Green Building Articles
eMeter pulls in $32 million in funding
Smart grid software company eMeter is like the general store in the Gold Rush, according to company CEO Cree Edwards-not particularly glamorous, but absolutely necessary.
Some investors apparently agree about eMeter's role in the emerging smart grid: the company announced in June that it closed a $32 million funding round, led by Sequoia Capital and Foundation capital.
San Mateo-based eMeter makes software for utilities to manage smart meters, and has about 24 million meters under contract worldwide. In June, the company jumped into the home energy management arena with the release of Energy Engage, an online system for customers to track and manage their power use. The product rolled out with a one-year, 1,000 customer pilot project in Washington, D.C.
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Autodesk launches cleantech grant program
Engineering and design software maker Autodesk (Nasdaq: ADSK) is looking to get on board with emerging cleantech startups.
In July, the San Rafael–based company launched the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program, through which it plans to offer "seed grants" consisting of software packages-each worth $150,000-to up to 100 early-stage startups by 2010.
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BIM adoption rate exceeds 80% among nation's largest AEC firms
The nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction companies are on the BIM bandwagon in a big way, according to Building Design + Construction's
first annual Top 170 BIM Adopters ranking, published as part of the 2009 Giants 300 survey.
Of the 320 AEC firms that participated in Giants survey, 83% report having at least one BIM seat license in house, half have more than 30 seats, and nearly a quarter (23%) have 100-plus seats. In total, the Giants hold 28,174 BIM seats, with the average firm having 106 seats.
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BD+C Editor Cassidy to hospital designers: Cut costs, use BIM and IPD
Robert Cassidy, Editor-in-Chief of Building Design+Construction, warned 170 of the nation's top healthcare designers that they will be under severe pressure from the federal government to trim costs in hospital construction. Speaking at the AIA Summer Leadership Summit in Chicago on July 25, Cassidy advised architecture firms to use building information modeling (BIM) tools and integrated project delivery (IPD) to control costs.
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Global warming pushes up building insurance costs
Flash floods and giant hailstones help increase claims by 15% and insurance premiums by 10%
Householders face higher building insurance premiums after a sharp increase in property damage blamed on climate change. A rise in insurance claims has been caused by flash floods and storms in areas of Britain previously immune to severe weather events.
The AA, which produces an insurance premium index monitoring costs, reports a 15% rise in claims in the first six months of 2009 over the same period in 2008 "in the number and cost of payments for buildings damaged by flash floods and storms in areas with little or no previous record of such claims."
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Efficiency: Highest priority for no one
If there was still any question about the economic value of energy efficiency, it was put to rest this week by a McKinsey & Company report. The United States could save $1.2 trillion and generate 900,000 new jobs through better energy management, according to "Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the US Economy." Sounds good.
But there is a problem. We'll need billions of keys to do the unlocking. Efficiency potential rests in "100 million buildings and literally billions of devices," the report says.
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The Real Green Building Challenge: Creating Policy That Works
Green buildings are great, but the time for heralding each one as a symbol of sweeping change is over. To get our greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption under control, it's time to make green building the norm.
One way to fast-track this change is to create compelling policy. Governments across the globe are working to craft policy solutions that will rein in greenhouse gas emissions from the housing sector. One of the most well known is the United Kingdom's 10 year plan to take new buildings from non-regulated to carbon neutral.
"Toward Carbon Neutral Development" provides for a gradual tightening of energy efficiency building regulations -- lowering acceptable carbon emissions by 25
percent in 2010, by 44 percent in 2013, and down to the zero carbon target by 2016.
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Going Green: Syracuse is becoming a leader in indoor environmental systems
Could Syracuse become a center of "green" building technology?
Guess what? It already is. Consider:
* In March, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry held its seventh annual Green Building Conference.
* Also in March, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., gave S. Richard Fedrizzi of Westvale its "Visionaries in Sustainability" award. The former
Carrier executive and Le Moyne graduate is president and founder of the U.S. Green Building Council, known worldwide for its system of "scoring" buildings according to its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) criteria. Last October, Fedrizzi received the Dr. Willis H. Carrier Achievement Award for his contributions to enhancing the human environment.
* New building projects in Syracuse are expected to earn LEED certification, including the Jefferson Clinton Commons on South Clinton Street, equipped with energy-efficient bamboo and cork flooring, and a proposed office/residential building in Franklin Square that includes geothermal heating and cooling. Although Bob Congel's Destiny mall expansion has hit some financial snags, he has vowed than when completed, it will be powered entirely by renewable energy.
* Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll calls Syracuse "the Emerald City," and is committed to environmentally friendly policies. In 2007, the Go Green Earth Summit named Syracuse the Go Green Large City of the year.
* The centerpiece of Syracuse's green building reputation is Syracuse University's new Center for Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems, nearing completion at Almond and East Water streets.
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Clean Energy: U.S. Lags in Research and Development
When Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon 40 years ago, it was a triumph of American scientific skill. It was also the result of the government's willingness to spend more than $125 billion, in today's dollars, to take the country to the moon.
The need to remake our energy economy and replace fossil fuels with renewables like wind and solar is often referred to as the new Apollo project, a challenge to our scientists — and to the federal checkbook — that will be even greater than the moon race. We're moving ahead on installing new clean energy — the U.S. was the fastest growing wind-power market in the world in 2008 — and Congress, with the support of President Barack Obama, is on the road to establishing caps on carbon dioxide.
But according to many energy experts — including Steven Chu, Obama's Nobel Prize–winning Energy Secretary — the science isn't there yet. Significant basic research and development needs to happen before renewables can truly displace fossil fuels.
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BIM Required: New GSA Contracts Starting To Surge
As the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act approaches its sixth month on the books, the General Services Administration's $5.5-billion ARRA-funded program to build or upgrade scores of federal buildings suddenly has begun to take off. But critics continue to complain that other agencies are not turning their construction stimulus money into jobs-producing contracts fast enough.
After taking about six weeks just to produce its list of stimulus projects, GSA has shifted into overdrive. It has awarded contracts totaling nearly $1.1 billion for projects involving about 120 buildings. Twenty of those projects account for more than $940 million of that total.
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Why BIM?
August 06, 2009 - Mark Mergenschroer
I was speaking at a meeting several weeks ago and someone asked me about my beliefs on BIM. They were wondering why I thought BIM was here to stay. That question kind of caught me off guard; so it made me start thinking about why I believe what I do about the future of the AEC Industry.
In my thirteen years of being in the Engineering and Construction industry, I have seen many changes that have benefited the Owners, Architects, Engineers and Contractors. However not all of these changes benefited the entire group. I see BIM as the total package. BIM has the power to change the way we do business. How we implement the BIM process into our daily work schedules is the challenge.
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BIM: An Integrated What-If Engine
One of the things that makes building information modeling so much more than just 3D is the connection to a database. Mining the data can help us to study the impact of project decisions in a more predictive way than gut feel and experience alone. Better informed early decisions lead to less downstream changes and therefore less change orders, value engineering, and rework on the part of architects, engineers, and builders alike. New integrated cost modeling software can associate detailed cost estimating logic even at a conceptual level of model detail. This is much more accurate than the SF costing than many early budgets are based on and that causes so many budget overruns.
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The Green Product Platform for BIM
Building green needs to get easier. From both an environmental and technological perspective, the building industry has made incredible strides forward, but we’re not there yet. Ratings systems like LEED, CHPS and others that require specific metrics from products have set the bar for responsible building. And while BIM sets the standard for how we’ll work tomorrow, simplifying the documentation process that proves we’ve done the right thing needs to be integrated into that process. In other words, we need to embed our product models with their environmental performance metrics and green attributes. Doing so will allow the BIM user to evaluate options and their impacts with a instantaneous feedback mechanism.
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What Exactly Is Deconstruction?
Building deconstruction is the disassembly of building components to recover the maximum amount of reusable and recyclable materials in a safe, environmentally responsible, cost-effective manner. Generally, buildings are deconstructed in the reverse order of how they were constructed—last on, first off (LOFO). All salvageable items are removed and reused on the site for a new project, sold, or donated. Non-salvageable items are recycled to the extent possible, and the remaining debris is taken to the landfill. Deconstruction can be applied to total building removal, and also to remodeling.
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Expanded Polystyrene Energy Savings Study
A new study shows that expanded polystyrene (EPS) provides a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when used to insulate homes in North America. This study, Energy and Greenhouse Gas Savings for EPS Foam Insulation Applied to Exterior Walls of Single Family Residential Housing in the U.S. and Canada, calculated the resources used and emissions produced in the manufacturing and delivery of EPS and concludes that EPS insulation will reduce the operational impact of the building to an extent that far outweighs the environmental impact caused by its manufacture.
"Everyone knows that adding insulation to your home will reduce energy costs," acknowledges Betsy Steiner, executive director of the EPS Molders Association (EPSMA). "However, consumers are increasingly aware that product manufacture requires resource and energy consumption. We want our customers to know that energy and environmental payback on this investment is substantial, making EPS insulation one of the quickest and easiest ways to reduce energy usage."
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Green Wood Products
Certified wood should be used for any wood application for which it is available. Certified wood comes from well-managed forests that seek to balance the sometimes competing economic, community and environmental concerns associated with lumber harvesting and production.
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