NOW OFFICE BUILDINGS CAN EARN THE ENERGY STAR
The Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, the World Trade Center, and a host of well-known US structures are signing on to a government-sponsored campaign to slow global warming by reducing the amount of energy that office buildings consume. The US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy have just launched the Energy Star Buildings Label Program. [Similar to the Energy Star labeling program for new homes, it's the latest extension of the agencies' Energy Star certification of major appliances, TVs and VCRs, heating and cooling equipment, residential light fixtures, office equipment, and windows.] In signing on to the whole-building program, building managers commit to cutting their facility's energy use until it falls in the lowest quarter of the energy consumed by buildings of similar size. In return, the buildings will get the Energy Star designation that managers could display on their stationery and in their lobbies. To conserve energy, the Empire State Building has replaced all 6,500 of its windows with double-paned units specially glazed to reduce air leaks. The World Trade Center has upgraded 23,000 of its light fixtures and installed the latest energy-saving bulbs. And the Sears Tower has spent nearly $1 million on fan engines, light bulbs, and climate control systems. - USA Today, 20 Apr 98, p 3A, by Traci Watson.

BEES WEIGHS ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY
The first version of BEES, software for selecting building products that balance environmental and economic performance, is now available for 24 building products. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Green Buildings Program began the BEES, or Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability, project in 1995. BEES measures environmental performance using a life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach guided by ISO 14040 draft standards. It assesses global warming, acidification, nutrification, natural resource depletion, indoor air quality, and solid waste impacts. The environmental LCA generates relative performance scores that reflect how much better or worse products perform compared with each another. The software separately measures economic performance using the ASTM standard life-cycle costing (LCC) approach. BEES generates an overall score by weighting the environmental and economic performance scores by relative importance values. The BEES user specifies the relative importance of environmental and economic performance and can test the sensitivity of the overall scores to different weightings. About 90 percent of the BEES data comes directly from industry sources, the rest from literature and published reports. NIST plans to expand and refine BEES over the next several years. The BEES 1.0 software is available from the US Green Building Council. For more information, call 415.543.3001 or visit <http://www.usgbc.org>. - The Construction Specifier, Apr 98, p 35, by Barbara C. Lippiatt.

ANASAZI ARCHITECTURE BRIDGED NATURE AND CULTURE
Deliberately and artfully inscribed in nature, the pueblo architecture of the Anasazi and their way of inhabiting it remain a model response to the environment. Their sophisticated urban civilization rose in the American Southwest between the years 950 and 1100. The best known Anasazi ruin is Mesa Verde in southern Colorado. Paying attention to orientation, they constructed buildings that were both sunscoops and windbreaks, highly efficient thermally. But borrowing the form of ancient adobe for today's shopping malls reduces the issue of environmental suitability to a denatured question of taste. Based in a quantifiable human account to nature, "green" architecture has a stronger claim to reestablishing a connection with the natural. Green architecture elements like water-saving xeriscapes reckon directly with the balance of resources, taking a conservative, not an exploitative, approach. And they revere the indigenous, cultivating the forms and materials of the region. Unfortunately, too much green building is stuck in the technical details - or preoccupied with funk, as if nature preferred informality. The visual default for green architecture continues to be rammed earth, recycled tires, and Trombe walls, strategies that trade on their low-tech aura and convey more sense of mission than art. The greatness of Anasazi architecture springs not just from its integrity, but from the art with which its builders bridged nature and culture. - Metropolis, May 98, p 33, by Michael Sorkin.

US DOE PROMOTES EFFICIENT WASHERS AND DRYERS
To give new, energy efficient washers and dryers a jump start in the marketplace, the US Department of Energy is organizing groups to buy truckload volumes through the Energy Star volume purchase program. Appliance buyers like housing authorities, utilities, builders, owner-operators of multifamily and commercial buildings, and government agencies can buy 21 washer-dryer pairs at reduced prices. High-efficiency Gibson Tumble Action washers are available at a substantially discounted price of $517, delivery included. (A standard- efficiency vertical-axis washing machine costs $400 to $450 retail; top-of- the-line models are about $700.) Matching Gibson dryers are available at $284 for electric models and $326 for gas. Using a third less water, the new Gibson washer-dryers use only about half the gas or electricity of standard units in average residential use. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory administers the DOE-funded program. For more information, email Sandi Edgemon <sandi.edgemon@pnl.gov>. Meanwhile, to see the conservation benefits of front- loading washers first-hand, DOE signed up 104 families in Bern, Kansas (population 204) to test the technology. In exchange for a complimentary front-loader donated by Maytag, they agreed to evaluate each load of laundry, weigh it before and after each wash, and have their water and electric use carefully monitored. After five months, the Maytag Neptunes used 58 percent less energy and 39 percent less water than comparable conventional washers - enough to fill Bern's water tower 13 times. Maytag says the average family could save $100 a year on utility bills by switching to a Neptune. Despite its $1,100 price tag - twice that of a comparable top-loader - Maytag can't keep up with consumer demand. For information on specific front-loading models that have earned the government's Energy Star certification, visit <http://www.energystar.gov>. - Energy Design Update, Mar 98, p 3; and The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Mar 98, by Laurent Belsie.

CHOOSE GREEN CLEANERS
Cleaning products are among the more hazardous chemicals in homes and offices, says the environmental product labeling organization Green Seal. Its latest Choose Green Report rates environmentally responsible general-purpose cleaners and offers a buyer's checklist. Choose biodegradable products that are non- toxic to both humans and aquatic life. Avoid products containing EDTA and NTA; look instead for builders like sodium citrate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, or sodium silicate. Choose cleaners with a phosphate concentration of 0.5 percent or less by weight. Look for concentrated formulations that work in cold water. Avoid products containing chlorine bleach or sodium hypochlorite. Choose products with a VOC concentration no more than 10 percent by weight when diluted for use as directed. Try to avoid ingredients derived from petroleum; choose surfactants derived from vegetable oil when possible; avoid nonylphenol ethoxylate; look for d-limonene and pine oil solvents. Favor products with a neutral pH. Choose products in refillable, recycled, or recyclable containers. For a copy of the full report, email <lcarr@greenseal.org>. For more information about Green Seal, visit <http://www.greenseal.org>. - Choose Green Report, Mar 98.

VEG-TABLE
VegTable is a collection of work tables, desk units, conference tables, and occasional tables offered by Horst, Inc. Their surfaces are Environ, a durable material made by Phenix Biocomposites that looks like natural stone. Environ is 40 percent soybeans, 40 percent recycled newsprint, and 20 percent all- natural and sustainable resins, oils, and pigments. The VegTable base is simple - four angle-iron steel legs end flush with the table top and join steel edging that butts cleanly with adjacent tables. The legs unbolt easily from the tops and ship disassembled. The collection has a clean, Asian look, reminiscent of parsons tables. "Minimalist design goes hand in hand with good environmentalism," says Scot Horst who believes that good environmental style is clean in appearance and low in manufacturing energy. Horst has moderately priced the tables and offers a ten percent discount with an order of three or more. For more information, email Horst, Inc. <horst@early.com>. - Interiors, Apr 98, p 39, by Katherine Day Sutton.

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