BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

September 1, 1997

The

Good Wood Alliance, formerly the Woodworkers’ Alliance for Rain-forest Protection (WARP), is merging with the

Forest Products Buyers Group to form a new organization:

The Certified Forest Products Council (CFPC). The CFPC will be based in Beaverton, Oregon, and directed by David Ford. Good Wood Alliance’s executive... Read more

Product Review

September 1, 1997
Hardwood Plywood from Certified Wood

States Industries, Inc. of Eugene, Oregon, has just begun offering a line of hardwood-veneer plywood made entirely from certified wood. The plywood cores are produced by laying up white fir veneers supplied by Collins Pine (from their certified timberlands in the Pacific Northwest). Hardwood veneers... Read more

News Brief

September 1, 1997

by James Steele. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997. Hardcover, 285 pages, $49.95.

Sustainable Architecture consists of a series of essays and case studies addressing various aspects of environmentally responsible design. The strength of this material is in the perspective offered by Steele, an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University... Read more

News Brief

September 1, 1997
BP America’s chief executive John Browne

, in a commencement address to graduates of Stanford University in May, broke ranks with many in the petroleum industry by expressing concern about global warming. He was quoted in the July/August issue of

Solar Today as asserting that it is “unwise and potentially dangerous to ignore the mounting... Read more

News Analysis

September 1, 1997
WWPA Eliminates Marketing Functions

The Western Wood Products Association, which has been a leader in promoting the environmental advantages of lumber over other materials, is reducing its marketing functions in favor of a focus on wood grading and technical support for users. This shift within the organization is a loss to the broader... Read more

Op-Ed

September 1, 1997
More on Formaldehyde and Timber

You stated in response to a letter from Structural Board Association President John Lowood in your July/August issue that “while formaldehyde emissions from panels made with PF (phenolic formaldehyde) binder are quite low, they are still problematic for some individuals.” While this could be true for some... Read more

Feature

September 1, 1997

I recall quite clearly my first introduction to Amory Lovins. It was 1980, in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Amory was speaking at the annual Life Technics Conference at Ghost Ranch. Amory was then—as he is now—an energy guru, but his message that day was not primarily about energy. He made the point that dealing with our energy woes was relatively easy... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997

“Advanced” seems to be popular in the new-name department: The Brownsville, Oregon, company formerly known as Oregon Strand Board is now Advanced Wood Resources, Inc. Still a division of Jeld-Wen, Inc., the company no longer makes exterior sheathing or siding products. Its only remaining product is COMPLY Sturd-I-Floor subfloor/underlayment... Read more

Op-Ed

July 1, 1997
OSB—Not as Green as Advertised?

I just ran across your Web site during research on oriented-strand board (OSB) mills and was dismayed to see how you’ve succumbed to the green-washing of engineered lumber companies. There is a forest feeding frenzy playing out in the eastern U.S. as industries rush back to remow the native forest after a 70-year... Read more

Product Review

July 1, 1997
L-P Starts Over With Smart Siding

Louisiana-Pacific’s new SmartStart siding line, available in lap siding and 4’-wide (1.2 m) panels, is the result of an ongoing evolution from the ill-fated Inner-Seal siding. It’s still oriented-strand board (OSB), but both the process and the composition have changed. These positive changes reflect the... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997
E Source Technology

Atlas Series

from E Source, Inc., 1033 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO 80302; 303/440-8500, 303/440-8502 (fax), esource@esource.com (e-mail), www.esource.com/atlas. Five-volume paper-back set or CD-ROM for Windows or Macintosh. 1,700 pages, $750 for either format, or $950 for both.

It’s not often that we’ll label... Read more

Op-Ed

July 1, 1997
Access Five Years of EBN on Your Computer!

We are pleased to announce the release of our E Build Library CD-ROM, containing all back issues of the newsletter from

Vol. 1, No. 1 through

Vol. 6, No. 4. The CD-ROM format allows us to make back issues available at a very reasonable price, and adds the capability of full-text... Read more

Case Study

July 1, 1997
High-Performance Building Skin Pays Off

Architect Terry Williams is working to prove that energy-efficient buildings need not cost more to build. With the new Engineering Laboratory Wing at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, he has demonstrated that, at least in Victoria’s accommodating climate, that is indeed the case. In... Read more

News Analysis

July 1, 1997
One Million Electricity-Generating Roofs

One of the last comments in President Clinton’s June 26 address to the United Nations “Five Years from Rio” Conference contained a commitment solar energy advocates were hoping for: to help establish the conditions that will lead to photovoltaic (PV) generation on a million buildings within the next... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997

AURA vacuum panel insulation, reviewed in EBN

Vol. 4, No. 1, has been mothballed by manufacturer Owens Corning. A press release from the company blames a lack of interest from refrigerator manufacturers, after they succeeded in postponing new energy standards from 1998 to July 2001. The AURA panel was used in the freezer compartment of... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997

The Alternative Energy Corporation, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has a new name: Advanced Energy. The nonprofit AEC was established in 1980 by the North Carolina Utilities Commission and has been a valuable resource for technical support and training related to energy efficiency in buildings, among other areas. Advanced Energy can be... Read more

Op-Ed

July 1, 1997
Defending Redwood Harvests

Concerning “More on the Redwood Boycott” in your May issue (EBN

Vol. 6, No. 5), I would like to address several inconsistencies in Mr. Platt’s observations.

The Pacific Lumber Company has been in continuous operation on the same contiguous timberland in Humboldt County, California for the last 128 years... Read more

Product Review

July 1, 1997
Air Krete: Foam Without Plastics

Air krete insulation is not all that new—it has been around since the early 1980s. In that time, it has collected a small but very enthusiastic group of advocates, especially among the chemically sensitive. There are also skeptics, however, who are concerned about its long-term durability or just question... Read more

News Brief

July 1, 1997

A new organization entitled the Center for Ecological Building Design (CEBD) has been established in London, Ontario, Canada. CEBD defines as its primary goal: “to seek out people-friendly, earth-friendly and cost-effective residential building methods and designs.” CEBD is

developing a touring display of eco-building techniques and... Read more

Op-Ed

July 1, 1997
Challenging the Simplified Life-Cycle Analysis

I recently was provided with the January 1997 issue of EBN (Vol. 6, No. 1) and found the information

of considerable interest. However, I would like to offer a few comments on “Material Selection” and the use of a simplified life-cycle analysis (LCA).

I can relate to the statement... Read more