GreenClips.47 05.08.96 MODEL DEVELOPMENT OR GREEN SCAM? A 20,000-acre development called Ranchos San Carlos planned near Carmel, California permanently sets aside 18,000 acres as the Santa Lucia Preserve. Developer Pacific Union will build 300 multimillion-dollar homes, a lodge, a golf course, and other recreational facilities on the remaining 2,000 acres. Pacific Union asked the Trust for Public Land, one of the nation's leading land-preservation groups, to manage most of the preserve. After extensive public debate and hearings, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the plan in February. Project supporters, including some prominent conservationists, praise the Ranchos San Carlos plan as a nationally important model of how ecology and development can coexist. But the local Sierra Club and neighboring landowners believe the plan will fragment the landscape and destroy its ecological value. They also argue it will unacceptably burden the area's transportation, water, and other infrastructure. "This is a good example of a recent tendency to characterize projects harmful to the environment as friendly to the environment," says Joanne Spalding, attorney for the Sierra Club which is suing to stop the project. Rancho San Carlos seems to be a classic struggle between a developerand the defenders of nature. But more deeply, it's a war among environmentalists over the future course of the movement – ecologically sensitive development or none at all? - The Christian Science Monitor, April 30, 1996, p. 1, by Daniel Sneider. COMMERZBANK BUILDS TALL AND GREEN Europe's tallest building may also be its greenest. Commerzbank Building already dominates the skyline as it rises 62 stories above Frankfurt's financial district. Sir Norman Foster & Partners designed the building as a series of eight-level office "villages" stacked between equidistant cores around a three-sided atrium. Between the villages, 13 recessed gardens spiral around the building's central triangular atrium. The gardens, 36 meters wide at the facade, extend about 15 meters into the building. Workers will be no farther than 7.5 meters from a window, keeping with a German building code requirement for natural light. Natural ventilation also influenced the building's design - occupants can open the windows. Each curtain wall window module has an outer glass sheet with top and bottom vents, an air gap, and a two-skin inner window which pivots inward. Mechanical consultants Roger Preston & Partners predict the 52,700 square-meter tower will use 10 percent less cooling than a conventional high-rise. - ENR, April 22, 1996, p. 20, by Peter Reina. CHIPPING AWAY AT AUSTRALIAN FORESTS About 900 square miles and 21 percent of Australia's East Gippsland Forest is old growth forest. About half of the old growth is protected from logging. But Australian loggers grind other old growth timber into wood chips and ship it to Japanese manufacturers of paper products and fiberboard, a building material. Loggers say they chip only twisted waste logs that are unsuitable for lumber. And now, following a recent federal cap on wood-chip exports, the loggers say they leave once profitable waste logs - about 50 percent of what they cut - on the ground. Third-generation logger Colin Savory complains that the cap on wood-chip exports wastes logs. But environmentalists say 9 out of 10 old growth logs are headed for chip mills, not saw mills. Kevin Parker, director of the Wilderness Society, says that particular Japanese companies prefer wood chips from only the straightest logs. What's left on the ground, he says, is material that the Japanese companies would refuse. Economists question the wood-chip industry's contribution to Australian jobs and the economy. They suggest that young eucalyptus trees grown on plantations, not old growth timber, can meet all of Australia's future construction lumber needs. - The Christian Science Monitor, April 24, 1996, p. 10, by Mark Clayton. ENERGY-10 SOFTWARE SAVES ENERGY AND TIME Energy-10, a new PC-based software program, helps designers quickly identify cost effective, energy saving measures for small commercial and residential buildings. Experts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Berkeley Solar Group, and the Passive Solar Industries Council (PSIC) developed Energy-10 with US Department of Energy funding. A designer starts the simulation and analysis by entering just five basic building descriptors - geographic location, total floor space, intended building use, number of stories, and HVAC system type. From these basic data, the software creates two simple "shoebox buildings" - one using standard design practices, the other incorporating energy efficient options. This initial process takes about 20 minutes. Energy-10 can also analyze hundreds of more complex variables - initially set to default values - defined as a design evolves. These variables include construction materials and techniques, mechanical systems performance, window and door spacing and construction, and schedules of internal gains. PSIC will begin offering Energy-10 in June, call 202.628.7400 ext. 210. - Solar Today, May/June1996, p. 24, by Rick Clyne. UK'S INVENTIVE BICYCLING HQ DELIGHTS Sustrans, the group responsible for the UK's national bicycle network, commissioned the architectural firm Hallett and Pollard to design their new Bristol headquarters. The design reflects Sustrans' mission to promote non-polluting, energy-efficient, sustainable transport. An exhaustive search for recycled or inexpensive raw materials and basic components produced a delightful office interior as different from a typical sterile commercial office as the bicycle is from the juggernaut. The metaphorical reception desk is a crushed Mini Metro automobile at one end evolving to an embryonic bicycle at the other. Pedestal cabinets consist of drawer carcasses from a German supplier of expensive office furniture mounted in plywood surrounds. Office chairs are a kit of seven disparate parts, the raw components of costly executive chairs from various manufacturers. An aircraft wing is the office's who's-in-and-out board. Normally recessed ceiling lights are mounted as pendants and other improvised fixtures use upturned woks as reflectors. An untreated birch plywood top and legs from Ikea make the conference table. -The Architects' Journal, 25 April 1996, p. 39, by Deborah Singmaster. CONSUMER POLLS SHOW ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN The latest research on US consumers' environmental concerns and the market place says - 1. Environmental support remains steady. Sixty-nine percent of Americans say environmental protection and economic development can go hand in hand according to a 1995 Roper poll done for Times Mirror. 2. Generic, feel-good messages don't work. Consumers want specific information about companies and products. 3. People are still pretty confused. Sixty-five percent of Americans still believe aerosol products use ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons says an Opinion Research Corporation poll released last month. 4. The environment is part of a more complex picture. Americans' understanding of the links among the natural environment, the social environment, and the overall quality of life is growing. 5. Kids' roles will continue to grow. Twenty-three percent of parents reported avoiding a product because their kids said it was bad for the environment, an Environmental Research Associates poll found. 6. Green politics are on the rise. A 1995 Roper poll found green voting at an all-time high with 27 percent reporting they had cast a vote based on a candidate's environmental views. - The Green Business Letter, May 1996, p. 1.