethan, I just looked back at their press release, and those savings figures are for the single day (it isn't...” More...

Ethan Goldman says, “It's impressive that they were able to coordinate and move that fast (though I would be shocked if all the...” More...


Green Roof Study Finds Big Variation in Stormwater Retention

David Lanfear says, “I am appreciative of this testing and am very interested in the ongoing findings. As I research and develop living...” More...


Structure as Finish: The Pros and Cons of Leaving Off Layers

David Ottavio says, “Thank you both for your comments. The project that we are looking in to using this type of system is...” More...

Martin Holladay says, “David, While earth tubes were promoted in the late 1990s and early years of this century by Passivhaus Institut founder Wolfgang...” More...

Alex Wilson says, “There was a lot of interest in earth tubes to temper or preheat air for ventilation back in the '80s...” More...

David Ottavio says, “We are looking at incorporating earth ducts into the cooling strategy for a project in the early stage of design. I'd...” More...


2030 E2

Allyson Wendt says, “Hi Bill, I haven't seen anything like that--tools that really measure triple bottom line metrics are just starting to be developed.” More...

William Marston says, “Is anyone aware of someone working on such a tool aimed at the 350ppm target? Of course such a tool must...” More...