I just received my first issue of EBN (Vol. 4, No. 1), and I had to drop you a note to tell you how impressed I am with your publication.

I am embarrassed that I haven’t been a subscriber until now. Like a lot of small builders—managing job sites, running the office, chasing new business—I only have time to read about 25% of... Read more

by Grazyna Pilatowicz. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1995. 170 pages, paperback, $24.95.

Eco-Interiors is a well-conceived book that just doesn’t come through. The idea is great—a guide for interior designers explaining environmental issues and the steps they can take to address those... Read more

Running water down the drain while waiting for hot water to get to the tap wastes over 10,000 gallons (38,000 l) each year in an average American household. The most common strategy for reducing this tremendous waste is a hot water recirculation system, which keeps hot water moving through the pipes, so... Read more

The Center for Resourceful Building Technology (CRBT), which built the ReCRAFT 90 house in Missoula, Montana, is planning to build a second demonstration house in 1995: the Timber-Tech House. This will be a small, 925 ft2 (86 m2), resource-efficient, urban in-fill house in downtown Missoula that is designed for affordability and easy... Read more

Separating graywater from sewage and using it for landscape irrigation makes a lot of sense. The practice conserves potable water, allows irrigation during droughts, and increases the life of in-ground septic systems. Unfortunately, use of untreated graywater for irrigation has long been illegal in most of the U.S. Finally, that is beginning to... Read more

on Eco-Cities

The Urban Ecologist: The Journal of Urban EcologyStephen Wheeler, Editor, Urban Ecology, 405 14th Street, Suite 701, Oakland, CA 94612; 510/251-6330; urbanecology@igc.apc.org. Quarterly subscription with Urban Ecology membership, $30/year.

EcoCity Cleveland: Ideas and Tools and a Sustainable... Read more

According to the E Source newsletter

E News, replacing vertical-axis, coin-operated washers with horizontal-axis models reduced energy use by 73 percent in a multifamily property in Seattle, Washington. The metered test, performed by Seattle City Light and Seattle Water, confirms expectations of the energy-saving potential of horizontal... Read more

Strikes Back

To the best of our knowledge, this product is no longer available.

The Harmony resort on Maho Bay in the U.S. Virgin Islands National Park won the 1994 Grand Award for Environmental Technology from

Popular Science magazine. The resort’s cabins are fully solar-powered and energy-independent, and were built with a minimum of disturbance to the site using many recycled materials. An interactive computer... Read more

Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” contains some admirable goals, including attacking the budget deficit, streamlining government, and cutting red tape. Hidden in the fine print, however, lurks a radical—and dangerous—anti-environment agenda. On examining the package, one can only conclude that the new leadership either doesn’t believe... Read more

by Michael J. Crosbie. The American Institute of Architects Press, Washington, D.C., 1994. Hardcover, 192 pages, $39.95.

Contrary to its subtitle,

Green Architecture is more a gallery of environmentally sensitive design than a guide. This elegant, large-format book contains photos and... Read more

The National Association of Home Builders released in November the results of an environmental survey filled out by about 400 members. Among 17 environmental issues impacting builders, stormwater discharge topped the list with 47% affected, followed in order by building codes (46%), wetlands (46%),... Read more

Glidden’s Spred 2000 and Lifemaster 2000 lines, introduced in 1993, were the first such paints from a mainstream paint company (see EBN... Read more

Produced and directed by Claude Beller, running time 28 minutes. Available from the National Audubon Society, 700 Broadway, NY, NY 10003; 212/979-3000.

This high-quality, fast-moving video is clearly aimed at the general public. The video succinctly spells out the problems with conventional buildings... Read more

On December 19 NASA provided the most conclusive evidence yet that chlorine molecules from CFCs are responsible for ozone destruction in the stratosphere. Mark Schoeberl, project scientist with NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, was quoted in the 23 December 1994

Global Environmental Change... Read more

Environmental issues are not considered a significant factor for 1995 by carpet industry analysts, according to an extensive collection of industry trends and predictions published in

Carpet & Rug Industry, November 1994. Of the fourteen featured consultants and executives from all segments of the carpet industry, only Mac Bridger,... Read more

A number of home rating and home certification programs for environmentally sound construction are now in place across the country. The City of Austin’s Green Builder Program and the Good Cents Environmental Homes program were described in previous issues of EBN. New to the field are the E Seal program from... Read more

To the best of our knowledge, this product is no longer available.

Owens Corning (OC) began manufacturing its new AURA™ vacuum insulation panels at a brand... Read more

A personal note: The people perhaps most responsible for the recent resurgence of interest in straw-bale construction, Matts Myhrman and Judy Knox, are facing a severe medical situation. Due to this problem and our country’s unresolved health-care needs, they also have a financial crisis to contend with. A group of their friends have organized... Read more

I would like to offer some comments about your recent Carpeting article (EBN, November/December 1994). First of all, there seems to be a movement afoot in some circles to discredit the work of Dr. Anderson. She and her work have been well respected since she founded her laboratory in 1987. Suddenly, rumors are circulating... Read more