GreenClips.70 04.23.97 BUILDING A FRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY Refrigerators sold in 2001 must use 30 percent less electricity than those on the market today, says the US Department of Energy in setting new minimum standards for the most power-hungry appliance in American homes. "These new appliances will eventually save US consumers over 25 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year," says Steven Nadel of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, "equivalent to the power typically supplied by eight large power plants." The new DOE rule will add about $80 to the price of a standard 22-cubic-foot auto-defrosting refrigerator-freezer but will lower its annual operating cost about $20 by cutting its energy use from 767 to 535 kilowatt-hours a year. In 1978 when a standard refrigerator was 20 cubic feet, its average energy use was 1,548 kilowatt-hours a year. The new rule also requires manufacturers to find a replacement for ozone-depleting chemicals in refrigerators' foam insulation walls. — The New York Times, April 24, 1997, p. A1, by Matthew L. Wald, and Chicago Tribune, April 24, 1997. KHEEL PUMPS MANHATTAN'S HEAT Workers drilled 1,500 feet into New York City's bedrock this month to tap its stored energy for Manhattan's first geothermal heat pump. The heat pump will heat and cool labor lawyer and philanthropist Theodore W. Kheel's new $8 million building just east of Central Park on 64th Street and heat water for its lavatories. His building will house half a dozen nonprofit foundations. In their usual setting, geothermal heat pumps exchange heat with the ground by circulating water through relatively shallow pipes buried next to buildings they serve. But in Manhattan, the only option is to go straight down. Kheel wants to show how energy-saving technology and environmentally sensitive construction can pay for themselves. His heat pump will cost slightly more than a conventional heating and air-conditioning system, but he says that reduced fuel, electricity, and maintenance costs should make up the difference in a few years. Power company Consolidated Edison paid the fees of several energy consultants who helped design the system. — The New York Times, April 20, 1997, p. 34, by Andrew C. Revkin. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS LEAD SAN DIEGO CONSERVATION Since 1991 landscape architect Karen Scarborough has chaired a $6 million planning effort called the Multiple Species Conservation Program to save the San Diego area's unusual life forms while permitting development of its coveted real estate. Last month the San Diego City Council unanimously approved the MSCP plan that seeks $650 million in government funds to buy and maintain private lands. The MSCP is an alliance of environmentalists, developers, the Clinton and Wilson administrations, and local government working to preserve the most crucial habitat in a 900 square-mile area that includes all the City of San Diego and 20 percent of San Diego County. Its habitat plan makes general recommendations about areas to protect, organizing development around patches of habitat linked by wildlife corridors like streams and rivers. "To come up with a workable solution out of competing objectives is what we landscape architects are good at," says fellow landscape architect and MSCP deputy director Thomas T. Story. Story has worked closely with Scarborough on translating habitat preservation standards into development guidelines and inventing new codes for structures like wildlife underpass culverts. — Landscape Architecture, April 1997, p. 36, by Michael Leccese, and Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1997, p. A1, by Marla Cone. CARPET RECYCLING OBSTACLES Significant collection, handling, and sorting issues hinder carpet recycling in the US. DuPont's recovery system in Chattanooga, Tennessee operates at about one-quarter capacity because it's not receiving enough used carpet. Collecting more will make depolymerization and other forms of chemical recycling more economically feasible for facing fiber processors. Shipping used carpet is also costly — a 40-foot trailer carries only 10 tons of carpet. And identifying valuable facing fibers and other used carpet components like backing fiber, adhesives, and fillers is difficult. Many carpets look and feel alike, but most lines have one-of-a-kind formulations. So most carpet and fiber maker's reclamation programs gear toward their own products instead of a wider range of carpet types. To ease sorting, the Carpet and Rug Institute is developing a seven-part universal coding system for participating carpet producers that describes a carpet's components on its backing. — Resource Recycling, April 1997, p. 42, by Jerry Powell. ENERGY EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGY ATLAS E SOURCE, a for-profit subsidiary of the Rocky Mountain Institute, offers a 1,700-page Technology Atlas on advanced energy efficiency in buildings. The five-volume reference work covers lighting, cooling, heating, drivepower, and appliances. Each volume gives an extensive review of technologies, design fundamentals, and product data, combining up-to-date technical information with practical case studies and application guidelines. E SOURCE offers a softbound printed version or a CD-ROM with the entire content in searchable, printable format for $750, $950 for both. For more information call 800.E SOURCE or visit http://www.esource.com. — Rocky Mountain Institute Newsletter, Spring 1997. UK TILE MAKER WINS ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD The UK's H&R Johnson Tiles Limited won the 1997 Queen's Award for Environmental Achievement. The award recognizes the Stoke-on-Trent company for devising a method of turning scrap from local pottery manufacturers into high quality ceramic tiles. H&R Johnson Tiles accepts waste from 20 factories of 15 companies, diverting 3,500 metric tons of waste each year from landfills. It plans to increase its annual intake of waste pottery to 5,000 metric tons. [For more information visit http://www.johnson-tiles.com/qa.htm.] — Financial Times, April 21, 1997, by Leyla Boulton, and the H&R Johnson Tiles website.