GreenClips.206 01.01.03 U.S. REVISES WETLANDS CONSERVATION GUIDELINES In response to criticism that the federal government was failing to meet its goals for wetlands conservation, the Bush administration has revised its guidelines to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for mitigating the loss of wetlands from development. For more than a decade, developers have been allowed to destroy wetlands if they create substitute patches through a process known as mitigation. The new policy is a response to the corps' critics and a set of recommendations made last year by the National Academy of Sciences, which found that some mitigation projects were never started, some were not completed and others failed to provide the benefits of natural wetlands. The new guidelines require a "watershed-based" approach in which the wetland needs of an entire watershed are taken into account, rather than only the site of the development. For example, if a developer destroys 10 acres of wetlands, he can no longer just plant 10 acres of trees nearby. Instead, the corps must advise the developer if other, more potentially valuable areas in the watershed need replenishing, even if the acreage does not match precisely what would be lost. The New York Times, 28 Dec 2002, p A11, by Katharine Q. Seelye, and The Columbus Dispatch, 28 Dec 2002, by Michael Hawthorne. [More: http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/guidance/index.html#mitigation] CAN CLEVELAND BECOME THE COUNTRY'S GREEN CAPITAL? Cleveland is on the verge of reinventing itself as a haven of sustainability, and the region's burgeoning environmental movement is intent on using green development as an engine for growth. "We'd like to see Cleveland become the country's capital of green," says Manda Gillespie, with the advocacy group EcoCity Cleveland. Gillespie says she can hardly keep track of the ecologically friendly projects underway. The city is writing green building standards, funding green renovations of public schools, and developing a county "green print" for zoning. Ground was recently broken at EcoVillage, one of the most comprehensive green communities yet to hit the Midwest. One city official is championing a plan to double open space around Cleveland with hiking and bike paths, while another official is examining a plan to reroute the arterial highway that has blocked public access to Lake Erie for decades. "People are informing themselves about architecture," Gillespie says. "They get it: they grew up with bad planning and want change. We've seen some of the worst, and we won't go back there." Sadhu Johnston, director of the Cleveland Green Building Coalition, says, "People sometimes write off the region. But soon they'll look at Cleveland and say, 'Oh, that's how the Rust Belt comes back." Metropolis, Jan 2003, p 34, by Tess Taylor. [More: http://www.ecocitycleveland.org ; http://www.clevelandgbc.org] MINNESOTA SALVAGE OPERATION YIELDS PRIZED BUILDING MATERIALS An ammunition plant in Arden Hills, Minnesota, is being dismantled beam by beam, and nearly everything, including the land, is destined for a new life. The Army, which operated the plant during World War II and into the Vietnam era, turned over the abandoned 10-acre plant and 39 acres to Ramsey County, which is making the most of the salvage operation. Nearly 20,000 square feet of refurbished maple tongue-and-groove flooring will be installed in 36 low-cost apartments, four affordable homes and a community center. Peter Krieger of Duluth Timber Co. is awaiting 500,000 board feet of timber from beams that are as long as 18 feet and weigh between 300 and 400 pounds. "It's prized timber," he said. "It's coastal Douglas fir that was cut down in the '40s and dried slowly in the building." Scrap wood, meanwhile, will be ground into mulch for landscaping and fuel for St. Paul's District Energy plant. And scrap metal will be melted and copper wiring and electrical components salvaged. A generation ago, most of the building would have ended up in a landfill, said Bruce Thompson, assistant Ramsey County property management director. To put it in the landfill today would cost the county $600,000. Instead, dismantling and salvaging the building will cost $183,000. Minneapolis Star Tribune, 13 Dec 2002, by Mary Lynn Smith. RECENTLY RELEASED: NEW VERSIONS OF BEES AND ATHENA LCA SOFTWARE The National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) recently released BEES 3.0, an updated version of the life-cycle assessment (LCA) software that can be used to help select environmentally preferable building products. This latest version of BEES incorporates new systems for calculating aggregated LCA scores, introduces additional environmental impact categories, and adds a new feature in the form of brand-specific products. Instead of calculating a product's environmental impacts relative to other products, scores are now calculated on an absolute scale, which makes it possible to compare and combine environmental impact scores for products in different applications. A total of 23 building elements are represented in BEES 3.0, with 118 generic products and 80 brand-specific products from 14 companies. NIST plans to work with the ATHENA Sustainable Materials Institute to integrate the publicly available data sets that ATHENA is developing into future versions of BEES. A new version of the ATHENA software, ATHENA Environmental Impact Estimator 2.0, has also recently been released. ATHENA is a modeling tool that can be used to predict the life-cycle environmental burdens of a building project across six categories: energy consumption, solid waste emissions, air pollution, water pollution, global warming potential, and resource use. ATHENA 2.0 includes new and updated data for a broad range of building materials. More on BEES: http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/bees.html . More on ATHENA: http://www.athenaSMI.ca. Environmental Building News, Dec 2002, p 14, by Nadav Malin (BEES review), and Environmental Building News, Nov 2002, p 15, by Nadav Malin (ATHENA review). D.C. HOSTS SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION A new exhibition on sustainable architecture opens at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. on January 17 and runs through June 22. Titled "Big & Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century," the exhibition will feature in-depth profiles of approximately 50 contemporary green projects worldwide. More: http://www.nbm.org. Architectural Record, Dec 2002, p 39. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GreenClips is free of charge thanks to individual members and these sponsors: C&A FLOORCOVERINGS We choose not to just make carpet but to also make a difference. http://www.powerbond.com EPA'S ENVIRONMENTALLY-PREFERABLE PURCHASING PROGRAM Greening the government, one purchase at a time. http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp GREEN BUILDING SERVICES http://www.greenbuildingservices.com Green Building Services offers environmental design and energy efficient consulting services to help you design, build and market high-performance commercial buildings, through design charrettes, energy analyses and the entire LEED certification process. WSU ENERGY PROGRAM http://www.energy.wsu.edu Providing objective research, information and solutions. Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program in Olympia, Washington. Subscribe to GreenClips and other mailing lists on energy and the environment at http://listserv.energy.wsu.edu .......................... GREENCLIPS NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT! Twice a month GreenClips is distributed electronically to over 10,000 readers interested in sustainable building design. But we can't do it without the financial support of our sponsors and members. If you find GreenClips valuable, please consider becoming a sponsor or voluntary member. Email chrishammer@greenclips.com for details. ABOUT THE PUBLISHER: Sustainable design consultant Chris Hammer publishes GreenClips in San Francisco. Ms. Hammer helps her clients with environmentally responsible approaches to urban planning and development, and to building design, construction, and operation. GreenClips is edited by Jennifer Roberts (jennifer@jenniferroberts.com), whose book on green home design will be published in 2003. To CONTACT THE PUBLISHER: Email chrishammer@greenclips.com or call 415.928.7941.