Atlas Roofing Corporation, which in 1998 became the first polyisocyanurate insulation manufacturer to introduce an ozone-safe product (see

EBN

Vol. 7, No. 5), is still the only manufacturer to offer such a product. While most polyiso today is made with HCFC-141b, Atlas’s AC Ultra™ technology uses a mixture of hydrocarbons as the... Read more

Scientists at NREL have achieved a

new efficiency record for cadmium telluride photovoltaic cells. The new record of 16.4% beat the previous mark of 15.8%, which had stood since 1992. Cadmium telluride is an increasingly attractive PV technology. First Solar’s new 100 MW CdTe plant in Toledo, Ohio began operation this spring (see

energy simulation software. For many years, DOE-2 has been the standard energy modeling tool for large buildings and the benchmark against which other simulation tools are tested. It has some weaknesses, however, including being notoriously... Read more

Most of us have a general understanding that buildings and the process of development have a pretty big impact on the environment. But what are those impacts and just how significant are they?

California gave a big boost to small power producers in the state by

increasing the cap on power-production systems that can feed power into the grid through

net metering provisions. The cap has been increased from 10 kilowatts to 1 megawatt. Net metering laws or regulations in more than 30 states allow power producers to “run... Read more

by Norbert Lechner, 2001. John Wiley & Sons, New York. Hardcover, 640 pages, $85

Heating, Cooling, Lighting is one of the most useful and important books on building design in the last ten years. The book is not inexpensive, but it’s worth every penny. Norbert Lechner, an architecture professor at Auburn... Read more

EBN, and things not to change. It was particularly interesting to compare the current results with those from our first subscriber survey conducted... Read more

There are quite a few insulated concrete form (ICF) systems on the market whose manufacturers make a variety of resource efficiency claims.

EBN came across an interesting newcomer, Tech Block, at this year’s Greenprints conference in Atlanta. Tech Block uses 100% recycled EPS in a cementitious matrix similar to the popular Rastra system... Read more

The worldwide

costs of climate change will reach $300 billion annually by 2050, predicts Munich RE, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies. These costs will result from more frequent tropical cyclones, land loss due to rising sea levels, and damage to fishing stocks, agriculture, and water supplies. In the U.S., an estimated... Read more

is pleased to be honored by

Metropolitan Home magazine as one the

Design 100 Best of the Best: People, Places, Extraordinary Things in the “Design that Makes a Difference” category. Also recognized are architect (and

EBN Advisory Board member) Gail Lindsey, landscape architect Julie Bargmann, eco-designer Wendy... Read more

The

Architecture + Energy: Building Excellence in Sustainable Design awards program from the AIA/Portland Chapter recognizes the integration of design excellence with sustainable principles and conservation technology in commercial buildings. Historically restricted to buildings in the Northwestern U.S., this year the program invites... Read more

With support from The Heinz Endowments, Alan Barak of the Penn Energy Project... Read more

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) are partnering to establish the

best available practices in

life-cycle assessment. The Life Cycle Inititative should go a long way toward harmonizing existing methods, databases, and life-cycle tools. This initiative... Read more

We have the Environmental Home Center—almost an ‘Eco-Home Depot’—where our clients can see and actually... Read more

by Richard Pinkham. Rocky Mountain Institute, 2000. Spiral-bound, 64 pages. Available printed for $12 plus shipping from RMI, 1739 Snowmass Creek Rd., Snowmass, CO 81654; 970/927-3851; or available for free in PDF format from the RMI Web site:

www.rmi.org

FPL Energy of Florida is building a

300-megawatt wind farm—the world’s largest—on the border of Oregon and Washington. The 450-turbine wind farm, which will produce enough power for approximately 70,000 homes, should be completed by the end of this year. Power from the Stateline Wind Generating Project will be sold throughout the West... Read more

I have read your article covering the SB2000 Conference in The Netherlands (

EBN

Vol. 10, No. 1), and the response from Nils Larsson, executive director of the International Institute for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE) in the following issue. I appreciate Nils’ statement that iiSBE intends to cooperate with the World... Read more

during 2000 reached an all-time high at 57.0% total imports (up from 56.6% in 1998 and 55.6% in 1999), according to the February 2001 edition of

Monthly Energy Review, published by the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy (

www.eia.doe.gov). Net petroleum imports (... Read more

They have become a part of too many American landscapes: abandoned or irreversibly declining retail malls. The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has dubbed them “greyfields malls.” According to a recent analysis PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) conducted as a part of the CNU “Greyfields Mall Study,” there are more than 140 regional malls—sites... Read more