The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) has signed up more than 20,000 customers for its

green power program. Participating customers pay 6% more for green electricity (generated from wind, solar energy, and other renewables), but the higher costs are offset, according to the utility, by savings from compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) that are sent free to those who sign up—two initially and two more after six months. The target is 200,000 green power customers within the next three years.

Newsbriefs

More than half of the

world’s rivers are either going dry or are polluted, according to the World Commission on Water for the 21^st Century. During 1998, for the first time ever, more people were displaced for want of useable water (“environmental refugees”) than those displaced by war: 25 million vs. 21 million war-related refugees. Among the most severe problems:

•The Yellow River in China is severely polluted and ran dry in its lower reaches 226 days during 1997.

•The Nile River in Africa (the world’s longest river) is more than 90% consumed by irrigation and evaporation from reservoirs by the time its highly polluted residue flows into the Mediterranean Sea.

•The Colorado River in the U.S. and Mexico is so depleted from agriculture and other withdrawals and so polluted from agricultural runoff that the once-lush ecosystems at its delta have been turned into salty, desolate marshes.

After a year-and-a-half as EBN’s able products editor, Dwight Holmes plans to get back into

working with products instead of writing about them. As a result, we’re looking for someone to fill his shoes—both in helping track products for EBN and in maintaining our

GreenSpec directory. It’s an exciting time in the green products world, and this position provides an opportunity to be at the leading edge—and in fact help

lead the edge—of the industry.

October 16 marked the groundbreaking for

Erie-Ellington homes, a 50-unit affordable housing complex by the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation in Boston, Massachusetts. Erie-Ellington is a project of the GreenVillage Company, developer of Cambridge Cohousing (see case study in

EBN

Vol. 6, No. 9) and a participant in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program. GreenVillage’s “EcoDynamic” homes should cost no more to build than standard low- to moderate-income housing, while using 45% less energy and saving 40% in total cost for water, electricity and heat.

Newsbriefs

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is offering $1.5 million to support the

installation of photovoltaics on commercial buildings in New York State. Up to 75 percent of project cost or $5 per installed watt of solar capacity may be awarded, with a limit of $750,000 per proposal. Demonstrations of innovative technologies and applications will be preferred. Proposals are due by January 26, 2000. Contact Jane Powers of NYSERDA by fax at 518/862-1091, or get details online at

www.nyserda.org. Reference PON 449-99.

Arlington County in Virginia has become (to the best of our knowledge) the first local government to reference the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system in official policy. The county, which is itself a member of the USGBC, voted on October 2 to allow developers favorable treatment in their requests for bonus density if their projects achieve a high LEED rating (exact level to be determined). The policy, which is due to take effect on April 3, 2000, references LEED 2.0, which is now slated for official release on March 29, 2000. The County Board is taking somewhat of a leap of faith with LEED, as version 2.0 is not yet finalized and at press time was still undergoing significant revisions by the LEED Technical Review Committee.

The

Presidio Trust in San Francisco is this year’s winner of the

Waste Reduction Awards Program from the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Among the trust’s many recycling and reuse programs is a program to salvage reusable furnishings and building materials from structures throughout the national park. For more details contact Ron Sonenshine at 415/561-5321.

The

City of San Francisco Department of the Environment is seeking applicants for a new position of Resource-Efficient Building Coordinator. The position involves overseeing of pilot projects, coordination with other City departments, and outreach within the City government and to the general public. For more information, contact the Department at 415/554-6390 or by e-mail at environment@ci.sf.ca.us.

Fannie Mae, which now owns 84% of the unsold property at

Civano, the planned eco-community in Tucson, Arizona, is moving to take more direct control of the project by buying out developer and project president Kevin Kelly. After the deal is completed (most likely in December), Kelly will stay on for six months as a consultant to the project before moving on. He hopes eventually to initiate more projects of this type around the country. Kelly’s staff is expected to stay on at Civano under the new leadership. Civano’s first neighborhood is now under construction and over 200 homes have sold, according to Kelly.

Trex^®, the leading producer of wood-plastic composite decking, has dedicated a new manufacturing plant in Fernley, Nevada. The 160,000 square-foot (14,850 m²) facility was officially dedicated on October 28, though it has been operating since July. Two production lines are currently operating at the plant, with another two scheduled to come on-line in the Spring of 2000 and two more in the Fall of 2000. This plant serves the western United States. The company’s other plant is in Winchester, Virginia. For more, contact Trex at 800/289-8739 or visit their Web site at www.trex.com.