WHAT'S THE BUZZ? NEW BEES BUILD BETTER BUILDINGS.BEES (Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability) 2.0, an updated, expanded version of the powerful NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology, Washington, DC, www.nist.gov) The standards-defining agency of the U.S. government, formerly the National Bureau of Standards. It is one of three agencies that fall under the Technology Administration (www.technology. software designed to help the construction industry select cost-effective "green" building products, is available for free download over the Internet. It offers comparative environmental and economic performance data for 65 building products, more than twice the number of the earlier version.The software evaluates generic products for framing, exterior and interior wall finishes, wall and roof sheathing, ceiling and wall insulation, roof and floor coverings, slabs, basement walls, beams, columns, parking lot paving and driveways. With BEES 2.0, designers, builders and manufacturers now can contrast competing products' impacts on global warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. , acidication, eutrophication eutrophication (y  trō'fĭkā`shən), aging of a lake by biological enrichment of its water. In a young lake the water is cold and clear, supporting little life. , indoor air quality Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) deals with the content of interior air that could affect health and comfort of building occupants. The IAQ may be compromised by microbial contaminants (mold, bacteria), chemicals (such as carbon monoxide, radon), allergens, or any mass or energy stressor , resource depletion Resource depletion is an economic term referring to the exhaustion of raw materials within a region. Resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources. , solid waste, ecological toxicity, human toxicity, ozone depletion Ozone depletion describes two distinct, but related observations: a slow, steady decline of about 4 percent per decade in the total amount of ozone in Earth's stratosphere since around 1980; and a much larger, but seasonal, decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions and smog. BEES 2.0 measures the environmental performance of each product by using a lifecycle assessment approach. All stages in the life of a product are consideredraw material acquisition, manufacture, transportation, installation, use, and recycling and waste management. BEES 2.0's economic assessment of a product takes into consideration the costs of initial investment, replacement, operation, maintenance and repair, and disposal. Environmental and economic performance are combined into an overall performance measure. The developers of BEES 2.0 plan to update the software every 12 to 18 months. BEES 2.0 runs on a Windows 95, 98, 2000, or NT personal computer with 486 or higher microprocessor, 32 megbytes or more of RAM, and at least 31 megabytes of available disk space. A printer must be installed. BEES 2.0 can be downloaded from the Internet at www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/bees.html. |
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