The nonprofit group Urban Ecology Australia has been working to convert a city block in Adelaide, Australia into a progressive ecological community. The plan got the green light from city council members on February 7. The only remaining legal hurdle for the AUS$60 million project is to prove its... Read more

Foamed insulation from coal fly-ash, being developed by Henry Sperber of Abiff Manufacturing, recently got a boost in the form of a DOE grant. Sperber is the inventor of the Blow-in-Blanket and Fiberiffic insulation systems. The product has interesting possibilities as a low-cost, foamed-in-place insulation made from industrial waste. It is... Read more

from The Stafford Architects, 1916 Pike Place #705, Seattle, WA 98101-1056; 206/682-4042, 206/447-1670 (fax). Runs on common spreadsheet or database software on Mac or DOS-based PCs. $45, $69 with semi-annual update. Multi-user licenses slightly higher.

There’s a lot of information on this... Read more

InsulCot™ was a recycled cotton and polyester insulation product that was available on a limited basis since 1991. It has been temporarily discontinued but should be available much more widely this May. A major textile manufacturer is now gearing up for large-scale production. The new product (as yet unnamed) is being positioned to... Read more

The City of New York has created an Inter-Agency Environmentally Sound Building Task Force to develop, encourage, and coordinate ideas for introducing environmentally sound building into the municipal building program. The City is currently soliciting information from other municipalities, private industry, and other countries on applied... Read more

with Architects

by John Connell. 1993, Warner Books, New York. 400 pages, hardcover, $35.00.

With

Homing Instinct, Connell has contributed the latest in a tradition of how-to books for owner-builders. Following in the footsteps of old classics like

From the Ground Up and

Building... Read more

Your article titled “Should We Phase Out PVC?” was a breath of fresh air. You assumed an impartial role and presented the available information without misrepresentation, innuendo or distortion. The fact that PVC can be hazardous during its manufacture and disposal should be of concern to your readers.

... Read more

After years of development, the Building Environmental Performance Assessment Criteria (BEPAC) program is up and running. The system is designed as a voluntary rating program for commercial and institutional buildings, in which building owners can choose to have their property... Read more

A lot of what we do in our research at EBN is listen to claims. We hear from one group that a particular material is great for the environment, while another group tells us just the opposite. Very often, both interest groups are right …and both are wrong. How can that be? The apparent contradiction lies in selective use of... Read more

Image Industries, Inc., formerly Image Carpets Inc., has become one of the largest recyclers of PET in the U.S. (Image Carpets has been widely promoted as the premier manufacturer of carpets from recycled plastic resin.) Carpet manufacturing may soon be taking a back seat to PET recycling at the company, which ranked 22nd in sales volume among... Read more

I appreciated reading your fairly comprehensive article on environmental impacts of various heating fuel options (“Heating Fuel Choices: Weighing the Alternatives”, EBN,

Vol. 2, No. 6). You uncovered several of the complexities inherent to evaluating the costs and benefits of fuel options as determined by... Read more

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is planning a large-scale center for conferences, environmental education, and recreation on 1,040 acres on Mt. Greylock in Adams. The proposed $6.5 million center will feature state-of-the-art environmental technologies and design strategies. Requests for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) are available by calling... Read more

Green Builder Program, City of Austin, Environmental & Conservation Services Dept., 206 E. 9th Street, Suite 17.102, Austin, TX 78701; 512/499-3500; 512/499-2859 (fax). Three-ring binder format, 440 pages, $25 postpaid.

The Sustainable Building Sourcebook was written to provide background information for... Read more

Dr. Jack Ward Thomas, well known for advocating forest management practices that protect wildlife habitat, was named the 13th chief of the U.S. Forest Service on November 17, 1993. Thomas, a wildlife biologist as well as forester who has been with the Service for 27 years, is a leading advocate of “... Read more

The CNN Environment Unit is preparing a half-hour show on environmental home renovation featuring EBN Advisory Board members Steve Loken and Marc Rosenbaum. EBN subscribers are invited to suggest renovation ideas, materials, or techniques (for either contractors or do-it- yourselfers) for inclusion in the show, which will air in late May or... Read more

In 1992 The Glidden Company surprised the interior paint world by offering a latex paint without any volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs in paints have been implicated in indoor air quality (IAQ) problems and environmental illness cases. There has been a strong trend toward lower VOC formulations, spurred in part... Read more

The Alcyone Light Centre is offering a three-month course in green architecture in the spring of 1994, and another in sustainable building construction in the summer. Contact Architectural Internship Director, Alcyone Light Centre, 1965 Hilt Rd., Hornbrook, CA 96044; 916/475-3310.

Cellulose Article

The reviews are in on the cellulose story in the September/October issue of EBN. The consensus of the cellulose industry: Quite possibly the best article ever written about cellulose insulation. Of course, everyone doesn’t agree with every word in the piece, but overall the industry seems to think it’s... Read more

The

Environmental Resource Guide from the American Institute of Architects (reviewed in EBN

Vol. 1, No. 3) is now available at a lower subscription rate. The new price for one year of quarterly installments is $98 for AIA members and $165 for non-members. Call 800/365-ARCH to order.