Whenever the term “plastics” is used, a whole generation of Americans immediately thinks of Dustin Hoffman in the 1967 movie classic,

The Graduate. Hoffman portrays Ben, a promising but largely directionless college graduate, whom one family friend cannot help but enlighten with the following advice: “Plastics.”

Indeed, the... Read more

The American Lung Association reports that in a nationwide random sample of office workers, 24% felt that there were air quality problems in their work environment and 20% believed that poor air quality affected their work performance. Sources of indoor air pollution include biological agents, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, radon, secondhand... Read more

The ASES Passive Pioneer Award, given to those whose pioneering work in the passive solar energy field has set the stage for others to follow, was given to Murray Milne, Professor Emeritus at UCLA. Since the 1970s, Milne and his graduate students have researched climate conditions and developed software tools that are widely used in the design... Read more

Dioxins emitted from daily open-barrel burning of just two households (a common practice in many rural areas) can equal emissions from a modern 200-ton-per-day municipal waste combustion facility, according to a recent EPA study. The disproportionately high emissions from barrel burning occur because of a combination of conditions considered “... Read more

What used to be a trickle of finished wood products from Asia to the United States is now a flood. Furniture imports from China alone have risen from approximately $21 million in 1989 to nearly $1 billion in 1999. For environmental groups such as the Rainforest Action Network, the trend may be a golden opportunity to alter forestry practices in... Read more

Our Newsbrief on page 5 of

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 4 about the Maine Hospital Association incorrectly identified the Natural Resources Council of Maine as the Natural Resources

Defense Council of Maine. Our apologies.

... Read more

Starting May 23, 2001, every new home in the City of Frisco, Texas must be built to the minimum standards of the city’s green building program, featuring the EPA Energy Star® Homes program. This makes Frisco one of the first cities in the U.S. with a mandatory green building program, and the first to mandate Energy Star standards. A... Read more

In addition to the two honorees for whom we had advance notice, Gail Lindsey and Mike Nicklas, two other champions of sustainable design were designated “Fellows” of The American Institute of Architects at a May 18, 2001 ceremony in Denver. They are Gregg Ander of Southern California Edison, and Marsha Maytum of Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects in... Read more

The

American Tree Farm System has engaged PriceWaterhouseCoopers to review its certification and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses in relation to the American Forest & Paper Association’s (AF&PA) Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). The Tree Farm System is a program of the American Forest Foundation, providing technical... Read more

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has a new standard for recycled-plastic residential decking. This standard pulls together into one product specification the individual strength test methods for recycled plastic established almost four years ago (see EBN

Vol. 6, No. 9). While the standardized test methods created a... Read more

When a regional astronomy club based in Springfield, Vermont raised opposition to a new state prison slated for the town, the state hired lighting engineer (and new

EBN Advisory Board member) Nancy Clanton to come up with a plan for reducing light pollution in the prison design. While her firm came up with an outdoor lighting plan for... Read more

Solar electric buildings researcher, designer, and advocate Steven Strong was the recipient of this year’s prestigious Charles Greeley Abbot Award from the American Solar Energy Society (ASES). The award is given for significant contributions to the Society or to the field of solar energy. Strong is principal of Solar Design Associates in... Read more

by the Center for Sustainable Construction of the Building Research Establishment (London, England), 2000; online at www.constructionplus.co.uk. Two softbound publications: BR 389 2000 (Program introduction), £25; BR 390 2000 (Materials guide), £35

Collins Products LLC has received Green Cross certification from Scientific Certification Systems, Inc. that its particleboard is manufactured entirely from post-industrial waste fibers. While most particleboard manufactured today contains a high percentage of wood waste from other manufacturing processes, Collins has made an unusual commitment... Read more

Entering the U.S. market with autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) has not been easy. North American Cellular Concrete made a go of it in 1992 (see

EBN

Vol. 1, No. 2) but got no further than a pilot plant. In 1996, the German Hebel Group built a manufacturing plant in Adel, Georgia through its subsidiary Hebel USA (see

EBN... Read more

A report requested by the Bush administration on global climate change was released by a committee of the National Academies’ National Research Council on June 6, 2001. The report summed up science’s current understanding of climate change by confirming that greenhouse gases are accumulating in the earth’s atmosphere and causing surface... Read more

It’s never good to misquote a source, but it’s especially embarrassing when that source is one’s own research! In our “Buildings and the Environment: The Numbers” feature article (

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 5) we listed the amounts of paved area in the U.S. in millions instead of thousands. The correct values are:

Transparent insulation was developed to increase the thermal performance of glazings without significantly reducing the light transmission. One pioneer in transparent insulation, Dr. K. G. T. Hollands of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, was initially looking for ways of improving performance of solar water heating collectors. By creating... Read more