GreenClips.75 07.02.97 US TIGHTENS AIR POLLUTION REGULATIONS In one of the decade's most important environmental decisions, President Clinton has approved significantly tighter limits on smog and soot pollution. The new restrictions tighten Environmental Protection Agency rules on smog-causing ozone from the current 120 parts per billion to 80 and limit microscopic sooty particles for the first time. Smog and soot stem largely from burning fossil fuels, as does global warming. A significant milestone in the long struggle against unhealthy air, the new rules are likely to have wide-ranging practical effects. Old power plants in the Midwest may have to install expensive pollution control equipment commonly used in the Northeast where the air is dirtier. And states will probably have to invest more in mass transit and other measures to reduce automobile pollution. But the rules offer states and cities substantial flexibility in deciding how to reach the new goals over the next 10 years and beyond. Congress has 60 days to review the rules. Court challenges are likely. — The New York Times, June 26, 1997, p. A1, by John H. Cushman, Jr. CLINTON: WE MUST DO BETTER, AND WE WILL Criticized by European leaders for failing to commit to a specific timetable for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, President Clinton offered three US initiatives on climate change and sustainable development in his address to the United Nations Earth Summit +5. "In the United States, in order to do our part, we have to first convince the American people and the Congress that the climate change problem is real and imminent.... We will work with our people, and we will bring to the Kyoto conference [in December] a strong American commitment to realistic and binding limits that will significantly reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases," Mr. Clinton said, then continued with the initiatives. "First, to help developing nations reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the United States will provide a billion dollars in assistance over the next five years to support energy efficiency, develop alternative energy sources, and improve resource management to promote growth that does not have an adverse effect on the climate.... Second, we will do more to encourage private investment to meet environmental standards.... Third, we must increase our use of new technologies even as we move to develop more new technologies. Already we are working with our auto industry to produce cars by early in the next century that are three times as fuel efficient as today's vehicles. Now we will work with businesses and communities to use the sun's energy to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels by installing solar panels on one million more roofs around our nation by 2010." — Washington Post, June 24, 1997, p. A03, by Joby Warrick, and The New York Times, June 27, 1997, p. A7. SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: INTEGRATED, HIGH-PERFORMANCE Sustainable design is more than a bunch of green add-ons, says Architect Randy Croxton. It's about quality, and an opportunity to return the profession to its historic strength. Sustainable design teams must expand their overview to all building systems. And they must shift priorities and methods toward an ongoing process of quality improvement aimed at capturing hundreds of incremental enhancements that are cost effective, dependable, and that improve performance massively. Here's how — 1 Aggressively integrate building science and the environmental sciences in the design process. 2 Develop cross-disciplinary teams with a self-critical process of systems development and constant quality improvement. Include industrial hygienists, energy-simulation specialists, and chemists. 3 Acquire or hire skills with tools for analyzing building performance like DOE 2.1 energy simulation, radiance and daylighting, infrared testing, air infiltration testing, and computational fluid dynamics. 4 Harvest performance data from users and systems on completed projects for quality improvement feedback. — Architectural Record, June 1997, p. 76, by Randolph R. Croxton. TWO MODEL GREEN SCHOOLS The UK architectural firm Allford Hall Monaghan Morris has won a competition to design a sustainable primary school on a greenfield site at Black Notley near Braintree, Essex. Both competition sponsors, the Essex County Council and the Design Council, see the project as a prototype. Essex wants to develop a sustainable school model that other UK schools can replicate. The Design Council will track the project's unusual multi-disciplinary teamwork model and promote its use in higher-education architecture and design courses. In the US, William McDonough + Partners is designing the $5 million Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College in northeast Ohio. It will be "a laboratory for closed-loop sustainability and a model for what the human role in the natural environment ought to be," explains Professor David Orr, chair of the Environmental Studies Program. Students will monitor and maintain a natural waste-water treatment facility called the Living Machine. Roof-mounted photovoltaic panels will supply nearly half of the building's energy. — The Architects' Journal, 19 June 1997, p. 20, and Architectural Record, June 1997, p. 42. ECO-HOUSE BLUEPRINTS OFFERED Off-the-shelf plans for eco-homes are hard to find — many are too complex to build from published blueprints. But architect Donald Watson and Tim Maloney each offer comprehensive plans for affordable eco-houses. Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities commissioned Watson's Solar Home Planbook under its Operation Solar program. Complete construction plans are available for any of the energy-efficient New England-style houses featured in Watson's book, updated last year and now available for $25. Watson also offers plans for the Ecology House, a passive solar starter home with cathedral ceilings and open floor plan that he designed for the New Alchemy Institute, for $99. Suitable for northern climates, his design for the 1,400 square-foot, two-bedroom house won the 1990 Compact House Design competition. [For more information on the Solar Home Planbook or Ecology House plans, email Donald Watson, lakesidedj@aol.com.] Architect Tim Maloney offers plans for his 580 square-foot ECCO House, recognized as an Exemplary Building by the US Energy Department, for $395. For information contact One Design, Inc., 714 Waterford Road, Louisville KY 40207. — E Magazine, July/August 1997, p. 29, by Alice Horrigan. WHO WINS — AESTHETICS OR ENVIRONMENT? Canadian Architect magazine invited seven architects to discuss whether projects win architecture awards too often for aesthetic excellence, and if those with sound green agendas should win more. Managing editor Bronwen Ledger — "I think jurors are honestly trying to give good awards for good architecture. But the question is: How to do that? If you are down to selecting seven projects, do you throw out the architecture which is aesthetically and formally excellent in favour of the building which is thoroughly environmentally responsible?" Nils Larsson, Ottawa — "I think the answer is to establish some more fine-grain structure for analysis, and to make the proponents respond to that in advance." Neil Munro, Toronto — "The interesting thing in national awards at the moment is that there isn't even a statement about how the buildings perform." Kim Storey, Toronto — "I'm not saying that doing beautiful architecture means that you destroy a forest. It means, as everyone's been saying, that you have a set of qualifying criteria that is decided upon. But I don't think you give an award if the architect decided to do the responsible environmental project, but didn't bring art to it." — Canadian Architect, June 1997, p. 24.