GreenClips.217 06.18.03 AIDED BY ARCHITECTS, BROWNFIELDS REDEVELOPMENTS ARE ON THE RISE Today, more and more brownfields are being remediated and redeveloped, and architects are finding ways to contribute to this potentially complex endeavor. The reasons for this increased activity are many, including points given by LEED to projects situated on former brownfields, tax incentives and other financial assistance, improved technology, and streamlined remediation strategies. Also, federal legislation passed in 2002 provides liability protection for purchasers, contiguous property owners, and innocent landowners, and authorizes increased funding for state and local brownfields programs. Architect and developer Martin Sell, president of RKETEK.COM, a design-build firm in Juneau, Wisconsin, believes architects should lead the way on brownfields projects. "The up-front work is facilitation, which is what architects do well, and the creativity architects bring to the process can open up the thinking in a room full of public officials and engineers." In 1991, Sell approached Dodge County, Wisconsin, with a proposal to facilitate the cleanup and undertake site planning of a contaminated industrial property that had been abandoned since 1984. In return, Sell was able to buy a parcel at a time at its pre-cleanup price. Sell not only made a profit from the architectural and construction management fees, but also from the sale of land for significantly more than the purchase price. And the community profited by eliminating a blight on their neighborhood. Architectural Record, June 2003, p 185, by Nancy B. Solomon. [For more information, visit EPA's Brownfields Technology Support Center: http://www.clu-in.org/brownfieldstsc ] REDUCING CLIMATE CHANGE RISKS REQUIRES ADAPTATION, NOT JUST MITIGATION In Canada, there is growing recognition that reducing the risks of climate change requires both reducing the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (mitigation), and making adjustments in practices and policies that take changing climate into account (adaptation). In the building sector, most specific measures are likely to relate to both mitigation and adaptation. For example, actions to improve building energy performance or to change landscape design will reduce greenhouse gas emissions but may also increase thermal comfort in the warmer summers predicted under climate change scenarios for Canada. Current strategies and policies related to adaptation are still in a formative stage in Canada. A report on adaptation strategies is expected from a National Working Group later this year. Also the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is working with its provincial and territorial partners to examine how to include the impacts of climate change in its assessment process. The Canadian Council of Professional Engineers is looking at how climate change will affect the practice of engineering. The City of Toronto, through its Cool Toronto project, is promoting adaptation activities to help cool the urban heat island. And the Government of Canada Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Program has funded a number of projects that examine the vulnerability of infrastructure to climate change -- including the coastal communities coping with sea level rise. Building Research & Information (2003) 31(3-4), p 231, by Nils Larsson. A CHAIR THAT'S CHEAPER, GREENER AND MORE COMFORTABLE THAN THE AERON Building on the phenomenal success of its ergonomic Aeron chair, Herman Miller is releasing a new chair called the Mirra, priced from $640 to $980. Compared to the Aeron, it's more versatile, easier to adjust, a comfier ride, greener, and nearly 20 percent cheaper. It's the first chair to go through the Design for the Environment protocol created with MBDC, the green design consultancy firm of architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart. To put the protocol into practice, Herman Miller appointed two full-time employees to survey all the materials and processes used by the company, requesting all suppliers to provide chemical recipes. All 500 chemicals and 850 materials were then assessed and categorized by MBDC into four color codes, from green (for earth-friendly) to red (for high-risk). The survey led to the elimination from the chair of PVC (polyvinyl chloride). It also prompted a change in the fabrication of the chair's spine from a polymer-coated steel (nearly impossible to disassemble for recycling) to a patented 100 percent polymer design. The most environmentally egregious material in the chair, it turns out, is its most innovative: a pellicle-fiber seat inherited from the Aeron that melds together three different fiber types in a way that makes recycling difficult. Metropolis, July 2003, p 124, by Peter Hall. [More: http://www.hermanmiller.com ] NEW NONPROFIT LAUNCHED TO ADVANCE MCDONOUGH'S CRADLE-TO-CRADLE PROTOCOL At the EnvironDesign 7 conference in May, William McDonough announced the launch of a nonprofit organization to facilitate dissemination of the design approaches and resources his companies have developed. "We're launching the GreenBlue program today to give away the cradle-to-cradle protocol freely," McDonough said, referring to the design protocol developed by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC). The name "GreenBlue" refers to the two types of useful material described in the cradle-to-cradle (C2C) framework: biological nutrients (green) and technical nutrients (blue). The GreenBlue program is intended to open MBDC's protocol to scientific scrutiny and make it available for general use. GreenBlue's website currently contains only general information, but the plan is to add more depth over time and to publish a software tool, called C2C spec. GreenBlue also hopes to make available MBDC's Chemical Profiles Knowledge Base, a database of chemicals that have been screened and profiled in accordance with the protocol. More: http://www.greenblue.org Environmental Building News, June 2003, p 4, by Nadav Malin. NEAR MADRID, HIGH-TECH GARBAGE PLANT EXPOSES ITS INNER WORKINGS The recently opened Biomethanation and Composting Plant in Pinto, Spain, an industrial suburb of Madrid, combines modern waste treatment with a sort of living museum that acquaints visitors with its inner workings. It was designed by the Madrid firm Abalos & Herreros, who also designed the Valdemingomez Recycling Plant, completed in 1997. Like any modern treatment facility, the Pinto plant will vastly accelerate the conversion of trash into methane and garden compost. The methane generates electricity that will provide power to towns in the area. What's fairly revolutionary about the plant, however, is how it exposes the inner workings of waste disposal and recycling processes to the public. Visitors tour the plant from a series of elevated walkways that take them past the trash-grabbing pulpos (Spanish for octopuses), the massive rotating turbine filters, all the way up to the exhaust-filters and methane tanks. A second-floor vestibule contains models, charts and interactive exhibits detailing the plant's technical mechanism, with views of the old landfill and the garbage-truck drop-off. "Since Valdemingomez," says architect Inaki Abalos, "almost every recycling plant in Spain has become a kind of public institution." Metropolis, July 2003, p 52, by Eric Demby. 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