The September 2, 1996 issue of

Plastics News reports that the Center for Plastics Recycling Research at Rutgers University is shutting down due to budget cuts. This center has been instrumental in much of the research behind applications for recycled plastic lumber and recycled plastic marine pilings. The article describes the closing... Read more

Building products giant Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (L-P) is purchasing GreenStone Industries, Inc., the top producer of cellulose insulation in the country. GreenStone was virtually unknown in the industry until several years ago, when it went public and began purchasing cellulose manufacturers. GreenStone now operates seven manufacturing... Read more

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has $1 million available to co-fund research and development work relating to high-efficiency lighting products. The maximum award per project is $250,000, and all projects should include a New York State manufacturer. Proposals are due by December 31st. For information... Read more

Annette Osso, Project Manager; David A. Gottfried, Managing Editor. 1996. Public Technology, Inc., 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washing-ton, D.C. 20004; 202/626-2441; 202/626-2498 (fax); osso@pti.nw.dc.us (e-mail). Also available from the U.S. Green Building Council, 290 Alhambra #11, San Francisco, CA 94123; 415/543-3001; 415/957-5890 (fax);... Read more

An “emergency” amendment to the Ontario Building Code, which took effect on August 20, 1996, eliminates the requirement for full-height foundation insulation. The measure rolls back the code to what it was from 1990 to 1993—requiring foundation insulation only to a depth of two feet (0.6 m) below grade—the same as other building codes in Canada... Read more

We’ve generally argued that for a good green design, it is necessary to get the environmental agenda on the table as early as possible in the design process. Every decision that is made along the way represents a commitment to a particular path and the closing out of other options. If too many decisions are made before bringing an environmental... Read more

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) has come under fire for its Sustainable Forestry Initiative because it does not include independent certification of forestry practices (see

EBN

Vol. 4, No. 3). The association’s just-issued first annual progress report on the Initiative, however, illustrates the delicate... Read more

New York City’s Tiffany Street Pier, one of the largest plastic lumber structures, was damaged by lightning recently, according to the October 14, 1996 issue of

Plastics News. About one-third of the plastic lumber deck and the gazebo were melted. Most of the plastic hardened in place, albeit in a deformed state. City officials are quite... Read more

Designers of the high-profile Audubon Headquarters in New York City, together with National Audubon Society scientists, took great pains to minimize the use of toxic and environmentally damaging building materials. Among the choices they made in renovating the 100-year-old building was to use undyed, 100% wool carpet throughout the space... Read more

The article on the Sustainable Technology Center (Vol. 5, No. 5) missed the true performance of this market-rate commercial complex in its first year. The two buildings at the Center saved 82% on utility costs for water, sewage, electricity, and heating compared to the performance of the Center if built conventionally in Friday Harbor. Using... Read more

by The Results Center, IRT Environment, Inc. Paperback, 28 pages, $75.

One recent report in IRT... Read more

Whirlpool Corporation has suspended nationwide sales of its super-efficient “Energy-Wise” refrigerators, according to the 23 August issue of Global Environmental Change Report. This refrigerator was introduced in 1995 and is virtually identical to the “golden carrot” refrigerator developed through the utility-funded Super Efficient Refrigerator... Read more

The Prairie Crossing project, described below, was well underway as a leading-edge development before the Building Science Consortium was formed to redirect some of its strategies. The other two projects profiled below are unrelated to... Read more

by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers. Dutton, 1996. Hardcover, 306 pages, $24.95.

EBN mailbox. The basic thesis of

Our Stolen... Read more

A new report by the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy quantifies the potential for energy savings in residential lighting. By replacing those incandescent lights that are used four hours per day or more with compact fluorescent lights, total annual savings in the U.S. would be 31.7 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh),... Read more

Asbestos fibers and lead are two very different materials that happen to have a few things in common: they are both health hazards, both were used extensively in buildings, and both have spawned whole industries for their management and removal. Now there’s another commonality: in the right circumstances, both can be managed in place by... Read more

Willamette Industries has discontinued the use of “urban wood waste” at its Eugene, Oregon medium-density fiberboard (MDF) plant. The company had pioneered the use of recycled wood from municipal solid waste collection sites starting in 1993 (see EBN Vol. 5, No. 2), when wood fiber prices were extremely high. Urban wood use at the plant peaked... Read more

Closing off streets to cars to create pedestrian malls doesn’t always work.

Land Use Digest, published by the Urban Land Institute, reported in its May 1996 issue that Chicago is joining such cities as Eugene, Little Rock, and Norfolk in reverting pedestrian malls back into regular streets. Merchants have complained in these cities that... Read more

With recent restrictions on logging in some publicly owned forests in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., the pressure on forests in Canada’s British Columbia (B.C.) is increasing. A broad array of environmental groups is increasingly vocal about the fate of B.C.’s temperate rainforests, and coalitions... Read more