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The county building incorporates many “green building” features, including:
- energy-efficient appliances and light fixtures
- building materials with recycled content
- water-saving plumbing fixtures
- water-efficient landscaping
- extensive use of natural light.
And it's the first homeless shelter in the country to receive a Green Globes rating for its sound, energy and environmental- design practices and will be recognized by the Green Building Initiative for this distinction at a later time.
Source: http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=85107&paper=62&cat=104
Check out the cost breakdown here.
Building features:
- Straw bale, tight envelope construction solar radiant in-floor heating system
- Photovoltaic electrical
- Potable water collection and filtration system
- Environmentally sound and healthy construction materials including paints & wood treatments
- Energy efficient windows
- Recycled materials throughout
- Solar wall used to warm the fresh air for the “Life Breath” heat recovery ventilator
- Naturalized and xeriscaped green spaces
What do you do with a town that has been leveled by a tornado?...
"Discovery’s new eco-lifestyle channel Planet Green is partnering with actor and avid environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio to help launch the channel early next year with a touching environmentally-friendly project. DiCaprio is set to executive produce “Eco-Town,” a 13-part reality series which will follow state and local officials in their quest to build an ecologically—and economically—sustainable town in Kansas, aptly named Greenburg."
Source: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/07/23/leonardo-di-caprio-to-build-eco-town-in-kansas
"Canada's largest metropolitan area has joined Raleigh, NC in fostering a city-wide program to use and evaluate LED lighting. [LEDCity] initiative fosters collaboration among municipalities as they deploy energy-efficient lighting to deliver cost savings and environmental benefits. LEDs appearing throughout parks, parking garages and in architectural lighting over the coming months. Toronto already hosts a number of high profile LED installations, including LED streetlights at Exhibition Place, the Harbinger color-changing installation, and of course the CN Tower (CN Tower ... LED lighting... is designed to use 60% less energy than the Tower's lighting did in the 1990s). LEDs provide an energy-efficient, mercury- free solution helping to preserve the environment, while delivering more- flexible and longer-lasting lighting than traditional
lighting technologies."
Source: http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/4/7/9
- Living Homes with WIRED Magazine
- Architect: Ray Kappe
- Cost: $4 million modernist home in Los Angeles
- Size: 4,000 sq ft
- Features: LEED® Gold rating, passive heating and cooling, solar power, automated theatre, temperature, and lighting...
- Open later this year for public tours
- For the family that wants all the toys but wants to be as green as they can about it (perfect for my friend DW... if they could just make one half the size at an affordable price!)
Source: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/07/06/prefab-friday-wired-living-home/#more-4903
"Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.
Live Earth concerts will be broadcast to a live worldwide audience by MSN at www.LiveEarth.MSN.com."
Showing on Bravo starting at 9am
"World's First and Only" - Gold LEED Certified- Hotel
Also... you'll find a copy of Al Gore's book, "An Inconvenient Truth", in each of the rooms for your reading pleasure."
See features at: http://www.gaianapavalleyhotel.com/html/green-lodging.asp#americancanyon-ca-feature
"It’s a good time to be green, and Google is leading the way. Last year, the search giant Google announced that their installation of the solar panels on their campus, which are expected to provide around 1,600 kw/h. And keeping with their green commitment, they recently launched the Google solar panel project webpage which will help anyone track how much power their solar panels are generating. And now, their newest green initiatives include everything from plug-in hybrids and car-powered homes to carbon neutrality. And to top it off, Google has just announced that it expects to become carbon neutral by 2007. They will do this via a mixture of energy consumption reduction, carbon offsets, and use of renewable resources. They will also be submitting themselves to an independent audit to make sure that they meet this goal every year."
June 14, 2007
The leaders of 284 colleges and universities from around the country (45 states and represent about 15 % of US higher education institutions) officially unveiled this week the The American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, a pact that urges educational institutions to eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions.
- Begin development of a comprehensive plan to achieve climate neutrality ASAP;
- implement 2 or more actions from a list of ways to reduce greenhouse gases while the more comprehensive plan is being developed;
- make action plan, inventory, and periodic progress reports publicly available through the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Mitch Tomashow, president of Unity College in Maine, ...signing the commitment was a "no-brainer," but ...the sub-section of the commitment that requires making climate change and sustainability part of the curriculum for all students posed an entirely different challenge. Tomashow said. "Moving the curriculum so that every engineering student, every medical student, takes these types of classes -- that's a much bigger challenge, but that ultimately will need to happen."
Interview by:
Matthew Wheeland"will be the first LEED Platinum skyscraper in the country, and it's been called the world's "most sustainable skyscraper." The project's architects, Cook+Fox, have incorporated the most cutting-edge green technologies:
- 2.2 million square feet
- cost of water has gone up 40 % since we started the project
- waterless urinals will save 3 million gallons of potable water a year
- collecting rainwater ...to reuse ...for landscaping and washing the sidewalks, but we're really using it for flushing the toilets and for the cooling tower
- the cost of energy is not going to go down
- 5.1 megawatt cogen plant ...use that energy to make ice at night... melting ice in the middle of the day... less energy to create the air conditioning"
"American Campus Communities Inc., an owner, developer and manager of student housing, has been selected by the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to begin the planning process for the development of up to 4,000 on-campus beds...(using) LEED silver or higher certified rating."
Source: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/05/11/insulation_tec.html?category=technology"An engineer with an agricultural background recently developed a new kind of "eco-friendly" building insulation using mushroom spores. The "Greensulate formula [is] an organic, fire-retardant board made of water, flour, oyster mushroom spores and perlite, a mineral blend found in potting soil...A 1-inch-thick sample of the perlite-mushroom composite had a 2.9 R-value, the measure of a substance's ability to resist heat flow. Commercially produced fiberglass insulation typically has an R-value between 2.7 and 3.7 per inch of thickness." Clearly this is a way to avoid carcinogenic materials and petrochemicals in the walls of our homes and offices, and it also demonstrates the extent of what's possible when we innovate across disciplines."
Source: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006892.html
"Bringing the insulation to market is still at least a year away though, said McIntyre, and will require much more research and work, not to mention more sophisticated equipment and a better work space."
Source: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070624/eco_mushrooms_070624/20070624?hub=SciTech
A Zero-Energy Tower in the Desert
Sarah Rich
June 21, 2007 3:04 PM
German architect, Eckhard Gerber, who currently holds CAD drawings for the tallest zero-emissions, zero-energy skyscraper in the world.
"a giant 68-story building projected to rise to a lofty height of 322 meters (1,056 feet), which would make it number 22 on the list of the world's tallest buildings."
"A smart home is one that’s good for its occupants and for the environment. Being smart includes being energy efficient and using resources wisely. It means choosing materials that are sustainable. It means designing and building homes that maximise occupants’ health and comfort, while also costing less to run."
Source: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0706/S00443.htm
The Annual National Symposium on Green Affordable Housing & Community Development
The Fairmont San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
July 19 - July 20, 2007
- "Many affordable housing developers are building green developments for lower income families on a cost effective basis while reaping monetary, marketing and mission benefits
- Most state housing agencies now encourage sustainable development practices in their 2007 Low-Income Housing Tax Credit qualified allocation plans. In some states the practical reality is that incorporating green development is necessary to receive allocations
- Renewable energy tax credits and other incentives are being used to finance energy-saving enhancements to housing and community development projects
- More capital providers are looking for “triple bottom line” lending and investment opportunities that deliver financial, social and environmental returns
- The strategies and benefits of green development at scale extend beyond individual projects into communities, cities and regions"
Source:
http://www.ipedinc.net/epages/ipedinc.storefront/46787fbd0825f2f6273f3f76589806ec/UserTemplate/19?prodno=1086-1
"This is Libro's third "green" branch. Its design has received 4 out
of 5 Green Globes, a third party environmental building rating system. The
designation showcases Libro's leadership in energy efficient and environmental
design practices," says Jack Smit, President and CEO, Libro. "We are committed
to building "green" when we can. We know the importance of reducing our impact
on the environment. We may be new to the Williamsburg neighbourhood but we're
committed to its sustainability!"
See complete list of green features in the article at: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2007/19/c6518.html
Something to consider (affordable over high profile) especially for low or tight budgets...
"A 2007 University of Minnesota study compared LEED to Green Globes. The study found that Green Globes is less costly, easier to work with and less time-consuming than LEED."
Click here for the full report: http://www.thegbi.org/gbi/Green_Building_Rating_UofM.pdf
Click here for a comparison chart: http://www.thegbi.org/gbi/pdf/ProcessComparison.pdf
"Being developed by a partnership between the USGBC, ASHRAE, and IESNA ... say the baseline standard, which will apply to new commercial construction and major renovations, will be fleshed out by 2007.
The new standard will be largely based on LEED, with prescriptive measures for environmental performance drawn from its five categories.
code agencies could adopt Standard 189P as a baseline, while mandating additional sustainability measures as they see fit. This would relieve states and municipalities from needing to draft special legislation to mandate green buildings by, for instance, referencing LEED or other voluntary rating systems."
Also see: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1647
"Currently the standard is open for public comment and comments will be accepted through July 9, 2007 at www.ashrae.org/publicreviews. The committee plans to release the standard by late 2007. Upon completion, Standard 189 will be an ANSI-accredited standard that can be incorporated into building codes...(just as Standard 90.1... has been almost universally adopted as a baseline standard for energy efficiency)"
OK... so apparently slightly off-topic but since this is the area of my paid consulting work and the "Accessibility For Ontarians With Disabilities Act" now requires all public buildings to be accessible (green or not) this new AccessON web site created by the Ontario Government might be of some assistance to those of you not as well informed about the subject or simply used to following the minimums in the OBC (Ontario Building Code).
Oh... and the 2006 OBC code is in many ways just as inaccessible as the 1997 version. Go to most cities in Ontario and see how much higher their accessibility standards are (we were/are actually involved with writing many of them which is really cool).
And if you think about it... how "sustainable" can a building be if people as they get older can't use it (often the forgotten aspect of accessibility).
Read about province wide progress: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2007/12/c3699.html
Cool!!!
AIRING:
Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBC-TV
REPEATING:
Saturday, June 23 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBC Newsworld
