GreenClips.106 10.21.98 US NAVY COMMITS TO SUSTAINABLE DESIGN New policies of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) outline sustainability principles for the design of Navy facilities and infrastructure, criteria for defining sustainability, and sustainable design qualifications it requires of AE firms. NAVFAC chief architect and associate director of engineering Terrel Emmons says the Navy will apply its sustainability program to all projects using an integrated approach to design that won't increase first costs. NAVFAC began its sustainable design work in 1993 by selecting several pilot projects including the $19 million conversion of Building 33 - a 156,000-sf high-bay structure in the Washington DC Naval Yard - to a four-story office. Insulation, lighting, and other energy improvements reduced chiller and ductwork sizes, yielding first-cost savings that paid for other green improvements. NAVFAC's new AE selection policy lists 14 factors for evaluating a firm's knowledge and experience in areas including energy-efficient design, environmental life-cycle analysis, and indoor air quality. The command's new Whole Building Design Guide will help apply its integrated design principles. [For more information on the greening of Building 33, visit <http://www.navy.mil/homepages/efaches/33/index.html>] - Building Design & Construction, Sep 98, p 14. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS DISCUSS SPRAWL Landscape Architecture magazine recently convened a forum on the roles of design and growth management in curbing suburban sprawl. Landscape architect Harry Dodson stressed the limitations of site design approaches like neotraditional developments and conservation subdivisions. Though both improve subdivision design, said Dodson, dotting the landscape with seemingly benign new-urbanist or cluster developments doesn't address the basic, underlying problems of property rights, transportation, and land use. While these issues aren't on the national agenda in the US, the participants noted several states and cities that effectively manage growth. Hawaii's statewide zoning system preserves agricultural land and scenic resources. Oregon's growth-management system requires every municipality to develop a twenty-year urban growth boundary; Washington's system is binding only on fast-growing urban areas. Eight San Francisco Bay Area communities including San Jose have adopted urban growth boundaries promoted by a citizens' group called the Greenbelt Alliance. The Lexington, Kentucky area uses an urban growth boundary to protect its Bluegrass horse farms. Under Maryland's incentive-based Smart Growth program, the state won't subsidize highways, water lines, sewers, or school construction outside designated areas with existing infrastructure. And in Suffolk County, New York, transfers of development rights (TDRs) allow owners of property in conservation areas to transfer their development rights to other locations. Meanwhile, landscape architects have lost their traditional role of providing vision and leadership for growing cities, and their initiative in setting a public agenda. Many, said Dodson, have narrowed their vision to a site-specific kind of design, an aesthetic approach that depends on development. Robert Yaro, executive director of the New York Regional Plan Association, agreed. "If landscape architects were truly visionary the profession would be developing ideas about how to transform the older inner- ring suburbs and inner cities rather than continually abetting the expansion outward." - Landscape Architecture, Sep 98, p 66, by J. William Thompson. BREEAM 98 FOR OFFICES The Building Research Establishment (BRE) in the UK has launched an updated version of its Environmental Assessment Method called BREEAM 98 for Offices that combines assessment tools for new and existing offices. BRE-licensed assessors rate designs and management policies, awarding certificates of overall performance (pass, good, very good, or excellent), and can adjust the ratings for changes in design or management. Supporting assessment at any stage of a building's life, the new combined version is a more flexible tool for benchmarking building portfolios and for auditing and reviewing environmental management procedures. Other improvements include a weighting system that targets priority areas early in design, comprehensive life-cycle assessment for material selection, more emphasis on location and energy used in commuting, higher performance requirements but less prescriptive means, and early guidance from assessors on meeting the criteria. For more information, email the BREEAM office <breeam@bre.co.uk>. To order BREEAM 98 for Offices, call CRC at 0171 505 6622. - The Architects' Journal, 24 Sep 98, p 66. GREEN GUIDE TO SPECIFICATION The UK Construction Ministry has launched The Green Guide to Specification, the second edition of a document - now jointly written by the Post Office, the Building Research Establishment (BRE), and Oxford Brookes University - that began as a Royal Mail guide to specifying its own buildings. [See GreenClips.83, Royal Mail Delivers Green Guide.] The guide strikes a user- friendly, pragmatic balance between the over-complexity of looking at every environmental particular and the over-simplicity of a blacklist. The document's structure helps focus designers' attention on high-mass building elements like external walls, roofs, and upper floors. For each building element there is a table of 20 to 30 construction options presented on a common scale for ready comparison. The common scale is toxicity, primary energy, emissions, resources, reserves, wastes generated, recycling, and replacement interval. For each criterion, the table presents an environmental impact rating based on a wide range of measured data - but simply, as A (best), B, or C (worst). Using consensus weightings for the criteria, the authors give an overall A-C rating for each construction option. To order The Green Guide to Specification, call CRC at 0171 505 6622. - The Architects' Journal, 24 Sep 98, p 66. CLEAN LIGHTS SAVE ENERGY Building owners can save up to 10 percent of lighting costs simply by keeping light fixtures clean, says NALMCO, the interNational Association of Lighting Management Companies. Its new Luminaire Dirt Depreciation study may update lighting design and maintenance standards. Over the past three years, crews working on the US EPA-funded project have collected scientific field measurements at offices, schools, health facilities, and retail stores to determine the benefits - improved lighting as well as reduced costs - of simple periodic cleaning of light fixtures. Recognizing that fixtures produce less light as they get dirty, current design standards compensate by adding more fixtures to maintain the desired light level. But if building owners committed to regular cleanings, designers could recommend fewer fixtures, reducing installation costs while trimming lighting energy use by at least 10 percent. With peer review, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) will include recommendations from the study in its Lighting Handbook, the industry standard. For more information, call NALMCO at 515 243 2360. - The Green Business Letter, Oct 98, p 2, and a NALMCO news release, 4 Sep 98. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GreenClips is free of charge thanks to these sponsors - EPA'S ENVIRONMENTALLY-PREFERABLE PURCHASING PROGRAM Working to make the environment a consideration in federal purchasing. http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp INTERFACE, INC. More than a carpet company. Much more. http://www.ifsia.com THE SMART GROWTH NETWORK Metropolitan development that serves economy, community, and the environment. http://www.smartgrowth.org WSU ENERGY PROGRAM http://www.energy.wsu.edu Providing objective research, information and solutions. Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program in Olympia, Washington. To subscribe to GreenClips and/or other mailing lists related to energy and the environment, go to <http://listserv.energy.wsu.edu/guest/RemoteAvailableLists>. ALAMEDA COUNTY RECYCLING BOARD http://www.stopwaste.org The Alameda County (California) Recycling Board has released a Request For Proposals for grant applications for the 1998/99 Fiscal Year. About $869,000 in funding will be available. The Recycling Board funds innovative projects that reduce waste at its source; decrease the amount of waste sent to landfill; and encourage the development, marketing, and use of recycled products. The competitive grants process is open to private firms, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, public agencies, and individuals interested in waste reduction and recycling programs in Alameda County. Voters created the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board in 1990 to oversee countywide waste reduction programs. A $6-per-ton landfill disposal surcharge funds the Board's activities, including the grants program. Completed applications are due November 16, 1998. For an application package, call the Recycling Board at 510 614 1699, email <acwma@stopwaste.org>, or visit <http://www.stopwaste.org>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ABOUT THE PUBLISHER Architectural researcher and environmental consultant Chris Hammer of Sustainable Design Resources publishes GreenClips in San Francisco. Ms. Hammer helps planners, developers, building owners, designers, builders, and facility managers practice sustainable planning, development, building design, construction, and operation. GreenClips is written by Chris Hammer and James Richert. To CONTACT THE PUBLISHER Email GreenClips@aol.com or call 415.928.7941. 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