Championing the
Changemakers

Nexwood Recycled Plastic Composite Decking

Update: (September 26, 2006)

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

Composite Technology Resources, Ltd. of Lasalle, Quebec has become the latest entrant into the wood-plastic composite decking field with Nexwood™. Unlike other products on the market (Trex®,... Read more

by the City of New York Department of Design and Construction, in collaboration with the Trust for Public Space, April 1999. Order from City Store by calling 212/669-8246. Available (in August) online at:

www.ci.nyc.ny.us/buildnyc/. Spiral-bound, 144 pages, $25.

New York City’s new

High Performance Building Guidelines is... Read more

Awards & Competitions

The

Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College, designed by William McDonough + Partners, has received the 1999 American Architecture Award of the Chicago Atheneum Museum of Architecture. The 13,500 ft2 (1,250 m2) building is now nearing completion.

On June 28, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued

a new rule regarding the disposal of fluorescent lamps. Under the new rule, fluorescent lamps will be treated as “universal waste,” a designation that will reduce the regulatory burden on businesses that generate such wastes. EPA issued the first universal waste rule in 1995 to... Read more

Worldwide sales of

compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are increasing. According to the World Resources Institute report

Vital Signs, CFL sales increased 24% during 1997—to 356 million. CFL sales are increasing 3% to 5% per year, though they still only represent 1⁄28 the sales volume of incandescent lamps. However, due to the... Read more

San Francisco Promotes Green Buildings, Dioxin Awareness

On July 3, 1999 the City of San Francisco became one of the nation’s first municipalities to have a green building ordinance on the books for City-owned projects. The additions to the San Francisco Municipal Code, known as the Resource Efficient Building Ordinance, consists of two... Read more

Newsbriefs

Santa Monica has become the first city in the U.S. to be powered by green power. Through California’s competitive electricity market, the city decided to purchase power exclusively from geothermal sources.

New Village:

Semiannual magazine edited by Lynne Elizabeth. New Village/ADPSR, 2000 Center Street, Suite 120, Berkeley, CA 94704. Annual (2-issue) subscription is $15 for individuals, $24 for institutions.

An outgrowth of the disarmament movement of the 1970s, Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility has been a diffuse... Read more

IAQ Test Kit from Air Quality Sciences

Indoor air quality testing, as most experts will tell you, is immensely complex. Different testing procedures are required for different types of contaminants, and the equipment used for identifying and measuring biological and chemical contaminants, particularly VOCs, is very expensive. The new IAQ... Read more

In a merger approved at a combined board meeting on June 4, the

Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST) was folded into the Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP). REPP Executive Director Roby Roberts will run the combined organization. The two entities complement each other well, as REPP develops high-quality... Read more

The

Atmospheric Alliance and the

Energy Outreach Center, both of Olympia, Washington, have joined forces. Paul Horton and Rhys Roth are co-directors of the new (as yet unnamed) organization. Call 360/352-1763 or e-mail atmosphere@olywa.net or eoc@olywa.net for additional details.

Executive Order on Green-ing Federal Facilities

On June 3, President Clinton released an Executive Order on “Greening the Government Through Efficient Energy Management.” Recognizing that with more than 500,000 buildings the Federal Government is the nation’s largest energy consumer—roughly $8 billion per year—the Executive Order calls for... Read more

Reshaping the Built Environment:

Edited by Charles Kibert, foreword by EBN’s Alex Wilson. Island Press, Washington, D.C., 1999. 350 pages, paperback $27.50, hardcover $45

Reshaping the Built Environment is a sustainable design lecture series in book form. Dr. Charles Kibert invited an impressive slate of speakers to the University of... Read more

According to the 22 May 1999 issue of the

Global Environmental Change Report,

AlliedSignal is seeking EPA approval for a new hydrofluorocarbon used in foam insulation production.

HFC-245fa has been in development since 1994 as a blowing agent for polyurethane and polyisocyanurate foam. This non-ozone-depleting foaming... Read more

Video, 28 minutes. Produced by the Environmental Fund of Pennsylvania for the “GreenWorks for Pennsylvania” television show. Available on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Web site.

This new video tells the story of creating the new South Central Office Building in Pennsylvania, a privately owned, 73,000-square-... Read more

Isobord Straw Particleboard

Technical Properties of Isobord (avg. density 40 lbs.)

Source: Isobord Enterprises

Isobord Enterprises, Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based company with a sales office in Portland, Oregon, has dramatically increased the availability of straw particleboard in North America. Like the WheatBoard™ product made... Read more

Two and a half months ago, a ship left Thailand loaded with Portland cement. It spent three weeks crossing the ocean and another week going through the Panama Canal before docking in New Orleans, where its cargo was transferred to barges. These barges then spent six weeks traveling up the Mississippi to Minneapolis, where the cement is now... Read more

The Dumont Residence in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan took top honors in the Residential Buildings category of Canada’s 1999 National Energy Efficiency Awards on May 19. The home features extremely high insulation levels, heat-recovery ventilation, passive solar orientation, and a large active solar hot water system, which also contributes to space... Read more

Pedal Controls Save Water, Time

“What’s up with your faucet?” is a typical question from friends who are visiting for the first time since our Pedalworks™ faucet control was installed. When an uninitiated person tries to turn on the kitchen faucet, they get the impression that our water has been shut off. Once we show them the pedal and... Read more

New VOC Limits for Coatings in Southern California

New VOC Emission Limits (grams per liter)

At its May 14 meeting, the Governing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District approved a new set of limits for volatile organic compound (VOC) levels in architectural coatings. These amendments to the District’s Rule 113... Read more