BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

March 1, 1997

by Peter Yost and Eric Lund (1997).

NAHB Research Center, 400 Prince George’s Blvd., Upper Marlboro, MD 20774; 301/249-4000, www.nahbrc.com. Paperback, 30 pages, free of charge.

The task of job-site waste management just got easier. This concise guide from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center fills a big... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997

by Wesley A. Groesbeck and Jan Striefel, ASLA. Environmental Resources, Inc., 2041 E. Hollywood Avenue, Salt Lake City, UT 84108-3148; 801/485-0280. Paperback, 486 pages, $35 postpaid.

This directory is a bare-bones, no-frills production. The 2,100 listings are printed in a plain database output format on recycled newsprint. But the content... Read more

News Analysis

March 1, 1997
Given the tremendous amount of material that must be disposed of when a building is demolished, it’s not surprising that there is interest in alternatives for dealing with unwanted structures. One such alternative is careful deconstruction, or “construction in reverse.” Ideally, deconstruction allows materials to be salvaged, recycled, or... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997
Newsbriefs

Forintek Canada Corp.’s Sustainable Materials Pro-ject, a leading source of life-cycle information on building materials, has just been incorporated as the not-for-profit

Athena Sustainable Materials Institute (ASMI). The Institute should help address perceptions that the life-cycle data from the project is biased by its... Read more

News Analysis

March 1, 1997

The Trane Company's Earth-Wise CenTraVac Chiller, featured in the article on refrigerants in EBN

Vol. 6, No. 2, is now the first commercial building chiller to be awarded the Green Seal of Approval. Although it uses the ozone-depleting R-123 refrigerant, Green Seal judged the unitís high efficiency, and the protections it incorporates... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997

The third annual

International Design Resource Awards for recycled and renewable materials and products includes categories for “Built Environments” and “Building Materials” along with five others. Winning this competition is reportedly a great way to find a manufacturer for your design. Entry fee is $30; deadline for submissions is... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997

edited by Joe Demkin, AIA (1997). Published by John Wiley & Sons, New York. Three-ring binder, 350 pages in supplement, $75. The entire Guide is available for $195. To order direct call 800/225-5945.

The 1997 supplement to the

Environmental Resource Guide

(ERG) from The American Institute of Architects expands on the utility... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997

by Kalin Associates, Inc., 154 Wells Avenue, Newton Center, MA 02159; 617/964-5477, 617/964-5788 (fax). Three-ring binder and diskette, 900 pages, $135 postpaid.

No, we’re not repeating ourselves here. The

Green Spec (two words) that we reviewed last November consists of generic specification language for making greener buildings. This... Read more

Case Study

March 1, 1997
As an experiment in environmental living, the Center for Regenerative Studies seeks not to sustain the current condition of the land, but to enhance it. John Tillman Lyle, professor of landscape architecture at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, was the main visionary and driving force behind this project. Much of the theory on... Read more

Op-Ed

March 1, 1997
Thank you for highlighting the “Ridgehaven Building: Lean and Green for a Municipal Office Building” in the January 1997 issue of

EBN (

Vol. 6, No. 1).

I realize that space was limited, but I would like to point out that the Ridgehaven project was also a team effort. Below are the project team members who were instrumental in... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997

CD-ROM by ACEEE Publications, 2140 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 202, Berkeley, CA 94704; 510/549-9914, 510/549-9984 (fax), aceee@ix.netcom.com (e-mail), www.aceee.org. $150.

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s biannual Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings is a unique institution. Every other year, several hundred... Read more

Feature

March 1, 1997
There are some important benefits of treating wood, the most significant of which is increasing the life of wood that is used in locations where degradation might occur. Older preservatives, such as pentachlorophenal and creosote, pose considerable health risks to users of the wood, but new waterborne preservatives are safer. They are safer in... Read more

News Analysis

February 1, 1997
Building Rating System Reaches Canada

The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) developed in the U.K. is now available in Canada. BREEAM is a voluntary rating system that assesses the energy and environmental performance of commercial buildings. The program has been available since 1993 in the U.K. and since... Read more

News Brief

February 1, 1997
Newsbriefs

The International Specular Reflector Association has broadened its scope and changed its name to the

Energy Efficient Lighting Association. According to David Brown, president of the two-year-old organization, “ISRA goals have been achieved—reflectors are now recognized as an effective tool to help achieve energy-efficient... Read more

News Analysis

February 1, 1997

CORRECTIONS for the “Resources on Environmental Impacts of Materials” table on page 11 of our last issue:

The Green Guide to Specification is published by:

GTI Specialist Publishers

6 Hithercroft Court

Lupton Road

Wallingford, OXON OX10 9BT, U.K.

+44 1 4091 826401 (fax)

And we... Read more

News Brief

February 1, 1997
Buildings of

Earth and Straw:

by Bruce King, P.E.

1996, Ecological Design Press, Sausalito, California (distributed by Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, Vermont). Paperback, 170 pages, $25.

No definitive research has yet determined the cause of the oddball humor that invariably accompanies straw... Read more

Feature

February 1, 1997

The internationally sanctioned phaseout of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) is causing an unprecedented pace of change and innovation in the refrigeration industry. The old standby refrigerants no longer make the grade. These ozone-depleting chemicals are now well on their way to being contained—1995 global production of CFCs was down 76% from its... Read more

Case Study

February 1, 1997
Dewees Island: More Than Just a Green Development

Most people involved with environmentally responsible development have probably heard about Dewees Island somewhere along the line.

After all, the project has been featured in dozens of mainstream publications and a half-dozen books. John Knott, the visionary C.E.O. of Island... Read more

News Analysis

February 1, 1997
Thinner Studs Save Wood

As softwood lumber prices continue their wild price gyrations, including a new peak high late last year, pressure to improve the efficiency of wood use is increasing. One solution might be to reduce the thickness of framing lumber.

An Idaho sawmill began producing 11⁄4”-thick (32 mm) 2x4 and 2x6 studs two years... Read more

News Brief

February 1, 1997

An innovative

employee-satisfaction-based compensation contract for a new $40 million, 165 million square-foot (15 million m2) Ciba Geigy laboratory in Tarrytown, New York proved successful for the architecture and construction firms that risked part of their profits. Designers HLW International and contractor Sordoni Skanska agreed to... Read more