High-quality, energy-efficient buildings seem like a win-win opportunity, with lower life cycle costs for the building owner and a better, more productive environment for the occupants. The environmental benefits from reduced energy use are icing on the cake. In practice, however, such buildings are rare. Why? It’s not for lack of the right... Read more

Less than two years after the completion of its highly touted “EcoMart” in Lawrence, Kansas, Wal-Mart is continuing to experiment with energy-efficient technologies and design. A huge “Supercenter” in Moore, Oklahoma, has been announced as the next environmental demonstration store, and plans are reportedly in the works for a third in southern... Read more

Recent testing at the University of Toronto has shown borate treatment to be effective in preventing termite damage to aspen waferboard. The tests were conducted by Timothy G. Myles of the Urban Entomology program and were sponsored by Forintek Canada Corp. The results, published in the September 1994 issue of

Forest... Read more

Update: EcoPanels are no longer available.

The veneers are applied to substrates with... Read more

Ozone depletion in the Northern Hemisphere reached record levels this winter, according to information from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported in the 24 February issue of

The Global Environmental Change Report. In Siberia during late January and early February, ozone levels averaged 25% below normal and... Read more

REDI Guide™Andy Johnson, Editor. On diskette for Macintosh or Windows. Iris Communications, Inc., 258 East 10th Avenue, Suite E, Eugene, OR 97401-3284; 800/346-0104, 503/484-1645 (fax). $49, plus $5 for postage & handling.

Harris Directory: Recycled Content Building Materials, Second... Read more

Separating graywater from sewage and using it for landscape irrigation makes a lot of sense. The practice conserves potable water, allows irrigation during droughts, and increases the life of in-ground septic systems. Unfortunately, use of untreated graywater for irrigation has long been illegal in most of the U.S. Finally, that is beginning to... Read more

on Eco-Cities

The Urban Ecologist: The Journal of Urban EcologyStephen Wheeler, Editor, Urban Ecology, 405 14th Street, Suite 701, Oakland, CA 94612; 510/251-6330; urbanecology@igc.apc.org. Quarterly subscription with Urban Ecology membership, $30/year.

EcoCity Cleveland: Ideas and Tools and a Sustainable... Read more

A number of home rating and home certification programs for environmentally sound construction are now in place across the country. The City of Austin’s Green Builder Program and the Good Cents Environmental Homes program were described in previous issues of EBN. New to the field are the E Seal program from... Read more

Environmental issues are not considered a significant factor for 1995 by carpet industry analysts, according to an extensive collection of industry trends and predictions published in

Carpet & Rug Industry, November 1994. Of the fourteen featured consultants and executives from all segments of the carpet industry, only Mac Bridger,... Read more

Strikes Back

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

A personal note: The people perhaps most responsible for the recent resurgence of interest in straw-bale construction, Matts Myhrman and Judy Knox, are facing a severe medical situation. Due to this problem and our country’s unresolved health-care needs, they also have a financial crisis to contend with. A group of their friends have organized... Read more

According to a market study of cellulose insulation in the November issue of

Resource Recycling, manufacturers have been struggling to keep up with the demand for cellulose insulation over the past year, even as the price of recycled newspaper has skyrocketed. Because of price increases,... Read more

Environmental Code of Practice for Buildings and Their Services by S. P. Halliday. Published May, 1994 by The Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA), Old Bracknell Lane West, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 7AH, United Kingdom; 44-344-426511, 44-344-487575 (fax). Cost is £45 (about $70)... Read more

Glidden’s Spred 2000 and Lifemaster 2000 lines, introduced in 1993, were the first such paints from a mainstream paint company (see EBN... Read more

Carrier Corporation is the only building products manufacturer to receive a 1994 Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award from the U.S. EPA. Carrier won the award for developing the first residential central air-conditioner to run on a chlorine-free refrigerant, HFC-134a (a hydrofluorocarbon). The company was simultaneously cited for its new... Read more

The company has retained Christine Hammer of Sustainable Design Resources on a half-time basis to serve as... Read more

I would like to offer some comments about your recent Carpeting article (EBN, November/December 1994). First of all, there seems to be a movement afoot in some circles to discredit the work of Dr. Anderson. She and her work have been well respected since she founded her laboratory in 1987. Suddenly, rumors are circulating... Read more

The Northern Forest Lands Council released its final report,

Finding Common Ground: Conserving the Northern Forest, in September 1994. Following the sale of timberlands in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York to land speculators and developers in the 1980s, Congress appropriated funding to study... Read more

A new efficiency record has been set for the commercial-scale conversion of sunlight into electricity. Efficiency over 20% was achieved in a 2 kW installation near Atlanta, Georgia using a system called Integrated High-Concen- tration Photovoltaics (IHCPV). Built by AMONIX, Inc. of Torrance, California, the system uses low-cost... Read more