Push on to Make Buildings Grow Green
LOS ANGELES - As the super who keeps new state offices purring, Peter Cho is shepherding the green movement’s latest offensive: cleaning skylines an entire building at a time. 
The planet’s biggest energy hogs are the buildings where many people work and live. Structures that are at least four stories high gobble 65 percent of the nation’s electricity. And as the nation approaches Earth Day on Tuesday, it’s worth noting that such buildings are emission fighters’ newest target.
Instead of relying on piecemeal approaches such as installing a rooftop garden or solar panels here or there, California and many other states now require that all new government buildings be certified as “green,” or eco-friendly. Officials also are stepping up efforts to set an example for the private sector. California is considering granting preferences to private owners of more eco-friendly buildings when renewing leases for government offices.
Big effort, big symbol
With the roof-to-basement strategy, government officials have landed upon a comprehensive effort to reduce carbon footprints in chunks sometimes as big as a city block. A new building certified as green also serves as a big symbol for the movement’s quest for maturity, advocates say.
“All the people in the L.A. region want to come to my place to work,” said Cho, chief engineer of the futuristic California Department of Transportation regional headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, a structure that opened nearly four years ago and is an example of the eco-friendly measures the state is promoting. What’s drawing job applicants is the sleek horizontal architecture with healthier indoor air and lots of natural lighting, he said.
Occupying one block, the 13-story Caltrans building was constructed with a monolithic photovoltaic wall -solar panels-to be 35 percent more energy-efficient than state building codes require. It features elevators in one area that skip two floors at a time to encourage workers to use the stairs.
Many states and the federal General Services Administration, the country’s largest commercial tenant, are using green-only construction to nudge the private sector to overcome concerns over “green premiums” for new buildings; they cost an additional 5 percent or more, according to government officials and industry representatives.
“By exerting the leadership, we hope we can get a groundswell response from the commercial sector,” said Roy McBrayer, manager of California’s green building initiative.
So far it’s hardly come close, especially as the specter of a recession and the home foreclosure crisis chilled construction, particularly in residential projects.
While industry officials say green homes are still a strong niche, the number of certified green buildings remains dramatically low across America with only 1,325 certified so far, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. The non-profit council implements a universally accepted method for authenticating a green building, under a rating system called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
Points for features
The council’s criteria enable developers and architects to select from several efficiencies and conservation measures, such as energy-efficient heating-cooling systems or recycling initiatives, when designing a green building. The project is awarded “points” for the sustainability features until it achieves certification, which has four levels: basic, silver, gold and platinum.
The Caltrans building, for example, has been granted the third-highest level.
The number of green buildings is expected to rise once the council reviews 11,000 pending applications.
“There’s definitely a long way to go,” said Taryn Holowka, spokeswoman for the council, saying it’s a slow process to get the building industry to revolutionize.
“But I think we’re off to a good start and it’s becoming a mainstream thing,” she said.
Lance Williams, executive director of the council’s Los Angeles office, said the struggle for green buildings can be tough, “but there are people being converted … every single day.”
The Building Owners and Managers Association International, the nation’s largest trade group for commercial real estate, is lobbying Congress to extend tax incentives to retrofit structures for energy conservation-a matters made more urgent by rising fuel prices.
“The biggest part of a green strategy, whether it’s connected to real estate or not, is energy,” said Brenna Walraven, chairwoman of BOMA International.
With green materials and design, a new building can recoup such costs in the first year or two through energy savings, advocates say. By using recycled carpet or less polluting paints, such a structure also is more “environmentally responsible” and promotes the occupants’ health, adherents say.
Growing movement
In all, 24 states including Illinois have developed requirements in the last six years for new government buildings to be green. Meanwhile, 75 cities, 23 counties, 10 school districts and 36 college systems nationwide have green initiatives or incentives, the council said.
Illinois has 18 certified green buildings, including Bolingbrook High School, Orland Park Police headquarters and five Chicago Public Library branches, according to the council. The recently certified Merchandise Mart is an example of the private market making existing structures more energy-smart.
Illinois requires new government buildings to be green, but the state hasn’t had a major construction program in nine years, said spokesman David Blanchette of the state’s Capital Development Board. In 2004, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley initiated a standard requiring new city-owned buildings to be eligible for certification.
© 2008 Chicago Tribune
http://www.hemphasis.net/Building/building.htm
Rebuilding in a developing world
by Scott Blossom
The ecosystem is beginning to show many signs that the Earth is continually seeking to balance the many forces that are acting upon it. We can no longer deny the fact that our continual drive for economic growth has a drastic effect on the natural capital that our traditional economy is based upon. Many great leaders of this country such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington have sighted the importance of local agriculture and independence from foreign resources.
Unfortunately, as we continue to put pressure on the Earth to supply us with non-renewable materials, massive amounts of energy are released in ways that can detrimental the human existence. Although many of these changes may seem to be on a scale that is much too large for us to control, we are beginning to see the increasing role that humans have in a fragile, yet powerful ecosystem.
In recent years, we’ve seen dramatic weather changes, along with increased risk of storm, flood and fire. Natural disasters, such as those that are represented by what we have seen recently on the East Coast in the form of Hurricane Isabelle, and on the West Coast in the form of large forest fires, present a realistic view of the natural changes that are currently happening are currently influencing our ecosystem.
In addition, we are seeing human induced occurrences influencing the ecosystem as well. Many of our water resources are exhibiting decreasing water quality, and increased flood activity due to our creation of impervious surfaces and runoff laden with toxic materials. As a result of this, we are seeing much of our soil, our valuable and usable land, being polluted washed away with increased amounts of erosion, and our agricultural fields being filled with sedimentation.
When our children can no longer safely sunbathe, or swim in rivers, there is evidence that the once-finely tuned relationship between humankind and nature is out of balance.
Although many natural disasters are beyond human intervention, we do have a direct influence on the environment with our methods of re-building after their occurrence. Development can actually repair environmental destruction with intelligent bioengineering and advanced ecological agriculture. Most importantly, we can heed the advice of our forefathers, while taking advantage of current technology, and begin to make intelligent planning and engineering decisions as we continue to develop and grow into a society that can be can be economically and environmentally stable.
In this developing world we must actively design communities that allow us to work with the environment, while utilizing the production of our building materials as an actual method of remediation and retrofitting of our current situation. By doing so, we can continue to grow at a rate that is sufficient to keep the economy strong, as well as allow our environment enough time to regenerate, even as we harvest agricultural resources that will replace synthetic materials. By using renewable materials that alleviate the need to extract those of which have taken years to form, we can release the many levels of pressure on the earth, before forces of nature release themselves. With this goal in mind, we are guided to design solutions that utilize renewable resources such as the industrial hemp plant.
In the development of a community plan we may explore how a renewable resource such as industrial hemp can be used in conjunction with innovative design to stabilize the economy, as it stabilizes the environment.
Site
One of the first aspects in developing a new community, or renovating an existing community is to select a site that is suitable for sustainable development, which in many cases, requires the treatment of areas that have been previously impacted.
The industrial hemp plant can be used in remediation of brownfields, as it has a higher nutrient uptake than any other agricultural crop. The industrial nature of this crop lends itself well to these types of applications as its products can be used for many industrial applications (as we will discuss later) other than consumption. In addition, the hemp plant can be an integral part of the reforestation projects that are necessary after a large forest fires, or a large clear cuts.
Industrial hemp is excellent sown in a fallow field, as well as in crop rotation; the roots loosen soil, and fallen leaves return beneficial organic matter to the soil. In many cases industrial hemp can be planted as a means to stabilize soil, thus lessening the amount of valuable land that is lost to erosion. In addition, the fibers from the hemp plant can be arranged in a fiber matrix that can be secured to eroding slopes as erosion control blanketing and matting, as well as into fiber logs that help in the prevention of shoreline erosion.
The actual growth of the plant itself can alleviate the need for the millions of pounds of toxic fertilizer that contaminates our watersheds. In all of these ways, the growth of industrial hemp can help in the restoration of our watersheds and streams, as it is grown for usable materials that will be later used in the community design.
Cutting edge methods of managing stormwater using low impact development techniques such as bioretention and vegetated filter strips as a means reducing peak runoff rates, improving water quality, and replenishing aquifers, lend a whole new potential for the incorporation of the industrial hemp plant into our landscape.
Building
Many traditional methods of buildings utilized local materials to construct buildings. By strengthening agricultural base we can return power back into the people who work American soil, thus decreasing the need for dependence on foreign resources. Industrial hemp holds the potential to strengthen growing communities on reservations and rural areas, as the fibers and hurd from the hemp plant can reinforce traditional adobe and fiber reinforced concrete mixtures. In addition, one acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees, resulting in an excellent material to be used in the composites industry.
Hemp resin can be used as an additive in the creation of biodegradable polymers that help to reduce the problems of waste disposal associated with toxic materials. Biodegradable polymers can potentially be combined with plant fibers to produce biodegradable Eco-Composite materials. The reinforcement of these polymers by means of vegetable fibers improves their mechanical properties and opens up new fields of application within the construction industry with the use of techniques such as film stacking, injection molding, and press consolidation.
A mixture of hemp fibers and hurds subjected to extreme heat and pressure can be molded into a completely biodegradable material that possesses excellent thermal and acoustic capabilities, as well as being fire-resistant and competitive in mechanical characteristics (tensile and compressive strength) with modern materials that are produced with a petrochemical base. Many of these qualities have been extensively tested with techniques such as electron microscopy an analysis of crystallographic changes that occur within the organic biopolymer that exists within the hempen matrix.
Research in the area of biological renewable materials has shown that the main building blocks of life &endash; carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and their derivatives &endash; could be substitute products from the modern non-renewable resources. (Almost everything made from a hydrocarbon can be produced from a renewable carbohydrate.) The advantage of using a renewable resource as the root of our building industry can be seen as we assess the life cycle of the material through its growth harvest and production, as well as in the examination of the gases that are released into the environment (or household) after construction.
Many modern materials produce harmful off-gas that silently infiltrates into our bodies during everyday activities. By using industrial hemp to manufacture non-toxic products, we can alleviate the release of many harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, as well as improve upon the overall health of the community. The cellulose from the hemp plant can be extruded into almost any product. By varying the heat, pressure, chemistry, and retention time with the extrusion process a range of fiber and cellular materials with multiple strength characteristics can be generated.
Products for the home industry that have been created using the industrial hemp plant include, but are not limited to: eco-composite paneling, fiberboard beams, roof shingles, carpets, biodegradable paints, curtains, and rugs.
Transportation and Energy
The biomass from the hemp plant can converted into many forms of energy that can be used throughout the household and the community. Biomass can be converted to methane, methanol, ethanol, or gasoline at a fraction of the current cost of oil, coal, or nuclear energy. As an energy crop, hemp can contribute to the biodiesel industry in applications such as heating homes, as well as a trillion dollar biofuel industry that can supply the fuel necessary to run automobiles. These methods have been proven capable of competing with the non-renewable fossil fuel industry, as well as reversing the Greenhouse Effect through its growth and harvest that removes CO2 from the atmosphere. In addition being an excellent lubricant for industrial applications, hempseed oil can be used as lighting oil. As Abraham Lincoln demonstrated, it produces the brightest lamplight, and offers an alternative to costly energy bills.
Perhaps one of the most beneficial characteristics of this renewable resource is that the hemp plant can be used in its entirety, and that a streamlined life-cycle assessment yields positive impacts on the environment throughout the growth, harvest, and production stages. The industrial hemp plant offers a wide variety of high performance applications through the many aspects of community design, and will help strengthen our local economy, return power back to our local agricultural industry, and restore the environment as it grows.
Resources
Conrad, Chris. “Hemp; Lifeline to the Future” Creative Expressions Publications. Los Angeles, California 1994.
Berman, Allen. “Your Naturally Healthy Home: Stylish, Safe, Simple” Rodale.
Pejis, Ton. International Conference on EcoComposites” Queen Mary University, London.
Hemp Industries Association. Occidental, California
Hemp World/Hemp Pages. Forestville, California 2000
Your home takes more energy and produces more pollution than your car. Combine that with your place of work and you can see why green buildings and homes are a good idea.
Gee, I’m glad to see that an article about the biggest, simplest, most effective thing we can do to save our keesters is stimulating such a lively discussion here on CD.
Wouldn’t it be a natural extension of this to have green communities that not only derive their energy from solar and wind technologies, but also grow crops needed by the greater community? We envision Agra-Communities where people’s investment is tied to a working farm that produces several organic crops that can be consumed by the community and/or sold in the marketplace. Small community run farms will ensure food independence from the corporate state. We have a plan, email us at biospagroup@yahoo.com for details.
I keep seeing contradictory “studies” and “polls” saying what American home buyers supposedly want. Many of the builder groups are still clinging to the idea that people want bigger houses. I’m not sure which came first; the industry’s enticing ads for bigger houses, or customers’ demand for them. Whichever, a lot of people were fooled into thinking bigger was better, til they got the first utility or tax bills.
These bigger homes, if they were built well enough to last, will probably be turned into multi-family dwellings out of necessity. The ones that were built to fall apart, which from what I see, many of them are, will just end up as landfill material. That goes for the ones that are supposedly built “green” too, because if they’re shoddy, and leak, they will not last and are not green. Wastefulness and shoddiness are never green.
Nor are high utility bills obviously.
Even if the house is built to be energy efficient, it’s ‘compared to what?’ It’s been said that smaller older houses can be more efficient than newer big ones simply because size does matter when it comes to utilities. Unless a house is built to be off the grid, it’s still got the bigger carbon footprint. Plus, part of that footprint is how far you have to drive to work. Big houses take more space, and development gets ever farther from ‘downtown,’ so their owners have to drive farther to get to work.
Driving just about everywhere else becomes necessary, too. Some of it’s bad development, and some is NIMBY-ism where people don’t want a store on their corner. Another NIMBY thing is people who move to new developments on the edge of town to be near nature, then strive to eliminate nature by evicting the wildlife and putting in water and fertilizer hogging lawns that pollute with their chemical run off and lawn mower gas fumes. It’s not ALL the developers’ fault when NIMBYs happily buy these homes, but the deveolopers are the last ones to pay the price when things go wrong.
The way developments are planned, they discourage walking on short errands. Walls surround developments, blocking off stores that are literally 100 feet away. Some don’t have pedestrian walkways so even if you can theoretically walk somewhere you have to walk in a muddy ditch, (forget biking!), or walk in the street and risk getting hit by a car. There is no common sense and no ‘green sense’ in the planning of new development despite all the hype about so-called smart growth. Building in swamps isn’t smart either, but builders are doing it in FL particularly. Govt needs to stop approving these plans that are doomed to fail, and stand up to developers.
We’ve got to take away the developer’s control out of these things because their motive is profit, no matter how warm and fuzzy their lobbying and advertising make it sound. If they build junk, or energy hogs, or houses in swamps and move on wtih their millions in profits, the taxpayers are left to pick up the tab. And the environment suffers greatly, too.
Put an energy sticker on the front door of houses for sale just like appliances and cars. Once people see how much it costs in the long run, they will push for more efficient designs.