Green Building and Manufacturing Articles
The Start-Up Pains of a Smarter Electricity Grid
The smart grid will save energy and money, but implementation may prove costly
Only one thing is worse than the lights not coming on when the switch is flicked-and that's the lights going out right afterward. The fact that the problem is most often a burned-out lightbulb is testimony to the reliability of what's sometimes called the world's largest machine-the U.S. transmission and distribution grid for electricity.
But that reliability is tenuous at best and perhaps temporary: the machine needs an update to meet increasing demands for more electricity and to deliver it reliably and safely, according to the Obama administration and others. "If Alexander Graham Bell returned to Earth today, the progress in telecommunications over the last 125 years would be mystifying," said Robert Catell, chairman of the New York State Smart Grid Consortium, at a smart grid event in New York City at New York University (NYU) in February. "If Thomas Edison came back today, not only would he recognize our electricity system, he could probably fix it" when problems arise.
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Energy bills smarten up state policy
Offshore wind project expected to create jobs
AUGUSTA, Maine - Gov. John Baldacci joined state lawmakers and advocates for renewable energy on Tuesday to celebrate the passage of a suite of bills aimed at helping lessen Maine's dependence on foreign oil and other fossil fuels.
After the event, University of Maine researcher Habib Dagher said his research center is well on its way to developing offshore wind power technology that he predicts could support thousands of jobs in the state by 2020.
"We have had interest all over the country and all over the world in this," Dagher said of the floating wind turbine technology being developed at UMaine.
Dagher was among those present at the ceremonial bill signing, where Baldacci praised the Legislature's work on several energy bills. Included among them were bills creating energy corridors, which aim to locate pipelines and transmission lines along major state highways and "smart grid" policy, which uses technology to manage and curb energy use.
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"Light Pipes" Boost Organic Solar Efficiency
A layer of optical fiber bristles doubles the performance of organic solar cells in tests.
Researchers in North Carolina have developed a way to more than double the performance of organic solar cells by adding a layer of upright optical fibers that act as sunlight traps.
David Carroll, a professor of physics at Wake Forest University, led the development of a prototype solar cell incorporating the fibers. He is the chief scientist at a spinoff company called FiberCell that is developing a reel-to-reel manufacturing process to produce the cells. "We're on the cusp of having working demonstrators that would convince someone to go into production with this," said Carroll.
The best organic solar cells today are nearly 8 percent efficient, although efforts are ongoing to develop organic chemistries that would push the efficiency of such cells above 10 percent. But Carroll says improved chemistries alone won't be enough to catch up to the performance of silicon cells. "The answer doesn't lie in chemistry--it lies in the architecture of the cell itself," he says. Carroll adds that the dollar-per-watt cost of manufacturing fiber-based organic cells should be about the same cost as for flat organic cells. "But they can be produced in a factory costing one-tenth that of a silicon foundry," he says. This would make them much cheaper to produce than silicon cells.
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Boulder Valley schools to 'power down' computers to save $300K
Software on district's 7,600 desktops expected to keep 3,670 tons of CO2 out of atmosphere
Computer labs across the Boulder Valley School District are in the process of activating a new "power manager" software that automatically "powers down" desktop computers when they aren't in use, a move expected to save about $300,000 and keep 3,670 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year.
The new computer initiative is part of an increased effort by the district to integrate sustainability into its curriculum and operations. Previously, district computers were left on in full-power mode 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said Ghita Carroll, Boulder Valley sustainability coordinator.
"Part of the reason was to be able to install software updates overnight," she said, adding that the district's new high-speed fiber optic network makes this change possible. "Now we can do it during the day. Before, it was too slow."
The district installed the new power manager software on all of its 7,600 desktop computers in schools and administrative offices last month. The software has been activated in some buildings and is in the process of being turned on in other buildings, Carroll said.
"We're doing a handful of schools each week," she said. "I certainly hope to have everything activated by summer to capture those savings."
The software works by automatically turning inactive computers to a low-energy mode. Right now, the computers are timed to power down after two hours without use during school hours -- from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. -- and after 30 minutes during off-hours, Carroll said.
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Solar Millennium Says U.S. to Supplant Spain in Solar-Thermal
May 12 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will supplant Spain as the biggest market for solar-thermal power plants as the world's largest economy boosts support for renewable energy, according to Solar Millennium AG.
The U.S. will be the company's main focus "for the next five years," Solar Millennium board member Christian Beltle said in an interview in Valencia, Spain. Over the longer term, "North Africa is very interesting for Africa and for Europe."
Southern California, Nevada and Arizona have some of the highest solar radiation in the world, reaching levels as high as 9 kilowatt hours for each square meter per day compared with about 3 kilowatt hours in New York, according to U.S. Energy Department figures. Solar power in the U.S. is supported with tax credits and rebates in some states.
Executives and policy makers from Europe and North Africa are meeting in Valencia to discuss plans to use the solar energy generated in the Sahara desert to help power the European economy. Abengoa Solar, a Spanish developer, will commission the first North Africa solar-thermal plants later this year, Chief Executive Officer Santiago Seage said yesterday.
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U.S. lags China on climate change - Europe climate chief
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States' future as a global economic power depends on what it does to fight global warming and it is lagging behind other countries like China, Europe's climate chief said on Wednesday.
European Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard told Reuters it was a positive step for the United States to have "finally" unveiled legislation to combat climate change on Wednesday.
"This is one of the crucial battlefields over who is going to be the economic leaders of our century," Hedegaard said of the fight against global warming.
Democratic Senator John Kerry and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman presented a long-awaited climate bill on Wednesday, which aims to cut planet-warming emissions by a 17 percent in the next decade.
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Wine-Making Yeast Shows Promise for Bioethanol Production
ScienceDaily (May 13, 2010) - Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a gene in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that might be important for ethanol production from plant material, providing insights into the bioethanol alternative to 'fossil fuels'. Combining new high-throughput genome sequencing technology with traditional genetic methods, this study highlights the previously unknown potential of natural S. cerevisiae strains to convert five-carbon sugars such as xylose into ethanol.
Details are published May 13 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.
S. cerevisiae is the primary organism used in the fermentation process required for industrial bioethanol production. However, despite voraciously fermenting the six-carbon sugars, such as glucose, found in cornstarch or sugar cane, it was not thought to be able to ferment the five-carbon sugars that are abundant in agricultural wastes or dedicated crops like switchgrass. As the industry moves towards plant-based ethanol, a strain of yeast that can ferment both types of sugar equally well is highly desirable.
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Engineers Design Power Structures That Help Keep the Lights on
ScienceDaily (May 11, 2010) - The metal poles that carry power lines across the country are built to take whatever blows at them. So they're big and round and sturdy -- as much as 12 feet in diameter and 100 feet high.
But transmission poles can still fail under the stress of extreme ice and wind. They could also be vulnerable to an infrastructure attack. And when one of them falls, others are pulled down until heavy dead-end structures stop the cascading collapse.
"There are long stretches of these transmission lines across the countryside," said Jon "Matt" Rouse, an Iowa State University assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering. "If you take down one of the poles, you take 10 miles of poles out with it. It's very important to protect these structures."
Rouse has worked with Casey Faber, a graduate student in civil engineering, to design a new kind of pole that not only resists cascading failures, but is cheaper and easier to use.
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New Water-Splitting Catalyst: Researchers Expand List of Potential Electrode Materials That Could Be Used to Store Energy
ScienceDaily (May 13, 2010) - Expanding on work published two years ago, MIT's Daniel Nocera and his associates have found yet another formulation, based on inexpensive and widely available materials, that can efficiently catalyze the splitting of water molecules using electricity. This could ultimately form the basis for new storage systems that would allow buildings to be completely independent and self-sustaining in terms of energy: The systems would use energy from intermittent sources like sunlight or wind to create hydrogen fuel, which could then be used in fuel cells or other devices to produce electricity or transportation fuels as needed.
Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry, says that solar energy is the only feasible long-term way of meeting the world's ever-increasing needs for energy, and that storage technology will be the key enabling factor to make sunlight practical as a dominant source of energy. He has focused his research on the development of less-expensive, more-durable materials to use as the electrodes in devices that use electricity to separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water molecules. By doing so, he aims to imitate the process of photosynthesis, by which plants harvest sunlight and convert the energy into chemical form.
Nocera pictures small-scale systems in which rooftop solar panels would provide electricity to a home, and any excess would go to an electrolyzer -- a device for splitting water molecules -- to produce hydrogen, which would be stored in tanks. When more energy was needed, the hydrogen would be fed to a fuel cell, where it would combine with oxygen from the air to form water, and generate electricity at the same time.
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More GE T8 Energy-Efficient Fluorescent Lamps to be Made in USA
GE Lighting has announced that its plant in Bucyrus, OH is expanding manufacture of T8 lamps, partly thanks to Federal stimulus funding and incentives from the state of Ohio.
"Expanding our plant in Ohio to add more volume to our production allows us to maintain our current 160 jobs in today's tough economic environment, plus we expect to add another 130 jobs over the course of the next several years," says Peter Gabriel, GE Lighting's manager of North America discharge plants. "This expansion, which consolidates GE Lighting's production from Canada and Hungary into the U.S., fits nicely with GE's American Renewal initiative and our company's commitment to supporting job creation within the U.S. where we can be competitive on cost, quality, innovation and productivity. We have an excellent work force in Bucyrus. Add to that the government stimulus support we will receive in training grants for new employees and in income tax credits, and we have a winning combination all around."
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1 Million ENERGY STAR Homes Built in U.S.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently reached a milestone for the ENERGY STAR program by passing the 1 millionth ENERGY STAR-qualified home mark. Since the program began labeling new homes in 1995, Americans have saved $1.2 billion on their energy bills, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 22 billion pounds, according to EPA.
To earn the Energy Star label, a home must meet strict energy efficiency guidelines, which can be achieved through established, reliable building techniques available to most middle-class American homeowners. Those include high-efficiency lighting and appliances, effective insulation systems, high-performance windows, tight construction and ducts and efficient heating and cooling equipment. In addition, an independent home energy rater conducts onsite testing and inspections to verify that the home's performance meets ENERGY STAR requirements.
There are more than 6,500 builders across the nation building homes that earn the ENERGY STAR label and qualified new homes can be found in every state in the country. The top 20 markets for ENERGY STAR-qualified homes built to date include: Houston, TX; Dallas, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; Greater Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Tucson, AZ; San Antonio, TX; Sacramento, CA; San Diego, CA; Columbus, OH; Des Moines, IA; Indianapolis, IN; Austin, TX; Philadelphia, PA; San Francisco, CA; Boston, MA; Denver, CO; Orlando, FL; and Oklahoma City, OK.
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Jim Brodrick on LED Linear Replacement Lamps
[Recently], I wrote about LED linear replacement lamps and told you about an upcoming webcast on the subject. The webcast, entitled "LEDs for Interior Office Applications," ended up drawing nearly 800 attendees and prompting nearly a hundred questions from the audience – far more than could be answered in the allotted time. The questions that weren't addressed during the webcast will be answered soon on the website – something we only do when the topic is an especially hot one.
Why is this such a hot topic? Because of the tremendous popularity of recessed "troffer" fixtures with 4' fluorescent T8 lamps in commercial and institutional lighting applications. There are tens of millions of these fixtures in use in this country alone. That – and the claims of many manufacturers – has a lot of people wondering whether LED linear replacement lamps truly are a "drop-in" equivalent to fluorescent T8s that can be substituted right off the shelf for big-time energy savings.
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Wattstopper Announces eCampus, an Interactive Online Training Site
WattStopper has launched eCampus, a comprehensive and interactive online training site designed to make learning about lighting controls enjoyable and rewarding. Specifically designed for all influencers, including electrical contractors, distributors, ESCOs, and specifiers, the courses cover control applications in residential, commercial, and industrial settings. The free site features two offerings: eWards, where participants earn points redeemable for merchandise from the companion storefront, and eCredited, which offers AIA- and NCQLP-approved courses for professionals interested in continuing education credits.
eWards courses provide an interactive and engaging overview of a wide range of lighting controls topics as well as specific WattStopper products. Typical courses can be completed in five minutes and include written or multimedia content delivered in a user-friendly style. Students earn rewards by completing a brief quiz that provides immediate feedback to answer selection as well as the ability to revise answers in real time and without penalty. Reward points are redeemable at the eWards storefront. The site maintains password-protected records of user visits, reward point balances and courses completed.
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GE, Vestas Fall Behind in China's 'Tough' Wind Market
May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Western wind turbine manufacturers are losing ground in China, the world's fastest-growing green energy market.
The combined market share for companies such as General Electric Co. and its European rivals Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Siemens AG fell to 14 percent last year from 71 percent in 2005, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Sales are being eroded by local companies including Sinovel Wind Co. Ltd. and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. Ltd.
"It's a tough market," said Jesus Zaldua, president of Gamesa Corp. Tecnologica SA's Chinese subsidiary, which has four wind-turbine factories in the northeast city of Tianjin. "Some companies will have to leave China in the next five years."
To get back in the game, the foreign companies are introducing newer technology. Siemens, based in Munich, expects to open an $80 million plant this year in Shanghai that can build 3.6-megawatt turbines. That's bigger than anything now made by a Chinese company.
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Shoddy workmanship found in $22 million federal stimulus contract to improve the homes of the poor
Sheltering Arms Senior Services oversaw substandard work on 33 of 53 homes inspected by the state. The Houston nonprofit, aided by tax money, has kept secret the locations of homes it has weatherized with federal stimulus dollars.
Houston, Texas -- Inspections done under the second biggest federal stimulus weatherization contract in Texas found flaws in workmanship so serious that more than 60 percent of the jobs will have to be fixed, documents obtained by Texas Watchdog showed.
A report by the Department of Housing and Community Affairs criticized Sheltering Arms Senior Services of Houston for poor performance and for spending nearly half of its funding on administrative costs, while the legal limit is 5 percent. Sheltering Arms has a contract with the department to spend $22.3 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money through March of 2012 to improve the energy efficiency of low-income homes in the Houston area.
"The Department is very concerned with (Sheltering Arms') capacity and commitment to implement" the federal stimulus' Weatherization Assistance Program, the report said. "Accordingly, the Department instructs SASS to submit a detailed action plan with its response to this report. Failure to provide a plan which satisfies the Department's concerns may result in contract sanctions."
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Energy efficiency codes mean lower utility bills, but not all builders are sold
To the extent that homeowners know anything about the building code, most assume the focus is on the safety of crews who build houses and of the people who will occupy them. In this assumption the homeowners would be correct.
But one section of the building code has implications that reach far beyond the individual house and homeowner, and that is the one that deals with energy efficiency.
When builders are required to increase the energy efficiency of new houses, the owners will benefit from lower utility bills. Low-income homeowners, the group most vulnerable to foreclosure, will fare especially well because utilities are a big part of the total budget. A house that uses less energy is more affordable to more households, but this is not the position that has been taken by the home building industry.
Its leading trade association, the National Association of Home Builders, has maintained that measures taken to increase energy efficiency will add to the cost of the house and that this added cost will price many thousands of buyers out of the new-home market. This argument prevailed for many years at the code hearings in which energy-efficiency requirements for new houses are determined. (The International Energy Conservation Code, known as the IECC, establishes energy efficiency for all new buildings in the United States. The code hearings are held every three years.)
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We Energies to begin Glacier Hills wind farm construction
Crews will begin site preparation next week for the largest wind farm in Wisconsin, after state regulators finalized plans for the Glacier Hills Wind Park northeast of Madison.
We Energies of Milwaukee said it will erect 90 turbines at the wind farm, two more than it installed on its first large wind farm, near Fond du Lac, in 2008.
The cost of the Glacier Hills project came in at $367 million, utility spokesman Brian Manthey said. By comparison, the 88-turbine Blue Sky Green Field wind farm that opened two years ago cost $295 million.
The tab for We Energies' customers isn't yet known, but the company will seek to collect construction costs from ratepayers beginning in 2012, Manthey said.
Friday's announcement came after the state Public Service Commission approved the sale of two Columbia County homes to We Energies. Both homes would have had at least nine turbines within one-half mile, and the commission directed We Energies to negotiate with the two property owners.
We Energies also had to reconfigure its turbine layout after the commission established bigger setbacks from the turbines for neighboring property owners than the utility had proposed.
Those larger setbacks addressed concerns about noise and shadow flicker - a phenomenon created by wind turbines' rotating blades. The Coalition of Wisconsin Environmental Stewardship had raised concerns about the impact of turbines on property values and homeowners' qualify of life.
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Release of HOMER v2.75
BOULDER, CO, May 14, 2010 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- HOMER Energy announced the release of HOMER v2.75 today, the first commercial release of the software since it was licensed from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The new version of HOMER includes the ability to model new storage technologies, such as flywheels and zinc bromine flow batteries, both of which will allow designers to develop larger systems that have a higher contribution from renewable energy. Increased renewable energy adds to the requirement for "spinning" or standby operating reserve to bridge periods of variability in wind or solar power sources.
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Peak oil production coming sooner than expected
Media, public, governments unprepared for the End of the World (As We Know It)
A storm is quickly approaching, and the world is not ready for it.
The permanent end of the era of cheap oil is coming as soon as next year, according to a raft of official reports that have made their way into energy media over the last few months. Governments are now beginning to acknowledge the looming crisis. Yet, perhaps because they waited too long to prevent it, leaders are not yet alerting the public.
The entire world economy is built on cheap oil, A permanent oil production shortage will thus lead to The End of The World (As We Know It). What will come on the other side of this - will it be good or bad?
Public Unaware. Except for a few stories in financial pages such as London's Financial Times, this earth-shaking news has yet to reach the Mainstream Media. While "Peak Oil" researchers have long warned of approaching oil shortages, the difference now is these dire warnings are being validated by the highest government and oil company officials. Yet, no political leader has had the courage to make a major announcement to prepare the public for what lies ahead.
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Does It Pay? Figuring the financial value of a solar or wind energy system.
How long will it take for a new solar or wind electric system to pay for itself? That depends on your local climate, utility rates and incentives. In sunny or windy states or places with expensive electricity, the payback is faster than in calm or cloudy states or where power is relatively cheap.
The most important factors for making solar an attractive investment include high electric rates, financial incentives, net-metering policies and good sunlight (almost all of the continental United States is within plus-or-minus 20 percent of Miami's sunlight level).
Where net-metering laws exist (42 states), solar energy offsets the retail cost of the electricity generated. In some regions, solar systems are allowed to operate on a time-of-use rate schedule that enables users to sell electricity back to the utility at peak rates, which can be even more valuable. Time-of-use rates vary electricity price by time of day. The set-up allows generators to receive higher rates from the utility during times of power shortage (for instance, when air-conditioning loads are high). These higher electric rate periods often occur in the heat of the day, when solar systems are most productive.
Direct incentives can include tax benefits such as credits or depreciation. The most celebrated recent incentive is the federal tax credit for solar systems that was expanded on Jan. 1, 2009. The credit covers 30 percent of the system cost and can be coupled with state, local and utility incentives. The Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (dsireusa.org) lists state and federal incentives around the country for all types of renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects.
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Recovery Report: Many states, cities use Build America Bonds
State and local governments have issued nearly $100 billion in Build America Bonds, an economic stimulus program that reduces their cost of borrowing.
Under the program, the U.S. Treasury Department makes a direct payment to the state or local government that issues the bonds in an amount equal to 35 percent of the interest payment on the bonds. This has saved those governments about $12 billion compared with what they would have paid if they had issued tax-exempt bonds, according to the department.
"Lower borrowing costs means fewer tax dollars are required for the essential capital projects," said Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, whose state issued $500 million in Build America Bonds for transportation projects last fall.
"The functioning of the municipal bond market has been improved by the addition of Build America Bonds," said Alan Krueger, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for economic policy.
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IEA's Jones discusses cost-competitiveness of solar
What are some of the policy roadblocks to expanding solar energy production worldwide? Will solar energy become a cost-competitive renewable? During today's OnPoint, Ambassador Richard Jones, deputy executive director of the International Energy Agency, discusses two new road maps released by the IEA on the future of solar in the international marketplace.
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Can the Air Be Cleared on IAQ?
As if anecdotal evidence weren't sufficient, a growing body of research suggests that poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can have suffocating effects on office environments, resulting in reddened eyes, runny noses, and dips in worker productivity.
Lab studies performed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and others demonstrate that workers perk up when offending furnishings and finishes are removed from office environments, or when ventilation rates are increased to expunge pollutants.
Like stagnant air, the problem lingers, despite decades of emphasis on sick building syndrome, as well as more recent emphasis on green construction and stripping buildings of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), one of the agents contributing to poor IAQ.
There is neither a single cause nor a single remedy. Air quality can be adversely affected by microbial contaminants (mold, bacteria), gases (carbon monoxide, radon, VOCs), and particulates (minerals, soils, fibers) emanating from any number of sources, from intake and exhaust to carpet, paint, and coatings.
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CO2 Monitoring Advances Air Quality and Energy Efficiency
HVAC engineers have long known that monitoring carbon dioxide (CO2) is helpful in controlling indoor air quality; however, until recently, the practice was discouraged by the cost of the sensors and the efforts required to install, monitor, and calibrate them.
Today, CO2 monitoring is growing. With the advent of LEED, the increase in digital controls in buildings, and the wider availability of the sensors, CO2 monitoring is becoming standard practice. In part, this is because the control manufacturers can now link to sophisticated computer networks capable of managing every device in a building; in part, it's because CO2 monitoring can also play a role in reducing energy costs. In some cases, it can even reduce equipment capital costs by reducing peak heating and cooling loads.
For new projects and retrofits, project teams now see CO2 sensors as part of the job for three prime reasons: they ensure good air quality, they form a key part of an energy-efficiency strategy, and they earn LEED points.
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Proactive Indoor Air Quality Monitoring: Delivering the Fundamentals
Tenants today have high expectations regarding their building's service and technology requirements as they squeeze the last ounce of productivity out of their most expensive asset: their employees. Yet as you flip through the pages of this magazine, with its dazzling array of today's technologies, it's wise not to forget that the air in your building is one of the most important factors in maintaining employee productivity and health. While maintaining air quality isn't rocket science, because of this strong link between indoor air quality (IAQ) and productivity, inattention to air quality often results in ripple effects that finally wash ashore at the building owner's feet; these effects include liability concerns (of course). On a more positive note, however, they present a splendid opportunity for a building owner to add value to the building by setting correct perceptions about the workplace. If done right, this results in a more marketable, insurable, and saleable building.
Proactive IAQ monitoring has become a common and powerful tool used to achieve this goal. It doesn't rely on overly sophisticated gadgets, but on less glamorous documentation of the fundamentals that impact how pleasant the air inside a building is to breathe: ventilation rates, filtration, and basic hygiene inside mechanical systems. This is completed by a detailed visual inspection of the air-handling units and ductwork, and measurements of a range of constituents commonly found in building air and water sources. Most important is careful, detailed documentation that focuses on the positive in the property rather than the rare problem. Practical and positive-oriented documentation is a key part of resolving concerns an owner may have about opening Pandora's Box. In nearly all cases, proactive IAQ monitoring verifies good things about the building, certifying effective maintenance and operations.
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Green Building Initiative Launches Pilot Program utilizing the American National Standard for Commercial Green Building
The Green Building Initiative (GBI) announced it will begin accepting applications for a pilot program for its American National Standard for Commercial Green Building. This pilot program is designed for practitioners to gain experience with the new standard in a real-world setting and will utilize the new protocol to assess and certify a limited number of commercial buildings. The standard is officially titled ANSI/GBI 01-2010: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings and was derived from the Green Globes environmental design and assessment rating system for New Construction.
Applications will be accepted from anyone wishing to participate in the pilot process, with project evaluation criteria spanning building size, principal use, and sustainability considerations. The current version of Green Globes for New Construction will continue to be available for use throughout the GBI ANSI standard pilot process. Those interested in submitting an application for their new construction or major renovation project to join the pilot can obtain complete program information at
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Site promotes green building products
Ecode, the green-building resource site that won second place in the Business Plan Challenge, includes a green building product guide and a directory.
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