The City of Seattle has adopted a Sustainable Buildings Policy for all municipal projects over 5,000 ft2 (465 m2) in size, with reference to environmental performance in general, life-cycle costing, and the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system. The policy states: “All facilities and buildings over 5,000 gross square feet of occupied... Read more

In the not-so-distant past, buildings were simpler than they are now, and the roles of building professionals were less specialized and fragmented. Architects could effectively oversee the construction process, and contractors understood all the systems they were installing. Buildings were expected to provide basic shelter. If they had comfort-... Read more

by Jeff Gersh and Chelsea Congdon, 1999. Bullfrog Films, Inc., P.O. Box 149, Oley, PA 19547, 800/543-3764,  www.bullfrogfilms.com. Video, 57 or 27 mins., $29.95+$5 S&H for home use; with public performance rights: $250 for long version, $195 for short version. Rentals available.

This high-quality, compelling video is both a... Read more

In response to a recent advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to gather input on potential changes to the existing testing and labeling requirements for cellular plastic insulation, the expanded polystyrene (EPS) molders association is pushing for labeling requirements that better represent... Read more

Inno-Therm Products, LLC has purchased the equipment and technology for manufacturing batt insulation of recycled cotton fabric from Greenwood Cotton Insulation Products, which ceased production of the insulation in 1997 (see EBN

Vol. 7, No. 2, page 10). Inno-Therm expects to begin commercial production of the insulation by March of... Read more

A survey of

comments from key players in the IAQ industry published in the January 2000 issue of

IEQ Strategies reveals some interesting trends. Asthma, especially in children, is seen as an increasingly important health issue related to IAQ. Overall, the importance of VOCs and tobacco smoke as air quality issues is declining,... Read more

The Emeryville Resourceful Building project consists of one two-unit and one single-family dwelling on a tight, infill site.

Innovations in Wallcoverings, Inc., a 25-year-old manufacturer of vinyl wallcoverings and upholstery,... Read more

In other

green power news, the city of Palmdale, California has announced that it is following Santa Monica’s lead (see EBN

Vol. 8, No. 6, p. 3) in purchasing its municipal power from renewable sources. Green electricity will be purchased from Commonwealth Energy Corporation in Tustin, California.

, LLC, which provided consulting and marketing services for green building in the commercial and hospitality sectors and operated a showroom for green products on Wall Street in New York City, has ceased operations. At press time, details about the reasons for the closure and possible future plans were unavailable.... Read more

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was created in the early 1990s to establish worldwide, environmentally sound standards for forest management practices and to monitor the agencies that choose to certify forestry programs to those standards (see EBN

Vol. 6, No. 10). Although some forest industry groups participated in the FSC’s... Read more

was declared the most popular home product of 1999 by

American Homestyle & Gardening magazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards. Trex is a composite of recycled polyethylene and wood fibers (see EBN

Vol. 2, No. 2).

My family couldn’t disagree more with the comment you received about the quality of light from tubular skylights [see feature in EBN

Vol. 8, No. 10, and letter in EBN

Vol. 8, No. 11]. We had two Solatubes installed last month: one in a fairly dark kitchen, and the other in an interior windowless bathroom. They passed both the “... Read more

energy performance reporting for windows. Most recently, the Council has determined that, as of January 2000, participating manufacturers will be required to certify solar heat gain coefficient and visible light transmittance... Read more

by John and Lynn Bower, 2000. The Healthy House Institute, 430 North Sewell Road, Bloomington, IN 47408; 812/332-5073,

www.hhinst.com. Five-video set, $99.95

We are pleased to announce that subscribers can now access the current issue of EBN on our Web site as an Adobe Acrobat™ (.pdf) file! Follow instructions on our Web site to gain access to “eEBN.” Anyone who signs up for eEBN will be notified by e-mail each time a new issue is posted.

full-... Read more

According to an article in the January 4 edition of the

New York Times, the

backyard burning of household trash may release more dioxins and furans into the atmosphere than are released by all of the nation’s municipal incinerators. An estimated 20 million people in the U.S. burn their trash in uncontrolled backyard incinerators... Read more

After a year-and-a-half as EBN’s able products editor, Dwight Holmes plans to get back into

working with products instead of writing about them. As a result, we’re looking for someone to fill his shoes—both in helping track products for EBN and in maintaining our

GreenSpec directory. It’s an exciting time in the green products... Read more

A solar house in Hanover, New Hampshire—designed by

Marc Rosenbaum, P.E. and featured in EBN

Vol. 7, No. 2 —is a winner of this year’s National Technology Awards from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Other winners will be announced at the Society’s Winter Meeting in Dallas... Read more

Final details are expected in February on how over $1 billion that will be collected by the New Jersey electric utility industry over the next eight years from “

Societal Benefits Charges” will be spent. The electric restructuring legislation passed in 1999 calls for about three-quarters of the money to go to energy efficiency measures... Read more