Fastrack October 2007

Controlling Laboratory IAQ and Energy Costs
By Farhad Memarzadeh, PhD, PE
Fume hoods and bench exhausts help contain chemical contaminants...[MORE]

Accelerated Phaseout Set for HCFCs
During the 19th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (MOP-19), held in Montreal, Canada, on Sept. 17-21, an historic agreement to accelerate the phaseout of manufacturing equipment using hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) by 10 years was reached. As part of the agreement, developed countries will phase out all new equipment using HCFCs by 2020 instead of 2030. The new agreement also calls for reduction steps of 75 percent in 2010 and 90 percent in 2015 and allows 0.5 percent for servicing from 2020 to 2030...[MORE]

Water-Cooled-Chiller Proposal
ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, provides minimum requirements for the energy-efficient design of buildings except low-rise residential buildings. Fourteen proposed addenda to the 2007 standard, due for publication later this year, currently are open for public comment, which ends Oct. 29. To read the addendum or to comment, visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews/.

Office Depot Plans to Buy Green, Be Green, and Sell Green
Office Depot plans to both build and open its first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design- (LEED-) certified retail store in Austin, Texas, in mid-2008. Simultaneously, Office Depot continues to refine its master set of drawings and specifications that comprise its store prototype and will investigate having the format LEED-certified as well...[MORE]

U.S. Announces Largest Environmental Settlement in History
American Electric Power (AEP) has agreed to cut 813,000 tons of air pollutants annually at an estimated cost of more than $4.6 billion, pay a $15 million penalty, and spend $60 million on projects to mitigate the adverse effects of its past excess emissions. An unprecedented coalition of eight states and 13 citizen groups joined the United States government in the settlement. The agreement imposes caps on emissions of pollutants from 16 plants located in five states...[MORE]

USGBC's "Innovation in Design" Point
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced that projects seeking certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System can earn an "Innovation in Design" point by using building products and materials that have been certified as "carbon neutral" by an independent third-party certifier...[MORE]

Discover the Critical Secrets to Success In Commercial HVACR Contracting

• What are the most pressing issues affecting your business?
• What are the hottest technologies and applications on the market today?
• What do you know about new business-management ideas designed to make your business profitable?
  

Find the answers to these questions and much more at the 2007 Commercial Contracting Roundtable & Design/Build Seminar, presented by Contracting Business magazine and ACCA Educational Institute, Oct. 24 and 25, at Hilton Baltimore BWI Airport. For complete workshop information and easy online registration, go to www.contractingroundtable.com