More recently, suburban neighborhoods and office parks began replacing farms in ever-widening circles around the cities and towns. Conventional practice is to landscape the open spaces around... Read more

Two project are underway that may eventually provide useful environmental and cost information on building material alternatives to architects, specifiers, and others in the construction industry. A Canadian project, called

Athena™, is the outgrowth of government-sponsored work coordinated by Forintek... Read more

A four-month-old initiative within the U.S. Postal Service aims to revise design guidelines and material specifications to improve environmental performance. The Washington, D.C. office of HOK, Inc. was recently retained to help develop the proposed changes, which will be presented to senior Postal Service staff for review in late October. To... Read more

The Wild Lawn Handbook: Alternatives to the Traditional Front LawnStevie Daniels, 1995. Macmillan, 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023; 800/858-7674. Hardcover, 223 pages, $20 ($27.95 Canada).

Written for homeowners who are questioning the ecological and financial cost of maintaining a traditional lawn... Read more

Efforts to establish a National Institute for the Environment (NIE) are proceeding in Washington, and they may even pick up speed as a way to consolidate environmental research efforts that are being handled through many different agencies. A bill to establish the Institute is expected to be introduced in... Read more

We first learned about Icynene at the First Annual Conference on Alternatives to CFCs and Halons in November 1990. At that time it was a tiny Canadian company (founded in 1986) with a type of foam insulation that had no harmful effects on the Earth’s stratospheric ozone layer. Company founder... Read more

The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) has announced a design competition for completed buildings north of 40 degrees north latitude. Judging criteria include energy and resource efficiency and bioregional appropriateness. There is no fee for submissions, which must be received by December 31, 1995. Contact NESEA at 413/774-6051,... Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy has published proposed voluntary guidelines for rating home energy performance. The guidelines were drafted by the Home Energy Rating Systems (HERS) Council for DOE and are designed to encourage uniformity among the various methods used to rate the energy efficiency of both new and existing residential buildings.... Read more

Fluorescent lighting was introduced in the 1920s as a more energy-efficient alternative to incandescent lighting. Over the past two decades, technology improvements have gradually increased the acceptability of fluorescent lamps for many more applications. Light quality was dramatically improved with triphosphor... Read more

A major shake-up at Louisiana-Pacific Corporation this summer was brought on, in part, by allegations of falsifying pollution emission data. The entire upper management team of L-P, including Chairman and President Harry Merlo (who led the company since its split from Georgia-Pacific in 1973 and who championed L-P’s leadership role in the move... Read more

Learning from the Past

Easter Island has long mystified archaeologists. When the tiny, remote island, 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the nearest continent, was “discovered” on Easter day in 1722, some 200 mammoth stone statues (moai) stood on the island like sentries. But there was no obvious means by which the islanders could... Read more

Just as certain segments of the HVAC and insulation industries have begun a widespread shift to the ozone-safe, chlorine-free hydrofluorocarbon HFC-134a, new environmental concerns have been raised about this compound. Researchers at the Cambridge, Massachusetts firm Atmospheric and Environmental Research suggested... Read more

Members of the U.S. Green Building Council have organized a non-profit Green Building Fund in the hopes of providing ongoing support for research and demonstration of environmentally sound construction projects. So far six organizations have contributed to the Fund’s initial project—a feasibility study documenting funding sources for green... Read more

UPDATE: This keystone article was updated in 2010 to reflect changes in the industry.It is rarely possible to do everything we would like to reduce the environmental impact of building projects. It takes time to research alternative design and construction systems; new materials may not have proven track records; higher costs may be an... Read more

GreenStone Industries, the nation’s largest producer of cellulose insulation, just announced the acquisition of Pacific Rim Recycling, a curbside recycling business in Benicia, California. Entering the recycling business is an effort to deal with the rapidly rising cost of recycled newspaper. Eric Oganesoff, chairman and CEO of GreenStone... Read more

Regarding your article entitled “Steelcase Providing Detailed Emissions Data,” published in the May/June 1995 issue of

Environmental Building News: I first want to commend you on the article and discussion regarding Steelcase’s efforts to reduce emission of VOCs and formaldehyde from its products. I also want to... Read more

Canada’s Green Building Information Council (GBIC) was inaugurated in July of 1994 in Toronto. Coordinated by University of British Columbia School of Architecture Professor Dr. Raymond Cole, the Council is dedicated to stimulating public and private efforts to “advance the energy and environmental... Read more

The results of the Boston Society of Architects’ 1995 Sustainable Design Awards were announced on June 17 at the Boston Area Solar Energy Association’s annual Solar Cooker Picnic. The sole award was given to Christopher Grant Kerwan, Bart S. Uchida, and Matthew Urbanski, all of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the demolition and reconstruction of... Read more

The May/June issue of

Environmental Building News was of particular interest to us, with its focus on the use of straw in building. We were especially interested, of course, in your comments on Agriboard.

While we were impressed with the article’s clear, accurate and objective overview, the comments on R-... Read more

An ironic turn of events has resulted in a lobbying battle among two of the largest U.S. wood products companies. An in-depth article in

The

New York Times (May 21, 1995) reports that Weyer­haeuser is lobbying Washington policy makers to retain tight air pollution regulations,... Read more