GreenClips.139 03.08.00 LIVABILITY SLOW TO EMERGE AS CAMPAIGN ISSUE As Al Gore traverses the country on the campaign trail, sprawl and smart growth have emerged as key issues of his campaign. "A gallon of gas can be used up just driving to get a gallon of milk," he told voters. For the American Institute of Architects, livability issues present a rare opportunity for the AIA to inject itself into prominent national discourse and offer its expertise as a bipartisan resource to policymakers. In addition to briefing Democratic presidential hopefuls, the AIA met with Republican candidates; the most receptive of whom was George W. Bush. But so far only Gore has pushed livability, with Republicans dismissing it as better left to state and local officials. "It's hard to have a food fight when there's no one else in the room," says Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope. "The Republicans know the best way to make the issue disappear is not to engage in it." Meanwhile, the National Association of Home Builders' survey of 2,500 voters in five high-growth metropolitan areas supports the industry views that most people want to live in detached suburban houses, that roads are more important than public transportation, and that home construction should not be restricted to areas close to public transportation as a way of controlling sprawl. - Architecture, Feb 00, p 37, by Michael Cannell (presidential campaign), and The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9 Mar 00, by Alan J. Heavens (NAHB survey). [Architecture article: <http://www.architecturemag.com/feb00/practice/prac.asp>] [NAHB survey: <http://www.nahb.org/news/survey.htm>] URBAN WOOD WASTE HARVESTED FOR MDF PRODUCTION Toronto-based CanFibre recently completed a $120 million plant in Riverside, California that uses urban waste wood to manufacture AllGreen, a medium density fiberboard. It is the first full-scale MDF production facility using urban wood for 100 percent of its feedstock. Another facility is under construction in Lackawanna, New York and there are plans for a third plant in the Chicago area. The CanFibre process doesn't require any particular grade or species of wood; however, it can't use green waste or painted or treated wood. "Our biggest suppliers are furniture, cabinet and pallet manufacturers. Another source is new home construction," say Pat Heaney of Apollo Wood Recovery, which supplies CanFibre with most of its feedstock. At full operating capacity, the Riverside plant will produce more than 70 million square feet of MDF annually, requiring roughly 400 tons of wood waste per day. CanFibre uses a phenolic resin in its MDF rather than urea formaldehyde, since urea formaldehyde requires the feedstock's pH to be held in a narrow range, and with the different types of wood in the urban stream, there's no way to guarantee that pH range. According to the company, the AllGreen MDF produced at the Riverside plant has received certification from Green Cross and SmartWood. - In Business, Jan-Feb 00, p 30, by Jim Glenn. [More: <http://www.canfibre.com/>] OBERLIN'S LEWIS CENTER RAISES ENVIRONMENTAL BAR The Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College not only serves to educate students, but also acts as a living model for environmental building. A primary goal of the project, says program director David Orr, was to "build without compromising human and environmental health somewhere else." Designed by William McDonough + Partners, the 13,600-square-foot building is projected to use 16,499 Btus per square foot annually, nearly five times less than a typical new college classroom building in northern Ohio. A photovoltaic system from BP Solarex, scheduled to be installed onsite this year, will generate 69,000 kWh of electricity annually, while the building is projected to use only 64,000 kWh per year. In the "Living Machine," the building's natural wastewater treatment system, micro-organisms and plants break down and digest impurities in the wastewater, which is then reused for non-drinking applications. Unique for an educational building project, the impetus for the building was not the college administration, but David Orr and his students. "We're trying to use this to change the way the college thinks about architecture and landscape and energy use," says Orr. "We want this building to be the 'default setting.' .We are proposing that we become climatically neutral by 2020--that we eliminate fossil fuels and energy cells through the use of renewable energies." - Environmental Design & Construction, Mar-Apr 00, p 32, by Michael Reis. [More: <http://www.oberlin.edu/newserv/esc/Default.htm>l] REMANUFACTURED PAINT MEETS HIGH QUALITY STANDARDS While paint exchanges and reblending are two common recycling methods for latex paint, paint remanufacturing represents the high end of paint recycling. But even though remanufactured latex paint is produced to manufacturers' specifications for color, content and performance, the public needs some convincing of its quality. "They hear recycled and they think it must be inferior-that it must be junk," says Ray Julian of Kelly-Moore Paint Company. "But once they use it, they seem to buy it again and again." At Hirshfield's Paint Manufacturing in Minneapolis, quality control checks of reprocessed paint are more stringent than for virgin paint. Prices for recycled paint are generally under $10 per gallon, with additional costs for remanufacturing, custom coloring, gloss, and specialized applications. Many recyclers produce a small palette of colors, with custom colors available for large orders. Remanufactured paint is a niche business for Kelly-Moore, whose plant in San Carlos, California produces paint with a recycled content ranging from 50 to 70 percent. But paint recycling is the sole activity of Paint Solutions in Kent, Washington, St. Louis, Missouri, and soon Lawrence, Massachusetts. And companies such as Amazon Environmental (Whittier, California and Roseville, Minnesota) and Environmental Purification Industries (Toledo, Ohio) are also processing non-usable latex paint into additives for specialty cement and resin filler in the construction industry. - Resource Recycling, Feb 00, p 30, by Timothy Krause. [For a nationwide list of paint reprocessors/reblenders email <linda.lindquist@moea.state.mn.us>|.] GREENING OF GSA INCLUDES MODEL WORKPLACE The General Services Administration, which manages federal property totaling more than 280 million square feet, providing workplaces for more than one million federal workers, is going green. In 1998 GSA introduced Planet GSA, a program focusing on four areas--buy green, build green, drive green, and save green. "Our concern runs from lights to furnishings to equipment and supplies, from building materials to cleaning products and pest management," says Dave Barram, GSA's administrator. "And our programs cover energy conservation, pollution prevention, recycling and use of recycled products." GSA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Energy and the EPA to cooperate on Planet GSA. In addition, GSA partnered with Carnegie-Mellon University to create the Adaptable Workplace Lab (AWL), a 10,000-square-foot space at its headquarters in Washington, DC that features raised flooring, plug-and-play mobile technology and individually controlled environmental systems. The AWL will be a working laboratory where employee productivity and energy and environmental performance can be measured. Concepts such as system efficacy, sustainable and healthy materials, natural conditioning, and just-in-time delivery of infrastructures will be studied and compared to standard practices. - Interiors & Sources, Jan-Feb 00, p 42, by Penny Bonda. [Full text: <http://www.isdesignet.com/Magazine/J_F'00/eco.html>] [More about Planet GSA: <http://www.gsa.gov/planetgsa/>] [More about AWL: <http://www.gsa.gov/planetgsa/greenbldg5.htm>] LIVOS OFFERS NATURAL PAINTS AND FINISHES Wood varnish made by Livos Phytochemistry contains about 150 natural ingredients, compared to about 15,000 in synthetic chemical wood varnish. The German company's raw materials for its paints, stains, waxes and oils include natural resins, alcohol, orange peel oil, isoaliphate, and plant and mineral pigments. An important component in most Livos products is linseed oil, made from organically grown flaxseeds. Kunos, the company's most popular product, is a combined natural oil sealer, stain and topcoat. "We like to compare it to polyurethane because it can be used anywhere that can be applied and then some--floors, furniture, toys, tabletops, countertops, etc.," says Greg Wills of Livos Phytochemistry of America, the company's US distributor. "You get the quality and performance of oil-based and synthetic products, but they're healthier and safer than synthetic water-based products." The company's prices are higher than mainstream equivalents but, according to Pamela Wills, the US distributor's CEO, "on average, Livos products cover twice the surface area of their traditional counterparts." More: <http://www.livos.com>. - In Business, Jan-Feb 00, p 14, by Dave Block. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GreenClips is free of charge thanks to individual members and these sponsors: BANK OF AMERICA http://www.bankofamerica.com For information on Bank of America's environmental programs, select Inside Bank of America, and then The Environment. EPA'S ENVIRONMENTALLY-PREFERABLE PURCHASING PROGRAM Greening the government, one purchase at a time. http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp INTERFACE, INC. More than a carpet company. 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