BuildingGreen Report

Product Review

February 1, 1999
Certified Engineered Wood from Standard Structures

Standard Structures, Inc., of Santa Rosa, California, is the first manufacturer

EBN is aware of to offer third-party-certified engineered wood products.

This past July, the company gained chain-of-custody certification from Smart Wood for glulam beams and is nearly there with... Read more

News Analysis

February 1, 1999
CCA Disposal Problem Worse Than Earlier Believed

The concerns about safe disposal of chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood coming out of service (see

EBN

Vol. 6, No. 3, March 1997) may be far more immediate than previously believed. A technical paper in the November-December issue of

Forest Products Journal by... Read more

News Brief

February 1, 1999
Newsbriefs

The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) is soliciting comments on six Independent Substantive Changes to its

Standard 90.1-1989R: “Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.” The most extensive sections being modified are those on building... Read more

News Analysis

February 1, 1999
Certified Hardwood Flooring from PermaGrain

In yet another exciting development in the certified wood industry, PermaGrain Products, Inc., a hardwood flooring manufacturer based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, has begun offering certified options in its FineWood® and Timeless Series 3 lines of hardwood flooring.

The company received... Read more

News Brief

February 1, 1999

A

Nursing and Biomedical Sciences classroom building being designed for the

University of Texas at Houston by Vancouver-based Patkau Architects received a 1998 Award of Excellence from

Canadian Architect magazine. Juror Peter Busby lauded the project’s “integration of an environmental design approach with an excellent... Read more

Product Review

February 1, 1999
A New Twist on CFLs

The evolution of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) has been marked by increasing light output and reductions in size. A new series of CFLs continues that trend. Duro-Test, Sunpark, Link USA, and Lights of America have all introduced new, generally smaller, CFLs in which the fluorescent tube is molded into a spiral.

... Read more

News Analysis

February 1, 1999
U.S. Falling Behind in Wind Energy

In the early 1980s, fully 95% of the world’s wind energy generating capacity was located in the United States. Today, that share has dropped to 22%, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy: about 1,620 megawatts (MW), down from a high of 1,823 MW in 1992.... Read more

Op-Ed

February 1, 1999
Concerns About LEED Program

I read your Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) coverage in

EBN

Vol. 7, No. 10 [November 1998]. My information tells me that LEED won’t work with a self-assessment model. The Colorado self-assessment tool in the residential sector has done a good job at building market share, but the... Read more

News Brief

February 1, 1999
Efficient Wood Use in Residential Construction

by Ann Edminster and Sami Yassa, 1998. Natural Resources Defense Council, 40 W. 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211; 212/727-2700, www.nrdc.org. Paperback, 112 pages, $15 + $3 shipping

Too often forest conservation activists promote the use of non-wood construction systems without... Read more

News Analysis

February 1, 1999
Polyiso-Core SIPs to Be Ozone-Safe

A structural insulated panel (SIP) plant being completed in Williamsport, Pennsylvania will likely be the first in North America to produce polyisocyanurate-core SIPs that do not harm the ozone layer. Agile Building Systems’ 110,000 sq. ft. (10,200 m2) plant will initially use the industry-standard HCFC-141b... Read more

News Analysis

February 1, 1999
Largest Hardwood Plywood Manufacturer Offers Certified Line

Columbia Forest Products, Inc., the nation’s largest producer of hardwood plywood, has just introduced a chain-of-custody certified line of plywood and veneered particleboard.

Following States Industries in 1997 (the first manufacturer to offer certified hardwood plywood—see... Read more

Product Review

February 1, 1999
Low-Maintenance Turfgrass for Northern Climates

Advocates of low-maintenance lawns in hot sunny climates have long turned to Buffalo grass (

Buchloe dactyloides), but there have been few off-the-shelf options for more northern, less sunny regions. The Prairie Nursery Corporation of Westfield, Wisconsin introduced the No Mow mix of fescue... Read more

Feature

What’s in a Paint?

February 1, 1999

Psychologists have long known that the colors with which we surround ourselves can affect our energy and our moods. Unfortunately, too few professionals of any type realize how the medium we use to create those colors can affect our health and the health of the planet. This article looks at new developments with interior paints and explores the... Read more

News Brief

February 1, 1999
Awards & Competitions

 

With its fourth annual cycle, the EnergyValue Housing Award administered by the National Association of Home Builders Research Center appears to be gaining steam.

Quite a few winners were announced at the January 14 ceremony in Dallas, with some outstanding projects. A number of the winning entries... Read more

News Brief

January 1, 1999
Architecture and the Environment

by David Lloyd Jones. The Overlook Press, Woodstock, N.Y., 1998 (distributed by Penguin Putnam, Inc.). Hardcover, 250 pages, $65. Note: Sometimes listed with the sub-title “Contemporary Green Buildings”

Several books published in the past decade have claimed to provide an overview of ecologically... Read more

News Analysis

January 1, 1999
Armstrong to Distribute DLW Linoleum

The re-entry of Armstrong World Industries, Inc. into the North American linoleum market is now official—as of July 1, 1999 Armstrong will have exclusive rights to market and sell DLW Linoleum and most other DLW products. As reported in

EBN

Vol. 7, No. 9, Armstrong now owns DLW... Read more

Feature

January 1, 1999
Since 1950, the average house size in the United States has more than doubled, even while the average family size has steadily shrunk. We’re providing more square footage per family member than ever before, and projections are that the trend will continue.

As house size increases, resource use in buildings goes up, more land is occupied, there... Read more

News Brief

January 1, 1999
Newsbriefs

Maureen McIntyre, longtime editor of the acclaimed

Solar Today magazine (the publication of the

American Solar Energy Society—ASES), has been hired by the Society to organize renewable energy policy activities at the state level. As coordinator of ASES’s “Empowering the States” program, McIntyre will help renewable... Read more

News Analysis

January 1, 1999
C&A Goes with Recycled Backing Only

On November 10, 1998 Collins & Aikman Floorcoverings (C&A) ended 29 years of use of virgin materials in the backing of its modular carpet tile.

C&A has had great success, both in terms of performance and sales, with its POWERBOND® ER3™ backing (see “New Life for Old Carpets” in

... Read more

News Brief

January 1, 1999

Organizers of the annual H.O.P.E.S. Eco-Design Arts Conference (see Calendar) are sponsoring a “Design Challenge” on the theme of this year’s conference: Equity and Ecology. Entries in the form of display boards and written explanations must be received by March 26. For details, contact H.O.P.E.S. at 541/346-0719, hopes@laz.uoregon.edu, or on... Read more