Interior Design & Architecture
Clinton Library obtains LEED
MADISON, Wisc. – The William J. Clinton Presidential Library has earned Platinum Certification under the LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Rating System, granted by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
Green actions in this initiative include:
- green cleaning (green cleaning chemicals and increased recycled content for paper products);
- waste reduction (increased recycling and source reduction for items including paper, light bulbs, and aluminum); and
- climate neutrality (all carbon emissions from energy use in 2007 and 2008 that were not addressed by additional efficiency actions and onsite renewable energy by the Library were offset with renewable energy credits).
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Report promotes green design
VANCOUVER, Canada – Promoting the green design, construction, renovation, and operation of buildings could cut North American greenhouse gas emissions that are fuelling climate change more deeply, quickly, and cheaply than any other available measure, according to a new report issued by the trinational Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).
North America’s buildings cause the annual release of more than 2,200 megatons of CO2 into the atmosphere, about 35% of the continent’s total, according to the Commission. The rapid market uptake of currently available and emerging advanced energy-saving technologies could result in about 1,700 fewer megatons of CO2 emissions in 2030, compared to projected emissions that year following a business-as-usual approach.
It is common now for more advanced green buildings to routinely reduce energy usage by 30%, 40%, or even 50% compared to conventional buildings, with the most efficient buildings now performing more than 70% better than conventional properties, according to the Commission.
Despite proven environmental, economic, and health benefits, however, green building today accounts for a only small fraction of new home and commercial building construction—just 2% of the new non-residential building market, less than .05% of the residential market in the United States and Canada, and less than that in Mexico.
Even with rapid growth projected in the green building market across all three countries, the report says public and private sectors must embrace substantial changes to the planning, development, and financing of commercial and residential buildings to overcome what it says are significant barriers to the widespread adoption of high-performance buildings throughout North America.
The Commission outlines a number of disincentives to green building to be overcome. For example, it can be challenging to encourage developers to incur the marginal cost of green building features when the long-term energy-saving benefits will be passed on to the new owners or tenants.
The Commission recommends ways to accelerate the market uptake of green building and make it the standard practice for all new construction and renovation of existing buildings in North America, including:
- Create national, multi-stakeholder task forces charged with achieving a vision for green building in North America;
- Support creation of a North American set of principles and planning tools for green building;
- Set clear targets to achieve the most rapid possible adoption of green building in North America, including aggressive targets for carbon-neutral or net zero-energy buildings, together with performance monitoring to track progress towards these targets;
- Enhance ongoing or new support for green building, including efforts to promote private sector investment and proper valuation methods; and
- Increase knowledge of green building through research and development, capacity building, and use of labels and disclosures on green building performance.
The recommendations complement ongoing efforts by federal, state/provincial, and local governments as well as industry and trade associations and nongovernmental organizations.
The Commission produced a report, Green Building in North America: Opportunities and Challenges, outlines these data and recommendations. For more information, see www.cec.org
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Going back to school
BERKELEY, Calif. – University of California – Berkeley’s Extension Program offers one of the few Sustainable Design degrees.
Designed for the working professional, this year-long program focuses on developing the mandated knowledge needed by facilities managers, architects, designers, builders, developers, project managers, and other decision makers who want to be leaders in the sustainable, cradle-to-cradle revolution now in progress.
The professional program consists of two 10-week core curriculum courses, Principles of Sustainable Design X400.6 and Practical Applications of Sustainable Design, and four six-week electives from a wide range of choices, for a total of eight semester units. There are three tracks:
- Track I serves the needs of landscape and environmental designers;
- Track II addresses the needs of interior architects and interior designers; and
- Track III is ideal for builders, developers, and planners.
For more information, see www.aia.org
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AIA to walk the sustainability walk
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has launched Walk the Walk, a multi-faceted campaign to educate, promote, and encourage sustainable design among consumers, business owners, and architects.
To achieve its goals, the AIA offers two environmental toolkits:
- SustAIAnability 2030 Toolkit. For the 2030 Tool Kit, the AIA partnered with the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) to encourage city leaders to promote high-performance, sustainable building design with a goal of reaching a 50% fossil fuel reduction by 2010 and carbon neutral buildings by 2030. The National Association of Counties joined AIA and USCM in advocating these energy reduction goals. The toolkit highlights green building issues and provides samples of effective ordinance language for communities, as well as examples of what others are already doing to pursue green building programs. See the 2030 Tool Kit at www.aia.org
- 50to50 Toolkit. The 50to50 toolkit is a set of 50 strategies, tools and techniques that can have an immediate impact on architects’ ability to achieve significant reductions in energy use and carbon emissions for the buildings they design. For example, the 50to50 toolkit recommends designing buildings to maximize passive strategies like incorporating more windows to capitalize on daylight and use less lighting energy. To view the complete list of 50 strategies, see www.aia.org
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Designers Accord gains endorsement
NEW YORK– AIGA endorses the Designers Accord, a nonprofit coalition of design and innovation firms focused on creating positive environmental and social impacts.
The Designers Accord asks designers worldwide to engage every client in a dialogue about environmental considerations and to evaluate sustainable alternatives in design. There are currently more than 100 adopters of the Accord including Celery Design Collaborative, frog design, Marc Alt + Partners, Ph.D, and Tricycle. To learn more about the Designers Accord, visit www.designersaccord.org
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VA hospitals go green
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Patients, staff, and visitors at the Loma Linda, Calif., and Dallas VA medical centers who happen to gaze skyward in the coming months are likely to see a flurry of roof-level activity.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will be installing a rooftop photovoltaic system at each campus to provide sun-powered electricity this summer. By using sunlight, a free renewable fuel, these systems will reduce the medical centers’ electricity costs and provide environmental benefits to the medical center, VA, and the community.
Solar hot water energy system work is underway at the Dallas facility and at VA’s West Los Angeles medical center, and two facilities in Arizona have added solar water heating to the list of energy-efficient measures they plan to implement.
VA plans to award a contract for a wind energy pilot project at its medical center in St. Cloud, Minn., by the end of this June and a contract for a geothermal energy pilot project at the Boise, Idaho VA Medical Center by the end of September. Both the wind and geothermal systems will be installed by September 2009. For more information, see www1.va.gov
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GRAM earns the Gold
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) has received U.S. Green Building Council’s Gold Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification, the first newly built art museum to receive the designation.
GRAM incorporates energy-efficient lighting and heating and cooling systems and strict recycling systems for water and operational supplies. Its water collection system reduces the museums’ demand for city-treated water by 20%. For more information, see www.gramonline.org
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AIA wins web award
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Institute of Architects (AIA) won the 2008 People's Voice Webby Award for the America’s Favorite Architecture (AFA) website.
The People's Voice Award is notable given the public selects the winner from the list of nominees set by the award judges. The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. The Webbys are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries, and creative celebrities. For more information, see www.favoritearchitecture.org
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