The third annual

International Design Resource Awards for recycled and renewable materials and products includes categories for “Built Environments” and “Building Materials” along with five others. Winning this competition is reportedly a great way to find a manufacturer for your design. Entry fee is $30; deadline for submissions is... Read more

edited by Joe Demkin, AIA (1997). Published by John Wiley & Sons, New York. Three-ring binder, 350 pages in supplement, $75. The entire Guide is available for $195. To order direct call 800/225-5945.

The 1997 supplement to the

Environmental Resource Guide

(ERG) from The American Institute of Architects expands on the utility... Read more

There are some important benefits of treating wood, the most significant of which is increasing the life of wood that is used in locations where degradation might occur. Older preservatives, such as pentachlorophenal and creosote, pose considerable health risks to users of the wood, but new waterborne preservatives are safer. They are safer in... Read more

Thank you for highlighting the “Ridgehaven Building: Lean and Green for a Municipal Office Building” in the January 1997 issue of

EBN (

Vol. 6, No. 1).

I realize that space was limited, but I would like to point out that the Ridgehaven project was also a team effort. Below are the project team members who were instrumental in... Read more

by Kalin Associates, Inc., 154 Wells Avenue, Newton Center, MA 02159; 617/964-5477, 617/964-5788 (fax). Three-ring binder and diskette, 900 pages, $135 postpaid.

No, we’re not repeating ourselves here. The

Green Spec (two words) that we reviewed last November consists of generic specification language for making greener buildings. This... Read more

Hi-Rise Recycling, Inc. makes electronically controlled systems that allow apartment dwellers and office workers to separate out recyclable materials using a single disposal chute. Since we reviewed the product in

EBN

Vol. 2, No. 5, the company has been expanding, both in market share and vertical integration within their product area.... Read more

CD-ROM by ACEEE Publications, 2140 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 202, Berkeley, CA 94704; 510/549-9914, 510/549-9984 (fax), aceee@ix.netcom.com (e-mail), www.aceee.org. $150.

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s biannual Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings is a unique institution. Every other year, several hundred... Read more

Gridcore Systems International, the Long Beach, California manufacturer of 100% post-consumer recycled-fiber waffle-core panels, is keeping busy! The company recently expanded manufacturing facilities and now has the capacity to produce over 6.5 million square feet (600,000 m2) of nominal 3⁄4 ” (19 mm) panel per year. Expansion was made possible... Read more

A Call for Papers has been issued for the November 1997 conference

“Environmental and Economic Balance: The 21st Century Outlook” sponsored by The American Institute of Architect’s Committee on the Environment, other AIA professional interest areas (PIAs), and the U.S. Green Building Council. Call the PIA Information Line: 800/242-3837... Read more

by Tracy Mumma (1997). Center for Resourceful Building Technology (CRBT), P.O. Box 100, Missoula, MT 59806; 406/549-7678, www.montana.com/crbt. Paperback, 115 pages, $28 postpaid.

“It’s not often that you would want to sit down and actually read a product directory. But you just might with this.” So began our first review of the

GREBE in... Read more

The Home Builders Association of Kitsap County, Washington

has introduced the “Build a Better Kitsap” program to recognize homes built to high environmental standards. Working with consultant Kathleen O’Brien, the Builders can select from a list of 85 options to achieve a one-, two-, or three-star rating. This is the second such program... Read more

Given the alarming situation that has arisen with disposal of CCA-treated wood over the past two decades (see page 1), the editors of

Environmental Building News are taking the unusual step of proposing a phase-out of this product. This recommendation is driven not by the toxicity of CCA-treated wood in use, but by concerns relating to... Read more

Awards and Competitions

The Alameda County Waste Management Authority in California has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the creation of a portable

Resourceful Building Showcase. The Showcase, to be displayed at conferences and trade shows, must be made with recycled-content, reused, recyclable, and nontoxic building materials.... Read more

Given the tremendous amount of material that must be disposed of when a building is demolished, it’s not surprising that there is interest in alternatives for dealing with unwanted structures. One such alternative is careful deconstruction, or “construction in reverse.” Ideally, deconstruction allows materials to be salvaged, recycled, or... Read more

Buildings of

Earth and Straw:

by Bruce King, P.E.

1996, Ecological Design Press, Sausalito, California (distributed by Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, Vermont). Paperback, 170 pages, $25.

No definitive research has yet determined the cause of the oddball humor that invariably accompanies straw... Read more

Thinner Studs Save Wood

As softwood lumber prices continue their wild price gyrations, including a new peak high late last year, pressure to improve the efficiency of wood use is increasing. One solution might be to reduce the thickness of framing lumber.

An Idaho sawmill began producing 11⁄4”-thick (32 mm) 2x4 and 2x6 studs two years... Read more

No More Recycled-content Extruded Polystyrene Insulation

Plastics recycling suffered many setbacks in 1996, not the least of which was the demise of Amoco’s 50%-recycled extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation. The original Amofoam-RCY™, introduced in December 1991, has been officially discontinued. The newer Amofoam-RCX™, which is available in... Read more

International Effort to Standardize Materials Data

Three new committees have been established within the France-based International Union of Testing and Research Laboratories for Materials and Structures (RILEM). Together with one committee established previously, these three aim to assess international standards for reporting on environmental... Read more

An innovative

employee-satisfaction-based compensation contract for a new $40 million, 165 million square-foot (15 million m2) Ciba Geigy laboratory in Tarrytown, New York proved successful for the architecture and construction firms that risked part of their profits. Designers HLW International and contractor Sordoni Skanska agreed to... Read more

The Ecology

of Architecture:

by Laura C. Zeiher. 1996, Whitney Library of Design (an imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications), New York. Hardcover, 270 pages, $55.

The Ecology of Architecture is a very broad work, including background theory on ecological design, profiles of practitioners, and detailed case studies of green... Read more