GreenClips.256 01.19.05 CHECKOUT OUR SPONSOR SECTION FOR TWO NEW JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS! Scroll down to our sponsors' section for details about two openings at Rumsey Engineers, Ball State University's call for papers and other announcements on products and consulting services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . USGBC RELEASES DRAFT REPORT ON PVC The USGBC's Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee (TSAC) has released a public comment draft of its long-awaited report on polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Commissioned to determine the availability and quality of the evidence as a basis for a reasoned decision about the inclusion of a PVC-related credit in the LEED Rating System, the report's central finding is that the available evidence does not support a conclusion that PVC is consistently worse than alternative materials on a life-cycle environmental and health basis.TSAC's PVC Task group chose to compare PVC-based materials with their most likely alternatives for several key applications (resilient flooring, siding, windows, and drain-waste-vent pipe) to see if a trend could be established indicating that the PVC materials (or any others) were consistently worse in terms of environmental and health impacts. For environmental and population-wide health impacts, this comparison was performed using life-cycle analysis (LCA) tools such as SimaPro. That LCA analysis was supplemented by a targeted study of health risks from occupational exposures. To assess the availability and quality of the evidence,the Task Group also created a database of nearly 2,500 relevant reports, papers, and other source materials. Comments on the report should be submitted to the USGBC by February 15, 2005. [More: Report and related materials: www.usgbc.org/LEED/tsac/pvcvinyl.asp; Database of sources: http://pvc.buildinggreen.com. Full text: http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm?fileName=140104a.xml] Environmental Building News, Jan 05, p 4. HARTLEY NATURE CENTER DEMONSTRATES THE ECO-VALUES IT TEACHES Designed by SJA Architects, the 7,500-square-foot Hartley Nature Center in Duluth combines outdoorsy materials with a few modern touches including a solar-paneled, semicircular roof overhang that transitions to trellis over the buildings main entry, and an eye-shaped clerestory. Because children come to learn about Hartley Parks ecosystems, the building itself needed to serve as a model of how best to care for the environment. Heating is provided by a ground-source heat pump, with fluid further heated to 60-70° F by solar electricity and then circulated through an in-floor radiant heat system. The red concrete floor thereby becomes a cozy and comfortable surface for children to sit on. In summer, the concrete is naturally cool, and, in fact, the building has no air conditioning system, only ceiling fans. Not one, but two [11.8 kW] solar panel systems generate electricityone on the roof and another on a post in the parking lot that adjusts to the angle of the sun for maximum exposure. With the aid of energy sensors, the roof system is roughly 20 percent efficient in winter; the tracking system, however, is about 95 percent efficient. The pedestrian path leading up to Hartley Nature Center is also eco-friendly. To prevent rain runoff and flooding of a nearby trout stream and underground water table, the design team used pervious paving systems to allow rainwater to trickle through more gradually. [More: www.hartleynature.org] Architecture Minnesota, Jan-Feb 05, p 34. GREENER SOLUTIONS FOR BUILDING WIRING Even the greenest of architects seldom give much consideration to wiring in buildings. Yet, there is a need to pay closer attention to today's practices, from environmental, health, and safety standpoints. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is the most common insulation and jacketing material for wiring in buildings, owing largely to its good flame resistance and low cost. Some PVC wire insulation and jacketing are composed of 5 to 10 percent lead by weight. And various halogen-based compounds, especially fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), are common in data wiring insulation. A few green wiring options include: 1.) Specify halogen-free products. Clear alternatives to halogenated wire and cable are polyolefin products; to use these for insulation and jacketing, compounds are typically added for flame resistance. Another approach is to specify polyolefin cable with lower flame resistance and place it in a fire-protected environment (e.g., metal conduit or cellular cores of concrete floor panels). 2.) Wherever possible, specify wire and cable insulation and jacketing that do not contain PVC, chlorinated polyethylene, FEP, or products containing brominated flame retardants. Some manufacturers, including Mohawk/CDT, offer PVC-insulated wiring without lead or other heavy metals. Demanding lead-free or heavy-metal-free cable can hasten the transition away from those toxins. 3). Use fiber-optic cable. Fiber optics, widely used to carry voice and data signals, require less insulation and jacketing than copper wiring because they transmit light signals instead of electricity. It may be possible to run fiber-optic trunk lines to smaller copper distribution lines, thus reducing total insulated cable use. Architectural Record, Dec 04, p 222, by Alex Wilson. [More: www.turi.org/content/content/view/full/548 Full text: http://archrecord.construction.com/features/digital/archives/0412feature-1.asp]. McDONOUGH FOSTERS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA For the past several years China has been modernizing at a frightening, almost unfathomable, pace. Yet Architect William McDonough is cautiously optimistic on helping China realize an ecological future. McDonough is working with the China Housing Industry Association (CHIA) and a group of developers to create templates for cities based on the cradle-to-cradle protocol. "What we do is examine sites - some of which are as big as 20 square kilometers - through a different set of lenses. We look at them, for example, as if we were a migrating bird. What would we want to see there in terms of evolution? We also look at it from the ground: What am I doing here? That's one lens. Another lens would be hydrology. What if I'm groundwater or a raindrop? So we work from the sky, into the earth. We're the master planners for seven sites. And the basic point is that if you look at the world through a new let of lenses, suddenly the ecosystem becomes your infrastructure. The Chinese will house 400 million people in the next 12 years. It's the largest migration of humans in history. Essentially they're rebuilding the housing stock of two Americas - in 12 years." McDonough is looking at developing planning templates that people can take and use for their own projects. "We want to spread the word as fast as we can. CHIA did a mass-energy study on what would happen if all 400 million units were built with brick. Theyd lose all their soil and burn all their coal. You'd have cities, but you wouldn't have any food or energy. Thats how big this is. In fact, 174 jurisdictions have made brick illegal." McDonough is working with BASF, the world's largest chemical company, to develop a way of using toxin-free polystyrene foam. "We'd put thin concrete skins on both sides. It'd be like big foam-core board, which we'd run on the outside of the house. That's the strategy to replace brick on the large technological scale." Metropolis, Feb 05, p 30 [More: http://www.mcdonoughpartners.com/] ENERGY MANAGEMENT RUNS DEEP AT WESTIN RESORT MACAU A distinctive aspect of the Westin Resort Macaus energy management efforts is clearly its breadth, there is no single champion. Many hotel managers still think that their annual energy expense is adequately managed by glancing once a month at that confusing jumble of numbers called an electricity bill. But [China's] Westin Resort Macau ensures that a deep and thorough inspection of all energy data electricity, gas, fuel oil and vehicle fuel has been carried out once a week at the very least. Problems are identified, trends are analyzed, and effective changes are locked in. The nine department managers who need the largest amount of energy to accomplish their missions know each week how much their business unit consumed the previous week and can compare this with their targets, what they should have been able to achieve, given the weather and business volume that actually occurred. The best department is identified each week, and a league table shows who is ahead for the year. Although they also know the cost, the focus is squarely on quantity, since cost is largely out of the managers' hands. It is important to note that the resort has used energy management as a tool to achieve guest satisfaction, not as a tool simply to cut costs. Breadth, frequency and depth - many hotels in Asia and throughout the world now follow some elements set by the Westin Resort Macau. Hotel Asia Pacific, Nov/Dec 04, p 47, by Robert Allender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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. BALL STATE UNIVERSITY http://www.bsu.edu/greening/ Call for papers! Abstracts for Greening of the Campus 6: Extending Connections are due February 11, 2005! This interdisciplinary conference allows people representing diverse areas in university communities to share information on environmental issues. The conference is September 15 - 17, 2005 at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. For more information visit our website or email bamato@bsu.edu. BUILDINGGREEN, INC. 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Please e-mail resume: plaborde@rumseyengineers.com RUMSEY ENGINEERS Rumsey Engineers, a preeminent leader in sustainable HVAC and Plumbing design, has an immediate opening for an articulate and innovative Plumbing Engineer with a minimum of 2 years of experience in commercial and industrial plumbing and fire sprinkler design with extensive knowledge of the CA plumbing code. Candidate should have knowledge of the LEED rating system as it applies to water efficiency credits. Please e-mail resume: plaborde@rumseyengineers.com WSU ENERGY PROGRAM http://www.energy.wsu.edu Providing objective research, information and solutions. Washington State University Extension Energy Program in Olympia, Washington. Subscribe to GreenClips and other mailing lists on energy and the environment at http://listserv.energy.wsu.edu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GREENCLIPS NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT! 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