GreenClips.252 11.10.04 HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREENCLIPS! This year is GreenClips' 10th birthday! Celebrate by donating to GreenClips. Your donations keep us going year after year. Visit www.greenclips.com for info. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GreenClips.252 11.10.04 SWINERTON BUILDERS STRIVES TO BE THE WEST'S GREEN GIANT Green projects account for 20 percent of Swinerton Builders' business. And the 116-year-old San Francisco construction giant, which began introducing green building techniques in the 70s, wants to be recognized as the premier green building contractor in the West. The company has completed more than 50 green buildings in the past decade for clients including Sony, Pacific Bell and Gap and two dozen more LEED contenders are in the works. "We see green building as a service that all our professionals provide, as opposed to having a separate group," says operations manager Bill Krill, who makes sure that the company's 15 satellite offices are working from the same green playback. "We've recruited people across the company -- accountants, engineers, superintendents, estimators. At this point, green building isn't so much a market as a delivery method." The company turned its 67,000-square-foot headquarters into a laboratory for studying environmentally sensitive energy-efficient construction techniques, tearing the building back to the shell to demonstrate how demolition offers opportunities to employ sustainable strategies. Daniel Smith & Associates Architects, a Berkeley firm, recently hired Swinerton to build a straw-bale dining hall for the Presentation Center, an interfaith retreat in Los Gatos. Swinerton also is renovating San Francisco's M.H. de Young Museum, working with Pritzker Prize winners Herzog & de Meuron. Interior Design, Oct 04, p 240, by Joe Carter. [More: http://www.swinertongreen.com/] DESIGNING BUILDINGS THAT ARE ALSO FOR THE BIRDS Chicago's architects and builders know that confused birds crash into buildings at night unless the lights are turned off. What many of them don't know is that birds also are killed when they fly into windows during daylight hours. Ways to solve that and other window-related problems will be the focus of a conference hosted by the Chicago Ornithological Society and the city's Environment and Planning & Development departments. Called the first such meeting anywhere, "Birds & Buildings: Creating a Safer Environment" is set for March 11 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Birds smack into windows not only because they don't see them, but also because of reflections. "I've seen birds fly into buildings thinking they were going for a tree," said Randi Doeker, president of the Chicago Ornithological Society. Mirror images of the sky on higher floors also draw birds to their deaths. "Preventing bird strikes is an emerging field for architects," said Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects. In her studio's design for the Ford Calumet Environmental Center on the Southeast Side, a window for viewing birds is slightly angled so it reflects the ground. A stainless steel mesh covering makes it more visible. Chicago's School of the Art Institute pasted hawk shapes on its windows. When the classy, glassy Crown Hall on the IIT campus is restored next summer, trees inside will be placed away from windows and lighting at night will be controlled to make the glass more opaque. Chicago Sun-Times, 28 Oct 04, p 16, by Gary Wisby. [More: www.birdsandbuildings.org] THE BUZZ ON MOSQUITO CONTROL FOR STORMWATER DESIGN With the appearance of West Nile Virus, stormwater projects are now viewed as potential public health threats. Designers find themselves not only considering mosquito control but also convincing clients that these methods will succeed. Depending on the species, there are three possible design strategies to discourage mosquito breeding: (1) Ensure that systems designed to empty following a storm do so within 72 hours; (2) Encourage a robust predator population in areas that remain wet, and limit the spread of emergent vegetation by establishing permanent deep-water zones of at least four to six feet; and (3) Animate the water surface with a spray, wave or flow motion, especially where permanent deep-water zones are not possible. Stormwater projects must be regularly monitored and maintained and be designed with access points that facilitate this care. Common failures involve excessive growth and decay of emergent vegetation, which can overwhelm predator populations and clog conveyance and aeration features; accumulation of silt, trash and other debris, which can create small pools of standing water; and mechanical or electrical malfunctions that can entirely shut down a system. More: "Managing Mosquitoes in Stormwater Treatment Devices": http://www.anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8125.pdf; "Managing Mosquitoes in Surface-Flow Constructed Treatment Wetlands": http://www.anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8117.pdf. Landscape Architecture, Nov 04, p 52, by Patty Gambarini. HOW GREEN ARE SUSTAINABLE SLOPES? Competitive pressures to add new ski slopes and chairlifts, and the trend toward four-season activities and real-estate development, have increased potential environmental stresses at ski resorts. Partly in response to environmental criticism, in 2000 the industry developed a voluntary environmental program called Sustainable Slopes, which involves more than 170 resorts in North America. Sustainable Slopes encourages resorts to audit themselves under 21 environmental criteria. But such voluntary efforts have invited questions about what is real and what is image cultivation. "They've talked the talk, but they have not walked the walk," said Peter de Leon, a professor of public policy at the University of Colorado in Denver and an author of a sharply critical study of Sustainable Slopes published in August in Policy Studies Journal. Dr. de Leon and his co-author, Jorge Rivera, of George Washington University, concluded that voluntary environmentalism without outside monitoring was likely to be inadequate. Environmentalists and economists say that genuinely green ski resorts do exist. Aspen in Colorado has led the industry in areas like environmentally green building construction and energy use reduction. But a green cachet doesn't come cheap - at $74 for a day pass, Aspen is one of the priciest resorts in the nation. Skiers' expectations ultimately dictate what happens at the resorts, environmentalists say. However, failing grades on environmental performance issued earlier this year to three resorts operated by Vail Resorts, by an environmental group called the Ski Area Citizens' Coalition, drew only a handful of questions from prospective visitors. The New York Times, 14 Nov 04, p TR3, by Kirk Johnson. [More: http://www.nsaa.org/nsaa2002/_environmental_charter.asp?mode=ss] LARGEST INTERIOR DESIGN FIRMS GO GREEN According to the 2004 Design & Hospitality Giants survey, the top 100 Interior Design giants are making sustainability an important component in their projects. In fact, 96 percent of the top 100 firms are involved in specifying sustainable products, and 20 percent specified $10 million or more worth of green products in 2003. These 100 firms specified a total of $869,660,000 in green products in 2003, with the average per firm coming in at $12,817,234. The initiator of sustainability is often the interior designer (58 percent of the time), although clients initiate the concept 34 percent of the time and it's a joint effort in 8 percent of projects. The most common green products recommended include carpet, flooring, and wallcovering. More than 80 percent of these firms expect to specify more green products in the future. Interior Design, Oct 04, p 244. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GreenClips is free of charge thanks to individual members and these sponsors: ARMSTRONG CEILING SYSTEMS http://www.armstrong.com/commceilingsna/article10790.html Armstrong offers an expanding portfolio of sustainable ceiling products. Through the Ceiling Recycling Program, an industry first and only one of its kind, old tiles are shipped to an Armstrong plant, not a landfill; 20 million square feet recycled to date. BUILDINGGREEN, INC. Build Your Expertise with BuildingGreen Suite, a revolutionary green building tool from the people who bring you Environmental Building News. Clear, powerful information presented online - at your fingertips. More information at http://www.BuildingGreen.com/go/suite ECOSA INSTITUTE http://www.ecosainstitute.org/ Offering educational programs in sustainable design for the general public, students, builders, and architects. Featuring the Spring Pre-Professional semester in sustainable design. Jan. 10 - April 29, 2005. Guest speakers include Steve Badanes, Hunter Lovins, David Orr, John Todd and others. Now accepting applications. EPA'S ENVIRONMENTALLY-PREFERABLE PURCHASING PROGRAM Greening the government, one purchase at a time. http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp GREEN BUILDING SERVICES http://www.greenbuildingservices.com Green Building Services offers environmental design and energy efficient consulting services to help you design, build and market high-performance commercial buildings, through design charrettes, energy analyses and the entire LEED certification process. LEED BASICS FOR OWNERS, ENGINEERS, AND DESIGN/BUILD CONTRACTORS HPAC Engineering is hosting a webcast on LEED basics on December 1, 2004. The free event will focus on LEED credits for mechanical and engineered-plumbing systems, tips for achieving desired levels of LEED certification, and LEED's commissioning requirements. Presenting are Brendan Owens, USBGC; Ronald Wilkinson, Dome-Tech Commissioning Services; and Hernando Miranda, Soltierra LLP. More information: http://www.hpac.com/LEED-Basics. 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GreenClips is edited by Jennifer Roberts, author of "Good Green Homes: Creating Better Homes for a Healthier Planet" (http://www.goodgreenhomes.com). To CONTACT THE PUBLISHER: Email chrishammer@greenclips.com or call 415.928.7941. BACK ISSUES Two Internet sites host GreenClips archives for reference and research: http://listserv.energy.wsu.edu/read/?forum=greenclips (keyword search) http://www.greenclips.com (browse contents) REDISTRIBUTION Please do not redistribute or post copies of GreenClips regularly. Encourage readers who receive GreenClips from you to subscribe directly. Continuing sponsorship depends on accurate reader counts. SUBSCRIBE / UNSUBSCRIBE To subscribe via e-mail send a blank message to subscribe-greenclips@listserv.energy.wsu.edu To unsubscribe via e-mail send a blank message to leave-greenclips@listserv.energy.wsu.edu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Copyright 2004 Sustainable Design Resources. All rights reserved. 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