For years polystyrene has been just about the only game in town for exterior foundation insulation. The problem is that

extruded polystyrene—the type of polystyrene most commonly used on foundations—is produced with HCFCs that deplete ozone, and

all polystyrene (both extruded and... Read more

The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has a new “Wood Reduction Clearinghouse” to disseminate information on ways to reduce waste and find environmentally sound alternatives to wood. Reducing wood use in construction is a primary goal of the service. Contact Dana Harmon at RAN, 450 Sansome Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94111; 415/398-4404, 415/... Read more

now being manufactured in Perrytown, Texas, can be used in place of both framing and drywall in partition walls. At $19 each for 4’ by 8’ (1200 mm by 2400 mm) panels, they are very competitive with conventional stud framing within a reasonable shipping distance from the plant. The panels... Read more

Steven Winter Associates, Inc., of Norwalk, Connecticut, has been awarded a grant through the U.S. Department of Energy’s 1995 Small Business Innovative Research program to design advanced modular townhouses for urban infill sites. The company has been charged with designing townhouses that employ renewable energy and energy conservation... Read more

A few years ago, construction waste management and job-site source separation would have been considered nearly synonymous. It makes sense, after all, that if the materials have more value when separated by type, we should try to avoid mixing them together in the first place. While source separation still makes sense for many jobs and for... Read more

Choosing an environmentally friendly siding material has never been easy. Often the more “natural” products, such as wood clapboards, are associated with depletion of sensitive forest resources, while materials that are highly manufactured—such as vinyl—raise questions about chlorine and petrochemicals as... Read more

AS debate heats up on a new Endangered Species Act, revisions to the Clean Water Act, and dozens of other pieces of legislation affecting the environment, it appears as if the primary endangered species is objective information. Congressional opponents of regulation, trade associations, corporations, and... Read more

Environmental Building Consultants, 312 A Jefferson Ave., Cheltenham, PA 19012-2021; 215/663-1611, 215/663-1637 (fax), ehouse@omni.voicenet.com (e-mail); $50 for PC or Macintosh diskette containing database and software to run it.

This initial release of an IAQ products database contains about 450 listings... Read more

Building Industry Professionals for Environmental Responsibility (BIPER) is a new lobbying group founded to counter the frequently anti-environmental message governments receive from mainstream industry organizations. Annual membership is $35. Three levels of membership allow members to choose the frequency of contacts from the... Read more

Even as environmental regulations are being widely threatened by Congressional initiatives, a broad new effort to protect the nation’s water is now underway. Sixteen months after it first convened, the National Forum on Nonpoint Source Pollution has released a report that urges new approaches for cleaning up water pollution. The general thrust... Read more

2 Sink?

The manufacture of portland cement... Read more

A fire destroyed 5 million pounds of recycled PET in a warehouse belonging to Image Industries, Inc., makers of Image Carpet, according to the July 31 issue of

Plastics News. No one was injured in the blaze, and the origin is unknown. The burned material represents only a small portion of the company’s stock, and it was insured.

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

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

Janet Marinelli and Paul Bierman-Lytle. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1995. 272 pages. Hardcover $45; paperback $21.95.

Brand new from one of the pioneers in low-toxic, environmental architecture and one of the field’s most eloquent writers,

Your Natural Home is a superb resource for... 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

A four-month-old initiative within the U.S. Postal Service aims to revise design guidelines and material specifications to improve environmental performance. The Washington, D.C. office of HOK, Inc. was recently retained to help develop the proposed changes, which will be presented to senior Postal Service staff for review in late October. To... 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

The Wild Lawn Handbook: Alternatives to the Traditional Front LawnStevie Daniels, 1995. Macmillan, 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023; 800/858-7674. Hardcover, 223 pages, $20 ($27.95 Canada).

Written for homeowners who are questioning the ecological and financial cost of maintaining a traditional lawn... Read more

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