WHY TUCSON LIKES CIVANO
The city of Tucson, Arizona sees its participation in Civano - the first large, mainstream real estate development to make sustainability a major design component - as an investment with the potential for positive returns. Ultimately 2,800 homes and 1.3 million square feet of commercial space on 820 acres, Civano's first residential neighborhood and town center are now under construction in the city. The city of Tucson has spent years nurturing this new urbanism project. This investment is helping the city learn about building and operating more sustainable communities, knowledge it wants to transfer to the rest of the Tucson area since it believes that sustainable design can reduce the city's annual costs. For example, the strong transit connection between Civano's homes and workplaces can limit automobile travel in Tucson and reduce the city's road construction and maintenance fees. More efficient use of water can reduce demand for this limited resource. And a safer community could lead to decreased policing and other social costs. Beyond saving Tucson $500,000 a year on water, road, and landfill expenses, Civano's environmentally sensitive approach could also serve as a model for improving air quality by promoting pedestrian and bike travel and for preserving the desert by building at higher densities and leaving 35 percent open space. [For more information, visit <http://www.civano.com>.] - Urban Land, Jul 98, p 56, by Mark Smith.

TORONTO EYES DEEP LAKE WATER COOLING
Toronto District Heating Corp., a nonprofit utility, plans to use frigid water from the depths of Lake Ontario to naturally chill the water that currently cools buildings in the downtown district. Replacing fossil-fueled electric air conditioning as early as next summer, the Deep Lake Water Cooling project could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30,000 tons annually, engineers say, improving air quality in the city dramatically. The estimated C$110 million (US$72.6 million) project, first of its kind in Canada and likely the largest in the world, would help Canada meet its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions six percent by the year 2010. The proposal has already garnered environmental approval from the Ontario provincial government. The next step is to gather private-sector funding to construct a 1.6-mile intake pipe and a downtown distribution pipe. The intake will draw water from more than 200 feet deep in Lake Ontario where it's a constant 40 degrees year-round. New and existing pipelines will run the lake water through heat exchangers that transfer its coolness to water in a cooling loop that supplies chillers in downtown towers. Purified, the lake water will then feed the city's water supply. Addressing concerns that the project would raise the lake's temperature and adversely affect its fish population, studies found less impact than generating stations currently cause. - The Journal of Commerce, 13 Aug 98, by Amran Abocar (Reuters).

GREENING THE SUPPLY CHAIN
A growing number of companies across many industries are realizing that they can't achieve environmental sustainability alone. They see themselves as part of a larger, interrelated organization and are engaging their entire value chain - from suppliers to customers - in improving environmental performance. To explore how to raise suppliers' environmental awareness, a dozen leading companies have joined a new Supply Chain Working Group sponsored by Business for Social Responsibility. More pointedly, last spring carpet-maker Interface gathered 150 representatives from the company's top 60 suppliers to its first- ever seminar on Greening the Supply Chain. The message - get with our sustainability program or get lost. But sometimes the little guy educates the big customer, as when a supplier upgrades environmentally to get a foot in the door of a plum client with green values. Six years ago, start-up plastics manufacturer Custom Profiles approached commercial furniture giant Herman Miller with the idea of turning used furniture molding that Miller discarded into a reusable product. That product costs Miller 40 percent less than virgin plastic. "We're not afraid to learn from our suppliers," says Paul Murray of Herman Miller, host of its own supplier conferences on environmental issues for nearly a decade. [For more information on BSR's Supply Chain Working Group, visit <http://www.bsr.org>.] - Tomorrow, Jul-Aug 98, p 26, by Ann Goodman.

BC TIMBER PRODUCERS TO CHANGE PRACTICES
Three of the larger timber producers in British Columbia recently announced shifts toward sustainable forestry practices. On June 2, Western Forest Products, Ltd. announced it's pursuing third-party certification under Forest Stewardship Council guidelines through the British certifying body SGS Forestry Qualifor Programme. A week later MacMillan Bloedel, Canada's largest wood products company, announced it will phase out clearcutting over the next five years. The company said it will pursue a stewardship strategy that focuses on retaining old-growth forests and conserving habitat in the roughly 2.7 million acres of its BC operations. Immediately following, International Forest Products (Interfor), which harvests timber in a number of the province's more pristine and ecologically significant coastal rainforests, announced it will follow MacMillan Bloedel's lead. Together, these three companies control more than half of British Columbia's coastal forests, says a Greenpeace forest activist. For more information, visit the companies' web sites: <http://www.westernforest.com>, <http://www.mbltd.com>, <http://www.interfor.com>. - Environmental Building News, Jul-Aug 98, p 1, by Alex Wilson.

INDEX OF SUSTAINABILITY
Architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart have created a new design tool that incorporates environmental protection into the making of things. Bent on forming strategic alliances with industrial partners, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry uses its Index of Sustainability to evaluate a product's materials and processes "to arrive at a point from which redesign for sustainability can take place," says MBDC's new website. The Index assesses existing products and approaches to redesign in the categories of ecology, social equity, and economy. "The MBDC indexing process examines a product's potential impact (negative or positive) in each of these categories and identifies areas for improvement. This indexing includes a review of products and manufacturing processes from the molecule to the region," explains mbdc.com. "In addition, the Index performs a comprehensive review of economic viability to ensure the product's success in the marketplace." For more information, visit <http://www.mbdc.com>. - Green Design, Spr-Sum 98, p 5.

UNDER THE SUN
An exhibit of solar designs and technologies titled Under the Sun: An Outdoor Exhibition of Light runs through October 25 at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in New York City. The exhibit features a glass pavilion made of clear and photovoltaic glass panels designed by Gregory Kiss and Nicholas Goldsmith and a solar tensile pavilion, also by Goldsmith, made of thin film photovoltaics laminated onto fabric. For more information, visit <http://www.si.edu/ndm>. - Environmental Building News, Jul-Aug 98, p 6.

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ENERGY RESOURCE CENTER http://www.socalgas.com/erc Get the answers you need to benefit from electric deregulation. Electric deregulation has been a California reality since March, but it's still shrouded in confusion. The Energy Resource Center's Evaluating Electric Deregulation Opportunities seminar from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23 will give you the opportunity to engage in an interactive discussion of your options instead of merely listening to a prepared lecture. Your questions will be solicited before the event and given to speakers so that the presentation will reflect the needs of participants. The ERC is located at 9240 E. Firestone Blvd., Downey, CA, 90241-5388. To register for the $50 seminar (Seminar #2853), call 1 800 427 6584 and press option one, or dial direct to 562 803 7500.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

GreenClips is free of charge thanks to these sponsors -

INTERFACE, INC.
http://www.ifsia.com More than a carpet company. Much more.

WSU ENERGY PROGRAM
http://www.energy.wsu.edu Providing objective research, information and solutions. Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program in Olympia, Washington. To subscribe to GreenClips and/or other mailing lists related to energy and the environment, go to <http://listserv.energy.wsu.edu/guest/RemoteAvailableLists>.

ENERGY RESOURCE CENTER
http://www.socalgas.com/erc Get the answers you need to benefit from electric deregulation. Electric deregulation has been a California reality since March, but it's still shrouded in confusion. The Energy Resource Center's Evaluating Electric Deregulation Opportunities seminar from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23 will give you the opportunity to engage in an interactive discussion of your options instead of merely listening to a prepared lecture. Your questions will be solicited before the event and given to speakers so that the presentation will reflect the needs of participants. The ERC is located at 9240 E. Firestone Blvd., Downey, CA, 90241-5388. To register for the $50 seminar (Seminar #2853), call 1 800 427 6584 and press option one, or dial direct to 562 803 7500.