|
GreenClips.123 06.30.99
AND NOW... AIA'S EARTH DAY TOP TEN 1999
For Earth Day 1999, the executive committee of the American
Institute of Architects' Committee on the Environment
recognized 10 projects that successfully address
environmental challenges - CCI Center, Pittsburgh; by Green
Building Services, Conservation Consultants Inc. Denver Dry
Building, Denver; by the Denver Urban Renewal Authority and
the Affordable Housing Development Corporation. Duracell
Headquarters, Bethel, Connecticut; by Herbert S. Newman and
Partners, PC, Architect and Site Planner. Georgia Tech
Aquatic Center (Olympic Natatorium), Atlanta; by Smallwood,
Reynolds, Stewart and Stewart, modifications by Rosser
Fabrap Int. with Roger Preston + Partners. Kansas
City Zoo Deramus Education Pavilion, Kansas City; by
Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell Architects. McKinney
ISD Sustainable Elementary School, McKinney, Texas; by SHW
Group Inc. Missouri Historical Society Museum, St. Louis;
by Hellmuth Obata + Kassabaum, Inc. New York Life Building,
Kansas City; by Gastinger Walker Harden Architects. Real
Goods Solar Living Center, Hopland, California; by Van
der Ryn Architects. REI Seattle Flagship Store, Seattle; by
Mithun Partners, Inc. - AIArchitect, Jun 99, p16, by
Michael Janes. [Project details:
<http://www.e-architect.com/pia/cote/earthd99/earth99.asp>]
TEXAS DEVELOPER TO OFFER RESIDENTIAL FUEL CELLS
Developers of Sharyland Plantation near the Rio Grande towns
of Mission and McAllen, Texas expect to offer future
residents the option to power their homes with fuel cells
rather than electricity from traditional utilities.
[Fuel cells, which combine hydrogen and oxygen to
form water and electric current, are less polluting than
fossil-fueled sources of electricity.] Texas's
Hunt family and its partners expect to break ground this
summer on the first of the 500 homes they plan to
build each year from 1999 through 2013, perhaps the broadest
application of fuel cells so far. With a $6,000
fuel-cell generator and a natural gas or propane
supply, homeowners could produce their own electricity
for less than what the local utility charges while creating
almost no pollution. Though fuel cells are much closer to
commercial production for use in homes and offices than in
cars, the challenge has been making them affordable for
homeowners. "Our studies show," says Oklahoma Gas &
Electric's Jack Phipps, "that if you can get to a thousand
units manufactured, you'll get your costs down to where they
can compete with local electricity prices in areas where gas
is relatively cheap and power is relatively expensive."
North American companies developing residential fuel
cells include Avista Corp., H Power Enterprises of Canada,
and Plug Power. - The Wall Street Journal, 25 June 99, p
C9, by Mark Golden. [More on fuel cells:
<http://www.avistacorp.com/avistalabs>
<http://www.hpowercanada.com>
<http://www.plugpower.com>]
ECOTIMBER TAPPING MARKET FOR RECLAIMED LUMBER
The time- and labor-intensive process of deconstructing
buildings by crowbar to save the timber turns out a
reclaimed wood product that's not necessarily cheap. Still,
EcoTimber of Berkeley, California expects revenues from its
reclaimed timber sales to climb from about $100,000
last year to $500,000 this year. The company started in 1992
importing hardwood from certified well-managed forests.
Because that market was relatively small, EcoTimber branched
into selling redwood and other products from second-growth
forests, then added salvaged timber to its product line.
This year, reclaimed timber will account for about 15
percent of the company's anticipated $4 million revenue.
EcoTimber is now remilling and marketing more than 2 million
board feet of timber including old-growth redwood and
Douglas fir from six World War 2-era warehouses at the
recently closed Naval Fleet Industrial Supply Center in
nearby West Oakland. Crews of 40 Youth Employment
Partnership trainees and a five-person staff will take more
than four months to dismantle each sprawling warehouse, pull
out the nails, and sort the lumber. With bulldozers, a
six-person demolition crew could do the job in about three
weeks at a quarter of the cost. At EcoTimber's yard in
Berkeley, hand-hewn barn beams sell for as much as $15
a linear foot. Old oak flooring goes for $6 a square
foot, compared to $3.50 for new oak. While many
jurisdictions require costly regrading of reclaimed wood for
use as framing lumber, interest in the material for flooring
and paneling grows. - San Francisco Chronicle, 30 Jun 99,
p B1, by Peter Sinton. [More:
<http://www.ecotimber.com>]
A GREEN BUILDING ADVISOR, ON CD-ROM
New interactive software called Green Building Advisor helps
identify strategies for reducing the environmental impact of
a building project. From information a user enters about a
building project, the "expert system" program selects and
recommends appropriate design strategies. GBA indexes the
strategies in five environmental impact categories - Site
& Ecosystems, Energy Use, Water Use, Resources &
Materials, and Indoor Environment. Each category's Strategic
Logic section ranks the recommendations according to
information the software evaluated, and a Building Phases
& Cost Difficulties section gives a range of costs for
each strategy so the user can weigh first and lifetime cost.
GBA's filters can limit its recommendations to particular
constraints like budget or design phase. The $179 CD-ROM
includes browsable case studies of 18 new construction and
renovation projects and reference libraries including a
listing of 1,300 green building materials searchable by
product name, CSI format, or manufacturer. GBA was produced
by the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable
Technology; E Build, publishers of Environmental Building
News; and Design Harmony, an architectural and
environmental consulting firm. More:
<http://www.crest.org/software-central/gba>. -
Architecture, Jun 99, p 139, by Jen Seal-Uncapher, and
Solar Today, May-Jun 99, p 25.
ECO-QUANTUM: BUILDING LCA SOFTWARE
Using life cycle analysis, new software called Eco-Quantum
from IVAM Environmental Research of The Netherlands offers
architects and building researchers a quick, simple,
and objective way to assess the cradle-to-grave
environmental burden of an entire building and to improve
its design. Eco-Quantum's opening screen offers a
drop-down menu for selecting the building's basic
construction type like masonry, for example. More menus help
the user select building components like windows, internal
walls, and doors to identify their materials and list
quantities. After all the data are input, the program
calculates resource depletion, gaseous emissions, energy
consumption, and waste generation for each component. Eco
Quantum helps its users focus on building components causing
the heaviest environmental load. Users can compare scores
with reference benchmarks and quickly test different designs
by recalculating. Download a demo version:
<http://www.ivambv.uva.nl/IVAM/thema_d/about.html>.
- EcoDesign, Spring-Summer 99, p 36, by Alastair
Fuad-Luke, and the IVAM web site.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
GreenClips is free of charge thanks to individual members
and these sponsors:
BANK OF AMERICA http://www.bankamerica.com For
information on BofA environmental programs, select Table of
Contents, then Inside Bank of America, then
Environmental Programs.
EPA'S ENVIRONMENTALLY-PREFERABLE PURCHASING
PROGRAM Greening the government, one purchase at a
time. http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp
INTERFACE, INC. More than a carpet company. Much
more. http://www.interfaceinc.com
WSU ENERGY PROGRAM
http://www.energy.wsu.edu Providing objective research,
information and solutions. Washington State University
Cooperative Extension Energy Program in Olympia, Washington.
Subscribe to GreenClips and other mailing lists on
energy and the environment at
<http://listserv.energy.wsu.edu/guest/RemoteAvailableLists>.
ALAMEDA COUNTY WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY The Alameda
County Waste Management Authority and Source Reduction and
Recycling Board is issuing an RFP to develop
Residential Green Builder Guidelines for the county
and its cities. The Agency seeks to develop guidelines to
promote proven green building methodologies for new
residential construction and remodeling. Goals of the
guidelines are to provide an educational and guidance
document on why and how builders can and should be
building green and to provide resources and contacts
to obtain more information on programs, products, and
practices. An amount of $40,000 has been allocated for
this project. The ideal consultant will have expertise in
sustainable building, in developing a green builder
program/guidelines, and in establishing relationships
between local government agencies and building
organizations/professionals. Application deadline is August
1, 1999. Contact Meri Soll at 510 614 1699 or
<msoll@stopwaste.org>. Complete RFP available at
<http://www.stopwaste.org>.
US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
http://www.eren.doe.gov/buildings The National Energy
Education Development (NEED) Project, funded in part by
DOE's Office of Building Technology, State and
Community Programs (BTS), is providing elementary and
secondary school students and teachers nationwide with
energy education materials and activities. NEED promotes an
understanding of the economic and environmental trade-offs
of energy consumption and production. Its materials
emphasize critical thinking and problem solving skills,
using hands-on activities. The NEED Project, which began
with seed money from DOE, has flourished to include more
than 100 other sponsors. To learn more about the
program, contact NEED at 703 471 6263
<http://www.awa.com/need/>. More information on
BTS' programs is available on DOE's Energy Efficiency
and Renewable Energy Network website
<http://www.eren.doe.gov/buildings> or by
calling 800 DOE 3732.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
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.
BACK ISSUES Two Internet sites host GreenClips archives
for reference and research:
http://solstice.crest.org/sustainable/greenclips-info.html
(keyword search) http://www.greendesign.net/greenclips
(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.
To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE Subscribe, unsubscribe, or
change your address at this web
site: http://listserv.energy.wsu.edu/guest/RemoteListSummary/GreenClips
You can also do this by email following these
instructions: Address an email message to
<GreenClips-request@listserv.energy.wsu.edu>. In
the body of the message (not the subject line) type
either: subscribe <your internet email
address> unsubscribe <your internet email
address>
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
Copyright 1999 Sustainable Design Resources. All rights
reserved. Republishing GreenClips in print or on a web
site, in whole or in part, or commercial distribution in any
form requires advance permission of the publisher.
|