GreenClips.62 01.01.97 WESTERN US CITIES FACE SPRAWL Sprawl is straining fast growing Western US cities — except Portland, Oregon. The urban West has six of the 15 fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation — Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Denver, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. Adding 50,000 people a year on average, most have dramatically expanded in land area. Though never intending to copy Los Angeles' mistakes, most fast growing western cities now face LA's polluted air, traffic gridlock, and loss of open space. After years of unfettered development, road building binges, cheap land, low taxes, and minimal government interference, they now confront the consequences of their new popularity. But Portland, Oregon long ago chose another way. In the late 70s the city drew a boundary around the metropolitan area that now separates Portland from surrounding forest, farms, and open space. And it dismantled a downtown freeway and limited downtown parking spaces, forcing people out of their cars and onto the light rail system and buses serving the compact area. Seeing Portland's success, Seattle has now drawn its own line at the Cascade foothills and last month approved a plan to build a $4 billion rail and bus system that voters turned down 30 years ago. — The New York Times, December 29, 1996, p. 1, and December 30, 1996, p. 1 by Timothy Egan. FRESH AIR AND SUNLIGHT FOR MILLER SQA Pacific Northwest Laboratories is studying the effects of daylighting and indoor air quality strategies on productivity at Miller SQA's new factory. Furniture maker Herman Miller established Miller SQA (Simple, Quick, and Affordable) to refurbish their substantially built but used furniture when clients want new configurations, fabrics, or finishes. William McDonough + Partners and VerBurg and Associates designed a new Holland, Michigan factory for Miller SQA's growing business. Operable windows in the factory's offices provide abundant fresh air, daylight, and views. In production areas, sunlight pours in through skylights and windows, aided by borrowed corridor light. Fresh air supply is about six times the code requirement. Pacific Northwest Laboratories in Richland, Washington is comparing the new building's incidence of sick days, manufacturing errors, and other productivity aspects to those at another Miller plant — the most sophisticated such monitoring of any American building to date, says PNL scientist James Weiss [Wise]. But Miller SQA is already convinced that retaining valued staff and increasing productivity will, over the building's life, more than recover its substantially higher than average construction costs. — Architectural Record, December 1996, p. 26, by Robert Bruegmann. US TO TIGHTEN WETLANDS REGULATIONS The Clinton Administration says it will significantly tighten wetlands regulations by phasing out an expedited permit procedure that has allowed developers to drain wetlands 10 acres at a time. Environmentalists and Federal agencies had complained that the quick procedure for getting Army Corps of Engineer permission to develop wetlands, known as Nationwide Permit 26, allowed the destruction of wetlands that absorb flood water and provide habitat for wildlife. The National Association of Home Builders called the change "a bad decision" that would delay home construction without appreciably benefiting the environment. The proposal will hit home builders hardest, but will also affect developers of strip shopping malls and other commercial and light industrial sites. The two-year phase out of Permit 26 cuts its ten-acre threshold to three. The Corps also intends to prevent stacking of quick permits, an abuse in which developers divide projects into small pieces and justify each under separate permits without comprehensive review. Meanwhile, the Corps must develop another permit program to replace Permit 26 that focuses on site activity rather than acreage. — The New York Times, December 11, 1996, p. 1, by John H. Cushman, Jr., and ENR, December 23, 1996, p.9, by Sherie Winston. DURACELL PUTS ITS WASTE TO WORK Over half the interior and exterior materials used to build Duracell Corporation's new Bethel, Connecticut headquarters contain waste material from the company's own manufacturing process. The building's bricks are 1.3 percent by weight scrap manganese dioxide powder, a raw material in Duracell batteries that gives the brick its dark color. Duracell sends about 460,000 pounds of waste manganese dioxide a year from its Lexington, North Carolina plant to neighboring Cunningham Brick Company in Lexington, Cherokee Sanford Brick in Sanford, and to Belgian brick makers. — Wastenot, Fall 1996, p. 8. RETROFITTING HOTEL LIGHTS Retrofitting hotels with compact fluorescent lights and integrated lighting control systems can save energy. Incandescent lights burn 75 to 100 watts. But commercial-grade compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) now available use only 13 to 38 watts and won't compromise visual quality or aesthetics in hotel common areas, entry ways, and bathrooms. Begin retrofitting CFLs in common areas where hardwired downlights, surface mounts, and wall sconces operate 24 hours a day. Used with a built-in ballast system, CFL wall sconces can accommodate single or multiple lamps and are smaller than incandescent sconces. Screw-in CFL systems for retrofitting floor and table lamps are available but unsatisfactory — the technology for factory-equipping them needs more development. Many hotel guests waste energy by leaving lights on or using bathroom lights as night lights. Consider installing a single controller at the entry way that switches room lights off when a guest leaves and on when a guest returns. Such an integrated control system could also dim the bathroom light for night use or could control a separate, lower-wattage night light. — Energy & Environmental Management, Fall 1996, by Michael J. Siminovitch. RAILS TO FURNITURE Until 1959 trains ran the 102-mile Lucin Cut-off between Lucin and Ogden, Utah that featured a 12-mile wood trestle across the Great Salt Lake. Salvagers claimed the trestle in 1993 — and the attention of general contractor Gary Evershed who bought fir piling and redwood decking for his Ogden Nature Center project. During this project Evershed realized that many smaller pieces of old growth redwood were being discarded and his company Trestlewood Furniture was born. Now Trestlewood owns more than 600,000 board feet of redwood trestle decking. For more information on Trestlewood's chairs, benches, and accessories call Northwest's Best at 800.692.3781 or visit Trestlewood's web site at http://www.trestlewood.com. — The Atlanta Journal/The Atlanta Constitution, December 15, 1996, p. D4, by Matt Bolch, and Sunset, July 1996, p. 82.