Newsbriefs

84 Lumber has just joined the ranks of Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Menard’s as the largest home improvement retailers to commit to some type of certified lumber policy (stores rank in total U.S. sales: Home Depot–#1, Lowe’s–#2, Menard’s–#3, and 84 Lumber–#6). The details and level of specificity of each store’s policy and plan vary—84 Lumber, much like Home Depot and Menard’s, has committed to phasing out all products from endangered forests by 2003.

EBN

Vol. 7, No. 10). The company now pays the freight (within the lower 48) on trailer loads—30,000 ft² (2,800 m²) or more—of approved tiles, has streamlined the process of recycling, and gives great guidance on job-site practices for efficient removal and “packaging” of the tiles for transport. Costs of removal for recycling have proven to be very competitive with disposal costs. For more information about the program, call 888-CEILINGS or visit their Web site: www.ceilings.com.

Newsbriefs

The

City of Portland, Oregon has hired two well-known experts, architect Greg Acker and green building consultant Michael O’Brien, to provide services to the design and construction community as part of its Green Building Initiative. The City’s programs are expected to become available in late fall of 2000. For details, contact program manager Rob Bennett at 503/823-7725, or visit www.ci.portland.or.us/energy/greenbuilding.htm.

BP Solarex, the subsidiary company formed when British Petroleum acquired Solarex Corporation, is now

BP Solar. This change is part of a new corporate look for BP (no longer BP Amoco), which includes a logo with interlocking green and yellow sunbursts and the catchwords “beyond petroleum.” According to a company press release, “The colors reinforce the company’s strengths—green for environmental responsibility and yellow in the image of the sun, the world’s most powerful source of energy.” Quoted by Reuters, Greenpeace called the rebranding of BP a stunt: “BP doesn’t stand for Beyond Petroleum. It stands for Burning the Planet.” For more information, visit

www.bpsolar.com.

According to statistics from the American Public Transportation Association, reported in the July-August issue of New Urban News, public transportation ridership is up. In 1999, Americans took 9 billion trips on mass transit—a level not seen since 1960 and almost 40% above the low of 6.5 billion trips in 1973. The 1999 level is still far lower than the 1946 all-time high of 23.4 billion trips.

A study conducted for the Federal Energy Management Agency (FEMA), reported in the

New York Times on June 28, has concluded that at least a quarter of the

houses within 500 feet of U.S. coastlines may be lost to erosion during the next 60 years. If sea levels rise due to global warming, coastline erosion could be even worse. Especially hard-hit will be the Atlantic Coast. The study suggests setting up development-free zones in areas prone to erosion.

Newsbriefs

Urban Options, a nonprofit organization in East Lansing, Michigan that is dedicated to improving the quality of the urban environment, is sponsoring its Second Annual

Tour de Sprawl—a bicycle and/or bus tour of Meridian Township—on October 8. For details, call Urban Options at 517/374-4444. This should be a companion to the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association’s Tour de Sol, a race of solar-powered and electric vehicles.

Although the number of

local green building programs is still relatively small—there are fewer than 20 nationwide—forces are growing. In June of this year, the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (Greater Seattle) released their Built Green™ program. Partners for the home builder-based program include King and Snohomish Counties as well as the City of Seattle, the Fannie Mae Foundation, and the Puget Sound Water Quality Action. The recent listing of local salmon as Endangered Species resulted in particular focus and proactive work on criteria that affect water quality and site stormwater management. In Wisconsin, just the opposite approach has been taken—at least with the program name. In a partnership with the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative and the Wisconsin Energy Bureau, three central Wisconsin home builder associations released the Green Built program late last year. Key aspects of the Green Built program are a required HERS rating of 86 or better and on-site inspections of homes by a Technical Advisory Committee.

Champion Enterprises and the U.S. Department of Energy have partnered to produce

the first HUD-code (mobile) home made entirely of structural insulated panels (SIPs). The 1,384 ft² (129 m²) home, built in Silverton, Oregon, uses SIPs in the walls, floors, and ceilings. Two SIP manufacturers, Premier Building Systems and Precision Panel Structures, provided panels, hardware, and training for the project. Initial testing suggests cooling-cost reductions of up to 50%. Structural integrity is also dramatically improved, leading to reduced damage during transport. Champion estimates that using SIPs in production would add about $5,000 to the cost of each home.

Meanwhile,

polar ice is melting. The July 21 issue of

Science reports that the massive Greenland Ice Sheet, which contains roughly 10% of all fresh water on earth, is melting at a rate of 12 cubic miles (51 km³) per year. This melting results in 0.13 mm of sea level rise worldwide annually, according to NASA researchers.