Product Briefs

The

Innvironments® series from Innovations® in Wallcoverings picked up Best of Show at the recent NeoCon® event. Three products make up the series. Eco-Alchemy is a scrubbable Type II (general use in areas of average traffic and scuffing) covering made of recyclable nylon on a polyester and wood pulp backing, which allows... Read more

More on Recycled Synthetic Roof Shingles

I am an architect interested in environmental issues.

EBN is always my first source in searching for information about environmental products because of its clear summaries and comparisons. Your “Recycled Synthetic Roofing Shingles” product review (

Vol. 9, No. 5 – May 2000) raises two... Read more

Jim Quinn

, President and CEO of Collins Companies, has announced plans to retire this fall. Under Quinn’s leadership, Collins became national leaders in Forest Stewardship Council-accredited certification of their forest lands, which include areas in northern California, southern Oregon, and (as Kane Hardwood) Pennsylvania. Quinn will be... Read more

There is a compelling elegance in using the earth’s relatively constant temperatures as a source and sink for heat. Indeed, ground-source heat pumps can be a highly efficient space conditioning option and, although their overall market share is very low, they are increasingly popular in the many dozens of model green homes and light commercial... Read more

Plum Creek Timber Company

, based in Seattle, announced on July 18 an agreement to acquire

The Timber Company—the division of Georgia-Pacific that has owned and managed all 4.4 million acres (1.8 million ha) of G-P’s timberland. The combined company, with 7.9 million acres (3.2 million ha), will be the second-largest private timberland... Read more

Honeywell TranStar Transformer Offers Significant Savings

“Exciting transformers” might seem like an oxymoron, but Honeywell has one for you—the new dry-type, ultra-low-loss TranStar™. The iron or steel core in conventional transformers has been replaced in the TranStar by a highly efficient MetGlas® amorphous metal core.

The TranStar... Read more

Adapting to a Greenhouse World

Now that any lingering doubts about the reality of human-generated global climate change are disappearing (see news story, page 5), I’m faced with a sobering reality check.

I’ve been harboring this illusion that once the doubts were adequately addressed, the world would wake up and take real action to... Read more

Re-Evaluating Stormwater:

by Bruce Ferguson, Richard Pinkham, and Timothy Collins, 1999. Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, Colorado; 970/927-3851, www.rmi.org. Oversize spiral-bound, 32 pages, $24.95 (plus $5.50 shipping)

Re-Evaluating Stormwater presents the results of an intensive three-day “charrette” in 1998 by 60 local and... Read more

T-5 Fluorescent Lighting Outshines HIDs

It has long been believed in the design profession that, for indoor settings, fluorescent lighting made the most sense for low ceilings—below about 15 or 20 feet (4.5 m to 6 m)—and high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting was the best choice for higher ceilings (high-bay applications). No longer. New... Read more

Sydney Olympics Walk the Talk

The Olympic Games being held later this summer in Sydney, Australia have gone further than any other modern Olympics in addressing environmental considerations—due largely to a unique collaboration.

In the early 1990s, Greenpeace International head Paul Gilding participated with environmental consulting... Read more

LEED in Seattle, and an Eleventh-Hour Change

I’d like to thank you for publishing such an excellent article on the LEED™ Rating System (EBN

Vol. 9, No. 6). Not only does it provide a helpful snapshot of the system’s content, but it also pointed out some of the history, challenges, and unresolved issues in the system. I need to provide a... Read more

Newsbriefs

In response to ongoing environmental concerns with refrigerants such as HCFCs and HFCs, a naturally occurring fluid may be making a comeback:

carbon dioxide. Although CO2 is the principal greenhouse gas, compared to most other refrigerants on a per-molecule basis it is extremely benign. According to the July 14, 2000 issue of... Read more

Fiber-Optic Daylighting

The next-generation daylight-driven fiber-optic fixture is not yet on the market, but it is already garnering honors, including a “Groundbreaking Technology” award fromBuilder magazine. Similar in function to the Himawari (see

EBN

Vol. 8, No. 10), this new device is designed to be much more... Read more

New Energy Efficiency Bill Is Performance-Based

On June 13, Senator Bob Smith (Republican–NH) introduced the Energy Efficient Buildings Incentives Act (S. 2718) to Congress. The bill would provide tax deductions for the following residential and commercial energy efficiency improvements: whole-building performance, PV systems, certified solar... Read more

Following discovery of trace amounts of

perfluorooctanyl-based chemicals in water supplies and in humans, 3M Company announced that it is phasing out products that use these chemicals, including its Scotchguard™ anti-soil coating for carpets and other materials. These products represent about 2% of the company’s $16 billion in annual... Read more

DOE Clothes Washer Standards Raised

Federal minimum standards for the energy efficiency of domestic clothes washers are to increase by 35%. The two-step process requires manufacturers to meet new modified energy factor (MEF) standards. MEF calculates energy used while accounting for remaining moisture content in the clothes—the drier the... Read more

The Seattle City Council

unanimously adopted a proposal in April to meet all future electricity needs with no net emissions of greenhouse gases. The city’s municipal utility, Seattle City Light, will employ a combination of energy conservation, existing hydropower, and new renewables, including solar, wind, geothermal, and landfill gas. If... Read more

Electrolux Buys “Electrolux”

The Electrolux Group, the world’s largest home appliance manufacturer, is purchasing for $50 million the trademark and company name from Electrolux LLC, a U.S. company well known for its vacuum cleaners.

The Electrolux Group held a 38% share in the predecessors of Electrolux LLC until 1968, when it sold its... Read more

Perspective: Green Building Tax Credits? No, Thanks!

Call me grumpy, but I’m against this new generation of tax credits for green buildings and renewable energy systems.

Tax credit legislation supporting green buildings was recently signed into law in New York (see EBN

Vol. 9, No. 5), and the push for similar legislation seems... Read more

The

Arctic ice cap has thinned by 40% over the past 40 years, according to preliminary findings presented at a May meeting of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States. Climate changes will make it difficult for native Alaskans to maintain subsistence life-styles, say researchers, because of declines in walrus seal populations... Read more