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Tom Lent | September 16, 2004 | Policies
The Sustainable Products Purchasing Coalition (SPPC)[1] hopes to catalyze the market for sustainable products by getting consistent environmental performance data from manufacturers. They've chosen to do this through an Eco-Profile - a standardized form through which manufacturers can provide Life Cycle data for their product compatible with th...
Niaz Dorry | August 11, 2004 | Materials
To breathe, I have to take way too many medicines today - each with their side effects. I'm an adult. Imagine a child having to wade through all the symptoms and medicines associated with asthma. Many factors contribute to the development and aggravation of asthma. However, I am wondering whether the installation of PVC flooring in my bathroom...
Bill Walsh | July 26, 2004 | Policies
A new book entitled The Philosophy of Sustainable Design has earned widespread praise by green building leaders.[1] Author Jason McLennan,[2] the Director of Elements, the green consulting division of BNIM Architects, and founder of Ecotone Design, discussed his new book with Bill Walsh of HBN. The book can be purchased at www.ecotonedesign.com.[3]...
Bill Walsh | July 14, 2004 | Policies
The phrase sound science evokes the idiom of science, though it is not itself a scientific term. It's a code word. Manufacturers of arsenic wood treating compounds used it with a straight face to argue that there was no sound science to support the proposition that children would be better off without arsenic on their playgrounds.[1] The Vinyl...
Bill Walsh | June 29, 2004 | Materials
A new report by the Grassroots Recycling Network (GRRN)[1], Message In A Bottle: The Myth of PVC Recycling,[2] demonstrates that "PVC recycling does not exist, cannot exist, and is not wanted by the plastics recycling industry," according to GRRN Project Coordinator, Toral Jha. Although the report focuses on bottle and container markets b...
Bill Walsh | June 15, 2004 | Materials
This summer's offering in the long running serial-action- drama series known as the PVC Debate comes from Europe. The new release, "Life Cycle Assessment of PVC and of Principal Competing Materials" by a consulting consortium led by PE Europe GmbH, is being hyped by PVC manufacturers as a blockbuster prequel to the much anticipated ep...
Bill Walsh | June 01, 2004 | Policies
The Environmental Building News reports that the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) board of directors voted "not to create a new membership category for trade associations" while at the same time voting "to increase the dialog with trade associations to better understand issues of concern to them and demonstrate that the Council is...
Bill Walsh | May 17, 2004 | Materials
Armstrong World Industries’ motto is "Your Ideas Become Reality." Here’s the Healthy Building Network’s idea for how Armstrong can turn tragedy into progress, transform the resilient flooring market, and rehabilitate its greenwashing reputation. Armstrong was a major customer of the Formosa Plastics vinyl plant in Illiop...
Sandra Steingraber | May 03, 2004 | Materials
Lessons From The Formosa PVC Plant, Illiopolis, Illinois One morning ten years ago, I was at work on a book about environmental health when the phone rang. It was my Uncle Roy. He wanted me to know that a developer had come to town peddling a plan to construct a giant waste incinerator in the cornfield next to his own. What the man was planning to...
Bill Walsh | April 19, 2004 | Policies
For inspiration this Earth Day, April 22, look to the green building movement. In word and deed, green building professionals have shown us the unbearable lightness of being green. Start by reading the comments to the US Green Building Council concerning Council governance (trade association membership) and LEED standards (a disputed PVC credit).[1...
