by Janet Marinelli, 1998. Henry Holt & Company. Hardcover, 230 pages, $25.

Natural linoleum is widely promoted and specified in the green building community. As an all-natural alternative to resilient flooring made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC)—including sheet vinyl and VCT (vinyl composition tile)—linoleum has a lot going for it.

Imports of linoleum are on the increase, with the product being used on projects... Read more

Green Seal, 1400 Sixteenth Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036-2215; 202/588-8400 x21;

www.greenseal.org. Distributed to Green Seal Environmental Partners. Ongoing reports, 7 to 8 pages ea.

The Choose Green Report from the nonprofit environmental standards organization Green Seal is designed to help users make... Read more

Ostrowski’s Alberta Sustainable Home/Office incorporates a whole laundry list of everything one could do to reduce the environmental impact of a home—energy... Read more

The National Association of Home Builders, based in Washington, D.C., will host the

National Green Building Conference next April in Denver. With the sponsorship of this event, NAHB appears to be breaking from its long-held reluctance to embrace green building—if so, this is a very significant development for the green building industry... Read more

Winners of the

Architecture + Energy 1998 Design Awards from AIA Portland were announced on June 26. This year’s jurors (including two

EBN Advisory Board members, Gail Lindsey and Ray Cole) took a novel approach by designing awards to highlight the strengths of the best projects, rather than assigning catch-all “grand prize” or... Read more

From a style standpoint, they have... Read more

Researchers with NASA, EPA, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have been working with three U.S. cities this summer to study how strategically placed

“urban forests” and the use of reflective surfaces may help cool cities, save energy, and reduce pollution. The research is examining the bubble-like accumulations of hot air known... Read more

Although Interface, Inc.’s CEO Ray Anderson has been a leading spokesman for corporate sustainability for several years, the company has so far publicized more about its overall manufacturing improvements than about specific green products (see review of Interface’s

Sustainability Report in

EBN

Vol. 7, No. 1). That is... Read more

As described in “New Life for Old Carpets” (EBN

Vol. 6, No. 6), the Earth Square program takes used carpet tile from buildings and renews it... Read more

A detailed article in the March 1998 issue of

Scientific American challenges conventional wisdom that world oil production will not peak until well into the 21st Century. Instead, claim co-authors Dr. Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrère—both petroleum geologists who have worked in the oil industry for more than 40 years—world production... Read more

The New Jersey Dept. of Community Affairs (DCA) has announced a

Sustainable Development/Affordable Housing Pilot Program to promote sustainable development in the context of energy-efficient, affordable housing. This fall, DCA will solicit proposals from housing development teams to design and construct housing that meets a strict set... Read more

When I began thinking about an article on light pollution, three very different experiences came to mind. The first was 25 years ago, sleeping under the stars in Alberta, Canada. I can still picture that night sky: resplendent with tens of thousands of sparkling stars on a solid black background and the Milky Way’s broad band stretching from... Read more

by Art Ludwig, 1997. Published by Oasis Design, 5 San Marcos Trout Club, Santa Barbara, CA 93105; 805/967-9956; 805/967-3229 (fax); http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/odesign. Paperback, 48 pages each; Create an Oasis with Greywater, $9.95; Builder’s Greywater Guide, $14.95 (plus $2 shipping for either or both)

These two manuals, updated... Read more

by Bruce K. Ferguson, 1998. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Hardcover, 260 pages, $59.95

Stormwater management is a vitally important component of almost any green building project (see EBN Vol. 3, No. 5). Environmentally responsible stormwater management can even be an economic driver of a broader green building agenda: using... Read more

On June 25, the GMAC Mortgage Corporation, a subsidiary of General Motors, announced an initiative with the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) to provide

long-term, low-cost financing for solar energy systems. This represents an expansion of the mortgage offerings for energy-efficient housing by GMAC Mortgage. The announcement... Read more

Global Green USA is producing a report which, the group claims, identifies

$1 billion in savings from energy- and resource-efficiency benefits in public and assisted housing. The recommendations resulted from an April 28 Policy Roundtable that Global Green USA hosted on Capitol Hill, and were presented to Secretary of Housing and Urban... Read more

by Alan Weisman, 1998. Chelsea Green Publishing, Inc., White River Junction, Vermont. Hardcover, 230 pages, $22.95.

As a general rule, all materials have environmental burdens, so using less of a material is always better and choosing the best material is really about choosing the lesser of evils. There are a few exceptions to this principle, however—at least in theory. For example, products made from problematic waste... Read more

Horton Lees Lighting Design, Inc. is the recipient of this year’s Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

Award for Energy Efficient Lighting for Commercial Buildings, in honor of its work on the new terminal at Washington National Airport. This award is one of those included in the International Illumination... Read more