Green Building and Manufacturing
What a Difference a "D" Makes - 3D BIM
When it comes to conveying the vision of a building design, Selser Schaefer Architects found that 3D can succeed where 2D fails.
Bringing a building design to fruition requires investing long hours, planning countless details, and - most importantly - securing client approval. Before the stakeholders will give their okay, however, they must be convinced that the design meets their needs, both practical and aesthetic. This is the part of the process when architects must become fortune-tellers, conjuring a compelling vision of the building-to-be. But what happens when architect and client gaze into the same crystal ball and see two different images?
That's what occurred when representatives from Oklahoma's Selser Schaefer Architects presented their design for the Tulsa Community College Center for Creativity to an executive committee. The Selser Schaefer team relied on various 2D architectural drawings to convey the design: the site layout, floor plans, a typical building section, and four exterior elevations.
Unfortunately, the 2D presentation fell flat. "[The clients] understood that the solution we were presenting was meeting the needs they [had specified] but ... we could tell that they weren't quite getting the whole story of the design," said Shannon West, an architectural intern at Selser Schaefer.
Part of the communication problem stemmed from the complexity of the four-story building, which had to accommodate many different uses, including events, distance learning, radio broadcasting, and media production. It was also crucial to the college's goal of creating a downtown campus - and the city's efforts to redevelop downtown Tulsa - that the building reach out to its surroundings, offering both literal and figurative transparency and fostering a spirit of collaboration.
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AMERICA'S CENTURY-LONG LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE CAR MAY BE COMING TO AN END
Between 1950 and 2008 more cars were added to our roads virtually every year as the total fleet expanded steadily from 49 million to 250 million vehicles. In 2009, however, 14 million cars were scrapped while only 10 million cars were sold, shrinking the fleet by 4 million vehicles, or nearly 2 percent. With record numbers of cars set to reach retirement age between now and 2020, the fleet could shrink by some 10 percent, dropping from the all-time high of 250 million in 2008 to 225 million in 2020.
The United States, with 246 million motor vehicles and 209 million licensed drivers, is facing market saturation. With 5 vehicles for every 4 drivers, the 4-million-vehicle contraction in the U.S. fleet in 2009 does not come as a great surprise. In a largely rural society, more cars provided mobility, but in a society that is now over 80 percent urban, more cars provide immobility. A combination of driver frustration and the soaring congestion costs associated with wasted time and fuel are leading to a cultural shift that is reducing the role of the automobile as people turn to alternatives. Almost every major U.S. city is either building new light rail or express bus systems, or expanding and upgrading existing ones to reduce dependence on cars. The peak fleet may now be behind us.
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GE to Supply 88 Turbines for Wind Projects in China.
GE has announced that it has signed contracts to supply 132 MW in wind turbine capacity - 88, 1.5 MW turbines - to HECIC New Energy Co., Ltd, one of China's leading wind energy developers, for three new projects in Hebei and Shanxi Provinces.
The wind turbines for the HECIC New Energy projects will be equipped with Low Voltage Ride-Through and Wind Farm Management Systems, which are advanced and grid- friendly connection technologies, enhancing reliability and stability of the wind turbine.
China is the world's fourth largest producer of wind power behind the US. China's plan to add 150 gigawatts of installed wind power capacity by 2020 would require it to install approximately 11.5 gigawatts of installed wind power capacity per year from 2009-2020.
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German nuclear storage site deemed unsafe
German radiation protection officials said Friday that all 126,000 barrels of nuclear waste stored since the 1970s in an unstable and leaking former salt mine would have to be removed as soon as possible.
"This is the best option for dealing with the radioactive waste stored there," said Wolfram Koenig, head of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), which made the recommendation.
The Asse II mine in central Germany, used to store waste from 1967 to 1978 between 500 and 700 metres (1,640 and 2,300 feet) underground, has been known for some time to be leaking and in danger of partial collapse.
There is no full record of what the mine and its 13 shafts, dubbed a "ticking time bomb" by pressure group Greenpeace, could contain. Last August it emerged that it included 28 kilos (62 pounds) of highly toxic plutonium.
At first the barrels were stacked in an orderly manner, but in the 1970s they were simply dumped in and covered with the salt grit, with the result that many are now corroded and dented, according to press reports.
Extracting the waste is therefore expected to be a laborious, hazardous and expensive operation, with press reports saying it could take 10 years and cost as much as four billion euros (5.8 billion dollars).
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NYC to Require Existing Buildings to Upgrade Their Lighting
New York City has passed significant new legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing government, commercial and residential buildings in New York City.
The six-point Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, introduced on Earth Day and enacted as part of PlaNYC, includes four bills that will dramatically reduce the City's energy usage, saving consumers $700 million annually in energy costs, while creating 17,880 jobs and reducing New York City's carbon footprint.
In addition to the four pieces of legislation, the six-point plan includes two PlaNYC programs that will train workers for the new construction-related jobs that will be created, and help finance energy-saving improvements using $16 million in federal stimulus funding.
While New York currently has the lowest per capita carbon footprint of any major city in America, about 80% of its carbon footprint comes from energy consumption by its more than 1 million buildings. As 85% of the buildings that exist today will be in use in 2030, increasing efficiency in existing buildings is critical to meeting the PlaNYC goal of a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Once implemented, the legislation will reduce citywide greenhouse gas emissions by 4.75%, the largest reduction achieved by a single program.
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A Cement Giant Tackles its CO2 Emissions
With cement production accounting for as much as 5 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide - and the potential for expanded carbon caps looming - Cemex, one of the world's largest producers of building materials, is angling to bring down its carbon dioxide emissions and perhaps wind up with some credits it can sell.
"We are preparing ourselves for a carbon-constrained world," said Luis Farias, the company's senior vice president for energy and climate change, in a telephone interview from Monterrey, Mexico, where Cemex is based. "We're stabilizing the costs of fuel and tying ourselves to lower emission methods."
The company, with operations more than in 50 countries, says it is reducing its carbon footprint by shifting to renewable energy and by using biomass as inputs to its kilns. It has also begun exploring new technologies to capture, store and recycle carbon dioxide.
Mr. Farias said that in 2009 the company substituted 16 percent of the fossil fuels it uses to fire its cement plants - mainly coal and petroleum coke - for renewable fuels, greatly surpassing its target.
It aims for at least an 18 percent substitution rate in 2010, he said.
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Tesla to Use High-Energy Batteries from Panasonic
Tesla Motors, the maker of high-performance electric vehicles, is working with Panasonic, the battery and consumer electronics giant, to develop its next generation of batteries. The partnership is intended to help Tesla lower the cost of its batteries and improve the range of its vehicles.
Last month Panasonic announced two high-energy batteries for electric vehicles. These new batteries store as much as 30 percent more energy than its previous lithium-ion batteries, and this increased storage could, in theory, increase a vehicle's range by a similar amount, thereby addressing one of the main problems with electric cars. Tesla's Roadster currently has a range of 244 miles and takes three and a half hours to charge with a special charger.
The other major challenge with electric vehicles is the cost of the battery packs. Tesla isn't announcing the potential cost savings with future batteries, but JB Straubel, Tesla Motor's chief technology officer, says battery costs have been steadily declining at about 8 percent a year.
Tesla plans to incorporate Panasonic's cells into its battery packs, and will work with Panasonic to develop cells fine-tuned for use in cars, Straubel says. To do this, Tesla will draw on data gathered from the 1,000 cars it has made so far, which have been driven for over a million miles. Tesla currently gets its batteries from a variety of manufacturers.
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Best Way to Reduce Emissions Is to Make Cars Smaller
ScienceDaily (Jan. 18, 2010) - An Oxford University study says the best way to reduce emissions in the short term is a 'drastic downscaling of both size and weight' of conventional petrol and diesel cars.
The research by Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment suggests that we should not rely on manufacturers producing hydrogen or battery-powered vehicles in the next decade.
The report 'Future of Mobility Roadmap' assesses the potential for low carbon transport on land, by air and sea. It finds that electric and hydrogen vehicles are likely to remain niche products for many years because of limited battery life and the high cost of platinum, which is needed for the catalysts in hydrogen fuelled cars.
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Getting the Most Cash Back From Your Green Home
Under a $300 million federal rebate program that started last month, consumers can trade in their energy-sucking appliances for more efficient models, but there are other ways to save money while making a home more energy efficient.
Most utilities, states and even some local governments offer their own programs to give homeowners a break when they buy new appliances, insulate, or install alternative energy sources like solar or wind power. The federal government also recently increased its two tax credits to help pay for more efficient heating, cooling and water-heating equipment, as well as wind, solar and geothermal systems and fuel cells.
The programs run the gamut with some states funneling hundreds of million of dollars into certain programs and through utilities, said Justin Barnes, a policy analyst at the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, or DSIRE.
"The tricky part is finding all these programs," Barnes said.
The DSIRE lists all available incentives and rebate programs by state on its web site at www.dsireusa.org.
The greening of American homes saves consumers money, protects the environment and helps stimulate the broader economy. By adding more insulation to the attic and walls, for example, homeowners can cut their heating consumption up to half. And whether homeowners tackle projects themselves or hire professionals, that spending helps retailers, manufacturers and ripples through other industries.
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California adopts mandatory green building code
Environmental groups are mounting a last-ditch effort to derail key elements of the state's first-in-the-nation green building code - a major initiative of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration.
The proposed code, likely to be adopted Tuesday, would slash water use, mandate the recycling of construction waste, cut back on polluting materials and step up enforcement of energy efficiency in new homes, schools, hospitals and commercial buildings statewide.
"It is going to change the whole fabric of how buildings are built by integrating green practices into our everyday building code," said David Walls, executive director of the California Building Standards Commission. "The rest of the nation will be looking at what we have done."
But critics say the rules fall short of rigorous standards adopted by Los Angeles, San Francisco and more than 50 California jurisdictions in league with the U.S. Green Building Council, a national nonprofit group of architects, engineers and construction companies.
The council's voluntary Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards have become an industry norm in recent years, with architects and construction firms competing on four levels - LEED basic, silver, gold or platinum - to market their buildings as green.
In 2004, Schwarzenegger ordered that all new state buildings meet at least a LEED silver level.
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SEES Partner Program
SEES Partner Program is designed to offer Free online Energy Audits through our partners, significantly lowering and eliminating energy costs for their customers. The Program benefits consumers and commercial building owners with Free online Energy Audits. It allows the end user to receive calculations and information about their current energy usage and provides targeted by zip code information on incentives, credits, rebates and grants offered by the US government and utility companies for maximum energy savings. The Free Energy Audit, delivered through SEES proprietary Energy Calculator, provides a comprehensive report and suggests the most
cost-effective efficiency improvements for the home or business, saving money, energy and improving the environment.
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Home-Energy Monitoring Devices Could Be CES Bright Spot
A desire to cut household operating costs while being green, along with a government push for energy efficiency-could make home energy monitoring one of the hot areas at the 2010 International CES.
"There's a big range of cost savings to be had, but there's a significant range of systems," says Stephanie Horowitz, managing director at green home design firm ZeroEnergy Design, about how well home energy monitors can reduce a household's bottom line, while pointing out the bewildering choice of products facing consumers.
Horowitz's firm makes energy efficiency a part of every design, but she adds that the usual early adopters present in all technology markets are driving sales now.
"It's very user-driven if you're very conscious," says Horowitz. "It's kind of like having all the facts on food - you can make a decision when you know."
Energy efficiency could be a formidable sector. With $127 billion spent by US households on energy annually, even the low-end. 10 percent energy savings targets of today's energy efficiency technologies is an overnight $13-billion market.
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Urban 'green' spaces may contribute to global warming, UCI study finds
Turfgrass management creates more greenhouse gas than plants remove from atmosphere
Irvine, Calif., Jan. 19, 2010 - Dispelling the notion that urban "green" spaces help counteract greenhouse gas emissions, new research has found - in Southern California at least - that total emissions would be lower if lawns did not exist.
Turfgrass lawns help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it as organic carbon in soil, making them important "carbon sinks." However, greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer production, mowing, leaf blowing and other lawn management practices are four times greater than the amount of carbon stored by ornamental grass in parks, a UC Irvine study shows. These emissions include nitrous oxide released from soil after fertilization. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that's 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, the Earth's most problematic climate warmer.
"Lawns look great - they're nice and green and healthy, and they're photosynthesizing a lot of organic carbon. But the carbon-storing benefits of lawns are counteracted by fuel consumption," said Amy Townsend-Small, Earth system science postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study, forthcoming in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The research results are important to greenhouse gas legislation being negotiated. "We need this kind of carbon accounting to help reduce global warming," Townsend-Small said. "The current trend is to count the carbon sinks and forget about the greenhouse gas emissions, but it clearly isn't enough."
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California Adopts Green Building Codes
California officials adopted the country's first mandatory statewide green building code on Tuesday.
The regulations, called Calgreen, will help the state meet its goal of trimming greenhouse gas emissions by 33 percent by 2020.
Beginning next January, every new building in the state will have to reduce water usage by 20 percent and recycle 50 percent of its construction waste instead of sending it to landfills. Commercial buildings will be required to have separate water meters for indoor and outdoor water use. Mandatory inspections of air conditioner, heat and mechanical equipment will be also be instituted for all commercial buildings over 10,000 square feet.
Hospitals will not be required to meet the new regulation.
The code, unanimously approved by the California Building Standards Commission, will also allow cities with more stringent green building codes to retain their standards. However, only 10 percent of the state's cities have adopted any environmental building regulations, said David Walls, executive director of the California Building Standards Commission.
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