We’re very excited to announce that Peter Yost of the NAHB Research Center will be joining our staff as research director and senior editor of

Environmental Building News. In addition to contributing to

EBN’s content, Peter will share responsibility for many of our research, writing, and consulting services. A former high-school... Read more

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

Heliotrope General, Inc., a 25-year-old manufacturer of solar water heating components (see

EBN

Vol. 8, No. 7/8), suffered a devastating fire at its Spring Valley, California facility on January 11. As a result of the fire, company founder and president, Sam Dawson, has decided to retire from the solar industry, and he has sold... 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

Thank you for your article on building commissioning in

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 2 [February 2000]. This important aspect of the building process is indeed gaining focus throughout the design and construction communities as buildings and their supporting systems become ever more complex and interrelated. As you point out, building codes... Read more

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

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.

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

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

Roger Babb and his company, Babb International, have been awarded the Spirit of Georgia Award from the State Chamber of Commerce. The honor is given to a Georgia business person who has demonstrated superior ability and courage in the development of an idea into a successful business. Babb International is the only domestic producer of... Read more

by Malcolm Wells, 1999. Available from the author, 673 Satucket Road, Brewster, Cape Cod, MA 02631; 508/896-6850, 508/896-5116 (fax). Hardback, 144 pages, $5 plus $2 postage & handling.

This little book, by architect and underground building pioneer Malcolm Wells, reads like a children’s book, but is more for adult children.

by Theodore Osmundson, FASLA, 1999. W. W. Norton & Co., New York. Hardcover, 318 pages, $75.

Roof Gardens is a valuable resource for anyone involved with the creation of green spaces on top of buildings or above underground parking garages.

Author Theodore Osmundson, a leader in the landscape architecture field for the last... Read more

In connection with its 2000 Eco-Design Arts Conference (see Calendar) the University of Oregon’s HOPES is sponsoring The Ecology of Home Design Challenge. The very broad guidelines indicate only that entries must present a solution to a universal ecological problem and be presented on no more than two presentation boards. Contact Maren Zieba at... Read more

I’d like to thank you for reviewing our new book and video series in your January 2000 issue (EBN

Vol. 9, No. 1). However, I don’t want your readers to be misled, so I would like to clarify one point.

Healthy House Building for the New Millennium is not a book version of

The Healthy House Video Series. While they both go... Read more

Leading green architect Sandra

Mendler has left her position as director

of HOK’s Sustainable Design

Group to become design principal of

the Washington office of Princetonbased

CUH2A, Inc. Mendler is chair

of The American Institute of Architects

Committee on the Environment,

a board member... Read more

by Joseph Jenkins, 1999. Chelsea Green, White River Junction, VT. Softcover, 302 pages, $19.

It was heartening to see your publication address the issue of alternatives to vinyl wallcovering in your January issue (EBN

Vol. 9, No. 1). Although the problems with vinyl are well known in the environmental building community, its extensive use for wallcovering is often overlooked. Soft vinyls that are used for walls and upholstery... Read more

Fiberock Aqua-Tough Sheathing, a new product from gypsum products giant USG, has significant environmental and performance advantages. Strength, durability, and integral water resistance are selling points for this unfaced gypsum sheathing.