mourns the loss of friend and green building champion David Kibbey, of Berkeley, California, who died on August 9, 2001 after a long battle with cancer. A native of Vermont, Kibbey was an artist, craftsman, scientist, and counselor. He designed and built beautiful spaces, edited the

Architectural Resource Guide product directory,... Read more

Kompan, Inc., the nation’s largest manufacturer of commercial wooden playground equipment, is

the latest manufacturer to abandon CCA-treated wood. Citing concern on behalf of customers, the company completed the switch to nonarsenic, nonchromium pressure-treated wood on September 15. Kompan is using Natural Select™ wood treated with... Read more

Arsenic has taken a big hit recently—from studies showing elevated levels in school playgrounds in Florida to public outcry about President Bush’s decision to relax drinking water standards for the element. Not surprisingly, product manufacturers are getting the message. In the July/August issue of

EBN (

Vol. 10, No. 7/8) we... Read more

guaranteed that every one of his homes would have annual heating costs less than $100. “My competitors just tore us up over this, claiming it must be bogus because it just could not... Read more

CD-ROM of 46 technical papers, 2001. Send a check (made out to “Tides Center/Ecological Building Network”) to: Bruce King, Ecological Building Network, 209 Caledonia Street, Sausalito, CA 94965. Price: $70 + $10 shipping

At the August 2001 National Hardware Show in Chicago the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduced the latest Energy Star®-labeled product: residential ceiling fans. Working closely with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Ecos Consulting, and the residential fan industry, EPA developed airflow efficiency, controls, and... Read more

Edited by Lynne Elizabeth and Cassandra

Adams, 2000. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

New York. Hardcover, 392 pages, $70.

terrific overview of various methods

for building with earth, straw, and

bamboo. With writings from over 30

authors—many of them experts or

... Read more

The indoor air quality mantra “ Eliminate, Isolate, Ventilate” describes a sound framework for ensuring safe indoor environments. In the first of these strategies, we tend to focus on the materials and products used in construction—specifying low-VOC paints, choosing formaldehyde-free wood products, perhaps avoiding mineral fiber insulation... Read more

A new report from the nongovernmental organization

Fern identifies the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as the only independent and credible forest certification program. Three other major programs—the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the Canadian Standards Association’s Sustainable Forest Management Standard (CSA), and the Pan-... Read more

a 113 kW photovoltaic carport that will shade 152 parking spaces at Riverside, California’s Public Utilities Operations Center. A total of 2,016 modules, each generating 75 W, will be mounted in two rows on the structure, which is slated for completion by November.

The Home Builders Association of Metro Denver and the Colorado Association of Home Builders have developed a

Built Green Communities rating program. Designed to work with their newly upgraded Built Green checklist for homes, the green communities program was developed by a diverse working group including local planning experts,... Read more

EBN has often touched on building regulation, but we’ve never done a feature article on building codes. Given the influence of building codes on the environmental performance of building, the topic is overdue. For this month’s feature, we team up with long-time

EBN friend and supporter, David Eisenberg, who recently... Read more

Version 5.0 of our acclaimed

EBN Archives is now shipping! This single CD-ROM includes all issues of

Environmental Building News—from 1992 through 2000. A total of 67 issues (1,200 pages) are available in easy-to-use Adobe Acrobat PDF format. The

Archives are fully searchable and provide instant access to all articles... Read more

Everyone has a great way for taxpayers to spend their tax rebate checks, including the Lowe’s and Home Depot home improvement centers. Both now describe

energy-efficient home improvement projects for under $300 and under $600 starting right on the home pages of their Web sites. But Home Depot goes a step further: “There’s no need to go... Read more

Source: “Whole-House Measurements of Standby Power Consumption” by J. P. Ross and Alan Meier, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Report LBNL-45967, 2000.

A recent study by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources investigated the feasibility of

deconstructing mobile homes for salvage. The study was prompted by an unexpected waste disposal crisis—a group of condemned, flash-flooded, mobile homes. A surprising underground market for mobile home windows, fixtures, and chassis was discovered... Read more

Green-Think. Fedrizzi will continue to work as a consultant for Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies Corporation, on a variety of product... Read more