GreenClips.233 02.11.04 HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREENCLIPS! This year is GreenClips' 10th birthday! Celebrate by donating to GreenClips. Your donations keep us going year after year. Visit www.greenclips.com for info. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NEW REPORT PROVIDES EMISSIONS DATA ON RECYCLED CONTENT PRODUCTS A recently released study carried out by the California Department of Health Services, the "Building Materials Emissions Study," tested 77 products for emissions that might affect indoor air quality. The categories of products studied were acoustical ceiling panels, carpet, fiberboard, gypsum board, paint, particleboard, plastic laminates, resilient flooring, tackable wall panels, thermal insulation, and wall base. Thirty-four products were identified as "standard" materials and 43 as "alternative" (in most cases the alternative material had high recycled content). The testing was done according to the protocols from California's Section 01350 specification, and was based on standard loading and ventilation rates for two typical spaces: an office building and a classroom. A few interesting findings worth noting: Recycled-content products seem to perform about the same as standard products in terms of indoor emissions. Both linoleum products tested emitted acetaldehyde -- a respiratory irritant and probable carcinogen -- at levels that resulted in concentrations about five times higher than the Section 01350 threshold. Of the three samples of fiberglass batt insulation tested, two exceeded the office building case threshold for formaldehyde, including one marketed as formaldehyde free. More: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Publications/default.asp?pubid=1027 Environmental Building News, Feb 2004, p 4, by Nadav Malin. NEW EPA PROGRAM PROMOTES "GREENSCAPING" TO SAVE MONEY, CUT WASTE In December, the US Environmental Protection Agency launched the GreenScapes Alliance, an effort to promote "the reduction, reuse and recycling of waste materials in large land use applications." That includes 4 million miles of roadside landscaping, brownfields, and countless office complexes, golf courses, and parks. EPA is targeting the "more than 100,000 businesses" involved in these activities. Prospective participants include about 73,000 landscape contractors, landscape care and maintenance companies, and landscape installers; about 16,000 golf facilities; and approximately 11,000 establishments in the highway and street construction industry. GreenScaping can save money, reduce waste, and conserve water and energy, according to the EPA. More: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/green The Green Business Letter, Jan 2004, p 3. SMOG-FIGHTING PAINT TO BE INTRODUCED IN EUROPE A paint that soaks up some of the most noxious gases from vehicle exhaust will goes on sale in Europe in March. Its makers, the British company Millennium Chemicals, hope it will give architects and town planners a new weapon to fight pollution. Called Ecopaint, the substance is designed to reduce levels of nitrogen oxides, collectively known as NOx gases, which cause respiratory problems and trigger smog production. The paint's base is polysiloxane, a silicon-based polymer. Embedded in it are spherical nanoparticles of titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate. Because the particles are so small, the paint is clear, but pigment can be added. The first paint to go on sale will be white. The polysiloxane base is porous enough to allow NOx to diffuse though it and adhere to the titanium dioxide particles. The particles absorb ultraviolet radiation in sunlight and use this energy to convert NOx to nitric acid. The acid is then either washed away in rain, or neutralized by the alkaline calcium carbonate particles, producing harmless quantities of carbon dioxide, water and calcium nitrate, which will also wash away. Ecopaint is being lab tested as part of the Europe-funded Photocatalytic Innovative Coverings Applications for Depollution Assessment program (PICADA), but it has yet to be put to the test in the field. New Scientist, 04 Feb 2004, by Jenny Hogan [Full text: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994636 ] LEED ACCREDITATION: DOES IT MEASURE SUSTAINABILITY EXPERTISE? The US Green Building Council's website lists thousands of names of people who have passed the LEED AP (accredited professional) test, and this number is growing fast. What's the problem? The test is too easy. It does a poor job of gauging an individual's knowledge of sustainable design. And it doesn't provide a good indicator of a person's ability to help make difficult decisions during the design process to maximize the project's environmental performance while minimizing its costs. Half the test gauges knowledge about the tool itself and the other half is a watered down list of generic green design questions. The USGBC plans to revise the exam in the next six months. Here are some suggestions to help them raise the LEED AP bar: 1) Require a minimum level of training before being eligible for the exam. This could include university degrees in design-related disciplines or training courses. 2) Require a minimum level of experience working on sustainable projects before being eligible for the exam. 3) Have the USGBC review the applicant's qualifications before allowing that person to take the exam. 4) Break the exam into parts and require applicants to take more in-depth exams in their areas of specialization (architecture, engineering, interior design, etc.). Environmental Design + Construction, Jan-Feb 2004, p 78, by Jason F. McLennan and Peter Rumsey. [Full text: http://www.edcmag.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,4120,116625,00.html ; About LEED AP: http://www.usgbc.org/LEED/Accredited_Pros/professionalaccred.asp ] MEXICAN CO-OP SUPPLIES IKEA WITH ECO-FRIENDLY FURNITURE COMPONENTS In the Mexican state of Durango, workers are harvesting sustainably managed trees and are turning the lumber into sofa legs and frames that they then sell to international furniture giant Ikea. For years, foresters on the Pueblo Nuevo ejido, a remote agricultural cooperative controlled by the community, simply sold their lumber locally or nationally. Faced with few sources of employment in this impoverished community and an increasing number of its 1,500 residents migrating to California in search of work, local leaders decided to find an alternative source of income. In 2000, Rainforest Alliance stamped its SmartWood certification on lumber from Pueblo Nuevo, where about 200,000 acres of forests are managed by indigenous people who limit what they cut down and manage erosion. In the past, foresters had been using only the tree trunks for boards, leaving the other parts of the trees behind. With help from groups including Rainforest Alliance and $250,000 in support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the ejido trained workers to carve the leftover wood into furniture pieces, creating a more valuable product than raw lumber. In early December, Durango's lumbermen sent their first container laden with 133,000 pieces of wood to Sitwell, a Yucatan-based furniture maker that assembles sofas and ships them to Ikea stores in the United States. Houston Chronicle, 10 Feb 2004, by Jenalia Moreno. [More: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/news/IKEA.html ] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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