Championing the
Changemakers

The aptly named privy works exactly like the company’s well-known composting toilets that convert human wastes into a nutritive... Read more

by S. O. MacDonald and Matts Myhrman, 1994. Out on Bale, 1037 E. Linden Street, Tucson, AZ 85719. Softcover, 80 pages, $22 postpaid.

The authors of this short, refreshing book present the basics of straw-bale building for an owner-builder audience. There is a fun... Read more

Carpeting has become ubiquitous in North America, covering more floors in homes, businesses, and institutions than all other floorcoverings combined. We love it for its softness, dirt-hiding ability, acoustic muffling, and low cost. Recently, however, carpets have come under fire for their potential role in indoor air quality problems, and they... Read more

Recycled Products: Construction and IndustrialPortland Metro, 600 NE Grand Ave., Portland, OR 97232-2736; 503/797-1700. No charge for individual orders.

The Sustainable Design Resource Guide: Colorado & the Western Mountain RegionDenver Chapter, Environmental Committee of the AIA and Architects,... Read more

A blanket “experimental permit” has raised non-load-bearing straw-bale construction to a new level of respectability in the home building industry. Non-load-bearing straw-bale construction relies on a timber frame to carry structural roof loads. The bales are stacked on the outside of the frame or... Read more

Structural and fire tests were done by SHB AGRA, Inc., a certified testing company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Straw-bale wall sections were tested both with and without stucco coatings. Transverse load testing (ASTM E-330 ), which simulates wind pressure on walls, found significant deflection of the unstuccoed straw-bale... Read more

The New York-based organization East Meets West is looking for U.S. manufacturers interested in joining several research institutions working on new applications for jute fiber. The program is in support of ongoing efforts by the United Nations Development Program and the Government of India. Experimental uses include the replacement of glass... Read more

The destruction of tropical forests is one of the best-known environmental crises facing us today. Tropical rainforests have been described as the “lungs of the earth,” and they contain the highest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet. Yet in spite of all the attention they have received, by most accounts the problem is not moving... Read more

Once again, EBN has published a thorough and thought-provoking article. The article on steel and wood framing brought out many of the key points, and serves well to advance the discussion. As a wood guy, I have four items, coming out of the article, upon which I would like to comment.

In

The Ecology of Commerce, Paul Hawken promotes the idea that manufacturers be held responsible for the ultimate disposal/recycling of their products. A new regulation in British Columbia takes a big step in that direction by requiring paint manufacturers to collect, at no charge, all unused paint. The regulation also requires... Read more

a Building

by Stewart Brand. Viking Penguin, New York, 1994. Hardcover, 240 pages, $30.

How Buildings Learn is a wonderful and convincing appeal for the recognition that every building is an evolving process. With widely varied arguments and examples, Brand points out the folly of our present emphasis on... Read more

Oregon Arena

Starting in November 1993, a car wash facility and existing exhibit hall were razed and construction begun on a 1.7 million sq. ft. sports and entertainment complex.... Read more

Proceedings of the May, 1994 Sustainable Building Conference have been published. The one-day conference was sponsored by the Los Angeles chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute and by the Eco-Home Network. The presentations in the proceedings include detailed suggestions for incorporating... Read more

Following a careful and broadly participatory development process, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is officially established as of September 1994. Now based in Oaxaca, Mexico, the FSC will soon begin accrediting certifying organizations. With the near-unanimous acceptance by member... Read more

The Michigan Environmental Science Board has produced a report for the governor that is critical of the blanket chlorine phase-out recommended by the International Joint Commission on the Great Lakes (see

EBN Vol. 3, No. 1). While acknowledging that serious health and environmental concerns exist for some chlorinated... Read more

As a builder or designer, what attracts you to environmental building? More importantly, what would it take to get somebody not already involved with green building to get involved? Why build green?

There are two categories of response to that question. Most of our subscribers, we suspect, are interested in... Read more

Total U.S. energy consumption jumped to a record 84.0 quadrillion Btus (quads) in 1993, up 2.2% from 1992, according to the just-released

Annual Energy Review

1993, published by the U.S. Department of Energy. A corresponding drop in domestic energy production to 65.8 quads (down 1.6% from 1992—the third consecutive drop) meant... Read more

Linseed oil seems as if it should be a great product from an environmental and health standpoint. It’s made from flax seed, a renewable agricultural crop; it’s been used for centuries; and it smells good. The problem is that standard “boiled” linseed oil sold as a wood finish contains heavy... Read more

Forgive the nitpicking, but a minor correction to Revolutionary V-Joist System article (EBN

Vol. 3, No. 4).

... Read more

is cosponsoring, and EBN staff are participating in, two conferences this fall. The First International Conference on Sustainable Construction in Tampa, Florida (November 6-9) will feature researchers and construction managers from around the world sharing data on everything from indigenous materials to high-tech monitoring of the... Read more