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Vol. 6, No. 3). Unable to succeed commercially, GSI closed its manufacturing operations in 1999 (see

Preform Manufacturing, Inc. is the U.S. division of the German-based Preform Group, one of the largest European manufacturers of office privacy systems. Rather than using a core of compressed mineral fiber, the Classic Panel and Decato product lines from Preform are made from innovative recycled materials. While Preform products are currently manufactured in Europe, U.S. production is planned for the future.

About 16 years ago, as U.S. Sales Manager Eugene Lisa tells the story, company founder Rudolf Miller decided he wanted to use something besides the industry-standard mineral fiber cores, due to health concerns about the fibers. Miller instructed his staff to find something better, but they came back empty-handed. “Then I guess we’ll just have to invent something,” Miller told his staff. After six or seven years of development, the company came up with a unique foamed gypsum material made from flue-gas desulfurization (synthetic) gypsum. This core material was introduced about 10 years ago in Europe.

Although some aspects of the C/S Interior Lightshelves are standard, each order can be custom-engineered to fulfill unique specifications; “We haven’t got two to match yet,” products representative Eric Wiedman told

EBN. The lightshelves are made of an expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam core covered with either aluminum or Construction Specialties’ own Acrovyn® that can be specified to match other wallcovering textures, finishes, patterns, and colors. Acrovyn is a semi-rigid vinyl (PVC), backed by poly-cotton osnaburg—similar to the material used for grain sacks or upholstery. Standard edge profiles for the lightshelves include square, bull nose, airfoil, and quarter-round styles, but others can be custom-designed to fit a particular project.

To the best of our knowledge, this product is no longer available.

The idea of using a heat pump, instead of electric heating elements, to heat water is very compelling. “Heat-pump water heater technology gives you a quantum leap in efficiency, with energy savings around 55%,” says John Tomlinson of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). “It is difficult to see energy savings of that magnitude in other appliances without a lot of work.” The challenge has been making this technology affordable and dependable enough to replace the simple electric-resistance water heater, which costs relatively little and has no moving parts.

I have long been a fan of the unique showerheads made by Energy Technology Laboratories (ETL) of Modesto, California. In fact, I’ve used nothing but ETL showerheads in my home for about 15 years—and I’ve given them as gifts. Having used only 2.5 gpm (9.5 lpm) models, I recently installed first a 1.5 gpm (5.7 lpm) model and then a 2.0 gpm (7.6 lpm) model to determine how the performance differs among these products.

First some background: All of ETL’s showerheads use a patented venturi air-induction design with a single, centered orifice rather than a lot of small holes in the face of the showerhead. The water flows through stationary fins to break the stream into pulsating droplets, accelerate the water, and entrain air with the water. The end result is a precise, remarkably forceful, and satisfying spray pattern, even with relatively low flow rates. And, significantly, with the single orifice, there are no small holes that can become clogged.

Silica aerogel is a very light, highly porous form of silica that is 97% air. Cabot makes it by producing a hydrogel that is treated to make it hydrophobic before drying at atmospheric pressure. “Imagine a Jello® made from sand, then getting rid of the water—you’re left with a solid foam with cells so tiny they prevent air molecules from transferring heat to their neighbors,” explained Litrun. While early efforts to produce silica aerogels focused on a monolithic end-product that made for great press photos, Cabot has focused on a less glamorous but more practical

granular product. The granular aerogel can be poured into a translucent glazing panel and packed to prevent settling; in this way, problems of cracking that occurred with the monolithic aerogel products are eliminated. The density of the material is just 6.5 lb/ft

In addition to ROM’s forest operations, four different manufacturing operations were also certified under FSC chain-of-custody rules.

In so doing, the ROM companies have made available the first-ever FSC-certified oriented strand board (OSB), one of only two sources of FSC-certified softwood plywood—the other is Roseburg Forest Products in Roseburg, Oregon; a third company, Collins, closed its FSC-certified softwood plywood mill in 2000. ROM also produces the nation’s only FSC-certified concrete forms, a variety of FSC-certified hardwood lumber species, and the first and only FSC-certified pressure-treated utility poles. These products are described in more detail below:

PPG claims that until now all zero-VOC paints have either suffered from performance problems (especially regarding durability) or were sold at a cost premium that limited their market. To avoid both these problems, the company is using a resin developed by Air Products Corporation, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, called vinyl acetate ethylene, that is new to the paint industry. “This new generation technology in terms of resins allows us to bring a product to market that has no compromises on durability, and at a similar price point,” says Passinault. Most latex paints are based on acrylic resins (at the higher end), polyvinyl acetate resins (in less expensive lines), or a combination of the two.

Pittsburgh’s tints are not VOC-free, so adding color does add a small amount of VOC to the product, but this does not appear to be a significant issue. “The maximum loading in a neutral base (the most saturated color) is less than two grams per liter,” according to Passinault.

MRT E-Z Joint™ cements consist of about 85% fly ash, combined with various additives. In the Atlanta area, where is it produced, MRT E-Z Joint products are cost-competitive with standard masonry cement. As the company expands into additional locations, more projects will have the option of building masonry walls without the environmental burdens (primarily high embodied energy) of Portland cement.

Standard masonry cement is about 50–75% clinker from cement kilns, along with limestone, clays, gypsum, retarders, and air-entraining agents. Using Type-C fly ash (which, unlike Type F, has cementitious properties of its own—see

The new TruWood siding is certified under FSC’s partial-content rules and includes an actual certified fiber content of 32%, according to Cami Waner of the company. The certified fiber comes primarily from the Collins Lakeview Forest in Lakeview, Oregon, with some also coming from the Collins Almanor Forest in Northern California. Most of the fiber is ponderosa and lodgepole pine, though about 20% is a mixture of hemlock and fir. As with all TruWood products, this siding is also certified by Scientific Certification Systems as containing a minimum of 50% recycled or recovered wood fiber (minimum 4% post-consumer recycled, 20% post-industrial recycled, and the remainder “recovered”).

Along with being less expensive, Waner told