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.

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

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

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

(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

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

More than half of the

world’s rivers are either going dry or are polluted, according to the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century. During 1998, for the first time ever, more people were displaced for want of useable water (“environmental refugees”) than those displaced by war: 25 million vs. 21 million war-related... 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

by David Johnston, 2000. Home Builder Press, Washington, D.C. Paperback, 175 pages, $45

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

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

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

or Concrete

Asphalt and concrete account for the vast majority of paving today. These materials are very different: asphalt is a mix of aggregate and leftover heavy hydrocarbons after more valuable, lighter fractions of crude oil have been extracted; concrete is a hardened, rock-like material usually made by... Read more

Rebuild America has announced its

1999 National Energy Champion Award winners. Among the twelve winners are:

Portland Partners for Energy Efficiency program of the Portland Energy Office, represented by senior energy program manager Curt Nichols;

•Partnership Leader of the Year:

Hilary... 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