News Brief
After a year-and-a-half as EBN’s able products editor, Dwight Holmes plans to get back into
working with products instead of writing about them. As a result, we’re looking for someone to fill his shoes—both in helping track products for EBN and in maintaining our
GreenSpec directory. It’s an exciting time in the green products... Read more
News Brief
A solar house in Hanover, New Hampshire—designed by
Marc Rosenbaum, P.E. and featured in EBN
Vol. 7, No. 2 —is a winner of this year’s National Technology Awards from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Other winners will be announced at the Society’s Winter Meeting in Dallas... Read more
News Analysis
AllGreen® MDF, a new medium-density fiberboard (MDF) product made from 100% post-consumer wood fiber and phenol-formaldehyde binders, is nearing production by The CanFibre Group Ltd. The company’s new Riverside, California plant is continuing to fine tune its production process to improve face characteristics of its standard MDF board. CanFibre... Read more
News Brief
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
News Brief
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
News Brief
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.
Op-Ed
My family couldn’t disagree more with the comment you received about the quality of light from tubular skylights [see feature in EBN
Vol. 8, No. 10, and letter in EBN
Vol. 8, No. 11]. We had two Solatubes installed last month: one in a fairly dark kitchen, and the other in an interior windowless bathroom. They passed both the “... Read more
News Brief
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
News Brief
, 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
Op-Ed
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.
Electronic copies of the newsletter will includefull-... Read more
News Brief
(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
News Analysis
Inno-Therm Products, LLC has purchased the equipment and technology for manufacturing batt insulation of recycled cotton fabric from Greenwood Cotton Insulation Products, which ceased production of the insulation in 1997 (see EBN
Vol. 7, No. 2, page 10). Inno-Therm expects to begin commercial production of the insulation by March of... Read more
News Brief
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
News Brief
by John Bower, 2000. The Healthy House Institute. Paperback, 416 pages, $21.95
Healthy House Building for the New Millennium is the book version ofThe 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
News Brief
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
News Brief
by Mary Guzowski. McGraw-Hill, New York, 2000. Hardcover, 450 pages, $79.95.
Daylighting for Sustainable Design is a treat to read, either by opening it up randomly and starting anywhere, or progressing cover-to-cover. Author Mary Guzowski uses high-quality color images and clear descriptions to let buildings from around the world tell the... Read moreNews Brief
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
Op-Ed
I am writing in response to the article on daylighting—“Daylighting: Energy and Productivity Benefits”—in
EBN
Vol. 8, No. 9 (September 1999). Although I am very pleased to see such a commitment of both article space and staff time to this important topic, it was disappointing to see an exclusive focus on high-cost daylighting... Read more
News Brief
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
News Analysis
Taking a page from the tobacco book, Rhode Island’s attorney general is suing lead paint manufacturers for allegedly conspiring to market a dangerous product that poisons children. The ten-count lawsuit seeks damages to “get the lead out of Rhode Island’s children, homes, and buildings, by paying to treat... Read more