The

Collins Pine Company, based in Chester, California, has just harvested the two billionth board foot (4.7 million m3) of timber from its 94,000-acre (38,000 ha) Collins Almanor Forest. Harvesting activities in their northern Sierra forest began in 1941 when the company had approximately 1.5 billion board feet (3.5 million m3) of standing... Read more

Home of the Year from

Natural Home magazine’s first competition is an 800 ft2 (75 m2) home in the Arcadia cohousing community in Carrboro, North Carolina. The attached unit, including a host of environmental features, was built by architect Giles Blunden. In keeping with the tendency to recognize the value of modest size, one of the runners-up... Read more

Bark-Based Panel Adhesive

Supported by a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (newly renamed LP) has teamed up with Ensyn Group, Inc. to develop an adhesive from tree-bark for use in OSB and plywood. LP produces about one-quarter of the OSB manufactured in the U.S. and consumes a similar... Read more

Scott Sklar

, who directed the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in Washington for 14 years, has left to start his own strategic marketing and political consulting firm. The Stella Group, Ltd. will initially focus much of its attention on three clients: Energy Conversion Devices/Uni-Solar; Duke Solar; and STM Power Corporation. Sklar... Read more

Canada’s government is taking action to stem climate change. On October 6, Canada’s federal cabinet formally approved a $500-million, five-year

plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The plan will achieve about one-third of Canada’s greenhouse gas emission reductions called for in the Kyoto climate change treaty. Under the plan, the... Read more

Awards & Competitions

The American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment has announced a juried design competition for the

2001 Earth Day Top Ten green building awards. (In past years the Committee has used a less formal process to select projects for this recognition.) Entries will be reviewed for architectural... Read more

Cotton Insulation is Back!

The allure of a building material made from blue jeans is undeniable. One of the new cotton insulation products we field-tested attracted attention even at its 6:45 a.m. delivery here at the

EBN office. Peering into the blue bundles of batts, passersby peppered us with questions: what is this stuff, how does... Read more

Larry Sherwood

, who has served ably as executive director of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) for 12 years, has announced his resignation. Larry plans to leave the association following the ASES Annual meeting in April 2001. He does not have definite plans for the future.

Greenguard

trademark symbol Lists

IAQ-Rated Products

A new Web-based product registry from Air Quality Sciences, Inc. (AQS) offers product manufacturers an opportunity to promote products that meet widely referenced indoor air quality (IAQ) guidelines. While the number of building materials listed currently is small, it is... Read more

Errata on BEES Review

In our review of the BEES 2.0 software (EBNVol. 9, No. 9), we made two unfortunate errors:

1. When we expressed skepticism about the installed costs of vinyl siding and stucco, we reversed the numbers. BEES uses $1.29/ft2 ($13.89/m2) for stucco and $2.07/ft2 ($22.39/m2). for vinyl. We have also learned that these... Read more

Ten Shades of Green, a highly acclaimed exhibit

of green buildings from the U.S. and Europe, will be traveling from its New York City origin to several other locations over the next year. The exhibit was organized by the Architectural League of New York and curated by Peter Buchanan. Details may be found online at www.archleague.org. At press... Read more

There’s No Lack of Engineers Who Know Buildings!

I disagree with the reported remark concerning the mechanical engineering community and education in building design (“What the U.S. design profession really lacks is creative mechanical engineers!” in

EBN

Vol. 9, No. 7/8, p. 8). Yes, a mechanical engineer from one of the many... Read more

Capstone Microturbine: Opening Up Cogeneration Opportunities

Looking a bit like an oversized computer tower, the Model 330 Capstone MicroTurbine™ is paving the way for cost-effective cogeneration in commercial and industrial buildings. While state-of-the-art power plants can achieve a conversion rate for source energy to electricity as high as... Read more

Newsbriefs

The

City of Portland, Oregon has hired two well-known experts, architect Greg Acker and green building consultant Michael O’Brien, to provide services to the design and construction community as part of its Green Building Initiative. The City’s programs are expected to become available in late fall of 2000. For details,... Read more

Builder John Abrams of Martha’s Vineyard is a storyteller. One of his favorite stories is about Gandhi:

A woman approaches the well-known visionary seeking help with her son’s addiction to sweets. He listens to her concerns but does not meet with the child. Over the following weeks she asks him several more times for help. Each time he... Read more

The

Permaculture Credit Union, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, opened this summer. The Credit Union will operate on the ethics of permaculture: care of the earth, care of people, and reinvestment of surplus. Membership in this credit union will be limited to those persons who have completed a Permaculture Institute-recognized... Read more

Newsbriefs

84 Lumber has just joined the ranks of Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Menard’s as the largest home improvement retailers to commit to some type of certified lumber policy (stores rank in total U.S. sales: Home Depot–#1, Lowe’s–#2, Menard’s–#3, and 84 Lumber–#6). The details and level of specificity of each store’s policy and plan vary—84... Read more

DOE Promotes High-Performance Buildings

At an October 3 reception on Capitol Hill and an October 4 press conference, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will roll out the initial results of its roadmapping initiatives for promoting high-performance commercial buildings. The series of roadmapping efforts to be featured involve broad-based... Read more

TXU Electric

, the largest electric utility in Texas, has entered into a “sell all, buy all” wind power contract with FPL Energy, LLC, a subsidiary of Florida Power and Light, a $6 billion national provider of electricity-related services (15% of FPL’s energy portfolio comes from wind power, with 85% coming from renewables or natural gas). FPL... Read more

Regulations on Lead Paint in Salvaged Materials

A well-intentioned lead-based paint disposal rule proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has inadvertently caused confusion and concern in the building materials recycling and salvage industries, but the situation is improving. EPA intended to facilitate lead abatement by... Read more