A new

Gallup poll on the environment shows continued broad support for the goals of the environmental movement—but not as a top priority. Of the 1,004 adults polled during April 3-9, 83% agree with the goals of the environmental movement, including 43% who “strongly agree.” Among those surveyed, 55% describe current environmental... Read more

The executive committee of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) has selected its ten recognized projects for Earth Day 2000. More details and contact information are available from Mike Janes of The AIA press office at 202/626-7467 or mjanes@aia.org.

Washington state is following the lead of Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and others in moving toward

certification of state-owned forestland. The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced in late March that it would like to have up to 1.1 million acres (445,000 ha) of state land certified under the Forest Stewardship Council... Read more

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Vol. 8, No. 5) as their first climate-neutral product, and Saunders now offers climate-... Read more

I always read

EBN all the way through, but I look for the best parts and go to them first. After leafing through the whole magazine, I started on the “Structure as Finish” article (

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 3), thinking at first—“not so interesting.” By the time I was into the third... Read more

1999 energy consumption in the United States increased 1.6% over 1998, according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy (EIA). Total consumption was 92.72 quads (97.9 x 1018 J). At the same time, domestic energy production dropped 0.86% and net imports increased 2.59%. Dependence on petroleum... Read more

Flooring, paneling, and other wood products from Green Mountain Woodworks (GMW) in Southwestern... Read more

In December 1998, Hurd MillWORK agreed to a $5.3 million class-action settlement relating to claims about R-value in gas-fill windows that were shipped with breather tubes installed. Andersen Windows devotes a full page in this year’s residential product catalog to “High Altitude Glass Considerations.” The window industry is struggling with the... Read more

Liverpool High School, near Syracuse, New York, has become the first high school to install a fuel cell. The school’s ONSI PC25 fuel cell will be used both as a power source and a teaching tool. Funding was provided, in part, from the state of New York and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The carbohydrate economy is moving a little closer to reality with the announcement in January that Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc. and Dow Chemical are teaming up to build the first large-scale “renewable” plastics plant. Completion of the 140,000 metric-ton, $300 million plant in Blair, Nebraska is scheduled for late 2001. Natural plant sugars... Read more

After several years of sporadic publication, the newsletter Building with Nature: Placemaking that Supports Life has seen its last issue. Editor Carol Venolia was an original

EBN Advisory Board member, and her newsletter was an excellent complement to

EBN, addressing more of the spiritual and intuitive aspects of environmentally... Read more

by J. David Odom and George DuBose of CH2M-HILL, in cooperation with Disney Development Company. Available from CH2M-HILL, 225 E. Robinson St., Ste. 505, Orlando, FL 32801; 407/423-0030, 407/839-5901 (fax), jodom@ch2m.com (e-mail). Spiral-bound, 100 pages, $70.

Despite the

cooling expected from the weather phenomenon La Niña, 1999 was still the fifth hottest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In related news, NOAA scientists suggest in an article in the March 1 issue of

Geophysical Research Letters that the string of record... Read more

With the passage last year of a law in Louisiana designed to address the risk of Formosan termites, it looked as if preservative-treated wood was going to be

mandated in all framing lumber used in home building. Senate Bill 373 provides for the formation of a task force to deal with the growing problem of Formosan termites in Louisiana... Read more

Version 4.0 of the popular E Build Library CD-ROM is now in production, with copies expected to ship starting in early May. The comprehensive archive features all 57 back issues of

Environmental Building News from the first, in 1992, through 1999. The text is fully searchable using Adobe Acrobat® text search or via hotlinks from the... Read more

A “Sun Wall” national design competition has been announced for an aesthetic and practical solar energy system for the huge South wall of the Department of Energy’s Forrestal Building in Washington, D.C. DOE estimates that the roughly 28,000 ft2 (2,600 m2) can generate as much as 200 peak kilowatts of electricity. The competition is cosponsored... Read more

On March 8, 2000 Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell (BNIM) Architects of Kansas City created a new division focusing exclusively on green design and consulting. The new “Elements” division will be directed by Jason F. McLennan, who is currently project manager on several green demonstration projects. Elements offers services in programming... Read more

Visionwall Technologies, Inc., a leading manufacturer of high-efficiency curtain-wall glazing systems (see University of Victoria Engineering Laboratory case study in

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Vol. 6, No. 7), went into receivership on February 24, 2000. Customers should see little effect from this action, however, as Visionwall Corporation has taken... Read more

I was not so convinced by the case for building commissioning as I expected to be when I began reading the article in

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Vol. 9, No. 2.

The San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network (RAN), whose activist tactics are scorned by some in the environmental community but who played a pivotal role in convincing Home Depot to embrace forest certification, has launched a campaign against the home building industry’s use of lumber. RAN argues that home builders use 72% of the nation... Read more