The U.S. Department of Energy has published proposed voluntary guidelines for rating home energy performance. The guidelines were drafted by the Home Energy Rating Systems (HERS) Council for DOE and are designed to encourage uniformity among the various methods used to rate the energy efficiency of both new and existing residential buildings.... Read more

2 Sink?

The manufacture of portland cement... Read more

A major shake-up at Louisiana-Pacific Corporation this summer was brought on, in part, by allegations of falsifying pollution emission data. The entire upper management team of L-P, including Chairman and President Harry Merlo (who led the company since its split from Georgia-Pacific in 1973 and who championed L-P’s leadership role in the move... Read more

NOLS had established a base for sea kayaking and other water activities on the Baja California peninsula, in... Read more

Learning from the Past

Easter Island has long mystified archaeologists. When the tiny, remote island, 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the nearest continent, was “discovered” on Easter day in 1722, some 200 mammoth stone statues (moai) stood on the island like sentries. But there was no obvious means by which the islanders could... Read more

In August 1994 the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) was approached by the Global Futures Foundation to help Mitsubishi respond to a boycott effort organized by Rainforest Action Network over the company’s poor logging practices in tropical rainforests. Out of that dialog have emerged two initiatives that may be... Read more

Members of the U.S. Green Building Council have organized a non-profit Green Building Fund in the hopes of providing ongoing support for research and demonstration of environmentally sound construction projects. So far six organizations have contributed to the Fund’s initial project—a feasibility study documenting funding sources for green... Read more

Judith Kincaid, Cheryl Walker, and Greg Flynn for the Triangle J Council of Governments, PO Box 12276, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709; 919/549-0551, 919/549-9390 (fax). July 1995. Three-ring binder and diskette, 115 pages, $20 (specify diskette type when ordering).

Architects and specifiers who have... Read more

Regarding your article “Promoting Green Buildings in Canada,” published in the July/August issue of

Environmental Building News, I would like to clarify the relationship between the Green Building Information Council (GBIC) and the Building Environmental Performance Assessment Criteria (... Read more

A new “Mini Home Study Course” from the International Institute for Bau-biologie and Ecology™ (IBE) in Clearwater, Florida is designed to help the home-dweller understand, find, and remedy indoor air pollution, water pollution, and other home health hazards. Participants receive resource material, a video, and a Gauss meter. Contact IBE at 813/... Read more

Researchers at the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are looking into the idea of producing perlite using concentrated solar energy. Perlite is a natural volcanic rock that is expanded by rapid heating to between 870° and 1100°C. It is used as an insulation material and as a lightweight... Read more

Two project are underway that may eventually provide useful environmental and cost information on building material alternatives to architects, specifiers, and others in the construction industry. A Canadian project, called

Athena™, is the outgrowth of government-sponsored work coordinated by Forintek... Read more

More recently, suburban neighborhoods and office parks began replacing farms in ever-widening circles around the cities and towns. Conventional practice is to landscape the open spaces around... Read more

UPDATE: This keystone article was updated in 2010 to reflect changes in the industry.It is rarely possible to do everything we would like to reduce the environmental impact of building projects. It takes time to research alternative design and construction systems; new materials may not have proven track records; higher costs may be an... Read more

In recent years, responsible recycling of nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cad) batteries, mercury thermostats and a few other wastes has been hampered... Read more

With this issue we begin our fourth year of publishing EBN. The milestone gives me an opportunity to reflect back over our short history and tell you about some developments for the future. It has been a good three years—no, make that great. We’ve had our share of ups and downs and financial struggles, to be sure, but positive... Read more

A new 68,000 ft3 grocery store in Kitsap County, Washington is being used to demonstrate the use of recycled-content building materials that can be used in commercial projects. A key element of the project is public education and increasing awareness within the design and construction community. For information, contact Scott Thomas of the... Read more

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) 1995 Honor Awards were presented on May 5 at the Institute’s annual convention in Atlanta. Many of the projects recognized this year exhibited a sensitivity to the environment, suggesting that environmental criteria may have carried more weight with the... Read more

A potential barrier to cellulose insulation use that was described in the last issue of EBN (Vol. 4, No. 3) has apparently been solved. The May 1995 issue of

Energy Design Update reported that the three model code bodies are removing recently adopted provisions that would have required more stringent fire testing for cellulose. Both... Read more

In a statement released this April, The American Physical Society argued that the electromagnetic fields (EMF) emanating from power lines and appliances do not show a consistent, significant link with cancer. APS, the world’s largest organization of physicists with over 43,000 members, argues that the... Read more