A new report seeks to bring health and well-being to the forefront of the sustainable design movement.

Recognizing that green building could be a tool to address some of our worst public health challenges—such as asthma, obesity, and cancer—the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is taking steps to better align green building goals with a public health agenda, evidenced by a new report titled “Health Is a Human Right. Green Building Can Help.”

The report is based on the discussions of more than 100 experts from a variety of building and health fields whom USGBC gathered for a summit in January 2013. Engaged in their respective fields—architecture, medicine, and product manufacturing—many had never crossed paths before. Launching the interdisciplinary conversation inspired one of the report’s main recommendations that a metrics-based definition of healthy communities, buildings, and interiors serve as a “common grammar” for future collaboration.

Envisioning that the LEED rating systems could play an integral role, the report recommends USGBC clarify how specific credits in the rating systems support human health and translate new health research into design standards. At this year’s Greenbuild conference, USGBC will hold a “Materials and Human Health” pre-event summit designed for product manufacturers and designers to continue the discussion on next steps.

USGBC chairman Rick Fedrizzi wrote in a blog post that even though health has been integral to LEED from the beginning, putting it “in the front seat” could ensure that “green, health, and well-being are part of the same paradigm.”

New regulations could make gaming consoles and other products sold in California more efficient.

Gaming consoles like the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii may soon have to meet new efficiency standards to be sold in California—which represents an eighth of all U.S. consumers and often sets standards that are adopted nationwide.

The California Energy Commission is considering establishing new statewide standards after finding that more-efficient video game consoles alone could save Californians $75 million annually on energy bills. If 14 other products—including computers, toilets, and hot tubs—are also held to higher standards, cumulative savings could reach $1.2 billion, conserve as much water as San Diego uses in an entire year, and bypass the need to build three medium-sized, 500 MW power plants,

according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Some of these products, including video game consoles, are not currently held to any efficiency standards. Network equipment such as broadband modems and wireless routers consume approximately 100 kWh annually, usually drawing the same amount of power when at rest as when in use. Video game consoles have become more efficient than the first-generation 200-watt models, but secondary uses such as streaming video still requires 60 watts, while comparatively, an Apple TV needs just one.

Since even large manufacturers can’t afford to ignore California’s market base, new state standards could raise the bar for products distributed nationally or globally, or set the stage for new federal standards. The California Energy Commission is currently in the process of gathering market data and standard proposals, but new standards could come into effect as early as 2015.

Forty-year-old caps on silica dust in construction and industry are to be slashed by OSHA.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is proposing more stringent exposure limits for crystalline silica—dust particles produced by cutting or crushing stone products and a known cause of lung cancer and silicosis. Heightened standards are projected to save nearly 700 lives and prevent 1,600 new cases of silicosis per year, many in the construction or glass manufacturing industries.

OSHA’s proposed permissible exposure limit (PEL) is 50 μg/m³ (micrograms of silica per cubic meter of air) averaged over an eight-hour day—a significant cut from the current 40-year-old limits (100 μg for general and maritime industries and 250 μg in construction).

Companies also must supply respirators if controls fail to achieve the PEL and must offer medical exams to those working in these conditions for 30 days or more per year. Another major provision requires companies to measure airborne silica if levels are above 25 μg/m³; however, there are “flexible alternatives” for construction companies that institute certain dust control measures, such as using a stationary masonry saw equipped with a water delivery system.

The labor union for industrial organizations, AFL-CIO, welcomed the proposal as “long overdue” in a press release, but several members of the Construction Industry Safety Coalition, including the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), are worried about practicality and cost.

According to a statement from NAHB, dust-capture systems are not appropriate in all applications (such as when spraying water could cause mold); the trade group also argues that the cost of compliance would be overly burdensome to the construction industry and would exceed $1 billion per year.

For more information:

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

https://www.osha.gov/silica/nprm.pdf

Not linoleum, not cork: the first industry-wide environmental product declarations for flooring cover vinyl and rubber.

The Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI) recently released the first set of industry-wide environmental product declarations (EPDs) for flooring. These documents describe a product’s life-cycle-based environmental impacts from cradle to grave and are meant to offer a consistent format to compare environmental attributes.

RFCI released five EPDs in all—for vinyl tile, vinyl composition tile (VCT), homogeneous vinyl, heterogeneous vinyl, and rubber tile—all of which were certified by EPD program operator UL. Twelve manufacturers provided data for the EPDs, setting the stage for these companies’ vinyl and rubber flooring products to contribute to a new LEED v4 credit focused on product transparency.

Although quantifying the health impacts of products is not required (see “The Product Transparency Movement: Peeking Behind the Corporate Veil”), the EPDs include some health-related information. For example, the products included in the heterogeneous vinyl EPD are all certified as low-emitting through the FloorScore program.

This same EPD, however, does not cover potential health effects from phthalate plasticizers (semi-volatile organic compounds, many of which are reproductive toxicants and suspected obesogens), nor does it address other known health issues with vinyl flooring, such as vinyl chloride emitted during the manufacture of PVC and dioxins released to the environment when it burns or degrades. VOC emissions released during the stripping and waxing of VCT are also excluded from the listed “use inputs” in that EPD, though it mentions that low-VOC cleaning products are available.

Although the Vinyl Institute has expressed concern that LEED v4 would effectively ban PVC-containing products, the newly released EPDs demonstrate there is still room in the new rating system for these materials, which are valued by project teams for their low first cost and durability.

The largest net-zero-energy building in the world is also a triumph of adaptive reuse.

A previously abandoned pornography mega-store recently became the largest net-zero-energy building in the world to be certified by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). At 16,533 ft² (1,536 m²), the regional office of DPR Construction in Phoenix was also the first net-zero-energy design spearheaded by SmithGroupJJR.

The firm led the renovation of the windowless (but well insulated) 1970s concrete block building and says it completed the project in less than ten months.

Now, the building has nearly 90 operable windows, and daylight is drawn into office spaces by 82 solar optical tubes. An 87-foot solar chimney helps keep the building cool in its desert location by releasing hot air from the building, while four evaporative “shower towers” direct water-cooled air inside. A 79kW photovoltaic system shading the parking lot offsets the building’s entire annual energy consumption.

“Many building owners may think it’s impossible to turn an aging, neglected building into something highly sustainable—especially in an extreme climate like Phoenix,” said Mark Roddy, AIA, SmithGroupJJR design principal, in a press release. “But that’s precisely what we’ve achieved.”

 

Integrated into a drainage canal, a new skateboard park can provide stormwater detention in flood conditions.

The site of an old concrete factory in Roskilde, Denmark, is now set to double as a recreational skateboard park and emergency flood reservoir, creatively addressing the area’s complex challenges of redevelopment and climate change.

Designed by the Danish company Nordarch, the 24,000 ft²Rabalder Parken skatepark has a steel ramp and bowl area for ollies and nose-slides but is also integrated into a water canal that leads to a lake. Excess water can be diverted to the skate bowl for storage during strong rainstorms to mitigate damaging floods, which Nordarch says are an increasingly severe problem in Denmark because of climate change. According to Inhabitat.com, the park’s rainwater harvesting system can cumulatively store up to 812,237 ft³ (23,000 m³) of water—a small lake’s worth of capacity.

The multi-use system means a standalone drainage structure won’t take up public space for only occasional use and that recreational opportunities are provided for the surrounding communities. The project was recently nominated for the Sustainable Concrete 2013 award as well as the 2013 Index: Awards.

 

An office tower shows even a massive building with a glass façade can achieve Passive House certification—in Austria, at least.

A 20-story office building in Vienna recently became the world’s first high-rise building to be certified under the international Passive House standard. With a glass façade 262 feet (80 m) high and office spaces for 900, the RHW.2 building—home to the Austrian Raiffeisen-Holding Group—could be a counterpoint to those arguing that all-glass buildings popular with developers are inherently wasteful (see “Rethinking the All-Glass Building”).

Andreas Benzing, board member of New York Passive House, which is affiliated with the Passive House Institute, told EBN that it did not surprise him that an all-glass building could meet the stringent energy and air-leakage criteria. “The amount of glass does not really matter as long as you are meeting your heating and cooling loads. Besides,” he added, “we are no longer dealing with your grandfather’s curtainwall.”

Highly efficient mechanical systems and optimized shading equipment reduced the RHW.2 building’s heating and cooling demand by 80% compared to that of conventional high-rise buildings, according to a press release. The project description explains that triple glazing of the glass façade prevents heat loss and promotes solar gain, but occupants can also open windows on the upper floors and take advantage of cool breezes from the nearby Danube River.

Although Benzing thinks a similar project would be feasible in the U.S., he admitted that Austria’s cooler, less humid climate must have made it easier to increase glazing while managing the greater burden on cooling loads.

 

Faced with steep rent deductions if energy benchmarks weren’t met, the Wynkoop project team produced a building that out-performed contract requirements.

A performance-based building contract for the Wynkoop building in Denver is being credited with bringing about even better energy performance than originally requested by the building’s tenant—the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In the build-to-suit contract for its Region 8 Headquarters, EPA set leasing terms that required a minimum of LEED Silver and an Energy Star score of 86 within 14 months of 95% occupancy—or the owner would face reduced rent until becoming compliant; the private developer surpassed contract requirements by achieving LEED Gold and an Energy Star score of 96.

The Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings at the U.S General Services Administration (GSA) is using the building as one of its demonstration projects. Continued assessment of the building’s performance by academic organizations and the Department of Energy found the building ranked in the 57th percentile of occupant satisfaction based on a database maintained by the Center for the Built Environment, and operating costs were lower than industry baselines in every area except waste and recycling.

A GSA report on the project says the performance-based framework “encouraged the team to share and respond to new information and design issues in real time,” reducing the need for “lengthy change orders.” Post-occupancy evaluations did reveal areas of under-performance, including the use of 1.65 million more gallons of water than had been projected. Performance monitoring helped identify a malfunctioning water valve and improper use of dual-flush toilets as two sources of the problem. Improved occupant engagement along with continued monitoring and adjustment of building operations are expected to translate to better performance.

 

A new ice energy-storage system better integrates wind energy at a campus in Ireland.

At Dundalk Institute of Technology, tanks of ice store wind energy produced at night and cool classrooms during the day. A thermal-energy-storage system designed by Calmac maximizes the amount of renewable energy that can be used onsite for the university’s PJ Carroll building—a renovated cigarette factory, now a creative arts building.

The school is home to an 850 kW wind turbine that was installed in 2005—the first large commercial turbine on a college campus in the world, according to Dundalk. The turbine generates an estimated 1,500 MWh for the campus annually, but because the availability of wind power does not always match peak demand times, energy was often sold back to the grid. After equipping just one building with thermal energy storage, the university now uses 79% of the energy it produces (see “Buildings On Ice: Making the Case for Thermal Energy Storage”).

Eight ice tanks are installed in the basement of the PJ Carroll building, each with a capacity of 162 ton-hours of cooling and a volume of 6.25 m³ of ice, according to a study published in the Journal of Sustainable Engineering Design. With a higher cooling capacity than that of chilled water storage, the “ice banks” run the chiller when there is excess electricity from the turbine and circulate chilled water as the ice melts during the day.

The university plans to renovate the remaining 64,000 ft² of the PJ Carroll building, and energy modeling calculations show that continuing to pair ice storage with wind energy could ensure 96% of the building’s electricity demand is met by power produced onsite.

Cities with high urban sprawl offer less economic mobility, say Harvard and Berkeley economists in a new study.

Children from low-income homes have a harder time climbing the economic ladder in cities with high levels of urban sprawl, say economists from Harvard University and the University of California–Berkeley. A new study for the Equality of Opportunity Project shows the American dream is less attainable for the poor when job opportunities are far away and social classes are segregated from each other—obstacles some American cities address better than others.

A child in the bottom fifth of income earners in sprawling Atlanta or Charlotte had a 4% chance of climbing to the top fifth of earners, while a poor child in denser Salt Lake City or San Francisco had an 11% chance.

The findings suggest physical characteristics of different regions account for the variations. High mobility rates were found where there was a strong, dispersed middle class and where poor families lived in mixed-income neighborhoods. Suburbanization can impede that composition by increasing class segregation and isolating the poor in concentrated pockets. Income mobility was also higher in areas with more civic engagement—a commitment that political scientist Robert Putnam famously noted in his book Bowling Alone is one of the first things people give up when they have long commute times.

Two-parent households and better schools were also correlated with higher upward mobility rates, but two factors that would seem like obvious contributors—race and higher average incomes—did not entirely explain the variations.

With urban sprawl playing such a key role, equality of opportunity could be bolstered by developing more concentrated, mixed-income city centers and reducing car dependence (see “Study Predicts 40% Less Driving in LEED Neighborhoods”).