was declared the most popular home product of 1999 by

American Homestyle & Gardening magazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards. Trex is a composite of recycled polyethylene and wood fibers (see EBN

Vol. 2, No. 2).

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was created in the early 1990s to establish worldwide, environmentally sound standards for forest management practices and to monitor the agencies that choose to certify forestry programs to those standards (see EBN

Vol. 6, No. 10). Although some forest industry groups participated in the FSC’s... Read more

The Emeryville Resourceful Building project consists of one two-unit and one single-family dwelling on a tight, infill site.

energy performance reporting for windows. Most recently, the Council has determined that, as of January 2000, participating manufacturers will be required to certify solar heat gain coefficient and visible light transmittance... Read more

by John and Lynn Bower, 2000. The Healthy House Institute, 430 North Sewell Road, Bloomington, IN 47408; 812/332-5073,

www.hhinst.com. Five-video set, $99.95

According to an article in the January 4 edition of the

New York Times, the

backyard burning of household trash may release more dioxins and furans into the atmosphere than are released by all of the nation’s municipal incinerators. An estimated 20 million people in the U.S. burn their trash in uncontrolled backyard incinerators... Read more

I’d like to offer a minor correction to your otherwise excellent article “Structural Engineered Wood: Is it Green?” (EBN

Vol. 8, No. 11). You stated that interior-grade softwood plywood uses a urea-formaldehyde (UF) binder. While that was once the case, all construction-grade plywood (both interior- and exterior-grade) now uses a phenol... Read more

After a year-and-a-half as EBN’s able products editor, Dwight Holmes plans to get back into

working with products instead of writing about them. As a result, we’re looking for someone to fill his shoes—both in helping track products for EBN and in maintaining our

GreenSpec directory. It’s an exciting time in the green products... Read more

A solar house in Hanover, New Hampshire—designed by

Marc Rosenbaum, P.E. and featured in EBN

Vol. 7, No. 2 —is a winner of this year’s National Technology Awards from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Other winners will be announced at the Society’s Winter Meeting in Dallas... Read more

Final details are expected in February on how over $1 billion that will be collected by the New Jersey electric utility industry over the next eight years from “

Societal Benefits Charges” will be spent. The electric restructuring legislation passed in 1999 calls for about three-quarters of the money to go to energy efficiency measures... Read more

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) has signed up more than 20,000 customers for its

green power program. Participating customers pay 6% more for green electricity (generated from wind, solar energy, and other renewables), but the higher costs are offset, according to the utility, by savings from compact fluorescent... Read more

Innovations in Wallcoverings, Inc., a 25-year-old manufacturer of vinyl wallcoverings and upholstery,... Read more

has left her position as Managing Director of the U.S. Green Building Council to take over as editor of

Environmental Design and Construction magazine. Douglas replaces John Sailor, who initiated the magazine and led it through its successful first two years.

In the next few months the U.S. Department of Energy is expected to issue a long overdue energy efficiency standard for fluorescent lamp ballasts. This new standard is the result of a negotiated agreement between energy conservation interests, ballast manufacturers, and other stakeholders. According to this Joint Agreement, the new standard... Read more

Neil Kelly Cabinets’ Naturals Collection (see EBN Vol. 7, No. 8) received the 1999 Founder of the New Northwest award from Sustainable Northwest, an organization working to promote economic development that is rooted in the maintenance and enhancement of the environment. Visit www.sustainablenorthwest.org for details, or contact Neil Kelly at... Read more

Fannie Mae, which now owns 84% of the unsold property at

Civano, the planned eco-community in Tucson, Arizona, is moving to take more direct control of the project by buying out developer and project president Kevin Kelly. After the deal is completed (most likely in December), Kelly will stay on for six months as a consultant to the... Read more

Every once and a while, when I’m able to step back from the immediate pressures of keeping up with the next deadline, I reflect on the bigger picture of what we’re collectively doing—at

EBN and elsewhere—to advance sustainability. I’m troubled by a paradox: the more successful we are at advancing resource... Read more

by Leon A. Frechette. Craftsman Book Company, Carlsbad, California, 1999. Softcover, 336 pages, $34.75.

Leon A. Frechette’s new book

Build Smarter with Alternative Materials is a well-organized collection of product reviews and material-specific advice from an experienced residential and... Read more

, the first large-volume producer of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) materials in the U.S., has new owners and a new name. The company, now known as

Matrix Precast Autoclaved Aerated Concrete L.P., is owned by Charlotte, North Carolina-based J. A. Jones, Inc., a provider of construction services worldwide. J. A. Jones,... Read more

The

Presidio Trust in San Francisco is this year’s winner of the

Waste Reduction Awards Program from the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Among the trust’s many recycling and reuse programs is a program to salvage reusable furnishings and building materials from structures throughout the national park. For more... Read more