Hemp,

Cannabis sativa, can be grown again in Germany with the recent lifting of a ban on hemp cultivation. Germany will join other European countries that cultivate hemp as a quality fiber source, which can reduce demand for forest products. A fiber-cement building block using hemp is already being produced in France. The states of Wisconsin and Vermont are also looking into how they can encourage hemp cultivation. Prior to the federal ban on hemp production in 1937 (to discourage marijuana smoking), Wisconsin was the nation’s largest producer of this crop.

Willammette Industries, Inc. has just retooled a particleboard mill in Eugene, Oregon to produce a higher-quality medium-density fiberboard (MDF) using at least 50% recycled wood. The mill will use wood waste from construction sites, pallets, and packing crates.

Amoco/Enron Solar Power Development plans to build a four-megawatt photovoltaic (PV) generation plant in Hawaii in 1997 with a $1.14 million award from the Utility PhotoVoltaic Group (UPVG). The facility will use thin-film PV cells made by Solarex, which since January 1995 has been a subsidiary of the partnership between Amoco and Enron. Upon completion, the plant will have twice the generating capacity of any PV installation in the U.S. and will sell power to Hawaiian Electric. The UPVG was formed in 1992 by the utility industry to accelerate the adoption of PV technology.

A campus for the new Dreamworks Studio at Playa Vista, formed last year by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, will soon be under construction. Environmental consultant John Picard of E Squared is responsible for bringing an ecological design awareness to the project and coordinating design of the communications systems for the campus. Reuse of existing structures, energy efficiency, alternative-fuel vehicles, and several hundred acres of restored wetlands are all part of Picard’s program for the site.

A bill to create the National Institute for the Environment (see

EBN

Vol. 4, No. 5) has finally been introduced in the current Congress by Representative Jim Saxton (R-NJ) and twenty cosponsors. The Institute is widely supported by business leaders, scientists, and environmentalists.

Real Goods has decided that it will no longer sponsor the National Tour of Independent Homes and is looking for another organization to take over the event. During its first three years, the Tour has been a big success, with 25,000 people having visited hundreds of homes and seeing first-hand the potential of renewables. Organizations interested in taking over the event should send proposals by February 15th to Karen Hensley at Real Goods, 555 Leslie Street, Ukiah, CA 95482. For more information, call 707/468-9292.

The San Francisco Institute of Architecture (SFIA) has just announced a new Master’s Degree program in Ecological Design. A professional certificate is also available, and the program is not limited to students of architecture. Enrollment is open for the Spring 1996 semester, which begins February 26. Contact the SFIA Information Office, Box 749, Orinda, CA 94563; 510/299-1325, 510/299-0181, sfia@aol.com (e-mail).

Submissions are being accepted until February 15 for the 1996 Quality Building Conference Design Competition. New to this year’s competition is an Unbuilt Projects/Proposals category. Contact JoAnn Lawrence at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA), 50 Miles Street, Greenfield, Massachusetts 01301, 413/774-6051, 413/774-6053 (fax), nesea@nesea.org (e-mail).

At a workshop sponsored by Environment Canada’s Winnipeg, Manitoba office, participants decided to establish the Used Building Materials Association as a networking forum and common voice for the salvage and reuse industry. With a core group of twelve American and Canadian nonprofit and for-profit salvage and reuse organizations, the Association is organizing a September 1996 conference and has already compiled valuable information for anyone considering the creation of a reuse center. Contact Adolf Andres, P.E. (interim coordinator) at Environment Canada: 204/983-4812, 204/983-0960 (fax).

On October 31st of last year, new fluorescent lamp standards took effect that eliminate some of the most widely used lamps in commercial buildings. Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992, the old standby T-12, cool-white, F40 lamp can no longer be manufactured or imported into the U.S. Lamps must now have a minimum color rendering index (CRI)—a measure of light quality—of 69 and an efficacy of 75 lumens per watt. Many companies will switch to T-8 lamps with tri-chromatic phosphors, which are more efficient and provide higher-quality light.