GreenClips.147 07.19.00 DESIGNERS: DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE SPECIFYING GREEN When new, environmentally friendly products appear on the market, some designers rush to specify them before doing their homework. To ensure that green products perform as intended, designers should study the products' specifications and understand their proper applications. A series of fiberboard products made by Phenix Biocomposites, LLC, for example, can perform as well as or better than their environmentally challenged counterparts, as long as designers and fabricators understand the products' applications and limitations. BIOFIBER, an alternative to wood panel products, is made from wheat and soy fiber and may be used for furniture, cabinetry, door cores, kitchen countertops, partitions and underlayment. Environ Biocomposites is a decorative interior material made from recycled paper, a soy-based resin and color additives. Environ applications include furniture, decorative wall panels, flooring and cabinetry. The Dakota Burl series, made from sunflower seed hulls, exhibits the elegance of traditional burled woods, making it an environmental and economical alternative to hardwood. For all their strengths, these products have some limitations. They're not recommended in wet areas such as kitchens or bathrooms. Also, they're only available unfinished. To ensure proper installation and finish, designers and fabricators must consult the accompanying fabrication manual, which provides extensive guidelines, such as a 24-hour curing time between finishing coats. Interiors & Sources, Jun 00, p 138, by Joe Hittinger. [More: http://www.phenixbiocomposites.com; full text: http://www.isdesignet.com/Magazine/June'00/index.html] PORTLAND FIRM PUSHES HIGH-DENSITY INFILL DEVELOPMENTS In 1973 the Oregon legislature enacted urban growth boundaries to corral sprawl, but politics and population keep interveningjust last year the Portland metro area harvested another 5,300 acres of "urban reserve" land to accommodate 23,000 new housing units. Instead of continuing this sprawl, Gary Reddick, CEO of Sienna Architecture Company wants Portland to grow vertically. He's aggressively promoting urban infill projects, and in the process reconfiguring the traditional role of architects. Reddick doesn't wait for clients to discover Sienna; he cruises the streets, looking for underdeveloped sites. He convinced an upscale food store to add rooftop apartments and a row of townhouses. The neighbors pitched a fit because the building rose four stories and walled off views, but Reddick prevailed. He's been accused of "Manhattanizing" the town, but as Reddick sees it, every retail development, every low-rise office complex, even every church hanging onto precious surface parking is denying the city, and itself, obvious opportunities. He persuaded the owner of a parking lot a mile from downtown to build a four-story, 20-unit condominium, overcoming the landowner's reluctance by offering to do preliminary design work on spec. While Sienna's strength is creative urban land use, its weakness is design: these projects haven't cut intriguing profiles in the streetscape or used graceful detailing to stitch them into the inner-city's historic fabric. Architecture, Jun 00, p 68, by Lawrence W. Cheek. [Full Text: http://www.architecturemag.com/June00/practice/prac.asp] TEXAS OPENS ITS FIRST SUSTAINABLY DESIGNED SCHOOL During the upcoming school year, students at the newly constructed Roy Lee Walker Sustainable Elementary School in the McKinney Independent School District (ISD) thirty miles north of Dallas will study wind and solar energy, water their greenhouse plants with harvested rainwater, and watch for storms at the school's weather station. Walker's design elements include geothermal heating and cooling, recycled building materials, rainwater collection for campus irrigation and toilet flushing, and a thirty-foot windmill for power. Daylight will illuminate each classroom, and outdoor teaching spaces will be used as often as possible. The project was funded by a grant from the Texas General Services Commission/State Energy Conservation Office. Construction costs were higher than those of a traditional facility, but Gary Keep of SHW Group, McKinney ISD's architectural firm, expects the energy savings to pay for those additional costs within four years. [For more information email srmilder@shwgroup.com.] Natural Home, Jul-Aug 00, p 13. RAIN GARDENS: A STORMWATER MANAGEMENT ALTERNATIVE Rain gardens are small-scale stormwater infiltration devices that may replace conventional stormwater detention basins while providing the benefits of groundwater recharge, beauty, and wildlife habitat. Designed for use in small spaces with small drainage areas, such as a parking lot island, rain gardens are typically two-inch to six-inch deep retention areas planted with native species. These depressions capture runoff, and the plants and soil filter pollutants in the stormwater, allowing the cleansed water to recharge the water table. Monitoring of installed rain gardens has shown positive results, with pollutant removal rates of 60 to 80 percent for nutrients and 93 to 99 percent for heavy metals. Rain gardens should infiltrate all water into the soil within four to six hours; if the infiltration rate of the native soil is lower than one inch per hour, a soil mix should be substituted. A minimum planting soil depth of two feet will provide adequate soil for root systems. Rain-garden plants should be capable of surviving periodic inundation and drought after the water has infiltrated. Rain gardens can be more cost-effective than traditional stormwater management designs because they require less piping, concrete and excavation. Landscape Architecture, Jul 00, p 24, by Zolna Russell. UK FURNITURE MAKERS EMBRACE LOCAL, SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES A number of UK furniture makers are reducing the environmental impact of their products by using locally grown or sustainably harvested wood. David Colwell established Trannon Furniture, near Salisbury, more than 20 years ago and is considered a pioneer of sustainable design and clean production. His furniture, including sofas, director's chairs, sideboards and stacking chairs, is made from ash thinnings grown locally in sustainable forests, which are then trimmed and steam bent. The process saves energy by eliminating the need for kiln-drying, and also strengthens the wood. Trannon's Tony Minx says, "We use ash because its stocks are easily replenished and we use thinnings [young trees that are cleared to allow light to reach the main body of trees and which normally go to waste] because it gives a further income to the forestry community." Guy Martin, in rural west Dorset, uses locally grown willow wood and ash thinnings to make chairs, rockers, tables and shelves influenced by the American vernacular tradition of stick furniture. Rod Wales, of East Sussex-based Wales & Wales, very occasionally uses exotic hardwoods if there's no viable alternative among temperate hardwoods. But the trick, he says, is to buy such timber from certified sources with a policy of replanting. More: Trannon, tel. +44 1722 744 577, www.eco-furniture.co.uk; Guy Martin, tel. +44 1308 868 122; Wales & Wales, tel. +44 1825 872764. idFX Interior Design Magazine UK, June 00, p 37, by Robert S. Silver. CARBON TAXES TO IMPROVE BUILDING PERFORMANCE? The technology exists to cut building-related carbon dioxide emissions by 80 to 90 percent by 2050, the magnitude that will ultimately be required to stabilize the global atmosphere and climate, says Robert Lowe of the Centre for the Built Environment, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK. But there's little incentive for designers or builders to achieve such reductions, in part because of falling energy prices, Lowe argues. Building regulations can help reduce energy use and carbon emissions, but substantial progress will require support from market-based approaches. Carbon taxation--raising the marginal price of energy in proportion to its carbon content--represents the simplest way of implementing market-based mechanisms. Carbon taxation operates simultaneously at all levels of the economy and engages all mechanisms by which emissions can be reduced: shifts in mix of consumption, fuel substitution including moves to renewable energy, and technical innovation in all sectors of the economy. In this respect, taxation has a major advantage over traditional regulatory approaches. Regulations affect the day-to-day energy use of (almost exclusively new) buildings by constraining their thermal envelope performance. But regulations don't affect the energy embodied in building materials, the performance of many of the energy-using systems within the building, the way in which the building is operated, or the patterns of renovation, re-use and ultimate demolition. Carbon taxation directly affects all five. An argument against carbon taxes is that they hurt the poor, who already spend a larger fraction of their income on energy than the rest of the population. But those most adversely affected by carbon taxes could be protected with mechanisms including compulsory energy rating of rented housing and grants for upgrading sub-standard stock. Building Research & Information, May 00, p 159, by Robert Lowe, email: r.lowe@lmu.ac.uk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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