GreenClips.39 01.17.96 GREEN GOALS CHALLENGE PROJECT TEAM The American Association for the Advancement of Science wanted the building systems of its new Washington DC headquarters to be "responsive to the paramount global issues of today - the environment and conservation of nonrenewable resources." And, the Association structured the project as a real estate investment, planning to lease some space now and anticipating the building's sale one day. The project team for the 220,000 SF building now under construction includes Ackridge Company as development manager, architects Pei Cobb Freed and Croxton Collaborative, and Omni Construction. Sustainable design criteria made decisions complex. When Croxton Collaborative compared gas-fired and electric-powered non-CFC absorption cooling systems, for example, they selected a less efficient gas chiller because gas has a cleaner source than electricity generated from coal and oil. Balancing sustainable innovation with costs and expectations of the marketplace caused friction within the project team. For example, designer Harry Cobb modeled the exterior with vertical recesses that draw daylight deep into internal atriums. Omni Construction questioned the design noting that it would add $500,000. In the end the client's commitment to the environment drove the team to incorporate most of the special measures the consultants proposed, including the atriums. - The New York Times, January 7, 1996, p. 22, by James S. Russell. CLEVELAND CONFERS ON SPRAWL If current trends continue, between 1980 and 2010 metropolitan Cleveland will lose 3 percent of its population while occupying 30 percent more residential land. Investing in new suburbs at the expense of older communities has encouraged sprawl in the five-county area. To discuss the area's land use trends and transportation investments, a diverse group converged at a "To Create Livable Communities" conference last fall. Conference speaker Tom Bier directs the Housing Policy Research Program at Cleveland State University's College of Urban Affairs. He blames the 7000 new homes built each year – most on the region's edge - for some of its problems. Bier also worries about plans popular in suburban Lorain County to widen Interstate 90. He believes that without a counterbalancing investment in urban Cuyahoga County the widening plan will accelerate its decline. Bier says that the region's county, city, and town governments are too fragmented to address these issues. "The seriousness of the situation is not grasped by public officials... We're preoccupied with our own little worlds, not the larger metropolitan forces." - EcoCity Cleveland, November 1995, p. 4, by David Beach, and December 1995, p. 6, by Tom Bier. 1995 HOTTEST YEAR ON RECORD The earth's average surface temperature in 1995 was the hottest on record, 58.72 degrees Fahrenheit, says the British Meteorological Office and the University of East Anglia. One year does not make a trend, but the British figures show the years 1991 through 1995 to be warmer than any similar five year period, including the two half-decades of the 1980s, the warmest decade on record. A few scientists steadfastly believe that mostly human influence - namely burning fossil fuels - is causing a century-long global warming trend. Other experts go no further than the recent findings from a United Nations panel. The panel concluded for the first time that the observed warming is "unlikely to be entirely natural in origin" and that the evidence "suggests a discernible human influence on climate." However, most experts say it is unclear whether human activity is responsible for a little of the warming or a lot. - The New York Times, January 4, 1996, p.1, by William K. Stevens. ISO 14000 SETS ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS Later this year the International Organization for Standards will issue a series of guidelines and standards called ISO 14000. With ISO 14000, the Swiss group aims to create uniform environmental standards among products, companies, industries, and nations. The core standard IS0 14001-EnvironmentalManagement Systems does not intend to certify that a company meets specific environmental criteria. Instead it deals with creating an environmental policy, setting objectives and targets, implementing a program to achieve those objectives, monitoring and measuring its effectiveness, correcting problems, and reviewing the system to improve it and overall environmental performance. Unlike 14001 and most other 14000 series documents, ISO14004-Guidelines on Environmental Management Principles, Systems, and Supporting Techniques is a guidance document, not a compliance standard. It offers hands-on guidance on how to be an environmentally responsible company. ASTM offers copies of IS0 14001 and 14004 for $43.10 each. Emailservice@local.astm.org for more information. - The Green Business Letter, January 1996, p. 1. GREEN INSTITUTE'S ECO-INDUSTRIAL PARK The Minneapolis architectural community gathered last fall to generate ideas for a new Eco-Industrial Park for the Green Institute. The Institute is a nonprofit organization devoted to protecting the natural and urban environment through education and sustainable economic development. The inner city Eco-Industrial Park will include a business incubator for environmentally responsible businesses, an environmental education center, a material exchange and reuse center, and offices for nonprofit environmental advocacy groups. The American Institute of Architects' Committee on the Environment sponsored the Minneapolis environmental design charette and 18 others held across the country on an October weekend. – Architecture Minnesota, January/February 1996, p. 7. FIRST STRAW BALE CONSTRUCTION CODE IN EFFECT The City of Tucson and Pima County, Arizona have adopted a building code for straw bale construction as a local appendix chapter to the 1994 Uniform Building Code. In effect this month, the code is the first of its kind in the world. The new code sets minimum standards for bale density, moisture content, dimensional consistency, and places some limitations on load-bearing wall design. Another boost for straw bale construction is completion of the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) E-119 Small Scale Fire Tests. Straw bale construction received a two-hour fire rating. "The results of these tests have proven that a straw bale infill wall assembly is a far greater fire resistive assembly than a wood frame wall assembly using the same finishes," says the head of Permitting and Plan Review for the State of New Mexico. - Solar Today, January/February 1996, p. 25, by David Eisenberg. COMPOSTING TOILETS CONSERVE WATER Toilet flushing uses 45 percent of the water a family of four consumes indoors. But composting toilets, whether self-contained units or central systems, use little or no water. The composting process uses heat and fresh air to turn human waste into a light, dry, odorless humus. Self-contained units have three chambers - a composting chamber where aerobic microbes breakdown waste materials, an evaporating chamber that drains and evaporates liquid the compost does not absorb, and a compost finishing drawer for removing the humus. Central composting systems connect individual toilets to a central tank, usually located outdoors or in a basement. - Home Energy, January/February 1996, p. 10, by Nancy Hurrelbrinck.