Championing the
Changemakers

One of the last comments in President Clinton’s June 26 address to the United Nations “Five Years from Rio” Conference contained a commitment solar energy advocates were hoping for: to help establish the conditions that will lead to photovoltaic (PV) generation on a million buildings within the next... Read more

I recently was provided with the January 1997 issue of EBN (Vol. 6, No. 1) and found the information

of considerable interest. However, I would like to offer a few comments on “Material Selection” and the use of a simplified life-cycle analysis (LCA).

I can relate to the statement... Read more

The Alternative Energy Corporation, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has a new name: Advanced Energy. The nonprofit AEC was established in 1980 by the North Carolina Utilities Commission and has been a valuable resource for technical support and training related to energy efficiency in buildings, among other areas. Advanced Energy can be... Read more

Decisions about siding are consistently among the most difficult for environmentally concerned designers and builders of residential and light commercial buildings. Siding products must withstand all types of weather, look attractive both from a distance and up close, and be affordable to buy and install. With these demands in mind, which are... Read more

Proceedings of conference held in September 1996. Forest Products Society, 2801 Marshall Court, Madison, Wisconsin 53705; 608/231-1361; 608/231-2152 (fax); www.forestprod.org. Paperback, 224 pages, $55 for non-members, plus $5 postage and handling.

According to the May issue of

Builder magazine,

American consumers want to support companies that do the right thing. A consumer survey by Roper/Starch Worldwide and Cone Communications found that 76% of consumers would likely switch to companies that are associated with good causes. According to the article, Carol Cone of Cone... Read more

Decking Option

Carpet & Rug Industry, 1.6 billion square yards (1.3 billion m2) of carpet were shipped in 1996, enough to cover all five New York boroughs more than one and a half times. To produce that carpet, over 2 billion pounds (900 million kg) of nylon fiber were used... Read more

Our decision to feature carpet recycling in this issue raises questions that have been widely debated recently about the value and importance of recycling. The broader environmental issues surrounding this debate are both complex and intriguing, and more involved than we dare get into here. An article in

... Read more

by John Hermannsson, AIA. The Taunton Press, Newtown, Con-necticut, 1997. Paperback, 150 pages, $37.95.

Fine Homebuilding magazine, is the latest in a series of green building product directories. It is the first, however, to be published by a mainstream publisher, and its clean styling and... Read more

by Ken Druse with Margaret Roach. Clark-son Potter Publishers, New York, 1994. Hardcover, 248 pages, $40.

by Carole Ottesen. Harmony Books, Crown Publishers, New York, 1995. Hardcover, 354 pages, $50.

The

Renewable Energy Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives has grown to 103 members according to the Sustain- able Energy Coalition. It is now one of the largest officially recognized Congressional Member Organizations, with surprisingly bipartisan membership: 53 Republicans; 49 Democrats, and 1 Independent. The Caucus... Read more

CCA-treated Decks

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology reported leaching of copper, chromium, and arsenic from decks made from CCA- (chromated copper arsenate-) treated wood. In the study, Dr. David E. Stilwell and K. D. Gorny, from the... Read more

A pilot project is underway to assess the possibilities for salvage and reuse of wood-framed structures at the former

Fort Ord Army Base on the central California coast. The three to eight buildings to be disassembled are representative of the 1,200 hundred structures on the site. A $200,000 grant from the

Packard Foundation is... Read more

Interface president and CEO

Ray Anderson has been named co-chair of the

President’s Council on Sustainable Development. He replaces David Buzzelli, executive vice-president of Dow Chemical Company, and joins co-chair Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute. Along with naming Anderson to the Council,... Read more

A Journal of the Human Environment, monthly magazine from Fine Additions, Inc., 2405 Maclovia Land, Santa Fe, NM 87505; 505/471-4549. Monthly, $28/year.

I saw a copy of

EBN

Vol. 6, No. 3 which focused on disposal of CCA-treated wood as a problem, but implied that there are no problems associated with this product in use. I am enclosing an article that reviews work we have done demonstrating problems caused by the wood when used in aquatic environments.... Read more