GreenClips.56 09.25.96 MCDONALD'S TRIES ENERGY EFFICIENT RESTAURANT A McDonald's in Bay Point, California is one of the more advanced energy-saving fast food restaurants in North America. A collaboration of McDonald's Corporation and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), the just completed 5,000 square-foot restaurant uses 25 percent less electricity than comparable sites and will save as much as $15,000 annually. An evaporative cooling system pre-cools incoming air with water, reducing the electricity needed for air conditioning. High-efficiency exhaust fans on the fryer hood and a variable speed fan and control system on the griddle hood also save energy. Exhausting less air, they reduce the energy needed to condition fresh replacement air. Carbon dioxide sensors control the ventilation rate. Triple-glazed windows with low-E film reduce solar gain. A computerized energy management system controls interior and exterior lights. Photosensors dim high efficiency fluorescent lighting in the dining area and occupancy sensors control walk-in cooler and freezer lights. Reflective tubes called light pipes direct sunlight to interior spaces. - Advanced Buildings Newsletter, July/August 1996, p. 4. COMPANY DISMANTLES BUILDINGS PROFITABLY Dismantling buildings instead of demolishing them salvages materials for reuse and recycling. The Renovator's ReSource, a used building material company in Halifax, Nova Scotia, dismantles wood framed buildings, competitively challenging demolition. The company made a 30 percent [sic]profit dismantling an abandoned church in ten days using three people fulltime. Revenue from selling the salvaged materials amounted to $4,072 CDN, offsetting labor and overhead of $2,300 CDN. Yet unanticipated difficulties arose. The Renovator's ReSource could not salvage about 20 percent of the material they had anticipated. The company had to warehouse some of the salvaged material for several months until it sold, a problem for contractors without adequate storage. And extra de-nailing time overran the labor budget ten percent. - Wastenot, Summer 1996, p. 3, by Jennifer Corson. IKEA'S ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT GROWS Retail chain IKEA sells office and home furniture and housewares worldwide. The company's growing environmental commitment began in 1986 when it required suppliers to reduce formaldehyde in wood products. By 1991 IKEA banned furniture made from tropical wood except from sustainably managed sources and expanded its formaldehyde ban to include textiles and treatment materials. Then in 1993, IKEA began evaluating its products' environmental impacts, investigating life cycle processes of 9,000 products they manufacture or sell. Now the 1997 IKEA catalog introduces its Eco-Plus logo on about 30 products. Eco-Plus products will carry a label detailing applicable criteria including recycled material use and low energy production. - In Business, July/August 1996, p. 28, by B.J. Harris. ECOTIMBER DISTRIBUTES CERTIFIED RAIN FOREST WOOD Business is brisk at EcoTimber International, a small Berkeley, California firm that distributes tropical wood to construction companies. EcoTimber buys wood from certified timber companies whose logging practices maintain rainforest ecosystems. EcoTimber has supplied certified rain forest wood for The Gap, Spinelli Coffee Company, and Tonight Show host Jay Leno's desk. Banana Republic floored a Los Angeles store with a Yucatan Peninsula wood called chicozapote whose sap has been an ingredient in Chiclets gum. A Sacramento, California store has shiny floors made of machiche, another Yucatan wood. "The supply base (of certified woods) is growing exponentially," says EcoTimber's Jason Grant. He estimates that certified companies log about 10 million acres of rain forest today compared with only250,000 acres four years ago. Grant founded EcoTimber with Aaron Maizlish and Eugene Dickey five years ago. - San Francisco Examiner, September 19, 1996, p. B1, by Wendy Tanaka. PISE SYSTEM ADVANCES EARTH WALL CONSTRUCTION Napa, California builder David Easton, known for high-cost rammed earthhouses, now also offers his more economical Pneumatically Installed Stabilized Earth (PISE) system. "The beauty of the whole system," says Easton, "is in sourcing your materials on site." To make PISE walls for homes, Easton first mixes the earth with concrete to stabilize it, then shoots it against a form with large hoses made for spraying concrete. Along the form he installs reinforcing steel in earthquake-prone areas and conduits for electrical and other services. Like rammed earth or adobe, PISE walls perform well in hot, dry climates since their thermal mass tempers diurnal temperature swings. - Environmental Building News, September/October 1996, p. 11. ADVANCED HOUSES WORLDWIDE A new book called Learning from Experiences with Advanced Houses of the World features 25 homes in 13 countries that lead in energy conservation, concern for the environment, indoor air quality, and sustainable use of resources. Reducing operating costs is the focus of US houses in the book - the Idaho Energy Conservation Technology House, the Energy Smart Home in Pensacola, Florida, and Optimar: The Energy Answer Home in Mulberry, Florida. The Netherlands reduces greenhouse gas emissions using strict building standards, taxes, and research programs. The Dutch communities of Ecolonia and Scheidam feature energy efficient houses, green spaces, and measures to encourage public transit. Increasing comfort is crucial in Japanese homes. Japan has modeled residential energy efficiency measures on Canada's R-2000 program allowing residents to heat more rooms longer hours. Reducing foreign energy imports drives advanced housing in Switzerland. Canada leads in using sustainable materials that create healthy indoor air environments. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy offers the book for $39 post-paid, 510.549.9414. - Home Energy, September/October 1996, p. 36, by Jeanne Byrne. EMISSION STANDARDS IN JEOPARDY A controversial regulatory pendulum swing embroils Southern California's influential pollution control agency. The debate has national implications since other states have modeled air quality regulations - including emission standards for architectural coatings and solvents - on Southern California's. Once feared by business, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) is now helping companies get permits more quickly and educating lawbreakers instead of fining them. Since 1992 a backlash against the state's all-out war on smog has weakened air pollution rules. Proposals in the agency's latest long range plan would further erode the regulations. Last month 9 of 11 members of SCAQMD's scientific advisory panel protested by resigning en masse. - The New York Times, September 12, 1996, p. C1, by James Sterngold. LOUISIANA-PACIFIC MOVES TO EXPAND CELLULOSE MARKET Louisiana-Pacific Corp., the giant Portland, Oregon-based lumber and building products company, announced a preliminary agreement to buy GreenStone Industries Inc., a small Bethesda, Maryland firm that owns cellulose insulation plants in nine cities. Last year GreenStone sold $41 million worth of cellulose insulation, Louisiana-Pacific $10 million worth. Louisiana-Pacific's goal, says executive vice president Mike Hanna, is to build business quickly to $200 million in sales per year. The companies make cellulose insulation mainly from recycled newspapers by pulverizing them into a fluffy material and mixing it with fire- and rot-retardant chemicals. Installers blow the product into building wall and roof cavities. – The Washington Post, September 11, 1996, p. FO3, by Jerry Knight.