The Lorax can be purchased at the Springfield Museum store. Check out the Dr Seuss sculpture garden while you are there.

I frequently read The Lorax by Dr Seuss to my son. In the story, The Once-ler develops a new business; chopping down Truffala trees to make Thneads (which everyone needs). As more and more trees are used, the Bar-ba-loots, who depend on the Truffala trees’ fruit, no longer have enough to eat. The Lorax pleads with the Once-ler to stop chopping their trees, but the Once-ler responds “business is buisness! And business must grow regardless of crummies in tummies you know. I meant no harm. I most truly did not. But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.”

Last night, I watched our President’s State of the Union Address. As expected, much of the content focused on the economy and job creation. There was no mention of climate change. After noting that China now has the largest solar research facility (non-government) as well as the fastest computer (the Tianhe-1A), he stated: “And now it’s our turn. We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time. We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”(Applause.) An admirable goal, and yet it sounded quite a bit like the Once-ler’s desire to keep ‘biggering’ and ‘biggering.’ Economic growth and job creation are critical in our time, but just as critical as avoiding the fate of the Bar-ba-loots.

I’m not a political commentator, but I do experience first hand how government policies impact green buildings. As state incentives and funding for on-site renewable energy has dwindled, clients are opting not to install these systems. When the state of Connecticut began requiring state-funded buildings over certain budget thresholds to meet LEED-Silver or equivalent, there was a trickle down effect. Clients who were not required to meet the standard were still inquiring about it. Last night,  I was relieved to hear these 4 goals and challenges related to green building, technology, and energy. Let’s hope that some of them come to fruition. We should’t keep ‘biggering’ just for ‘biggering’s’ sake.

High Speed Rail in Taiwan

1. “With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. (Applause.)… And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies.”

2. “I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: By 2035, 80 percent of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources.”

3. “Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail.”

4. “We’re selling acres of federal office space that hasn’t been used in years, and we’ll cut through red tape to get rid of more.”

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Wall splatter below a dryer surface mounted on painted wall board.

I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about toilet rooms at work. I’ve had meetings and dedicated to waterless urinals, pressure assisted toilets, and a variety of toilet room smells. The latest round of conference calls has focused on high efficiency hand dryers in several projects.

First, high efficiency hand dryers are the new-ish models that are popping up in restrooms around the country. They are powerful yet efficient, and dry our hands in about 10-12 seconds. Excel and Dyson are 2 of the major manufacturers. Using dryers is more sanitary than paper towel dispensers or push button dryers, and cleaning staff no longer need to clean wet paper towels off of the floors. With lower annual costs when compared to paper towels and lower energy use when compared to standard dryers, there are clear environmental benefits and they are (finally!) becoming industry standard.

Some of my clients are becoming reluctant to install them because of occupant complaints about noise and appearance. In my own travels, I’ve seen many poor installations, and I’ve witnessed quite a few small children cry at the sound of the dryer. After too many conference calls, I’ve come up with this list of easy steps to include high efficiency dryers in toilet rooms without scaring the children or disturbing the adults:

• Include the noise reduction nozzle! This is an option when ordering the Xlerator dryer, and it significantly reduces the noise.  Without it, the device is likely to frighten small children or disrupt conversations in adjacent rooms.
• Inform your users. Excel has a simple online calculator that determines annual cost savings and environmental savings. Many users who complain about the dryers are not aware of their benefits.  Use the calculator and include a small sign that shows the actual savings for your dryers. A sign may read:

“By using these dryers instead of paper towels, we eliminate 550lb of waste, save 12,331 gallons of water, save 10 trees, reduce our carbon footprint by 1278.58 kgs CO2 eq., and save $1,260.00 each year.”

I always carefully consider the tone of any signage and I craft it to be appropriate for the building, client, and users. Most occupants will appreciate being “informed” but will resent being “educated” in a public toilet room.

• Ditch the paper towel dispenser. If you include both a dryer and a paper towel dispenser, many users will choose paper towels. This can negate the cost savings that you will realize if you only install the dryer.
• Pay attention to the wall material. Many small toilet rooms have dryers that are surface mounted on painted wall board. With these dryers, the velocity of air is greater, and water from hands will splash on the wall. Some occupants complain about ‘unsanitary conditions’ when in fact, what they are seeing is this unsightly wall splatter.  I recommend including a stainless wall panel, tile, or other cleanable surface at the location of an Xlerator dryer and training cleaning staff to wipe the surface. The Dyson Airblade is self contained and usually does not have wall splatter problems, but because it is accessed from the top, different mounting heights may be needed in toilet rooms that serve both children and adults.

This paper towel dispenser is conveniently installed on a partition adjacent to the sink.

The Dyson Airblade is on the opposite side of the partition. Shame on them!

Israel's Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo

Rendering of the Whispering Garden

Israel’s Pavilion is the feature of part 2 of my series on green design at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

This is Israel’s first pavilion in a World Expo. The theme is “Innovation for Better Life,” and the design by Haim Dotan brings natural features and technology in harmony with one another. I find the form quite elegant, with the glass (Hall of Light) and stone (Hall of Innovations) volumes in a twisting embrace: a nod to the Taoist Yin and Yang. Architect Haim Dotan is the designer of the AORA solar flower,  a 30m tower ringed by mirrors, which generates 100kW of power at Kibbutz Samar. Here again, he is a master of efficient use of materials.

In the Hall of Innovations, hundreds of “light-sphere” stations will demonstrate Israel’s technological innovations in solar & green energy, science, music, agriculture, medicine, and security. Visitors can have a virtual conversation with Israelis.

What appears most intriguing is the Whispering Garden, with over 50 orange trees and a meandering covered pedestrian path. The garden will showcase Israel’s irrigation technology, which is one of the most advanced applications of drip irrigation in the world.

The construction and activity budget is $6 million.

For more info:

• Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Haim Dotan Architects Israel Pavilion Site

CGD’s Score: +4

+3 Sustainability is evident in the design

-1 Many materials are not recyclable

-1 No onsite renewable energy

+3 Exhibit them focuses on efficient irrigation and science & technology

First up: Switzerland’s “Rural-Urban Interaction” Pavilion

Rendering of the Swiss Pavilion

Facade with solar cells and LEDs

Vegetated Roof and Chair Lift

The 43,000 sf pavilion is designed by Buchner Bründler Architects and Element GmbH of Germany. According to the official Swiss Pavilion site it is a “hybrid construct of technology and nature that combines town and country in a perfect balance.” The Expo organizers have named it Nature’s Playground.

The façade is an aluminum mesh with attached solar cells that power flashing LEDs. Most of the façade components will be recycled at the close of the expo, and the solor cells will be reused or resold. The lights flash in a cause and effect relationship: LED’s light up for different amounts of time based on the amount of light or wind detected by sensors and the amount of stored energy. When one cell lights up, neighboring cells respond and light up as well.

The Pavilion is organized with two interior cylinders. One houses a pedestrian ramp that guides visitors through the exhibits. The second cylinder contains a chair lift that opens to the exterior and will bring visitors from the interior “urban” space and over the luscious vegetated “rural” roofscape.

The designers won an international competition for the pavilion. Some early reports described the façade as a biodegradable soy-based material. The material is now aluminum.

The 2010 World Expo runs from May 1 through October 2010, and is estimated to be the largest world exhibition yet.

CGD’s Score: +6

+3 Sustainability is evident in the design

+1 Materials can be recycled

-1 Onsite renewable energy powers façade, but not building energy use

+3 Exhibit theme shows natural environment, air quality, water quality, sustainable construction, and transportation

Five years ago at Greenbuild, it seemed that everyone was caught up in semantics: Green vs. Sustainable vs. Eco-friendly vs. Bio-inspired. Various definitions were overly debated and argued, with no real outcomes. Since then,the arguments have largely been forgotten. What has emerged is some significant criticism of the LEED rating system, much of it centered on shortcomings such as a lack of robust metrics, exclusion of life-cycle cost measurements, and failure to adequately address zero-carbon goals.

While these criticisms are valid, the early goals of the LEED Rating System stated that certification should be “achievable” with a reasonable approach and level of effort and experience. I’m going to briefly revisit some of the old definitions.

Sustainable Building: A building that is

• CONSTRUCTED with environmentally benign and local materials
• OPERATED without adverse environmental or human health impacts
• Relies completely on RENEWABLE ENERGY and emits 0 green house gas emissions
• DECONSTRUCTS into 100% reusable or recyclable components at the end of its useful life

(my definition, adapted from an early USGBC definition)

Green Building: A building that

Uses design, construction, and operations practices that significantly reduce the negative impact of buildings on the environment and occupants through

• Sustainable site planning
• Safeguarding water and water efficiency
• Energy efficiency
• Conservation of materials and resources
• Indoor environmental quality

(from a 2002 USGBC training workshop)

Using the above definitions, “Green” is the weaker of the two, but the one that is behind the LEED Rating System. “Sustainable” is possible, but somewhat vague and more difficult to achieve. I’m of the opinion that over time, the definition of a “Green” building should have evolved to become synonymous with “Sustainable” building, and the LEED Rating System along with it. It is not there yet.

I generally tell my students and clients that LEED certified buildings are green buildings, which is not the same thing as sustainable buildings.

Back to Paul King and the Drexel University student’s question. He answered her by referencing the Brundtland Commission’s definition “one that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet thier own needs.”

In 2000, I worked at the Center for Building Performance & Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University. My office was in the Intelligent Workplace, an energy efficient space that functioned as working laboratory on the roof of Margaret Morrison. One of the research projects that I was involved in was Building as Power Plant, or BAPP. The goal of the project was to use both ascending conditioning strategies and descending conditioning strategies to design a building that would produce more energy than it consumed. (Ascending strategies prioritize reducing energy load, then implementing passive conditioning followed by active conditioning. Descending or cascading strategies use the waste heat or water from one system to drive the next system.) This was envisioned as a 6 story building in Pittsburgh, which is a relatively cool climate, with significant cloud cover but some solar potential. While the building has yet to be constructed, the research project has been instrumental in pushing legislation and design and construction research in new energy efficient directions.

Elithis Tower Screen

Arte Charpentier Architects and Elithis Engineering have achieved their own example of a building as power plant. This month, the Elithis Tower in Dijon,  France opened. The 10 story office building is billed as the world’s first energy producing building. Inhabitat and AIArchitect each have posts about the building this week. The solar screen is gorgeous and reduces solar heat gain while allowing for adequate daylighting. The heat from building exhaust is reclaimed to provide warm air to the building. For those engineering and facilities nerds out there that enjoy a cup of coffee while watching your meter run backwards on a sunny day, you can drool over the intense sensing and tracking equipment in this building. 1,600 sensors will track energy production and usage and display the information in the building’s lobby.

There are other net energy producing buildings: an active house in Denmark produces more energy than it needs, although it came with a large $794,400 price tag for a small single family home, and Rock Port, Missouri claims to be the first town that produces more power than it consumes, due to 16 million kilowatt hours of power produced by a wind farm.

What I find most interesting in about the Elithis Tower is that it functions as a mainstream office building in an urban area. While operating the building will certainly be different than your standard office, the occupants will not need to “sacrifice” their comfort to achieve the positive energy generation. With an $185/sf construction cost, this is proof that buildings as power plants are achievable and affordable.

Elithis Tower

Elithis Tower

Dijon, France

54,000 sf

$10 million

Arte Charpentier Architects

Architect: Silver Petrucelli + Associates

Centerpoint Connecticut

Cooper Green Design, with 4 Elements Group, is providing LEED consulting services for the Centerpont CT campus in Middletown, CT.  The campus includes 7 new 2-story buildings and one existing building renovation. Spaces are available for purchase or for lease in an “office-condo” arrangement. The first phase includes 3 new buildings that are registered under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Core & Shell Rating System and targeting a LEED Silver Certification. A rooftop photovoltaic system will provide a portion of the electricity, and an energy-efficient building envelope will reduce energy use and utility costs for owners and tenants. Each space will be individually metered, allowing owners and tenants to monitor their own energy and water use and encourage conservation practices. Tenant and owner guidelines are being developed in order to support LEED Certification for Commercial Interiors spaces and to provide occupants with suggested strategies to maximize the performance of their spaces.

Developer: Tall Properties Development Company

Architect: Tyre Studio

Represented by: Regions Commercial

Shading Devices in Trento, Italy

While in Trento, Italy, I snapped the perfect photo for my daylighting course. The building on the right uses many of the strategies that I discuss with my students:

1. The generous roof overhang is shading the windows on the third and fourth floors. The shutters are open, allowing the occupants to have a view, indirect daylighting, and natural ventilation.
2. The second floor shutters are closed, and the awning-function is shading the windows. This allows some indirect light and ventilation while lowering the solar heat gain.
3. The first floor shutters are open and the window opening is fairly deep, providing direct and indirect daylighting, views, and natural ventilation.

I’ll be contrasting this photo with one of a typical modern New England “colonial” house with decorative shutters. I find it quite fascinating that we have forgotten how functional and effective shutters can be.

View of Trento from the cable car

I spent the last week of June in Trento, Italy during the San Vigilio Festival. The city is surrounded by hills and mountains on all sides, and the Adige River to the west.  Several days into my stay, the wind was calm enough to take the cable car up to the village of Sardagna. I made the journey up to the top with my son and a fellow architect. The view from the top is nothing short of spectacular!

From the top, I spotted a large construction site along the river. Locals at the adjacent museum in the Palazzo delle Albere were eager to share information about the new energy efficient development.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s new Science Museum is currently under construction on the site of the former Michelin Factory (seen at the lower right of the photo). The enormous redevelopment includes brownfield remediation and re-linking the city center to the river front. Residential units, office space, and a park are also included in the project.

The museum will feature a large pitched roof with photovoltaic panels, and an atrium space that will house a tropical greenhouse.  Perhaps more intriguing however is the focus of the anticipated museum exhibits: glacier and earth sciences, global climate challenges, and new technology.