GreenClips.141 04.05.00
EMPLOYEE ENTHUSIASM KEY TO INTERFACE'S QUEST
There's not much point in a company having ambitious environmental goals unless it can convince its staff to play an enthusiastic part in meeting them. Interface response to this challenge is QUEST, a program that has saved the company $113 million since 1995. Voluntary QUEST coordinators--ranging from human resources assistants to warehouse operatives to senior managers--run teams of between 6 and 20 people, who work together to identify and implement waste-saving opportunities. Although the majority of QUEST's large savings have been achieved through facility-wide changes that a single team on their own couldn't manage, QUEST enables such best practices to be shared across sites worldwide. Most senior executives have a proportion of their annual bonus tied to the company's performance on the QUEST index, a scoring system Interface uses to judge waste reduction. In addition to waste elimination, QUEST's goals include shifting to renewable energy, cutting carbon emissions, and hooking all employees and other stakeholders into the sustainability vision. But even though there's buy-in from the top of the company, QUEST volunteers face major challenges, including overcoming the traditional "boss-led" culture of the carpet and textile industry, and not becoming discouraged by the sheer scale of the task. - Green Futures, Mar-Apr 00, p 27, by Andy Wales. [More: <http://www.interfaceinc.com/us/company/ourwar/>]
DESIGN CRITERIA FOR BUILDING DISASSEMBLY
Design for Disassembly (DFD) enables a product and its parts to be easily reused, re-manufactured or recycled at the end of its life. Increasingly, building designers are recognizing that one building's "waste" can become a future building's raw materials. Building designers can apply DFD at three general levels: systems, products and materials. (1) Systems: design adaptable buildings that can change to suit changing requirements. (2) Products: Design the building's products (or layers) to allow upgrading, repair and replacement. (3) Materials: Use materials that can be recycled when a product has been stripped to its constituent materials. PhD research conducted by Scot Fletcher, which included interviews with 16 building demolition experts in the UK, revealed specific DFD techniques that will increase the reuse or recycling potential of buildings. These include designing the main structural frame and floors so that they are robust enough to withstand potential changes in the building's use, but are of simple construction to minimize deconstruction time and maximize recycling potential. Also, avoid complex composite materials; dissimilar materials bonded together are difficult to separate for disassembly. And use simple structural grids; modern buildings tend toward long spans and complicated, often hidden, support structures that are difficult to demolish. For more information, email Scot Fletcher: <arp97slf@sheffield.ac.uk>. - Building for a Future, Spring 00, p 27, by Scot Fletcher.
UK ENERGY CENTER GETS MIXED SCORE FOR EFFICIENCY
The UK's National Energy Foundation (NEF) is an educational organization established in 1988 to encourage more efficient, innovative and safe use of energy. Predictably, NEF stressed energy efficiency in the specification for its new headquarters building completed in Milton Keynes last year. NEF also required that the construction cost no more than a conventional building. Designed by Weston Williamson Architects working with engineers Ove Arup & Partners, the two-story, 1,026-square-meter building relies on natural ventilation and the building envelope for cooling. Windows are double-glazed and sealed but have shutters alongside them, opening on hinges to provide ventilation. Exposed concrete ceilings and walls absorb heat in the daytime. Generous windows, skylights, and light shelves provide natural light. But proposed lighting controls were sacrificed for budget reasons, so the electric lights are nearly always on. Heating demand was reduced to 55 watts per square meter by increasing the insulation and using thick concrete slabs for the floors to contribute thermal mass. As a result, the building needs only a small domestic gas-fired boiler. So how efficient is the building? It gets full marks for gas consumption, coming in well below the government's good practice benchmark, but electricity use seems unimpressive, due in part, NEF suspects, to external lighting being used unnecessarily in the evening and at weekends. - Building Design, 10 Mar 00, p 18, by Amanda Birch; and Building Services Journal, Feb 00, p 24, by Jason Palmer. [More: <http://www.natenergy.org.uk/encentre.html>]
LIVING MACHINE TO MAKE HUNGARIAN DEBUT
The first wastewater treatment plant on the European continent to use a modular, multistage, US-developed organic technology will be built in Hungary as part of a $70-million office and warehouse complex that begins construction in April. Developed by Ocean Arks International of Burlington, Vermont, the Living Machine system utilizes thousands of species of plants, bacteria, microorganisms, zooplankton, snails, clams, crabs and fish in an enclosed, sunlit, managed environment to break down and digest organic pollutants in municipal and industrial wastewater. A typical facility consists of a train of concrete, metal or plastic tanks of aerated water. The first tank, covered with a biofilter, contains microorganisms that isolate odors. Ensuing tanks are covered by mesh that supports plants. "It's an arboretum that cleans wastewater," says architect Attila Bodnar of Organica Ecotechnologies, the firm overseeing the system's installation. The system will be capable of treating 300 cubic meters of wastewater per day. With the aid of a $40,000 feasibility grant from the US Agency for International Development, Organica is also designing a wastewater treatment plant that could be built on a barge anchored on the Danube River. Hungary is in dire need of such facilities. "In Budapest alone, there are hundreds of locations where untreated sewage enters the Danube," says Bodnar. - Engineering News-Record (ENR), 27 Mar 00, p 31, by Carl Kovac with Andrew G. Wright. [More: <http://www.livingmachines.com>]
CORN-BASED PLASTIC INVENTED
Collaboration between Dow Chemical and grain processor Cargill has produced a plastic derived from corn and wheat. Their product, called polylactide (PLA) and branded NatureWorks, may potentially be used to make carpet fibers, packaging, clothing and other products. The partners have created a company called Cargill Dow Polymers and are building a manufacturing facility in Blair, Nebraska, which is projected to produce 300 million pounds of the material annually. Making plastic from a natural source frees its production from the volatility of the crude oil market. Moreover, Cargill Dow claims that PLA, unlike petroleum-based plastics, is made entirely from renewable resources and is biodegradable. - Architecture, Mar 00, p 41, by Michael O'Connor. [More: <http://www.cdpoly.com/>]
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