Championing the
Changemakers

On May 4 President Clinton participated in launching the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH). PATH is a combined effort of several agencies, led by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Energy, with the goal of dramatically improving the energy efficiency,... Read more

Sustainable Design Research Studio, January 1998. HOK, Inc., Canal House, 3223 Grace Street NW, Washington, DC 20007; 202/339-8700, 202/339-8800 (fax). Spiral-bound, ~250 pages, $23 postpaid.

First issued for in-house use in 1995, HOK’s Sustainable Design Guide has now been expanded, updated, and made publicly... Read more

Over the past few years, growth in this building system has been occurring at a rate of about 30% per year. Though SIP houses today represent less than 1% of residential and light commercial buildings, Cynthia Gardstein, Executive Director of the Structural Insulated Panel Association (SIPA), believes the market share will grow to 5% in just a... Read more

is continuing to grow, according to APA The Engineered Wood Association. Total 1997 production of engineered panel products, including plywood, oriented-strand board, and structural composite boards, grew to 36.93 billion square feet (3.43 billion m2), 3⁄8” basis, a 2.7% increase over 1996.... Read more

Demand (or instantaneous) water heaters have always had the advantage of eliminating standby heat loss—instead of storing hot water in an insulated tank, the water is heated at the point of use. You only heat the water you actually use, so significant savings can be achieved. The problem with demand water heaters has always been that either... Read more

org.uk (e-mail). $102 annually

Green Building Digest is a series of quarterly reports from the U.K. on the environmental performance of building materials for a... Read more

edited by Steve Chappell. Fox Maple Press, Inc., P.O. Box 249, W. Brownfield, ME 04010; 207/ 935-3720, 207/935-4575 (fax). 1998, softcover, 144 pages, $19.95

Fox Maple Press, publisher of

Joiners’ Quarterly, has released a guide to traditional, natural, and sustainable building products and services with over 900 listings of more... Read more

by Victor Papanek. Thames and Hudson, New York. 1995, softcover, 256 pages, $19.95

Victor Papanek, the best-selling author of Design for the Real World, died earlier this year, leaving a legacy of design advocacy and activism. In this, his seventh book, Papanek calls for a new awareness by architects and designers to take nature, climate... Read more

The March/April 1998 issue of

Tomorrow magazine reports that the

Norwegian government is aiming for an 80% recycling rate for plastic packaging waste by the year 2000.

Jim Leach, has joined the Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings (CARB), one of four Building America initiatives supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Building America program is seeking to improve home building in the U.S., with a... Read more

The technical staff has been notified, and will try to correct this problem.

If you have a question or comment, please send

us feedback

The opportunity to reduce floor-to-floor height through the use of an access flooring system, as stated in the original article (EBN

Vol. 7, No. 1) but then refuted in the Editor’s Note in

Vol. 7, No. 3, is not exaggerated if you systematically think through the building. Take a six- story office building, for example. Typically... Read more

The technical staff has been notified, and will try to correct this problem.

If you have a question or comment, please send

us feedback

A recent study at Iowa State University examined the use of varying percentages of waste agricultural fibers and soy-based binders in manufactured medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and hardboard products. The motivation for the research, which was reported in the February 1998 issue of

Forest Products Journal, was described as “an... Read more

Ecosmart Healthy Properties LLC has opened its first

Ecosmart Building Center at 40 Wall Street in New York City. The center showcases a wide range of green building products and systems, which are both used in the space itself and on display. The Center will also host a range of educational forums and seminars. A satellite office is... Read more

In 1986 the store was sold to May Department Stores of St. Louis, then closed down a year... Read more

The February 1998 issue of

Energy Design Update reports that the

Canadian Government is being pressured by the unvented gas appliance industry to legalize these devices in Canada. Government officials aren’t giving in easily though. Don Fugler of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. was quoted in the article as saying, “We’ve... Read more

More than 51,000 U.S.-made geothermal heat pumps were shipped during 1996, according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy. Of these, 49% were shipments to the South, 23% to the Midwest, 12% to the Northeast, 7% to the West, and 8% were exported. Somewhat surprisingly, shipments have been fairly flat during... Read more