The secondary mortgage lending market is complex and can be confusing. While sale of mortgages on the secondary market can actually limit green options (with the requirements for conventional heating and wastewater systems, for example), it can also be a way of encouraging green—at least if Fannie Mae’s new Green... Read more

On April 4, 2000 the San Jose, California City Council approved a series of recommendations aimed at

promoting green building practices in the city. With an estimated $1.4 billion in total value of building permits issued during fiscal year 1997/98, this new program could affect a lot of construction. The recommendations approved by the... Read more

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Vol. 8, No. 5) as their first climate-neutral product, and Saunders now offers climate-... Read more

In what is believed to be a first, a municipal government in the United States is joining with an international alliance of island nations to combat global warming. The Monroe Board of County Commissioners in the Florida Keys passed a resolution in mid-March acknowledging the likelihood of significant impacts from global warming and agreeing to... Read more

by Chris Magwood and Peter Mack, 2000. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, B.C., Canada.

Paperback, 234 pages, $24.95.

Straw Bale Building makes a substantial contribution to the literature in many ways.

First and foremost, the book is authored (and published) by Canadians with a definite focus... Read more

In a major achievement for environmental activists, two of the nation’s largest homebuilders, Kaufman & Broad (K&B) and Centex Homes, have publicly committed to eliminating their use of wood from endangered forests. Both statements arrived just days before an April 1 “Day of... Read more

The letter from Cliff Goldman, Carnegie Fabrics (

Vol. 9, No. 2), smeared vinyl without offering any evidence to support the allegations. Obviously, Goldman’s main point was to flack his own competing product. I challenge Goldman to offer any credible, scientific evidence that vinyl products harm health or the... Read more

The first quarter of 2000 was the

warmest first quarter ever recorded in the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The average temperature for this period, 41.7°F (5.4°C), exceeds the previous record (1990) by a full degree Fahrenheit.

In December 1998, Hurd MillWORK agreed to a $5.3 million class-action settlement relating to claims about R-value in gas-fill windows that were shipped with breather tubes installed. Andersen Windows devotes a full page in this year’s residential product catalog to “High Altitude Glass Considerations.” The window industry is struggling with the... Read more

Liverpool High School, near Syracuse, New York, has become the first high school to install a fuel cell. The school’s ONSI PC25 fuel cell will be used both as a power source and a teaching tool. Funding was provided, in part, from the state of New York and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) has approved a standard for electrical inverters used to connect photovoltaic (PV) generators to the utility grid. John Stevens, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, chaired the working group, which included about 25 members representing the utility industry,... Read more

With the passage last year of a law in Louisiana designed to address the risk of Formosan termites, it looked as if preservative-treated wood was going to be

mandated in all framing lumber used in home building. Senate Bill 373 provides for the formation of a task force to deal with the growing problem of Formosan termites in Louisiana... Read more

France unveiled a plan on January 20 to fight global warming by raising taxes on industrial energy consumption. Under the plan, taxes will go into effect in 2001, though companies under heavy competitive pressure will be able to avoid the tax by focusing on reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. The plan also aims to improve public transit,... Read more

We’re very excited to announce that Peter Yost of the NAHB Research Center will be joining our staff as research director and senior editor of

Environmental Building News. In addition to contributing to

EBN’s content, Peter will share responsibility for many of our research, writing, and consulting services. A former high-school... Read more

Two Wisconsin state agencies, the Department of Consumer Protection and the Department of Health and Family Services, have issued a warning about the use of ozone generators. The February 29 press release singles out Alpine Industries for violating a Federal Trade Commission order and using unsubstantiated health benefits to market ozone... Read more

by Tom Bender, 2000. Fire River Press, Manzanita, Oregon. Paperback, 123 oversized pages, $27.

The book is a richly illustrated primer into the spirit of place, and the place of spirit, in buildings. (Bender’s... Read more

Visionwall Technologies, Inc., a leading manufacturer of high-efficiency curtain-wall glazing systems (see University of Victoria Engineering Laboratory case study in

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Vol. 6, No. 7), went into receivership on February 24, 2000. Customers should see little effect from this action, however, as Visionwall Corporation has taken... Read more

Although they represent just 1% of U.S. land cover (an area the size of South Carolina), roads and highways directly affect the ecology of nearly 20% of U.S. land. That is the key finding of research by Richard Foreman at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, reported in the February issue of the journal

Conservation Biology. Foreman... Read more

Thank you for your article on building commissioning in

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Vol. 9, No. 2 [February 2000]. This important aspect of the building process is indeed gaining focus throughout the design and construction communities as buildings and their supporting systems become ever more complex and interrelated. As you point out, building codes... Read more

Seattle-based Sellen Construction Co. has been honored as 1999 Contractor of the Year by the International Erosion Control Association (IECA). Sellen was lauded for its use of best management practices and state-of-the-art technologies to control erosion and prevent sediment runoff in challenging and sensitive situations. Specific practices... Read more