BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

July 1, 1997

A new organization entitled the Center for Ecological Building Design (CEBD) has been established in London, Ontario, Canada. CEBD defines as its primary goal: “to seek out people-friendly, earth-friendly and cost-effective residential building methods and designs.” CEBD is

developing a touring display of eco-building techniques and... Read more

Op-Ed

July 1, 1997
Access Five Years of EBN on Your Computer!

We are pleased to announce the release of our E Build Library CD-ROM, containing all back issues of the newsletter from

Vol. 1, No. 1 through

Vol. 6, No. 4. The CD-ROM format allows us to make back issues available at a very reasonable price, and adds the capability of full-text... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997
ADPSR West Coast Architectural Resource Guide

David Kibbey, editor, Northern California ADPSR, P.O. Box 9126, Berkeley, CA 94709-0126; 510/273-2428. Paperback or diskette for use with Filemaker Pro, $18 each, $27 for both.

The latest green building product directory to come our way is the work of a handful of dedicated volunteers at the... Read more

Product Review

July 1, 1997
Air Krete: Foam Without Plastics

Air krete insulation is not all that new—it has been around since the early 1980s. In that time, it has collected a small but very enthusiastic group of advocates, especially among the chemically sensitive. There are also skeptics, however, who are concerned about its long-term durability or just question... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997
Newsbriefs

The Good Wood Alliance, formerly the Woodworkers Alliance for Rainforest Protection (WARP), is shifting its direction to serve as a trade association for the sustainable forest products industry. Based in Burlington, Vermont, with chapters in Canada, the Pacific Northwest, and Scandinavia, the Good Wood Alliance has a membership of... Read more

Feature

July 1, 1997

Decisions about siding are consistently among the most difficult for environmentally concerned designers and builders of residential and light commercial buildings. Siding products must withstand all types of weather, look attractive both from a distance and up close, and be affordable to buy and install. With these demands in mind, which are... Read more

News Brief

June 1, 1997
Two Great Books on Native Landscaping

by Ken Druse with Margaret Roach. Clark-son Potter Publishers, New York, 1994. Hardcover, 248 pages, $40.

by Carole Ottesen. Harmony Books, Crown Publishers, New York, 1995. Hardcover, 354 pages, $50.

While these two books aren’t exactly new and they certainly aren’t cheap, they provide a... Read more

News Brief

June 1, 1997
Newsbriefs

The

Renewable Energy Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives has grown to 103 members according to the Sustain- able Energy Coalition. It is now one of the largest officially recognized Congressional Member Organizations, with surprisingly bipartisan membership: 53 Republicans; 49 Democrats, and 1 Independent. The Caucus... Read more

Product Review

June 1, 1997
Sisal Wallcovering

Thick, woven wallcoverings made from coarse natural fibers have long been popular in high-wear institutional settings. One such product, the sisal wallcovering from Design Materials, Inc., has been on the market now for 20 years, selling to clients including the military, various universities, churches, and medical... Read more

News Brief

June 1, 1997

A pilot project is underway to assess the possibilities for salvage and reuse of wood-framed structures at the former

Fort Ord Army Base on the central California coast. The three to eight buildings to be disassembled are representative of the 1,200 hundred structures on the site. A $200,000 grant from the

Packard Foundation is... Read more

News Brief

June 1, 1997
Newsbriefs

Interface president and CEO

Ray Anderson has been named co-chair of the

President’s Council on Sustainable Development. He replaces David Buzzelli, executive vice-president of Dow Chemical Company, and joins co-chair Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute. Along with naming Anderson to the Council,... Read more

Feature

June 1, 1997
The American carpet industry continues to grow. According to the trade publication

Carpet & Rug Industry, 1.6 billion square yards (1.3 billion m2) of carpet were shipped in 1996, enough to cover all five New York boroughs more than one and a half times. To produce that carpet, over 2 billion pounds (900 million kg) of nylon fiber were used... Read more

Op-Ed

June 1, 1997
Carpet Recycling in Perspective

Our decision to feature carpet recycling in this issue raises questions that have been widely debated recently about the value and importance of recycling. The broader environmental issues surrounding this debate are both complex and intriguing, and more involved than we dare get into here. An article in

... Read more

News Analysis

June 1, 1997
New Evidence of Leaching from

CCA-treated Decks

A paper in the January 1997 issue of the

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology reported leaching of copper, chromium, and arsenic from decks made from CCA- (chromated copper arsenate-) treated wood. In the study, Dr. David E. Stilwell and K. D. Gorny, from the... Read more

News Brief

June 1, 1997

A Journal of the Human Environment, monthly magazine from Fine Additions, Inc., 2405 Maclovia Land, Santa Fe, NM 87505; 505/471-4549. Monthly, $28/year.

Designer/builder is a low-tech, black-and-white, large-format magazine with a sharply intellectual bent. It features environmental thinking and socially progressive ideas with an eclectic... Read more

News Brief

June 1, 1997

Proceedings of conference held in September 1996. Forest Products Society, 2801 Marshall Court, Madison, Wisconsin 53705; 608/231-1361; 608/231-2152 (fax); www.forestprod.org. Paperback, 224 pages, $55 for non-members, plus $5 postage and handling.

The conference was excellent, called one of the best in recent years by many of the attendees... Read more

Product Review

June 1, 1997
Another Great

Decking Option

ChoiceDek™, manufactured by AERT (Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies, Inc.), is a 100% recycled-content, wood-plastic composite decking material distributed in some parts of the country by Weyerhaeuser. Like the better-known Trex, ChoiceDek offers an alternative to redwood, cedar, and... Read more

News Brief

June 1, 1997

According to the May issue of

Builder magazine,

American consumers want to support companies that do the right thing. A consumer survey by Roper/Starch Worldwide and Cone Communications found that 76% of consumers would likely switch to companies that are associated with good causes. According to the article, Carol Cone of Cone... Read more

News Brief

June 1, 1997

by John Hermannsson, AIA. The Taunton Press, Newtown, Con-necticut, 1997. Paperback, 150 pages, $37.95.

This new title from Taunton Press, publisher of

Fine Homebuilding magazine, is the latest in a series of green building product directories. It is the first, however, to be published by a mainstream publisher, and its clean styling and... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 1997

by Andrew N. Davis, Ph.D., Esq. and Paul E. Schaffman, P.E.; pub-lished by Owl Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York. 1996, paperback, 372 pages, $19.95.

This is a brilliant and much-needed book. It addresses 50 potential environmental hazards found either on-site (lead paint, biological con- taminants, buried heating oil storage tanks,... Read more