BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

September 1, 1996
Awards and Competitions

Among the first set of fifteen grants announced by the recently created North American Fund for Environmental Cooperation (NAFEC) is an award of CAN$94,000 for a project by the International Institute for Sustainable Development of Winnipeg, Manitoba, for the evaluation of sustainable development plans in three... Read more

News Brief

September 1, 1996

Canada’s largest energy producers have formed a nonprofit alliance, the Greenhouse Emissions Management Consortium (GEMCo), to manage the companies’ carbon emission offset activities. GEMCo president Aldyen Donnelly was quoted in the 28 June issue of

Global Environmental Change Report that the formation of GEMCo highlights a growing... Read more

Product Review

September 1, 1996
Using Air to Build Earth Walls

Napa, California, builder David Easton has been building with earth for over two decades now. For much of that time his specialty was rammed-earth, but high labor costs have kept that technique a fringe style for high-end homes. To build more economically with earth, Easton borrowed gunnite equipment from the... Read more

Case Study

September 1, 1996
Patagonia Building a Model for Green Planning

The newly built Patagonia distribution center and office facility in Reno, Nevada, benefits from leading-edge environmental analysis and planning, even within its conventional form. Designers of the 184,000 ft2 (17,000 m2) building, the Miller|Hull Partnership of Seattle, Washington, used a... Read more

News Brief

September 1, 1996
Newsbriefs

Stratospheric levels of chlorine should peak by the year 2000, according to the 14 June issue of

Global Environmental Change Report. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado, have been measuring levels of various CFCs and HCFCs in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) since 1991 and... Read more

News Analysis

September 1, 1996
Maker of Recycled Foam Insulation Sold

Amoco Foam Products, makers of the only extruded polystyrene insulation with significant recycled content, is being purchased by Tenneco Packaging, a division of Tenneco, Inc. of Greenwich, Connecticut. Even before the purchase, through a $310 million stock acquisition, Tenneco was the largest producer of... Read more

News Brief

September 1, 1996
Quarterly Notes from Down Under

Environment Design Guide, The Royal Australian Institute of Architects. Australian$126 for four quarterly installments (approximately US$100). Order from RAIA-Environment; The Royal Australian Institute of Architects, P.O. Box 3373, Manuka ACT 263, Australia; +61 6 273 1953 (fax). Full set of 24 previously... Read more

Op-Ed

September 1, 1996
Now We Know Who

You Are

Well, sort of. At least we know more about the demographics and interests of the 13% of

EBN subscribers who made it through our first-ever Reader Survey. Thanks again to those of you who took the time and returned the survey. We’ll try to keep it shorter next time. As promised, here are some highlights... Read more

News Brief

September 1, 1996

Closing off streets to cars to create pedestrian malls doesn’t always work.

Land Use Digest, published by the Urban Land Institute, reported in its May 1996 issue that Chicago is joining such cities as Eugene, Little Rock, and Norfolk in reverting pedestrian malls back into regular streets. Merchants have complained in these cities that... Read more

News Analysis

September 1, 1996
Georgia Pacific Settles with EPA

The Georgia Pacific Corporation (G-P) agreed on 18 July to a costly settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency following a long wrangle with regulators and lawmakers. The company will pay a $6 million fine and spend at least $26 million on environmental improvements under the agreement, according... Read more

News Brief

September 1, 1996
A Beautiful Product Guide

The Natural House Catalog: Everything You Need to Create an Environmentally Friendly Home, by David Pearson. Simon & Schuster, 1996. Paperback, 286 pages, $23.

This sequel to David Pearson’s popular

The Natural House Book uses a similar format—beautiful, high-quality photos and clear, concise text—... Read more

Op-Ed

September 1, 1996
EBN E-mail Discussion Group

EBN is now cosponsoring an e-mail discussion group on green building. Joining us in this effort is Iris Communications, Inc., publisher of the REDI Guide™ to green building materials. This group should be a uniquely valuable forum for discussing ideas and issues, and getting quick answers to practical questions.... Read more

News Analysis

July 1, 1996

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) manufacturers representing 70% of the EPS industry recently joined together in April 1995 to form a trade organization, the EPS Molders Association, to more effectively promote their products. According to the May 1996 issue of

Energy Design Update, this development should help solve one of the biggest... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1996

Christine Hammer, editor.

To subscribe, send the message “subscribe” to [email protected]. No charge.

If you have an e-mail account and an interest in green building, you should subscribe to

Greenclips. Every two weeks, between six and ten one-paragraph summaries of articles, gleaned from over 60 different publications,... Read more

Feature

July 1, 1996
Dru Meadows, manager of the Green Team at BSW International, a large management, real estate, design and construction company, evaluates and specifies many new and alternative building materials. Many green materials she sees don’t get specified, and it isn’t because the products aren’t good. Often it is because the novice manufacturer doesn’t... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1996

The April 1996 issue of the well-regarded British publication

Green Building Digest reports that Malaysia—one of the world’s largest plywood exporters—now stamps all of its plywood with the label “Sustainable Timber” even though, according to the Malaysian government, the country will be a net timber importer by the end of the century... Read more

News Analysis

July 1, 1996

A newly formed organization is now developing standardized testing protocols for indoor air quality related products and materials. The Product Emissions Testing Lab (PETL) Network is bringing together representatives of academia, government, and industry to achieve consensus-based procedures and to certify laboratories to test products... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1996

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1996. 445 pages, hardcover, $34.95.

A handful of individuals have played truly dramatic roles in improving the relationship between our built environment and the natural environment.

Near the top of that list is Ian McHarg, a Scottish war hero who went on to found the landscape architecture program... Read more

Product Review

July 1, 1996
Steel I-beams are designed on the basic principle that most of the stresses on a beam are at the top and the bottom. Open-web trusses and joists extend this principle much further, using only spaced diagonal members to connect the top and bottom chords. In between these two options are

castellated I-beams—essentially, regular I-beams with much... Read more

Op-Ed

July 1, 1996

Congratulations on an excellent May/June 1996 issue! Very seldom do I read any magazine and find fewer things to pick at than this particular issue of

EBN. But I do have two. As we have discussed in the past, the name of CMHC, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, would seem to make more sense as the Canadian Mortgage and Housing... Read more