BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

September 1, 1997
New Journals on Industrial Ecology and Bioremediation

Reid Lifset, Editor-in-Chief. MIT Press Journals, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142; 617/253-2889, journals-orders@mit.edu (e-mail). Quarterly, $40/year for individuals; $30/year for students.

Robert Hinchee, Editor-in-Chief. CRC Press, 2000 Corporate Blvd. NW, Boca Raton, FL... Read more

Product Review

September 1, 1997
Hardwood Plywood from Certified Wood

States Industries, Inc. of Eugene, Oregon, has just begun offering a line of hardwood-veneer plywood made entirely from certified wood. The plywood cores are produced by laying up white fir veneers supplied by Collins Pine (from their certified timberlands in the Pacific Northwest). Hardwood veneers... Read more

News Analysis

September 1, 1997
McDonough’s New Institute for Sustainable Design

William McDonough, prominent environmental architect and dean of the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, has now founded a new Institute within the School he heads. The Institute for Sustainable Design has goals nearly as broad as McDonough’s vision, aiming to reinvent industry and... Read more

News Brief

September 1, 1997
Newsbriefs

Joseph Romm is the Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, having replaced

Christine Ervin, who has moved over to the President’s Council for Sustainable Development. Romm, the author of

Lean & Clean Management: How to Boost Profits and Productivity... Read more

Op-Ed

September 1, 1997
Swimming Upstream in a Dry Creek

We have made tremendous progress in improving the quality of our surface waters in the 25 years since passage of the Clean Water Act, and similar gains are being realized in reducing water consumption. Industry, for example, has cut water use by one-third since the 1950s, even while increasing output threefold.... Read more

News Brief

September 1, 1997

A few days after Browne’s address at Stanford, Senate Majority Leader

Trent Lott blasted solar when addressing the

Independent Petroleum Association. An article in the May 23

Washington Post (reported by

PV News) quoted Lott as facetiously saying: “I’m sure you petroleum folks understand that solar power will... Read more

Feature

September 1, 1997

I recall quite clearly my first introduction to Amory Lovins. It was 1980, in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Amory was speaking at the annual Life Technics Conference at Ghost Ranch. Amory was then—as he is now—an energy guru, but his message that day was not primarily about energy. He made the point that dealing with our energy woes was relatively easy... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997
ADPSR West Coast Architectural Resource Guide

David Kibbey, editor, Northern California ADPSR, P.O. Box 9126, Berkeley, CA 94709-0126; 510/273-2428. Paperback or diskette for use with Filemaker Pro, $18 each, $27 for both.

The latest green building product directory to come our way is the work of a handful of dedicated volunteers at the... Read more

News Analysis

July 1, 1997
One Million Electricity-Generating Roofs

One of the last comments in President Clinton’s June 26 address to the United Nations “Five Years from Rio” Conference contained a commitment solar energy advocates were hoping for: to help establish the conditions that will lead to photovoltaic (PV) generation on a million buildings within the next... Read more

Op-Ed

July 1, 1997
Defending Redwood Harvests

Concerning “More on the Redwood Boycott” in your May issue (EBN

Vol. 6, No. 5), I would like to address several inconsistencies in Mr. Platt’s observations.

The Pacific Lumber Company has been in continuous operation on the same contiguous timberland in Humboldt County, California for the last 128 years... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997
Newsbriefs

The Good Wood Alliance, formerly the Woodworkers Alliance for Rainforest Protection (WARP), is shifting its direction to serve as a trade association for the sustainable forest products industry. Based in Burlington, Vermont, with chapters in Canada, the Pacific Northwest, and Scandinavia, the Good Wood Alliance has a membership of... Read more

Product Review

July 1, 1997
L-P Starts Over With Smart Siding

Louisiana-Pacific’s new SmartStart siding line, available in lap siding and 4’-wide (1.2 m) panels, is the result of an ongoing evolution from the ill-fated Inner-Seal siding. It’s still oriented-strand board (OSB), but both the process and the composition have changed. These positive changes reflect the... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997

Industry targets for the recycling of packaging waste in Germany were met in 1996, the first full year that specific quotas had to be met, according to the June 2 issue of Plastics News. Under the German Packaging Ordinance of 1991, the manufacturers and distributors are required to take back used packaging. The industry’s Green Dot program... Read more

Op-Ed

July 1, 1997
Challenging the Simplified Life-Cycle Analysis

I recently was provided with the January 1997 issue of EBN (Vol. 6, No. 1) and found the information

of considerable interest. However, I would like to offer a few comments on “Material Selection” and the use of a simplified life-cycle analysis (LCA).

I can relate to the statement... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997

“Advanced” seems to be popular in the new-name department: The Brownsville, Oregon, company formerly known as Oregon Strand Board is now Advanced Wood Resources, Inc. Still a division of Jeld-Wen, Inc., the company no longer makes exterior sheathing or siding products. Its only remaining product is COMPLY Sturd-I-Floor subfloor/underlayment... Read more

Op-Ed

July 1, 1997
Snow-water Harvesting?

I read with interest your feature article on Rainwater Harvesting (EBN

Vol. 6, No. 5) and found it very concise, complete and full of good information. One area not covered in the article or in the research I have read to date on the topic is the harvesting of snow melt during the winter months.

In Salt... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997
E Source Technology

Atlas Series

from E Source, Inc., 1033 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO 80302; 303/440-8500, 303/440-8502 (fax), esource@esource.com (e-mail), www.esource.com/atlas. Five-volume paper-back set or CD-ROM for Windows or Macintosh. 1,700 pages, $750 for either format, or $950 for both.

It’s not often that we’ll label... Read more

News Analysis

July 1, 1997
CITES Refuses to Protect Mahogany (Again)

Supporters of tropical forest conservation were optimistic at the recent biennial meeting of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) but were disappointed as delegates failed to restrict mahogany trade for the third consecutive meeting. The 10th... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997

AURA vacuum panel insulation, reviewed in EBN

Vol. 4, No. 1, has been mothballed by manufacturer Owens Corning. A press release from the company blames a lack of interest from refrigerator manufacturers, after they succeeded in postponing new energy standards from 1998 to July 2001. The AURA panel was used in the freezer compartment of... Read more

Product Review

July 1, 1997
Air Krete: Foam Without Plastics

Air krete insulation is not all that new—it has been around since the early 1980s. In that time, it has collected a small but very enthusiastic group of advocates, especially among the chemically sensitive. There are also skeptics, however, who are concerned about its long-term durability or just question... Read more