The carbohydrate economy is moving a little closer to reality with the announcement in January that Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc. and Dow Chemical are teaming up to build the first large-scale “renewable” plastics plant. Completion of the 140,000 metric-ton, $300 million plant in Blair, Nebraska is scheduled for late 2001. Natural plant sugars... Read more

After several years of sporadic publication, the newsletter Building with Nature: Placemaking that Supports Life has seen its last issue. Editor Carol Venolia was an original

EBN Advisory Board member, and her newsletter was an excellent complement to

EBN, addressing more of the spiritual and intuitive aspects of environmentally... Read more

by J. David Odom and George DuBose of CH2M-HILL, in cooperation with Disney Development Company. Available from CH2M-HILL, 225 E. Robinson St., Ste. 505, Orlando, FL 32801; 407/423-0030, 407/839-5901 (fax), jodom@ch2m.com (e-mail). Spiral-bound, 100 pages, $70.

Despite the

cooling expected from the weather phenomenon La Niña, 1999 was still the fifth hottest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In related news, NOAA scientists suggest in an article in the March 1 issue of

Geophysical Research Letters that the string of record... Read more

A “Sun Wall” national design competition has been announced for an aesthetic and practical solar energy system for the huge South wall of the Department of Energy’s Forrestal Building in Washington, D.C. DOE estimates that the roughly 28,000 ft2 (2,600 m2) can generate as much as 200 peak kilowatts of electricity. The competition is cosponsored... Read more

On March 8, 2000 Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell (BNIM) Architects of Kansas City created a new division focusing exclusively on green design and consulting. The new “Elements” division will be directed by Jason F. McLennan, who is currently project manager on several green demonstration projects. Elements offers services in programming... Read more

Roger Babb and his company, Babb International, have been awarded the Spirit of Georgia Award from the State Chamber of Commerce. The honor is given to a Georgia business person who has demonstrated superior ability and courage in the development of an idea into a successful business. Babb International is the only domestic producer of... Read more

We’re very excited to announce that Peter Yost of the NAHB Research Center will be joining our staff as research director and senior editor of

Environmental Building News. In addition to contributing to

EBN’s content, Peter will share responsibility for many of our research, writing, and consulting services. A former high-school... Read more

The San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network (RAN), whose activist tactics are scorned by some in the environmental community but who played a pivotal role in convincing Home Depot to embrace forest certification, has launched a campaign against the home building industry’s use of lumber. RAN argues that home builders use 72% of the nation... Read more

EBN

Vol. 5, No. 4), which are no longer available.

A hybrid of an I-beam and an open-web truss, the Smartbeam is manufactured by cutting an I-beam lengthwise through the web in a modified sawtooth pattern. The two halves are welded back... Read more

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) has approved a standard for electrical inverters used to connect photovoltaic (PV) generators to the utility grid. John Stevens, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, chaired the working group, which included about 25 members representing the utility industry,... Read more

With the passage last year of a law in Louisiana designed to address the risk of Formosan termites, it looked as if preservative-treated wood was going to be

mandated in all framing lumber used in home building. Senate Bill 373 provides for the formation of a task force to deal with the growing problem of Formosan termites in Louisiana... Read more

Thank you for your article on building commissioning in

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 2 [February 2000]. This important aspect of the building process is indeed gaining focus throughout the design and construction communities as buildings and their supporting systems become ever more complex and interrelated. As you point out, building codes... Read more

France unveiled a plan on January 20 to fight global warming by raising taxes on industrial energy consumption. Under the plan, taxes will go into effect in 2001, though companies under heavy competitive pressure will be able to avoid the tax by focusing on reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. The plan also aims to improve public transit,... Read more

Two Wisconsin state agencies, the Department of Consumer Protection and the Department of Health and Family Services, have issued a warning about the use of ozone generators. The February 29 press release singles out Alpine Industries for violating a Federal Trade Commission order and using unsubstantiated health benefits to market ozone... Read more

by Tom Bender, 2000. Fire River Press, Manzanita, Oregon. Paperback, 123 oversized pages, $27.

The book is a richly illustrated primer into the spirit of place, and the place of spirit, in buildings. (Bender’s... Read more

Visionwall Technologies, Inc., a leading manufacturer of high-efficiency curtain-wall glazing systems (see University of Victoria Engineering Laboratory case study in

EBN

Vol. 6, No. 7), went into receivership on February 24, 2000. Customers should see little effect from this action, however, as Visionwall Corporation has taken... Read more

Although they represent just 1% of U.S. land cover (an area the size of South Carolina), roads and highways directly affect the ecology of nearly 20% of U.S. land. That is the key finding of research by Richard Foreman at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, reported in the February issue of the journal

Conservation Biology. Foreman... Read more

Seattle-based Sellen Construction Co. has been honored as 1999 Contractor of the Year by the International Erosion Control Association (IECA). Sellen was lauded for its use of best management practices and state-of-the-art technologies to control erosion and prevent sediment runoff in challenging and sensitive situations. Specific practices... Read more