PHOENIX — When the Greenbuild Expo 2009 landed in Phoenix Nov. 9 with 30,000 participants, the circus came to town for Mick Dalrymple. He runs the a.k.a. Green Eco-Friendly Building Center, the Phoenix area’s first store of its kind.

Phoenix Convention Center

Dalrymple also sits on the national board of the U.S. Green Building Council, the organizer of Greenbuild Expo and International Conference, which this year (its eighth) has packed 1,800 exhibitors into the recently expanded Phoenix Convention Center.

An electrical engineer, former Hollywood filmmaker and graduate of the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Dalrymple first came to green building as a way out of an oil-based U.S. national security policy. He would give talks on how green building could lead to energy independence, and when people complained they couldn’t find where to buy these mysterious carbon-neutral products, he opened a store.

Dalrymple has enthusiasm and some concern for the abundant new green technologies and materials on hand.

Just as former Vice President Al Gore cautioned the green builders at an opening celebration Wednesday night, Dalrymple warned against “greenwashing” – selling something as green that isn’t.

“The business has become more mainstream and a lot of the traditional channels are starting to be populated with ‘light’ green materials. They may be better, but nowhere near what is possible, or they may use toxins or child labor to produce it,” Dalrymple said, noting that the maze of certifications in the industry sometimes can lead to more, rather than less confusion. He also mentions the small percentage of recycled materials in some so-called recycled products: “Why not recycle more? I want to see more things recycled—pecan shells or pistachio shells—stuff people normally think of as waste. Why is it waste?”

Dalrymple also has some idea of where the wild things are at the jam-packed Greenbuild Expo 2009.

• LED residential lighting
  

“I’ve been waiting five years for the next step in LED. I think this will be the year of the LED. I have a background in film and I just love lights,” Dalrymple said.

Cree's Indoor Recessed Light

He may be right. LEDs (light-emitting diodes), traditionally the light on your clock radio—use less energy, live eons longer, dosn’t emit heat, work with a dimmer switch and don’t contain the mercury of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Until now, LED fixtures have been too expensive and didn’t look “warm” enough for household use. New technology has improved the products and brought the price down. The life of an LED can be 50,000 hours (or more than 5 years if you left it on around the clock).

Cree LED Lighting, a growing green company based in North Carolina, is working to improve the quality and price of LEDs. Cree offers “Cree True White Technology,” to deliver warm color and very high efficiency. Its LR6 LED uses 12 watts to deliver the equivalent of a 65watt incandescent. LR6 and other fixtures can be retrofitted into existing recessed lighting hook-ups, last about 12 years in homes and cost under $100.

RAB Lighting’s outdoor LPack, made for over garage doors and pathway lighting, uses about 13 Watts to light the equivalent of a 55 watt  incandescent for 50,000 hours; at $140, it comes in a cool aluminum housing that looks sort of like an over-sized Blackberry.

• Composite Flooring.

“Shredded bamboo is now made into flooring that has patterns and looks fabulous. And the popularity of cork flooring is growing, almost replacing bamboo,” Dalrymple said.

A fast-growing grass, bamboo is a renewable resource, but for optimal environmental imprint, it shouldn’t be harvested before 5.5 years and should come from the hardy moso species. Ask questions when shopping.  Some manufacturers use formaldehyde for bonding—but they don’t have to.

Teragren Flooring doesn’t use formaldehyde and offers an array of Floorscore-certified  (a third-party certification by Scientific Certification Systems) bamboo flooring; this year Teregren sells water and bacteria-resistant countertops, in addition to flooring.

Sustainable Flooring's shower cork

Cork flooring isn’t exactly new – Frank Lloyd Wright used it in his 1936 masterpiece Fallingwater with good reason.  It’s a natural insulator, is silent and reduces jostling of the joints and spine when you walk on it. The best cork comes from the Mediterranean. A softer version grows in China, but the durable stuff is firm and a by-product of the wine-cork industry in Portugal and Italy.

Both Expanko and Sustainable Flooring show gorgeous samples of Mediterranean cork tile and mosaic cork tile. Expanko provided the new floors when Fallingwater was restored.

With flooring, comes the danger that what adheres it may be manufactured with formaldehyde and other toxins. A new product from Smith & Fong Plyboo, SoyBond, is formaldehyde-free, made from soybeans for use with bamboo. Plyboo also makes a line of nontoxic plywood.

• Certification and label help.

With the mainstreaming of green building, new green labels abound at Greenbuild Expo — and at every home improvement store. But which ones mean anything? Dalrymple says keep in mind that a third-party rating, like Green Seal for paints, cleaners and other products, is likely to be more dependable than the “green this or green that” labels created in the marketing departments of home improvement companies. A growing legion of online help is available to sift out the scientific from the marketing messages.

Ecolabelling is a tool for anyone. It’s a nonprofit that tries to compile data on every green label in the world and tells you what the label is worth.

The so-called “Amazon.com of green building products,” Buildingease helps designers, contractors and others search for certified green products. Click on “3″ to find legitimate third-party green product ratings. It’s a one-stop portal for researching, rating and buying green building products at the lowest price.

Mick Dalyrmple, owner a.k.a. Green

The newest entry in online aid is GreenKonnect, a search engine built for the green building industry. The Beta version bowed at Greenbuild Expo.  Watch for the actual launch. Utilizing a database of LEED-certified building projects and green products used in LEED buildings, site organizers hope to become a first stop for architects, engineers and contractors planning projects for LEED certification or other types. It will be free to everyone at first. Later, manufacturers will pay, based on product sales.

Thousand of products and so little time. A solid two day’s of looking is on display at Greenbuild Expo. For detailed listings, visit the Greenbuild website.

Then, if you plan to transition into a green home, start small, says Dalrymple. “Buy a few low energy bulbs. See how you like it. Pretty soon you’ll be opening a green products store and wondering: why did I do that?”

(Kate Nolan writes about the environment and health in Phoenix. She worked formerly as areporter for The Arizona Republic; managing editor at Phoenix New Times and editor at Playboy.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in conjunction with the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and The Hospitality Industry Network (NEWH) asked interior designers to submit their plans for an eco-friendly guest room in their first-ever Sustainable Suite Design Competition.

(Photo: USGBC)

With the hospitality industry being a large consumer of water and energy use, this competition was aimed to inspire green design throughout the industry.

“The purpose of the competition was to bring greater awareness about green building to the hospitality industry. Hotels are 24-hour a day businesses, and are among the highest consumers of water, energy and other natural resources. By joining with ASID and NEWH, hopefully the hospitality industry will hear the call and bring hotels – newly built and existing – to a higher level of performance by incorporating sustainability into their practices,” said Marie Coleman, a spokeswoman for the USGBC.

More than 65 sustainable designs were submitted. Each one uniquely highlighted the importance of different environmental aspects, exhibiting a promising future for greener design among newly built and existing hotels.

Designs were judged on three categories:

• Design Elements: water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor environmental quality
• Education: guest room attributes and guest practices
• Overall Design: integrated design approach, originality and innovation, general aesthetic and financial feasibility

WATG, a destination design firm, submitted the winning design in conjunction with IDEO. Their suite, Haptik, a Greek term meaning to experience interactions based on sense of touch, created a combination of sustainability and luxury. Haptik will be featured at the 2010 Hospitality Design Expo & Conference in Las Vegas this May.
Among the innovative winning design were many eco-features such as:

• An “all-off ” switch to ensure lights are automatically turned-off based on passive infrared sensors (PIS)
• room conditioning equipped by a four-pipe horizontal fan-coil system
• pressure-lite technology for the toilets
• a  Trombe wall in the shower that captures solar heat to warm the shower water
• a low flow shower head
• a graywater irrigation system that filters and recycles shower water to outdoor gardens and landscaping
• recycling bins in the room

“It was great to see the level of interest in the competition – not just in the number of submissions we received, but the level of design and innovation these firms and young professionals put into their submissions,” Coleman said.

“Designers are an important part of making green technologies sophisticated and accessible to anyone working in or staying at a hotel, showing that environmental responsibility can be easily attained.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The US Green Building Council has pronounced New Orleans home to the biggest green neighborhood in the world, thanks to the efforts of Brad Pitt and the group Make It Right who have built 13 LEED Platinum certified, storm-resistant homes and are planning another 150 more in the Lower 9th Ward .

Home at 1631 Tennessee (Photo: Concordia)

The neighborhood, already impoverished, was among those hardest hit by post-Katrina flooding when New Orleans levees failed after the 2005 hurricane.

Pitt and Make It Right Executive Director Tom Darden accepted an award for their rebuilding accomplishments at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York on Thursday.

“In transforming the Lower 9th Ward, Make It Right is showing us how we can transform those parts of our nation that have fallen behind the most, whether through neglect, poverty or disaster,” said President Clinton.

“Make It Right offers a blueprint for how to build homes that instill pride and combine to form communities of hope and opportunity. By following the Make It Right model, we can generate the green collar jobs our economy needs to move forward and advance building practices that reduce carbon emissions…”

Home at 1744 Tennessee (Photo: Kieran Timberlake)

Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council, said the Make It Right project “proved that green building can be both affordable and high performing.”

“In facing our nation’s unprecedented economic and environmental crises, we must change the way the places in which we live, work, learn and play are built and operated. What we’re seeing with green building goes beyond energy-efficiency to a transformation of entire communities – and the lives of the people who live there,” he said.

Fedrizzi presented the award, a LEED plaque to Pitt, Darden and Make It Right resident and Katrina-survivor Deidre Taylor, noting that Platinum certifications achieved in the neighborhood are the highest possible.

Make It Right is a collaboration between actor Brad Pitt, Steve Bing, Graft Architects, Cherokee Gives Back and William McDonough + Partners. Make it Right plans to have 50 homes up and running by December and 150 by December 2010.

Home at 1843 Tennessee (Photo: Billes Designs, New Orleans)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The Bluebell Garden at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, NC. (Photo: Proximity Hotel)

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

It’s a rare hotel these days that doesn’t offer to not wash your sheets, in the interest of conserving water. A handful of hotels go further, touting their bamboo flooring, low-flow faucets and other flourishes.

But get ready traveler, you ain’t seen nothing yet. There’s an avalanche of green hospitality heading your way as some 700 hotels queue up to complete their LEED certifications with the US Green Building Council over the next year or so, and after their environmental inductions, you can bet they’ll be serving up more than just local greens. In the competitive travel industry, they’ll be angling for eco-kudos, showcasing everything from their fly ash foundations to their roof-top herb gardens.

For the savvy and weary business traveler, as well as the mom-and-pop tourist, this could be a fun new era. You’ll be treated to organic yogurt, natural mattresses and air quality systems. But it also holds perils for both guests and hotel operators.

Guests wanting to go green could quickly be confused by a cacophony of appeals. Travelocity and Orbitz now rate hotels on their eco offerings. AAA is going to stamp entries in its 2010 book with a green symbol denoting the supposed environmentally elite.

Green Seal, which certifies hotels that use non-toxic cleaners, will continue to push its version of green. Energy Star credentials green hotels, just as it does other commercial buildings. And finally, you’ll be seeing plaques about the US Green Building Council’s LEED program, the respected and most all-encompassing designation for hotel properties. There are four levels — certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum — that can be applied to  newly built or retrofitted hotels.

And as in the army, the stripes and colors mean something. A “certified” LEED hotel may not be doing much more than making sensible changes to reduce energy consumption, whereas a gold-rated operation could be a real striver in the green space.

Now add one more layer. The USGBC offers another rating, for operations. It’s called the Existing Building (EB) certification, and only five hotel properties currently carry that distinction, compared with the 700-plus that already have or are about to receive LEED certification for their structure. Getting EB qualified is about daily green actions, like sending out your potato peelings to be composted and using soaps that don’t kill fish when they’re flushed out into the world. Considering that hotel operations consume a lot of resources and generate considerable waste (far more than residences or offices), this lesser known operations certification,  seems like more than a detail. If the green trend holds, expect to see hotels signing up for this designation as well.

A Platinum Night’s Sleep

As this new green stew simmers, hotel operators find themselves in the unusual position of having to adjust their approach to guests. While they want to promise great comforts, new green standards mean it won’t be coddling as usual. Guests will be asked, either directly or through the power of suggestion, to act responsibly by putting recyclables in the nice new bins in their room, or drinking the perfectly fine filtered water from their faucet instead of indulging in the bottled variety.

Yes, it will be a new day at the Days Inn, or anywhere else changes are being made. At the same time, hotels will want to keep guests comfortable, because, well, that’s their job.

To see the shape of things to come, we took a look at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, N.C., the only platinum-rated hotel in the United States.

Dennis Quaintance, Chief Design Officer of Proximity Hotel and President of Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants & Hotels, with the 100 solar panels atop the hotel. (Photo: Proximity Hotel)

Stroll into the Proximity, and you’ll be drenched in sunlight, but invisibly enveloped by several state-of-the-art energy innovations that combine to make the hotel use 40 percent less electricity than a comparable building. Solar rooftop panels heat the hotel’s water, geothermal energy is used for the kitchen refrigerators, large windows reduce the need for indoor lights and  offer views of the outdoors while also admitting fresh air. A special “energy recovery” system uses exhausted cool air to assist the AC. Even the elevators run on a new energy-conserving program that recaptures energy generated.

The hotel used recycled materials in the foundation, drywall and steel staircase. Guest room shelving was made with a 100 percent recycled, formaldehyde-free  particle board (SkyBlend). Water use was reduced with high-efficiency Kohler plumbing that saved 2 million gallons of water in the first year. A nearby stream was restored with the use of native plantings and erosion control techniques. Some of the furniture is so local, it was made on site, and the art, by artist-in-residence Chip Holton, came from across the street.

When the hotel was built in 2007, it sent relatively little construction waste to the landfill – 87 percent of the waste was recycled.

All of this earned the Proximity LEED points, and for co-owners Dennis Quaintance, Nancy King Quaintance and Mike Weaver, it became a challenge to leap the highest bar. They wanted to win a platinum rating, not just because they could, but because they believe in preserving the world for future generations. For husband-and-wife Quaintances, it meant considering the legacy they’d leave to their children, and beyond. Would their descendants look back and know they’d done their best for the environment?

The U.S. Green Building Council, started 16 years ago, has 20,200 members and more than 50,000 LEED registered and certified projects around the world (80 percent are in the US).

And the group plans to get even bigger as it turns its attention to college campuses and enlists the help of students.

The USGBC is helping universities across the country to establish sustainability courses and USGBC student organizations, and of course, to build green. The Washington-based NGO estimates that there will be 4,300 LEED projects registered (underway) and certified (completed) on college campuses at the end of 2009.

The USGBC defines a green campus as “a higher education community that is improving energy efficiency, conserving resources, and enhancing environmental quality by educating for sustainability and creating healthy living and learning environments.”

The colleges and universities that do all that will serve as examples, not only for students, but for the larger community, pushing the green envelope and raising a generation for whom green is the norm.

“We are going to develop a generation of people that just are absolutely hardwired for … sustainable living,” said S. Richard Fedrizzi, CEO and Founding Chairman of the U.S. Green Building Council, in a recent speech in Chicago to national university leaders.

Universities and students will incubate new, more conserving and sustainable ways of engineering structures and living spaces, Fedrizzi said, which will lead to more accountability and transparency in building.

“If you can take a 99 cent box of crackers that tells you how much fat, how much protein, how much carbohydrates, how much sodium is in that box, and you as a consumer have the ability to chose it based on your health, based on your values, based on a number of things or not, this is a striking contrast when you realize we’ll spend 30 or 50 million dollars on a building and prior to LEED we never had that nutrition label,” said Fedrizzi.

LEED, he explained, will be a road map. Through LEED certification, people will have precise measures of a structure’s air quality, energy use, and the quality and origins of its materials.

Helping the environment is not the only advantage, there are economic, health, and community benefits as well, Fedrizzi said. According to the USGBC, green buildings can significantly reduce energy use, carbon emissions, water use, and solid waste, with an average savings of 35-70%  in each of these areas per year.

Colleges, typically the nexus of any societal changes, will help perfect, promote and energize the green building movement.

“We (colleges and universities) may comprise only 3% of the carbon footprint, but we represent 100% of the student footprint,” said Michael M. Crow, President of Arizona State University.

• You can start a USGBC student group at your school.  With tools and resources from the USGBC you can pave the way on your campus.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Grammy winner and environmental activist Sheryl Crow will open the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild 2009 Conference, the organization announced today.

“Performing at Greenbuild is like being on the international stage of the green movement, celebrating with you the progress we’re making on this important issue,” Crow said in a statement.

The Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, scheduled for Nov. 11 to 13 in Phoenix, has grown to be the leading forum on sustainable buildings and communities. Because of its increasing profile and size, the USGBC decided to open this year’s event at Chase Field, home to Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks.

“Beyond her music, Sheryl Crow’s informed and effective advocacy made her the natural choice to help us open Greenbuild in a new and powerful way,” Rick Fedrizzi, USGBC President, CEO and Founding Chair, said in a statement. “More than 25,000 people gather every year at Greenbuild because we know that the building industry can play a major role in reducing carbon emissions and increasing energy independence and economic growth.”

A graduate of the University of Missouri, Crow also holds honorary degrees from Temple University and Southeast Missouri University. She has been on the leading edge in urging the adoption of efficient technologies like CFLs and biofuels, and has applied her influence to the grassroots, the media, Fortune 500 companies and the government to build support for environmental protection.

In addition to guest speakers, Greenbuild 2009 also will feature more than 100 educational sessions, LEED and Education Provider workshops, off-site educational sessions, a two day Residential Summit, and tours of local green building sites throughout the Arizona area. More than 1,700 exhibitors will showcase some of the leading technologies and products in green design, construction and operations.

Last year’s Greenbuild, held in Boston, drew more than 28,000 attendees and featured more than 800 exhibit booths. Past Greenbuild keynote speakers have included President Bill Clinton, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, E.O. Wilson, Van Jones, William McDonough and Paul Hawken.

Related link:

• See presentations made at last year’s Greenbuild

Related video:

2008 Greenbuild Recap Video:

One or two of the seven dwarfs would enjoy these houses, but certainly not all of them, and forget about Snow White. In Peter Pan, the lost boys made such a house for Wendy. And when Alice landed in Wonderland, she too experienced the tiny house phenomenon.

So, now in 2009, what’s the appeal of a home that ranges 100 to 800 square feet? Is there a market for them? Are people really downsizing to this level?

The economy may be one factor, but most folks who are attracted to these miniature homes are seeking a simpler, scaled down lifestyle –one that is kinder to the environment. Such a home uses less energy and takes advantage of renewable resources.

Simon Hare, a designer/builder in the Boston area, has resurrected an 150-year-old former gunsmith workshop and is now living in a very efficient 750-square-foot home in the dense urban setting of Roxbury, Mass. Dubbed the Pratt House project, the house is being constructed by Placetailor Inc.,  a design/build company that renovates city environments. Hare is one of five associates who work at Placetailor. The house, says Hare, “is named after Henry Pratt, the 19th century gunsmith who used it as his workshop when Roxbury was still mostly a rural settlement on the outskirts of Boston.”

Through the Looking Glass

“We just moved in this summer,” says Hare, who lives here with his engineer wife and one-year-old child. “In fact, the house isn’t finished yet. We live on the top floor, while the downstairs is being completed. We like small spaces — we’ve lived in studios before. It’s good for the environment, it’s easier to control and it’s good financially.”

Placetailor has managed to eliminate a traditional heating system (see picture right), amazing for anyone who has experienced a New England winter. “We keep the heat from a hot shower and the heat emitted by a refrigerator, by having great insulation. We also seal the building to make it airtight and situate the openings to best take advantage of the sun. By putting windows on the correct sides of the building, we minimize the amount of heat that is lost. We use no oil or gas, in fact, the house is designed to consume no energy.”

“Our walls,” says Hare, “are made of 12-1/4″ thick Styrofoam sandwiched between two layers of plywood. This is one of the many construction details we used to make the most of our house, both energy wise and otherwise.

“We don’t have a lot of appliances,” says Hare. Their washer-dryer is one unit and contains a condensing dryer, which is very efficient. It fits beneath the counter, similar to a dishwasher. “The clothes go in dirty and come out dry and clean,” says Hare. The unit does not emit exhaust like a typical dryer, so no heat is lost. As for cooking, the Hares use a convection microwave oven and a small cook top range, designed for a sailboat. Their fridge is measures 10 cubic feet.

The plumbing system consists of an electric tank less and instantaneous hot water heater located in a special wall cavity between the bathroom and kitchen, which are back to back. There are three lines, one goes to the lavatory, says Hare; the others go to the shower and the kitchen sink. There is no traditional water heater, “so we avoid having water standing around,” says Hare.

Basically, it’s a big house condensed into a smaller one, he says. “We’ve cut out a lot of things. And it’s taken a lot of trips to the local thrift shop to donate what we don’t use. There’s no room for storage.”

The second floor has two areas for sleeping, but no partitions. “The house is good for our small family, but would also work for empty nesters,” says Hare. In addition, he says, “we’ve found that people put out heat themselves and now with the addition of our baby, that helps…

“Of course,” he says, “there are other reasons for having kids!”

If anyone knows about energy-efficient, environmentally responsible buildings, it’s the U.S. Green Building Council. The booming non-profit wrote the book when it comes to guiding and recognizing those who create the world’s greenest buildings.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the council’s new headquarters in Washington, D.C., has received their own highest rating for environmentally smart buildings – platinum.

Before you assume they’re tooting their own horn, a look at all of the green elements of the council’s new 75,000-square-foot office may allay suspicions. (Besides, if they didn’t build the most energy-efficient and environmentally sound building possible, more than a few fingers would wag.)

The building includes:

• 100 percent underground parking (thus, no heat-island effect) and proximity to public transportation.
• A two-story water feature in the airy, open lobby to bring the outdoors inside.  Floor-to-ceiling glass windows offer every office and cubicle daylight and a view outdoors. The windows’ electronic shades reduce glare and automatically adjust based on exterior light.
• An elevator lobby, reception and conference areas covered in 500-year-old gumwood that was, according to a release from the council, salvaged from the Tennessee River. A two-story portion of the gumwood contains the USGBC logo.
• Water use was decreased by 40 percent with the help of low-flow faucets and shower heads, two-way flushing systems on toilets and waterless urinals.
• Zoning controls that employees can use to control temperature provide energy savings, as do sensors that turn lights off when offices are empty (or dim and turn off when daylight is bright).
• Furnishings and finishes are all green: wall panels made of recycled polyesters, carpet tile that is 60 percent recycled, countertops of 100 percent recycled glass. Paint, flooring and furnishings do not add chemicals to the air, and there are CO2 sensors.
• An impressive 95 percent of the construction and demolition debris from the construction was reconstituted, never nearing a landfill.
• A dashboard system that provides constant feedback on the building’s energy use.
• A “learning pathway” explains the green design techniques of the building. A “material wall” shows every material used in the offices, including where it came from and how it’s used.
• A “performance dashboard” – a flat-panel TV – shows how the building works, and its efficiency.
• The “progress wall” explains and outlines the council’s function and its LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficiency & Design) certification system, which recognizes buildings for their green design, operations, location and maintenance. The building also has an “environmental” timeline showing centuries of green milestones.
• The “Knowledge Center” replaces the conventional library. It’s a “smart room” chock full of examples of and reading material about green technology.
• The council’s employees moved into their new building in March. They needed more space, their statement says, because of more than 35,000 projects participating in their LEED system (which adds up to more than 5.6 billion square feet of construction in every U.S. state and 91 countries).

The green building industry, the council says, is expected to grow to $60 billion by next year.

The council brings together builders and environmentalists, elected officials, corporations and others to help make buildings – new or retrofitted — more cost-efficient and environmentally sound. They provide green guidance and recognition for everything from houses and commercial buildings, neighborhoods and schools, retail and healthcare facilities. Buildings in the U.S. suck up a lot of energy – some estimates put the carbon footprint of buildings at about 40 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions –so LEED certification can help reduce carbon footprints.

In April, the council launched a new version of its LEED program, with expanded “credit points” for various design elements, and in some cases, stricter requirements.

Photos courtesy United States Green Building Council

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Let there be light. Places of worship throughout the world are taking this phrase to heart.

The US Green Building Council counts 43 religious projects registered with them, pending LEED certification. The projects include five Jewish temples, 36 Christian churches, one monastery and one seminary.

Not to be outdone is the epicenter of Catholicism, Vatican City, which has worked since 2006 to become the first carbon neutral state. A rooftop garden of solar panels above the Pope’s audience hall was turned on in November 2008. The panels on the 5,000-square-foot roof produce 300 kilowatt hours of energy, creating enough electricity to heat, cool and light the entire building year-round. The Vatican also is in the process of growing a 37-acre forest in Hungary to offset its annual carbon dioxide emissions.

Here is a look at some of the major projects around the nation:

From Green Right Now Reports

The Orchard Hotel has earned LEED-EB (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification for an existing building by the U.S. Green Building Council. San Francisco’s only hotel to earn this honor, the Orchard Hotel is the second hotel in California and fourth hotel in the world with this certification.

LEED-EB is the USGBC’s rating system for operating high performance buildings dedicated to whole-building cleaning and maintenance issues, recycling programs, exterior maintenance programs and systems upgrades.

The Orchard Hotel, managed by Portfolio Hotels & Resorts, based in Oak Brook, IL, includes 104 guest rooms and is located just two blocks from Union Square. The hotel said the inspiration for meeting the LEED-EB guidelines comes from its 85-year-old owner, Mrs. S.C. Huang. She is passionate about clean environments, after the untimely cancer-related deaths of three family members, and has devoted herself to creating environmentally safe and sustainable hotels.

“Mrs. S.C. Huang pursued a LEED certification for her existing hotel for several important reasons,” Stefan Mühle, general manager for the hotels and regional director for Portfolio Hotels & Resorts, said in a statement. “Studies prove that LEED certified buildings have lower operating costs, higher employee productivity, and happier, healthier occupants. We’re extremely proud to lead the hospitality industry in our dedication to our environment and our guests’ and employees’ quality of life.”

The Orchard Hotel achieved LEED-EB certification for managing energy use, sustainable cleaning and maintenance practices, employee education, recycling policies, lighting, water and material use as well as incorporating a variety of other sustainable strategies. The hotel’s green practices also include chemical-free cleaning products, a 100% tobacco-free environment, recycled paper and soy-based inks, low flow toilets and showers, CFL, halogen or LED lighting throughout the hotel; low or no-VOC paints, adhesives and sealants; strict recycling and compost programs and more.

In 2007, the Orchard Hotel’s sister property, the Orchard Garden Hotel, was awarded LEED-NC® (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design-New Construction) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. San Francisco’s first hotel to earn this honor, the Orchard Garden was only the third hotel in the U.S. and fourth hotel in the world with this certification.

MORE FROM GRN

It can be a challenge to update an historic building, let alone transform it into a model of green modernity. Rattling pipes crowd walls that need new duct work; old fixtures adhere stubbornly to aging walls and facades retain character, but heating and cooling – not so much.

Still, the historic Heathman Hotel in downtown Portland has recently undergone two green upgrades, and is determined to become a model of sustainability, while sacrificing none of its landmark historic elegance.

The 81-year-old Heathman, like most vintage urban hotels, has been through many nips and tucks over the decades. It got its first green redo about three years ago with the renovation of the guest bedrooms and living areas and the addition of a new heating and cooling system. The project, which won financial incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon, and included switching to CFL light bulbs, proved enlightening: The changes trimmed energy usage by 20 to 30 percent at the 150-room hotel.

“My return on investment, we realized that in less than two years; a year and half for the HVAC investment,” said hotel general manager Chris Erickson. “It was a wise idea and now as we move into the future, it’s all straight to the bottom line.”

Green redo Number Two, is currently underway as the Heathman overhauls its guest bathrooms, all 155 of them, which will save thousands of gallons of water every day. New low-flow shower heads and water-wise commodes (which use 1.5 gallons per flush instead of 3 gallons) are expected to cut bathroom water use in half, without guests even noticing.

Having witnessed during his career how most hotel renovations send tons of refuse to the dump, Erickson decided to turn this latest bathroom project into a study of converting to a more sustainable operation, sustainably.

He contracted with Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects to design the new look of the bathrooms, and also with the non-profit ReBuilding Center of Portland, to whisk away the outgoing material.

The Center sent “deconstruction” experts to assess how everything coming out of the bathrooms could be reclaimed, thus giving the used sinks, fixtures and doors a second life through the center’s resale program, and also reducing the impact on the landfill.

The program they came up with has produced a nearly waste-free, or 99 percent landfill-free, remodel that diverted an estimated 15 tons of debris. Only the mirrors that were accidentally broken while being removed had to be discarded.

The  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized 25 U.S. cities for having the most Energy Star buildings in 2008.

The top 10 are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Washington, D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta and Seattle.

Los Angeles ranked first with 262 buildings earning the Energy Star rating, which can be applied to rehabbed and new properties. San Francisco had 194 buildings; Houston, 145; Washington D.C., 136 and Dallas, 126.

Energy Star, the EPA’s label for high efficiency, sets standards for everthing from light bulbs and appliances to buildings.

“An Energy Star building,” says Energy Star spokesperson Maura Beard, “uses 35 percent less energy and emits 35 percent less greenhouse gases than average buildings.”

Looking at the list, it might surprise some to see cities such as Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston — known more for their air quality challenges than for green building — at the top of the rankings.

Ms. Beard explains that the list reflects improvements in buildings, which will be reflected in air quality gains later on.

“In terms of this list, we looked specifically at [a building’s] reductions in greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. This is a big concern in states like California and Texas where there is a lot of demand on their infrastructure,” she says.

There were some standout buildings in each of these three cities, she says. She praised a retrofit of a JC Penney store that was built in 1969 in Downey Calif., in Los Angeles County. “They did a beautiful job improving the building’s energy efficiency, starting with its operating characteristics,” says Beard. (Also this week, JC Penney, an early adopter of the Energy Star program with 52 stores that have earned the label, won the first Energy Star Award for Sustained Excellence in Energy Management.)

In Houston, the Green Valley Elementary School involved the student body in its transformation. “Here the kids formed patrol teams making sure lights weren’t left on in the cafeteria and elsewhere when not in use,” says Beard. And in Dallas, the Hines real estate firm, won the Energy Star rating for its Galleria North Tower office building.

The Galleria office building is attached to a spacious, upscale, air-conditioned mall, which raises the question: What about the energy efficiency of malls in general?

“Shopping malls are difficult [structures] to measure efficiency in,” says Beard. “For Energy Star, we collect data from the Department of Energy, then build a model. There are 12 different types of buildings included in the Energy Star ratings. For example, you can’t compare a hospital to a small store. Your have to compare peers, apples to apples.

“For now, we can just measure the efficiency of the anchor stores at a mall. It’s difficult to measure each of the many small stores. We are working with the Simon group, who manages many of the country’s malls, to improve this.”

The EPA reports that in 2008, more than 3,300 commercial buildings and manufacturing plants earned the Energy Star rating. This translates into a savings of more than $1 billion in utility bills and more than 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The structures range from schools and hospitals to office buildings and assembly plants.

More than 6,200 U.S. buildings have qualified for the Energy Star rating in total, says EPA spokesperson Enesta Jones. This represents an annual savings in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road.

Depending on the climate and location, buildings, homes and offices and workplaces, are estimated to be responsible for about 40 percent of the world’s GHG gases.

The Energy Star rating system for buildings is similar to the green certification system devised by the U.S. Green Building Council known as LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Efficiency and Design. But Energy Star is more focused on onsite power savings, while LEED looks at how building materials are sourced and considers broader environmental issues like how close a building is to mass transit opportunities.

“LEED certification tends to be more for new buildings and includes everything, green roofs, supplies and materials, recycling, even the commute,” says Beard. “Energy Star is purely about energy efficiency.”

“It works best if the two [certification systems] are used hand in hand,” she says. “Energy Star is more rigorous in terms of energy efficiency. With LEED, you can get a bunch of points for many different attributes. If a building doesn’t score highly on energy efficiency, it could still earn LEED certification because it might score well on other levels.” (Though LEED standards are currently being tightened and it would be difficult for a building to earn the highest level ratings without being energy efficient.)

EPA’s new chief Lisa P. Jackson is pleased with the results of the Energy Star cities. In a statement released yesterday, she said, “EPA commends all of these cities…[that] are now using more energy efficient appliances and dwellings. They are saving energy, saving money and protecting our environment.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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