Building Materials in the Context of Sustainable Development, nine research reports available from Forintek Canada Corp., 800 Montreal Road, Ottawa, ON K1G 3Z5, Canada; 613/744-0963, 613/744-0903 (fax). Complete sets: CDN$600 for universities and nonprofits, CDN$900 for... Read more

The City of New York has created an Inter-Agency Environmentally Sound Building Task Force to develop, encourage, and coordinate ideas for introducing environmentally sound building into the municipal building program. The City is currently soliciting information from other municipalities, private industry, and other countries on applied... Read more

After years of development, the Building Environmental Performance Assessment Criteria (BEPAC) program is up and running. The system is designed as a voluntary rating program for commercial and institutional buildings, in which building owners can choose to have their property... Read more

The article “Should We Phase Out PVC?” [EBN

Vol. 3, No. 1] provided one of the most complete summaries of the various environmental, health, and safety aspects of PVC manufacture and use in buildings I’ve seen. If your readers want to get even more details about plastics in building fires, they may want to read my... Read more

The National Appropriate Technology Assistance Service (NATAS), operated by the National Center for Appropriate Technology since 1984, has ceased operations. NATAS had offered toll-free technical assistance on issues relating to renewable energy and energy efficiency. Most information services provided by NATAS will now be available from... Read more

1. Total Harmonic Distortion

2. Osram and Sylvania merged in 1993

3. Reflector style

4. Panasonic lamps have single tube with double fold and are enclosed in white glass bulb. Lamps available in... Read more

Our lead article in this issue takes a look at on-site wastewater treatment. Several alternative approaches that provide better groundwater protection are discussed. But our quest for improved wastewater treatment, especially on sites with poor soils, raises an important concern. If we can design self-contained wastewater treatment... Read more

Foamed insulation from coal fly-ash, being developed by Henry Sperber of Abiff Manufacturing, recently got a boost in the form of a DOE grant. Sperber is the inventor of the Blow-in-Blanket and Fiberiffic insulation systems. The product has interesting possibilities as a low-cost, foamed-in-place insulation made from industrial waste. It is... Read more

Green Builder Program, City of Austin, Environmental & Conservation Services Dept., 206 E. 9th Street, Suite 17.102, Austin, TX 78701; 512/499-3500; 512/499-2859 (fax). Three-ring binder format, 440 pages, $25 postpaid.

The Sustainable Building Sourcebook was written to provide background information for... Read more

Dr. Jack Ward Thomas, well known for advocating forest management practices that protect wildlife habitat, was named the 13th chief of the U.S. Forest Service on November 17, 1993. Thomas, a wildlife biologist as well as forester who has been with the Service for 27 years, is a leading advocate of “... Read more

The CNN Environment Unit is preparing a half-hour show on environmental home renovation featuring EBN Advisory Board members Steve Loken and Marc Rosenbaum. EBN subscribers are invited to suggest renovation ideas, materials, or techniques (for either contractors or do-it- yourselfers) for inclusion in the show, which will air in late May or... Read more

Washing Machine

Number one is... Read more

The Alcyone Light Centre is offering a three-month course in green architecture in the spring of 1994, and another in sustainable building construction in the summer. Contact Architectural Internship Director, Alcyone Light Centre, 1965 Hilt Rd., Hornbrook, CA 96044; 916/475-3310.

A lot of what we do in our research at EBN is listen to claims. We hear from one group that a particular material is great for the environment, while another group tells us just the opposite. Very often, both interest groups are right …and both are wrong. How can that be? The apparent contradiction lies in selective use of... Read more

The

Environmental Resource Guide from the American Institute of Architects (reviewed in EBN

Vol. 1, No. 3) is now available at a lower subscription rate. The new price for one year of quarterly installments is $98 for AIA members and $165 for non-members. Call 800/365-ARCH to order.

I appreciated reading your fairly comprehensive article on environmental impacts of various heating fuel options (“Heating Fuel Choices: Weighing the Alternatives”, EBN,

Vol. 2, No. 6). You uncovered several of the complexities inherent to evaluating the costs and benefits of fuel options as determined by... Read more

The recycled plastic and wood fiber composite lumber product (reviewed in EBN

Vol. 2, No. 2) that began as Rivenite and later became Timbrex has a new name yet again. Mobil Chemical Company’s Composite Products Division, maker of the material, is now calling it “Trex™”. The change results from a trademark conflict over the... Read more

Extruded polystyrene (XPS) is the insulation material of choice for many builders when it comes to below-grade applications and is used in many other ways as well. Commonly referred to by Dow Chemical Company’s tradename Styrofoam®, standard XPS insulation is manufactured in the U.S. by four... Read more

This just in from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory: A gas oven consumes more electricity to bake a potato than a microwave oven. That’s right, more

electricity. The glow bar ignitor, which draws 350 to 400 watts during oven start-up, continues to draw power the whole time the oven is on. To bake a moderately sized potato, LBL researcher... Read more