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

Time to Act on Global Warming

The evidence on global warming has become increasingly hard to dispute: 20 consecutive years with above-average global temperatures, 18 consecutive months that set new all-time monthly temperature records, 1998 temperatures almost three-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit higher than the previous record (page 3). Most... Read more

Awards & Competitions

Fred Keller of the Carrier Corporation was a recipient of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s

1998 Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award for his leadership in the use of ozone-friendly refrigerants in residential products. Keller, vice president of engineering for Carrier’s Residential and Light... Read more

Owens Corning Miraflex Now Available for Walls

Owens Corning’s breakthrough binder-free fiberglass insulation, Miraflex® (see

EBN

Vol. 4, No. 1) is now available with a stapling flange for use in 2x4 and 2x6 stud walls. The new wall products were introduced in August 1998 and became available nationally in the fall. Miraflex was... Read more

Professional Builder magazine awarded a

1998 Professional Achievement Award to developer

John Kurowski, owner of Kurowski Development Co. of Littleton, Colorado, for his leadership in the creation of the Green Builder Program of Colorado. As president of the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, Kurowski helped launch a $1 million... Read more

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

Only One Wood-Fiber Ceiling Panel Remains

Heraklith-Fiber Rock Canada, manufacturer of wood-fiber-based acoustical ceiling panels, has pulled out of North America, according to the importer, Fiber Rock Canada. This move leaves Tectum as the only wood-fiber-based ceiling panel distributed on the continent. See

EBN

Vol. 7, No. 4... Read more

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

Small House, Big View

When most highly successful corporate executives set out to build a new home, it is pretty much a given that the house will be over 10,000 square feet (929 m2). The operative questions might be whether a four-car garage is big enough, how many guest suites to include, and whether the master bedroom suite should be its... Read more

1998 Warmest Year on Record

Preliminary results are in, and 1998 looks like the warmest ever. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on December 17 that global temperatures in 1998 would be the warmest since recordkeeping began in 1860. The global mean surface temperature for 1998 is estimated to be 1.4°F (0.58°C) above the... Read more

More on PVC Roofing

We read your article entitled “Low Slope Roofing: Prospects Looking Up” (EBN

Vol. 7, No. 10 – November 1998) with interest. We would like to bring some items to your attention.

•Fire resistant EPDM (needed to obtain Factory Mutual and U.L. fire ratings for adhered and mechanically fastened systems) contains... Read more

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

From an environmental standpoint, the low-slope roofing on commercial and industrial buildings is a big problem. (“Low-slope” roofing is often incorrectly called

flat roofing—it nearly always has a slight pitch). For starters, there is a lot of it. No one in the industry seems to know how much low-slope roofing exists in the United... Read more

Everyone Wins the Green Building Challenge

Figure 1 – Annualised Life-Cycle Energy Components

Per Square Metre of Floor Area

This chart from a paper by Roger Baldwin of the British Research Establishment in the U.K. shows overall energy use associated with two actual office buildings, one in a... Read more

The

American Institute of Architects New York Chapter’s Committee on the Environment has organized a panel discussion at which the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority will address their role in administering up to $6 million per year in grants for design professionals and building owners. Set for 8:00 a.m. on... Read more

New Staff at EBN

We are very excited to announce the recent addition of two outstanding people to our staff.

Dan Woodbury has joined us as our first full-time marketing director, and

Dwight Holmes is our new research associate. With their help we hope to continue serving you as the leading source of reliable green building... Read more

More on Linoleum & IAQ

Dear Editor:

I read your recent article about linoleum (October 1998) and was particularly interested in the section dealing with indoor air quality, which I felt you covered well. However, I was very disappointed with your conclusion to “recommend it widely.”

You seem to be fostering an attitude that,... Read more

EMF May Be Carcinogenic After All

While a number of studies in recent years have downplayed concerns about electromagnetic fields (EMF)—including a report from the American Physical Society (see

EBN

Vol. 4, No. 4)—a working group of experts assembled by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) concluded in... Read more

Newsbriefs

As noted in

EBN

Vol. 6, No. 9 (October 1997), the

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is now updating its indoor air quality Standard 62-1989 incrementally in a “continuous maintenance process.” The first significant changes are open for public review from... Read more

Armstrong Launches Ceiling Tile Recycling Program

Armstrong World Industries, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania has launched an innovative and much-needed program to recycle acoustic ceiling tiles.

The program will defray some of the costs of ceiling tile disposal, while helping to reduce pressure on landfills. On a large commercial building... Read more