Green Synagogue

We've received some comments about the recent decision to highlight the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation case study in our email bulletin. As the BuildingGreen case study manager, I chose to highlight this case study for one reason: many people have recently spent time in a synagogue for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The issue at hand here is that this building uses 50 kBtu/sf while the CBECS 2003 average for religious worship buildings is 43 kBtu/sf. There are definitely higher-performing synagogues and other places of worship around the world - many of which were built hundreds or thousands of years ago - but in order to achieve our goals such the 2030 Challenge we need to look at the highest and lowest performing buildings, and everything between.

While readers may not agree with all of the choices made for this building, I hope that the simple act of featuring the case study will invoke reflection. What is this building used for? What is the occupancy schedule? What are the most important sustainability issues in my area, and how can we get the word out? Implementing green strategies at your church, synagogue, mosque, etc. could be the most effective way to get out the word in your community. If you have something to say, please say it.

In his post Tough Choices on the AIA Top Ten Jury our President Nadav Malin addressed questions about energy performance of the AIA Top Ten Awards from this year, including this building. The way I see it, the conversation that resulted from this year's Top Ten Awards was more useful than it would have been if the ten highest performing buildings in the US and the world had been chosen.