News Brief
The Good Wood Alliance, 289 College Street, Burlington, VT 05401; 802/862-4448, 802/658-4443 (fax); warp@together.net (e-mail), www.goodwood.org. 30 pages, $15 postpaid (free to Alliance members).
Since its founding in 1989, the Woodworkers Alliance for Rainforest Protection (WARP) has established itself as a... Read more
News Brief
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Case Study
Lean and Green for a Municipal Office Building
Many commercial buildings that have received attention over the past few years for environmental features are beautiful, high-end corporate buildings, or attractive demonstration buildings for utility companies or environmental organizations. The Ridgehaven Building... Read more
Op-Ed
With this first issue of 1997 we’re excited to announce a number of changes that will, we hope, provide you with more of what you like in
EBN, and in a more accessible format. Most important, you will now receive
EBN ten times each year instead of six. That’s right, we’ll be publishing monthly, except for... Read more
News Brief
The
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) is now working on promoting the use of environmentally sustainable practices, products, and technologies in building systems within the U.N. Among other initiatives, a pilot demonstration project involving the greening of UNEP’s Regional Office for North America is now underway. A... Read more
News Brief
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News Analysis
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Feature
Choosing the right materials for a building is no easy task under any circumstances. Just meeting the conventional criteria, such as performance, cost, and aesthetics, can be a challenge; the addition of an environmental agenda further complicates the picture. The good news is that more tools and resources are becoming available to help... Read more
News Analysis
Designers of the high-profile Audubon Headquarters in New York City, together with National Audubon Society scientists, took great pains to minimize the use of toxic and environmentally damaging building materials. Among the choices they made in renovating the 100-year-old building was to use undyed, 100% wool carpet throughout the space... Read more
News Brief
by The Results Center, IRT Environment, Inc. Paperback, 28 pages, $75.
Editor’s note: IRT Environment, Inc. has unfortunately discontinued operations since this review was written. This report is now available at the bargain rate of $15 from Ted Flanigan at P.O. Box 2239, Basalt, CO 82621; 970/927-3155.One recent report in IRT... Read more
Op-Ed
We’ve generally argued that for a good green design, it is necessary to get the environmental agenda on the table as early as possible in the design process. Every decision that is made along the way represents a commitment to a particular path and the closing out of other options. If too many decisions are made before bringing an environmental... Read more
News Brief
Whirlpool Corporation has suspended nationwide sales of its super-efficient “Energy-Wise” refrigerators, according to the 23 August issue of Global Environmental Change Report. This refrigerator was introduced in 1995 and is virtually identical to the “golden carrot” refrigerator developed through the utility-funded Super Efficient Refrigerator... Read more
News Analysis
Redwood lumber that has been independently certified as coming from “well-managed” forests is now available. The family-owned Big Creek Lumber Company in Davenport, California, which completed certification of its forestry operations this past April (see
EBN
Vol. 5, No. 4), has now completed “chain-of-custody” certification of... Read more
Feature
The search is on for an American home. The goal is a home with the look and feel of a traditional suburban house, which the buying public demands, yet one that is at least twice as efficient in its use of energy and other resources. And, it must cost no more than the competition—less, if possible.
Spurred by government grants,... Read moreCase Study
The Prairie Crossing project, described below, was well underway as a leading-edge development before the Building Science Consortium was formed to redirect some of its strategies. The other two projects profiled below are unrelated to... Read more
News Brief
by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers. Dutton, 1996. Hardcover, 306 pages, $24.95.
We knew that this was an important book when, not long after we got a copy, a report from the right-wing Competitive Enterprise Institute attempting to discredit it arrived in theEBN mailbox. The basic thesis of
Our Stolen... Read more
Op-Ed
The article on the Sustainable Technology Center (Vol. 5, No. 5) missed the true performance of this market-rate commercial complex in its first year. The two buildings at the Center saved 82% on utility costs for water, sewage, electricity, and heating compared to the performance of the Center if built conventionally in Friday Harbor. Using... Read more
News Brief
A new report by the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy quantifies the potential for energy savings in residential lighting. By replacing those incandescent lights that are used four hours per day or more with compact fluorescent lights, total annual savings in the U.S. would be 31.7 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh),... Read more
News Analysis
The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) doesn’t write building codes, but some of the group’s standards carry as much weight as codes. That is the case with ASHRAE Standard 62 on ventilation for acceptable indoor air quality. This standard is recognized in legal circles as the “standard-of-care”... Read more
Product Review
Asbestos fibers and lead are two very different materials that happen to have a few things in common: they are both health hazards, both were used extensively in buildings, and both have spawned whole industries for their management and removal. Now there’s another commonality: in the right circumstances, both can be managed in place by... Read more



