INTER-CONTINENTAL HOTEL CUTS ENERGY COSTS
The Frankfurt Inter-Continental Hotel is renovating its 800 rooms and public areas to improve comfort and cut energy costs. Now in the fifth of six phases, the first results of the $50 million project are a 20 percent reduction in energy costs - a savings of $200,000 a year. When a guest leaves a room, their key card activates a master switch that turns off everything except the TV, minibar, and air conditioning. A central building automation system sets air-conditioning fancoils in unoccupied rooms to 'off' or 'low' depending on weather. Room radiators now have automatic control valves interlocked with the fancoil controls to prevent simultaneous heating and cooling. The hotel replaced two constant-air conditioning units serving the lobby and bar with one variable-air system with six zones, each individually maintaining comfort. Waste heat recovered from condensate from the heating systems and laundry steam preheats the hotel's hot water. A heating coil in the lobby air handler will use the same waste heat. For more information, call Reiner Boehme at Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts, 49.69.234.177. - Green Hotelier, Jan 98, p 17.

EPA WANTS TO EXTEND STORMWATER REGULATIONS
To further curtail sediment runoff into waterways, the US Environmental Protection Agency wants to extend its stormwater regulations to include smaller construction sites. The EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System already covers sites larger than five acres. Published January 9, a proposed rule will expand the system to include sites between one and five acres, regulating another 110,000 construction sites a year. Questioning the benefits of the EPA proposal, both the Associated General Contractors of America and the Associated Builders and Contractors fear the new regulations will burden small contractors. EPA officials argue that sediment, the second largest pollutant in US waterways, runs off construction sites large and small. The agency's cost-benefit analysis finds no compelling reasons why erosion rates and sediment yields from small sites are substantially different from large sites. The government will hold six public hearings through March 6. - ENR, 12 Jan 98, p 16.

TO DYE OR NOT TO DYE
Textile makers apply more than 700,000 tons of dyestuffs to 40 million tons of fabric each year. Besides consuming large amounts of chemicals, water, and energy, dyeing produces effluent. Though less toxic today, the inherently dirty nature of applying color to fabric contributes to aesthetic pollution and puts dyers and finishers under increasing environmental scrutiny. The choice of color matters - darker shades cause more pollution - but the most fundamental choice for textile designers is whether to dye fabric at all. Growing colored fibers is one alternative to dyeing. Originally developed by native Americans, cotton grown in colors is now available in green, brown, yellow, and rust red under the brand name Foxfibre. Neither natural nor synthetic dyes are problem-free. Natural dyes work only on natural fibers treated with highly polluting heavy metal mordants. Large variation in color and poor light and wash fastness make natural dyes unacceptable for industrial use. Synthetic dyes color fibers more efficiently, but the most popular, the reactive, has an especially poor exhaustion rate. Up to 50 percent of the dye remains unfixed and is flushed away with repeated water baths. Chemical companies could introduce the friendlier dyestuffs that already exist, but high price inhibits their use. For information about the Textile Environmental Network (TEN), email the National Centre for Business Ecology in Manchester UK, NCBE@NCBE.co.uk. - Eco Design, Vol V No 3, p 36, by Kate Fletcher of TEN.

CLINTON SEEKS ENERGY TAX CREDITS
President Clinton's budget request for the 1999 fiscal year includes a $6.3 billion package of tax credits and research subsidies intended to fight the threat of global warming caused by emissions from burning fossil fuels. Alongside tax credits for buyers of advanced-technology cars, the package includes tax proposals intended to encourage owners of homes, factories, and power plants to adopt solar power and other energy efficient technologies. One provision offers a $2,000 tax credit for buying an energy efficient new home. The Administration also proposes investment tax credits to reward companies that install highly efficient equipment like fuel cells or turbine engines that burn natural gas. Congressional approval of the tax subsidies is not at all assured. "As worthy as it sounds and may be, it is terribly complicated," says a spokesman for the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee about tax credits to stimulate specific economic activities. Beyond the tax credits, the Administration is asking for $2.7 billion in new Federal spending on energy conservation and related research over a five-year period. These subsidies would fund research on efficient technologies for heating and cooling buildings and on advanced household appliances, among other areas. - The New York Times, 31 Jan 98, p A11, by John H. Cushman Jr.

YUMI-HA, MEXICAN ECO-RESORT
Named after the Mayan goddess of the underwater world, Yumi-Ha is a new eco-village resort south of Cancun designed by British Columbia architects Andrew Best and Arni Fullerton, their fifth green hotel project in the region. Construction of Yumi-Ha's beach-front cabana cabins and bar-restaurant palapas began in October. The architects based the playful designs on traditional Mayan village building techniques - open plans, simple stone walls, and wood framing. The eco-resort will use wind and sun for power and have its own solar aquatic sewage recycling plant. Designed to be a center of regeneration and well-being, the site adjoins a 500,000-hectare nature reserve, home to thousands of bird, animal, and plant species. For more information, email Andrew Best, abest@direct.ca. - Green Hotelier, Jan 98, p 29.

STUDIO EG'S ECOWORK OFFICE SYSTEM
Studio eg makes its EcoWork modular office system from recycled, organic, and recovered materials. EcoWork's horizontal surfaces are wheatboard made from leftover straw. Bonded with a non-formaldehyde glue, the wheatboard is coated with [translucent] UV dye. Studio eg uses recycled newsprint, compressed and coated with water-based paints, in the system's sound absorbing panels. EcoWork's four-inch diameter table legs are 3/8-inch thick waste cardboard. Rubber edging and leg boots are made from shredded recycled tires. First installed six years ago, EcoWork costs about two-thirds of Knoll, Haworth, and Herman Miller systems, says its designer Erez Steinberg. Studio eg is in Oakland, California. [For more information, email studioeg@ccnet.com.] - Interiors, Jan 98, p 38, by Katherine Day Sutton.

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

GreenClips is free of charge thanks to these sponsors -

INTERFACE, INC.
http://www.ifsia.com

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.

TOOLS FOR BUILDING GREEN
Plan now to attend this one-day conference and building products tradeshow on Saturday, February 28, 8:30 to 4:30, at Shenanigans Restaurant in Jack London Village, Oakland, California. Tools for Building Green is sponsored by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and Source Reduction and Recycling Board. Tools For Building Green will feature useful, hands-on presentations by builders and architects who are cost-effectively reducing waste before it starts, and protecting our environment by recovering and recycling construction and demolition debris and using state of-the-art building materials. The workshop fee of $30 includes continental breakfast, buffet lunch, Resource Binder and entry into the tools prize drawing. The conference is designed for building industry professionals, including general contractors, construction managers, carpenters and trades, demolition contractors, developers, architects, home builders and remodelers. For more information, call the Recycling Hotline at 510.639.2498, or visit our home page at http://www.stopwaste.org.

ENVIRONDESIGN 2
Environdesign 2, slated for April 30 to May 2, 1998, in Monterey, CA, will explore the practical benefits of sustainable design and the "intangibles" that inspire everyone to embrace environmental stewardship. Interior designers, architects and facility planners will join with manufacturers and sustainable design authorities to explore environmental responsibility as the defining issue for the next century. Thirty-two conference speakers and 27 presentation topics include keynotes by William McDonough, FAIA; Paul Hawken; Sim Van der Ryn; and Chief Oren Lyons. Superstars and students will engage in heartfelt conversations; practitioners and manufacturers will share victories and frustrations; questions will be answered and new ones posed. If you care about the quality of life today and tomorrow - especially if you are a practitioner whose decision-making responsibilities impact the built environment - visit "whatIS NEW" at http://www.isdesignet.com, or for a brochure call 561.627.3393 or email ed2@isdesignet.com.