Final details are expected in February on how over $1 billion that will be collected by the New Jersey electric utility industry over the next eight years from “

Societal Benefits Charges” will be spent. The electric restructuring legislation passed in 1999 calls for about three-quarters of the money to go to energy efficiency measures... Read more

We are pleased to announce that subscribers can now access the current issue of EBN on our Web site as an Adobe Acrobat™ (.pdf) file! Follow instructions on our Web site to gain access to “eEBN.” Anyone who signs up for eEBN will be notified by e-mail each time a new issue is posted.

full-... Read more

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... Read more

has left her position as Managing Director of the U.S. Green Building Council to take over as editor of

Environmental Design and Construction magazine. Douglas replaces John Sailor, who initiated the magazine and led it through its successful first two years.

The

rate at which open space is being lost to development has more than doubled since 1992, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in early November. During the decade 1982 to 1992 and excluding Alaska, 13.9 million acres (5.6 million ha) were converted from... Read more

, who, as chief architect for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), was instrumental in the adoption of a comprehensive sustainable design policy (see EBN

Vol. 7, No. 10), has now moved to the National Park Service. Effective December 20, 1999 Emmons became associate director for professional services,... Read more

(C&A) was one of two companies named 1999 Recycler-of-the-Year by the Society of Plastics Engineers, in recognition of the company’s ER3™ recycled-content vinyl carpet backing system. C&A also received the 1999 Outstanding Buy Recycled Business award from the Buy Recycled Business Alliance and the... Read more

The European Space Agency reported in early December that

stratospheric ozone levels over parts of Belgium, Britain, The Netherlands, and Scandinavia have dropped significantly—though not as low as levels above the Antarctic. Measurements taken in The Netherlands found localized ozone levels to be two-thirds below the norm for this time... Read more

Innovations in Wallcoverings, Inc., a 25-year-old manufacturer of vinyl wallcoverings and upholstery,... Read more

In the next few months the U.S. Department of Energy is expected to issue a long overdue energy efficiency standard for fluorescent lamp ballasts. This new standard is the result of a negotiated agreement between energy conservation interests, ballast manufacturers, and other stakeholders. According to this Joint Agreement, the new standard... Read more

by John Bower, 2000. The Healthy House Institute. Paperback, 416 pages, $21.95

The Healthy House video series described above. Bower has by now published a handful of titles on healthy houses, and each is better than the last. This book is no exception—well organized,... Read more

The City Design Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago is seeking entries for Design Matters, an Internet catalog of

affordable housing projects built since 1985 that demonstrate high quality and value to their occupants and to society at large. Projects will be selected by the Center and its nationwide advisory team based on a... Read more

I’d like to offer a minor correction to your otherwise excellent article “Structural Engineered Wood: Is it Green?” (EBN

Vol. 8, No. 11). You stated that interior-grade softwood plywood uses a urea-formaldehyde (UF) binder. While that was once the case, all construction-grade plywood (both interior- and exterior-grade) now uses a phenol... Read more

Neil Kelly Cabinets’ Naturals Collection (see EBN Vol. 7, No. 8) received the 1999 Founder of the New Northwest award from Sustainable Northwest, an organization working to promote economic development that is rooted in the maintenance and enhancement of the environment. Visit www.sustainablenorthwest.org for details, or contact Neil Kelly at... Read more

Since the discovery that toxic spores from the

black mold Stachybotrys atra had caused at least ten infant deaths in Cleveland a few years ago (see

EBN

Vol. 7, No. 3), interest in and awareness of this problem has mushroomed—so to speak. Evidence of this mold has been found in numerous new studies, according to an... Read more

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.... Read more

Version 2.0 of the BEES software tool (for “Building Environmental and Economic Sustainability”), a building materials analysis program developed by the U.S. government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is due out in late Spring of 2000. (See

EBN

Vol. 7, No. 5 for a... Read more

by Bob Kobet and Wendy Powers of Conservation Consultants, Inc., Stephen Lee of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, and Christine Mondor and Marc Mondor of Big Picture Designs, 1999. Paperback, 50 pages, free from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, P.O. Box... Read more

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... Read more

Every once and a while, when I’m able to step back from the immediate pressures of keeping up with the next deadline, I reflect on the bigger picture of what we’re collectively doing—at

EBN and elsewhere—to advance sustainability. I’m troubled by a paradox: the more successful we are at advancing resource... Read more