Building Alive, Designing to Thrive

Chicago Cultural Center's Tiffany Dome My first trip to the Windy City did not disappoint; I was pleased overall with session content and have some takeaways from each below. Teslas vs: Duck Curve This session touched on something that we in the New York City Living Building Challenge Collaborative have been discussing . In California, high energy efficiency and solar PV requirements have lead to high renewables production mid day to the grid, and an exponentially higher demand on the grid towards late afternoon hours when everyone is heading home. At the same time, Electric vehicles could potentially charge mid day while people are at work, and 'sell' some of their battery charge to the grid in the early evening when people are home and won't need their full remaining capacity. The grid here on the east coast isn't well suited to accept power, I am curious to see this theory grow. Building the First LEED Platinum City Washington DC announced last year...

"Life creates situations conducive to life…we must strive to do that" -Paul Hawken I've discussed this before, but I think it's worth addressing again; what ever happened to the precautionary principle? Why doesn't it apply to building science?   Imagine a world where it is harder to create a building or product that hurts the Earth than one that heals it- I believe that was the original intention of Building codes, Material Safety Data Sheets, and EPA regulation. But instead, it has provided opportunity for companies to say their products are safe because no one can prove they are dangerous!   Modern humans spend about 90% of their time in buildings- but still we construct them and finish them off with products that aren't healthy to breathe, touch, or make.   An article was published early last week about the long term negative health effects of 9/11 victims , rescuers, and so on. This year, dozens have died from cancers that can'...

MSDS stands for: Material Safety Data Sheet It is intended to provide workers with all vital information about a product they are handling: melting point, boiling point, toxicity, first aid, etc. Most final products (like a refrigerator) do not require an MSDS. Chemicals and products in liquid form usually do. A safety data sheet is not intended for the final consumer - more for the person installing or working with the product in an occupational setting. Every country has different standards for what must be explored and declared on an MSDS. The EU, for example requires more ecotoxicity information than the US. And Canada considers different chemicals mandatory for listing. Of course all nations permit proprietary withholding to protect a company’s recipe. In the US, OSHA oversees MSDS creation and so it is OSHA I pick a fight with now. In pursuing the Living Building Challenge, every product that we put in our structure needs to be vetted to ensure it incl...

Aristotle once said, "The energy of the mind is the essence to life". Too bad for him and us, buildings and modern society as we know it can't survive on the stuff. Buildings consume about 40% of the energy and 75% of the electricity produced annually in the United States. (usgbc), which means they are the largest demanders for power, heat, air and electric. So, for obvious reasons, these are the most important places to focus our energies (pun intended) in reduction and reuse. Reduction is probably the more obvious of the two, creating better buildings that don't leak heat and air conditioning, that are so well insulated the heat from the bodies of it's occupants actually warms the building. This will create a lower energy demand to control thermal comfort within the space. Reuse is the more challenging and yet I'd argue the more exciting way to increase efficiency in a home, building... or wherever. Something like using the wastewater from the toilets to co...

So, the first thing you should know. Is technically I'm not a complete laywoman. As you learned from my previous post I have spent all of my undergraduate career studying the 'Green Design' Stuff. There are tons of certification processes and awards just within the United States, but one of the most widely accepted and used is the LEED Certification Process with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) . LEED stands for L eadership in E nergy and E nvironmental D esign. It is a point system, where you earn a credit for every determined area (for example" Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, and Material and Resources are categories of points). For more information and resources regarding the LEED process and USGBC's various projects, visit their site at: www.usgbc.org One of my responsibilities as Sustainability Intern will be to earn my LEED Accredited Professional certificate, because although I have had a bunch of experience with LEED projects througho...