GreenClips.35 11.22.95 REFURBISHED OFFICE SYSTEMS The Washington State Department of Ecology bought re-furbished Haworth UniGroup furniture when they relocated to a new building in Yakima. The Department bought the goods from Vancouver's Surplus Office Systems. The company sources, re-manufactures, and installs refurbished furniture systems. The Department's main reception desk is a refurbished Canadian-made Reff System 6 product with a mahogany-stained, reconstituted veneer. The desk's work surface is made of Environ. Phenix Biocomposites makes this granite-like material from soybeans and old newspaper. Surplus Office Systems reupholsters acoustic screen panels with Ecodeme, a fabric containing 45 percent post-consumer fiber recycled from plastic bottles. To re-laminate work surfaces, they prefer Formica Corporation plastic laminates that use water-based rather than solvent-based phenolic resins. And they use water-reducible enamel paint that is low VOC-emitting and free of lead and chromate hazards. – Eco DESIGN, November 1995, p. 7, by Jennifer Swan. CANADA'S C-2000 PROGRAM The C-2000 Program for Advanced Commercial Buildings demonstrates high performance office building design. CANMET, the R&D branch of Natural Resources Canada, developed and sponsors the program. The C-2000 program helps complete projects that meet its performance criteria, monitors their performance over a three-year period, and reports results to the industry.C-2000 program requirements include not only energy and environmental performance, but also interdisciplinary teamwork and quality assurance procedures. Energy consumption in C-2000 buildings must be less than half of the ASHRAE 90.1 standard. With seven buildings in the program under or nearing construction, it is too early to discuss results - much less the overall impact of the program. Yet one of the more interesting interim findings suggests the importance of team process compared to technical systems. Working as teams, C-2000 designers have carefully integrated relatively conventional technologies to achieve high performance levels without excessive incremental costs. - Advanced Building Newsletter, November 1995, p. 7, by Nils Larsson. THE PLACE3S is a computer-assisted method for designing sustainable communities. It helps planners and urban designers compare development scenarios. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) awarded Portland, Oregon landscape architects McKeerer/Morris, Inc. and Criterion Planners & Engineers a 1995 Planning and Urban Design Honor Award for PLACE3S. Their method examines energy use, pollution generated, and other environmental impacts a tan early planning stage where design decisions produce greatest efficiencies. According to PLACE3S case studies, efficient community design can reduce energy use and pollutants as much as 50 percent over conventional plans. These improvements come from land use patterns that offer alternatives to auto travel, require less heating and cooling, and require high efficiency energy and renewable resources at the site. The US Department of Energy, cooperating with other federal agencies, intends to apply the PLACE3S method to redevelop inner cities, rural communities, and closed military bases. - Landscape Architecture, November 1995, p. 54. REDUCING IMPERVIOUS SURFACES Rainwater flows rapidly off impervious surfaces - roads, parking lots, sidewalks, rooftops - carrying surface pollutants to storm sewers and surging into streams. This erodes stream channels and destroys in-stream habitats. But planted areas slow run-off and filter pollutants. To reduce impervious surfaces and protect water quality consider taller buildings, cluster development, and vertical parking structures. Share driveways and commercial-use parking. Reduce parking space size and requirements for some uses. Use angle parking with one-way traffic flow and permeable areas for spillover parking. Narrow road widths. Shorten residential driveways and cul-de-sac radii. Decrease side and rear yard setbacks and frontage distance between lots. Increase residential open space and commercial landscaping. Use plantings in cul-de-sac donuts. Place sidewalks on only one side of the street and use grass swales instead of curbs and gutters, and incorporate stream buffers. - EcoCity Cleveland, October 1995, p. 6. RECYCLED PLASTIC FURNITURE When oil prices are low, making plastic products from virgin materials costs less than making them from recycled materials. Yet recycled milk jugs, detergent bottles, and other recycled plastics are finding their way into furniture. The Knoll Group's Parachute and Bulldog chairs have arms molded from post-consumer beverage bottles. Janus et Cie, a furniture company in West Hollywood, California, specializes in plastic furniture - such as an Adirondack chair and ottoman - that imitates wood. Other designers don't try to disguise plastic. "Plastic has many nice characteristics," says Colin Reedy of Meta*Morf, a design and research studio in Portland, Oregon. While Reedy's tables, chairs, and benches twist and arch, taking advantage of plastic's bending character, Marquand, Missouri designer Steven W. Yemm's multicolored tables and chairs call to mind an explosion in a crayon factory. - House Beautiful, December 1995, p. 56, by Lauren Picker. COTE PLANS SUSTAINABLE PATTONSBURG After the Great Flood of 1993, the 200 residents of Pattonsburg, Missouri are moving their town to higher ground. The federal government chose Pattonsburg and another flooded town to receive nearly $12 million to relocate. The Department of Energy commissioned the American Institute of Architect's Committee on the Environment to work with the community to incorporate sustainable design strategies. The President's Council on Sustainable Development continued national attention when it chose Pattonsburg as a rural case study. Elements of the new town plan include pedestrian oriented streets, a constructed wetlands for managing and treating storm water, and a biogas center that generates methane gas fuel from hog manure. Materials recovered from the original town will be recycled into new civic buildings. - AIArchitect, November 1995, p. 13, by Lesley A. Brown. GREENHOME 21 Sister and brother builders Petrece and John Herder built a demonstration home called GreenHome 21 in Tucson, Arizona. The 4,416 square-foot, four-bedroom home opened for tours last February with a list price of $950,000. Until it sells, GreenHome 21 is a laboratory for the ten to fifteen custom homes the Herders build each year. Standard Herder Homes features include - low impact site preparation and development, optimal solar orientation, covered porches and deeply inset windows for solar protection, argon filled dual pane windows with low-e coating, zoned mechanical systems, low water use appliances and fixtures, low-VOC paints and finishes, low-VOC carpeting made with natural fibers or recycled plastic, drought tolerant landscaping, and job site waste recycling. Homeowners can choose from green upgrades in the categories Energy Efficient, Whole House Management, Healthy Living, and Environmental Protection. - Builder, November 1995, p. 92, by Susan Bradford.