BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

April 1, 1997
Green Building Materials ’96 Proceedings

Cross Creek Initiative (formerly Sus-tainable Development & Construction Initiative), 117 NW 16th Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32601; 352/371-3718, 352/378-6008 (fax). Approx. 150 pages, spiral-bound, $50.

Green Building Materials ’96 provided a forum for building material manufacturers and their... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 1997

On January 1st, the Council of American Building Officials (CABO) approved steel framing for residential construction. The CABO listing provides prescriptive requirements for framing houses with light-gauge steel framing (span tables, etc.). Builders not in high-wind areas and high-risk seismic areas will no longer have to get steel framing... Read more

Product Review

April 1, 1997
New Generation of Horizontal-Axis Washing Machines on the Way

Clothes washing is on the threshold of a major revolution in North America. Indeed, 1997 might well be remembered as the beginning of the end for the good old top-loading, vertical-axis washing machine. With much fanfare, industry-leading Maytag announced its new Neptune high-... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 1997
Making the Connections:

by 1000 Friends of Oregon, 534 SW Third, Suite 300, Portland, OR 97204; 503/497-1000; LUTRAQ@friends.org (e-mail). February 1997, 40-page booklet, $12.

This short booklet is Volume 7 of an ongoing series of publications that have emerged from the LUTRAQ Project.

In 1988, the public interest group 1000... Read more

Op-Ed

April 1, 1997
More on Disposal of CCA-Treated Wood

Your recent article (

EBN, March 1997), calling for the phase-out of CCA-pressure-treated wood because of the potential disposal problems associated with CCA-treated wood coming out-of-service, is a well written survey of the issue. While we disagree with several points made in the article, it is a... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 1997

According to the February issue of

Planning, Governor Parris Glen-dening has proposed legislation for Maryland that would combat sprawl by providing economic incentives for businesses that move into abandoned industrial areas and paying for repair of existing roads and sewers instead of creating new ones. The measure would also... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 1997

Visionary developer Jim Chaffin, a leading advocate of environmentally responsible development within the Urban Land Institute, will be the organization’s new president. Chaffin takes the helm for a two-year term beginning on July 1, 1997. The Urban Land Institute is the leading association of real estate developers in the United States with a... Read more

Feature

April 1, 1997

Since the Energy Policy Act of 1992 mandated open access to electric transmission lines, deregulation of the electric utility industry has been like a freight train gathering steam. Although only a handful of states have enacted legislation or executive rules concerning deregulation, the changes are being felt all across the country. Electric... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 1997
Newsbriefs

According to a new report by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), investments in energy efficiency improvements in the three states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania could generate 164,000 jobs by the year 2010 and save more than $150 billion, while reducing air pollution emissions by 24%. The 130-... Read more

Op-Ed

April 1, 1997
Deregulation: Work to Make it Work!

Environmentalists and other advocates of energy efficiency are justifiably nervous about a deregulated electric utility industry. Under the existing (regulated) system, we as a society have the right, at least in principle, to require that electric power providers act in our common interest. The free-market... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 1997

U.S. dependence on imported petroleum is nearing an all-time high. According to the DOE Energy Information Administration, total average petroleum imports in 1996 reached 9.4 million barrels per day (1.5 billion l/d), or 51.5% of total consumption. While total imports (both actual and percentage basis) were the highest ever, the

net... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 1997
Awards and Competitions

Applications are now available for the 1998 EnergyValue Housing Award, which recognizes the successful integration of energy efficiency into new home construction. The Award is administered by the NAHB Research Center, together with the National Association of Home Builders Energy Subcommittee,  Professional Builder... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 1997

by Wenche Dramstad, James Olson, and Richard Forman. Harvard University Press and Island Press (Island Press, 1718 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 300, Washington, DC 20009), 1996. Paperback, 80 pages, $17.95.

This little book is a real treat. With rare brevity, authors Dramstad, Olson, and Forman present key principles of landscape... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997

by Wesley A. Groesbeck and Jan Striefel, ASLA. Environmental Resources, Inc., 2041 E. Hollywood Avenue, Salt Lake City, UT 84108-3148; 801/485-0280. Paperback, 486 pages, $35 postpaid.

This directory is a bare-bones, no-frills production. The 2,100 listings are printed in a plain database output format on recycled newsprint. But the content... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997
Newsbriefs

Forintek Canada Corp.’s Sustainable Materials Pro-ject, a leading source of life-cycle information on building materials, has just been incorporated as the not-for-profit

Athena Sustainable Materials Institute (ASMI). The Institute should help address perceptions that the life-cycle data from the project is biased by its... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997

The third annual

International Design Resource Awards for recycled and renewable materials and products includes categories for “Built Environments” and “Building Materials” along with five others. Winning this competition is reportedly a great way to find a manufacturer for your design. Entry fee is $30; deadline for submissions is... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997

edited by Joe Demkin, AIA (1997). Published by John Wiley & Sons, New York. Three-ring binder, 350 pages in supplement, $75. The entire Guide is available for $195. To order direct call 800/225-5945.

The 1997 supplement to the

Environmental Resource Guide

(ERG) from The American Institute of Architects expands on the utility... Read more

Feature

March 1, 1997
There are some important benefits of treating wood, the most significant of which is increasing the life of wood that is used in locations where degradation might occur. Older preservatives, such as pentachlorophenal and creosote, pose considerable health risks to users of the wood, but new waterborne preservatives are safer. They are safer in... Read more

News Brief

March 1, 1997

by Kalin Associates, Inc., 154 Wells Avenue, Newton Center, MA 02159; 617/964-5477, 617/964-5788 (fax). Three-ring binder and diskette, 900 pages, $135 postpaid.

No, we’re not repeating ourselves here. The

Green Spec (two words) that we reviewed last November consists of generic specification language for making greener buildings. This... Read more

News Analysis

March 1, 1997
Hi-Rise Recycling, Inc. makes electronically controlled systems that allow apartment dwellers and office workers to separate out recyclable materials using a single disposal chute. Since we reviewed the product in

EBN

Vol. 2, No. 5, the company has been expanding, both in market share and vertical integration within their product area.... Read more