IES Blog

We’re celebrating Architecture Week. No, we’re not talking about the magazine. (Although I highly recommend adding said magazine to your list of weekly reads. Always great content!)

We are talking about National Architecture Week. With a series of online conversations about “design matters” over on AIA’s website, and ongoing conversations on their Facebook Fan Page, it’s already turning out to be an exciting week!

According to the website, “How can you take part in this initiative? If you haven’t done so already, set up your personal accounts on Twitter and Facebook now. Become a fan of the American Institute of Architects on Facebook and follow AIA National on Twitter. From both accounts, you’ll begin receiving updates about Architecture Week 2010. Then, get ready to partake in what we hope will be some lively, thought-provoking conversations about design matters, which end this Sunday, April 17.”

And while you’re there, become a fan of IES and follow @IESVE on Twitter.

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Tags:AIA, Architecture Week, Facebook, IES, Twitter

I’ve been considering opting into the new LEED AP program. See my previous post that explained my process of evaluation and final decision… for now. Part of the evaluation included figuring out what was needed to maintain my credentials. If I became a LEED AP BD+C (aka LEED AP with Specialty) I’d have to participate in the Certification Maintenance Program. There are two options in the program:

1. Collect 30 hours of continuing education hours, over a two year period
2. Retake the LEED AP BD+C exam

After spending what felt like 30 hours sifting through what counts towards the 30 hours of continuing education hours needed and trying to figure out what would qualify for me, I’ve come to a quasi-decision.  But first, here’s what I found out:
1. There’s two variables:
• Activities [8]
• Categories [7] – only needed the first time you opt in
2. There are a lot of restrictions.
3. Requires self-reporting online - more paperwork.
4. GBCI likes to keep things complicated.
5. Spending my working hours and a lot of my spare time on sustainable work doesn’t equate to 30 hours over two years unfortunately.

It boils down to the limits the GBCI puts on some of the activities that qualify for hours.  These are my notes on the activities.  For the full document, “How to Earn Continuing Education (CE) Hours”, (https://www.gbci.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=3675) visit the GBCI site.

*Hours earned as an instructor cannot exceed 50% of your total CE hours.

For me, I already have some of the hours, or plan to in the next two years. These are the items highlighted in green. But doing the math, I’m still short 6 CE hours. Unfortunately my PE doesn’t count as I’ve had it for awhile. The good news is that IES is already an approved provider and will be offering ERB approved trainings later this year. So this can count for you if you plan to attend one of our approved trainings, or are one of the presenters.

For me, I could work on my professional development and take a few ERB-approved courses ($). Or I could publish two articles (time). Or I could take advantage of living in Boston, “the Athens of America” with its 100 plus college and universities and just take a college course (time and $). Or I could just take the test. I like tests. Note: in case you don’t do well on tests, be forewarned, you only have up to three tries per calendar year.

For now, I’m waiting to see where the market goes in the coming years. I’m leaning towards the test taking option. Did I mention I like tests? In the meantime, I can sleep soundly knowing that my “LEED AP without specialty credential is held in perpetuity and does not have any credential maintenance requirements or fees.”

Next Time: LEED AP: What to Study and How to Study.

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Tags:Boston, LEED

Last week, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, linked to a report containing 111 recommendations to improve NYC building codes.

According to the article, the task force, led by Urban Green Council, “was charged with recommending green changes to the laws and regulations affecting buildings in New York, bringing them to the next level. The 111 recommendations largely impact new construction and renovations.” The full report can be found here.

What is most interesting (and disturbing) is the letter at the beginning of the report.

Buildings in New York City account for nearly 80 PERCENT of its greenhouse gas emissions. More than buses, cars and taxis. And in a city with more than 10,000 cabs alone, the fact that buildings are the largest contributor of greenhouse gases is astounding. But the city is trying. In December 2006, Mayor Bloomberg committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 30 percent by 2030, which will require substantial changes to building infrastructure.

What struck me about this report is that the changes are for buildings old and new. And they don’t have to do with LEED or Architecture 2030, although those benchmarks are an added bonus. This report provides New York City the changes needed to remove impediments to green building practices, ultimately resulting in greener, healthier buildings for all New Yorkers. Let’s see what we can learn from the city that never sleeps.

We will be hosting monthly AIA Continuing Education System- registered training courses at the Center for Architecture in New York City, these courses will be held over two days every month, starting on March 2-3 and 4-5, and will focus on BIM and performance analysis, utilizing IES’ <Virtual Environment> software.

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Tags:Building, Engineers, LEED, reduce

Recently, there is different kind of activities in Malaysia where people start promoting a technology called Effective Micro-organism (EM) technology. This is mainly used to treat greywater, minimise odour in septic tanks, remove sludge from drains and improve recycle water.

Last year, there is an environmental biomediation project & awareness campaign in Penang named “One million apologies to mother earth”. The idea was to organise an event of making one million EM mud ball and throwing them into various heavily polluted rivers in Penang, Malaysia in a single day.

The concept of EM Technology was developed by Japanese horticulturist Dr. Teruo Higa, from the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan. Dr. Higa claims that three groups of micro-organisms exist: ‘positive micro-organisms’ (regeneration), ‘negative micro-organisms’ (decomposition, degeneration) and ‘opportunist micro-organisms’. In every medium (soil, water, air, the human intestine), the ratio of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ microorganisms is critical, since the opportunist microorganisms follow the trend to regeneration or degeneration. Therefore, Dr. Higa believes that it is possible to positively influence the given media by supplementing with positive microorganisms.

Japan had used EM Technology to clean up more than one hundred heavily polluted rivers over the last 20 years. EM is a proven technology in environmental remediation and all the rivers that have been treated with EM in Japan have also managed to resuscitate aquatic life, bringing back all fishes and other water life forms and aquatic plants. The most famous project in Japan is the cleaning up of the Seto Inland Sea.

EM has also been employed in 130 countries in many agricultural applications and also in the production of several health products in South Africa and the USA.

Hope this technology can be promoted more around to help improve the water quality in any polluted rivers or close system ponds in an environmental friendly way.

Here is a video on how to make mud balls.
http://www.youtube.com/user/jcikulim#p/a/u/1/KO_Rv9eJry4

For more information about Effective Microorganisms Technology, here is some extra reading.
http://emproducts.co.uk/downloads/EM.pdf

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Tags:Malaysia, recycle, recycling

In this blog I’d like to take a look at the University of Copenhagen and the effort they are making to green their 1,000,000 square meter campus!

The University of Copenhagen are ambitious in terms of reducing their workplaces energy consumption and CO2 emissions this regardless of expected growth.

Their goals for 2013 are:
• The energy consumption of the University of Copenhagen must be reduced to a level 20 % below that of 2006, measured as energy consumption per work year of employees and students.
• The University of Copenhagen’s CO2 emission from energy consumption must be reduced to a level 20% below that of 2006, measured as CO2 emission per work year of employees and students.
The University expects to meet these goals by;
• Improving the Fabric of the existing university buildings which are quite old. They plan to do this by bettering the insulation in the buildings, replacing the existing windows and ensuring they are well sealed
• They hope to make significant savings through increasing the energy efficiency of energy intensive plant such as -80 degreeC Freezers, Fume Cupboards and other equipment used for experiments. The university also hope to make smart improvements to the building HVAC systems as well as energy efficient lighting
• The university plans to implement energy smart conduct procedures for both employees and students such as; closing all windows and turning off lights, equipment, and facilities when leaving a room as well as the encouragement of increased communication between the facilities’ users and its managers which the university sees as being very important.

The University is creating pilot and demonstration projects one of which is Green Light House. Green Light House is a demonstration project promoting CO2 neutral Construction.

See a really good introductory film of the Green Light House Project via the following link;
http://greenlighthouse.ku.dk/english/film/

Till next time,
Gary

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Tags:Building, reduce, students, University of Copenhagen

It was on a recent trip to Sweden that I met a very colourful gentleman called the Swedish Chef. On discussing how to design a true sustainable building he replied “Don’t worry if you have to design a sustainable building, just use the VE!”

Sweden as a country has a great reputation in sustainability and energy efficiency and has recently been selected as the European Green Capital for 2010.

During my trip there I spent a number of days in Stockholm and learnt that it was the city council’s holistic vision that has lead the way for Stockholm becoming one of Europe’s most sustainable cities. It combines both growth and sustainable development. The city council has an ambitious target of becoming fossil fuel free by 2050 and many design teams are using BREEAM Europe to ensure buildings are playing there part in achieving the 2050 goal.

Overall Stockholm can be depicted as a city with very strong green programmes and effective measures across the board. Innovative ideas such as vegetated roofs have been put into practice. The city has an excellent structure of green and blue areas and, in fact 95% of the population lives only 300m away from green areas, thus catering for better well being, recreation, swimming, boating, water purification, noise reduction, enhancement of biodiversity and ecology.

The local transport system has taken several positive steps towards sustainability over the last ten years. A very broad and extensive range of measures have been adopted, including a successful and pioneering congestion charging system with good documented results in terms of reduced car use, and an increase in public transport share, included cycling. More than 75% of fuel stations in Stockholm now offer ethanol or biogas and all petrol solid in the region contains 5% ethanol.

As far as CO2 emissions are concerned, there has been a 25% reduction per capita in Stockholm emissions since 1990 which I believe can act as a bench mark for the rest of Europe.

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Tags:BREEAM, Building, cycling, free, reduce, Sustainability, Sweden

Have you heard the latest?  Just issued at the end of last month, the USGBC announced that as part of LEED v3, they will be requiring all projects pursuing LEED certification to comply with a new performance requirement.

They provide three options for fulfillment:

- Recertify the building on a two-year cycle with their existing buildings program - LEED-EBOM

- Provide the building’s energy and water usage data annually

- Building owner allows USGBC to access data directly from the utilities provider

So, what do you think?  Me, I think this is huge.  But in a positive way or a worrying way?

Initially LEED v3 seemed like it would completely revamp the building certification program and really get to the bottom of critical items – add new credits, drastically edit existing ones, add new categories. 

In the end, LEED v3 was mainly a realignment of the existing LEED rating systems to set up for the next big move.  And that’s what it looked like, until this latest requirement associated with LEED 2009 was issued.

On paper, I couldn’t agree more, there is a big disconnect between building design/construction and building operations.  Very few architectural design firms perform a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) or something similar to inform and improve future design.  Same goes for engineers, contractors and others in the field.

As someone in the field of analyzing the real or virtual performance of a building, I fully recognize the importance of this dataset.  The question is how will this information be shared so that the general public can benefit?  Will the USGBC be making public this new database similar to what the Department of Energy does with the CBECs database of commercial energy uses and costs? 

The reaction I’ll be curious to see is from the owners.  Is this request just too much?  Will it discourage some owners from pursuing LEED?  Especially those that are new to the arena and still unsure.  I’m not sure, based on my experience and having worked with the full spectrum of owners: developers complying with regulations (i.e. Boston’s Article 37) to non-profits pursuing sustainability regardless (i.e.  The Audubon Society).

In the end, this is the right move forward.  USGBC is about market transformation.  This will start changing the norm.  However, critical at this juncture is the execution, dissemination and utilization of this new measure and the information collected.  If not handled properly, it may be perceived by the general public as a way for the USGBC to make more money through LEED-EBOM.

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Tags:building energy analysis, building performance, Green Building, LEED, performance data, Sustainable design, USGBC

Our managing director, Dr. Don McLean, came to visit me in Hong Kong for 2 days last week.  While he was here has gave a free seminar to introduce the forthcoming <Virtual Environment> version 6.0; including the new VE-Gaia, enhanced Sustainability and LEED Toolkits, and other new (hush hush) additions and enhancements.

The seminar was held in Caine Room, Level 7, of the Conrad Hotel on 26th June 2009 from 9:15am to11:30am.  We had 28 out of 35 people turn up, mainly engineers with a few architects, representatives from academic institutes and specialists in BIM. Companies included: Arup, Hyder Consulting, AECOM, Scott Wilson, Cundall, MTR, RMJM, InteliBuild, Integrated Design Associates Ltd, Form and Structure, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

We received a great response from the audience with the concept of VE-Gaia drawing the most attention - people could really see how it will be much easier for them to step from the VE-Toolkits into the full capabilites of VE-Pro using VE-Gaia.  The new features of the Sustainability and LEED Toolkits also received a lot of interest among companies working on LEED projects.

We’d like to thank everyone for attending and the assistant of Tecton Limited in organising this seminar.

Jimmy Lee

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Tags:building performance, Hong Kong, LEED, perfromance rating method, PRM, sustainable cities, V6, VE-Gaia, VE-Pro, VE-Toolkits

National Bike Week

Hello everyone,

It’s the UK’s National Bike Week starting from tomorrow, and we thought it would be really nice to join in!

On Wednesday morning we will provide breakfast for all members of staff who cycle to work that day, which will be good for all those hangovers from the birthday party on Tuesday night, although we’re not encouraging drunk cycling!!

If you are interested in taking part in any other cycling events in Glasgow here are the best of the bunch:

On the 21st of June there is a Heaven or Hell Charity fundraising ride. One route, two options! You can enter the event either do a 25 or 50 mile ‘CHSS Canal Cycle Challenge’, or you can take on the ‘CHSS Ultimate Duathlon’ the longest duathlon in Scotland!

For some family friendly fun why not head to Pollok Park for a cycle and a picnic.

For those that want to join in but don’t have a bike - why don’t you “celebrate life, music and saddle burn” with the folks at the Admiral Bar.

For more events in your area take a look at the Cycling Scotland website, it is FULL of fun activities!

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Tags:bike week, cycle to work

Check out this great round-up of sustainable analysis tools exhibited at AIA by Lachmi Khemlani, founder and editor of AECbytes www.aecbytes.com/feature/2009/AIA2009_EnergyApps.html.

It includes our new VE-Gaia tool which we previewed there… “IES, the leading vendor in the performance analysis field, introduced a new application, VE-Gaia, to add to its already substantial product repertoire.”

However, it was her comments in the conclusion that really struck a chord with me. It is very encouraging to have finally reached a point where the importance of analysis tools and optimisation of building performance in sustainable design is becoming widely recognised. Enabling this ease of use and access to analysis tools is at the very center of our entire ethos. These are very exciting times for us!

“The increase in the number of analysis tools is a testament to the increasing importance of sustainable design in architecture and the need to optimize building performance. Unlike in the past, when performance analysis was primarily the purview of energy experts, academics, and research institutions, they are now becoming a part of the mainstream architectural toolset, with interfaces that non-technical people can also easily use and understand. Of course, the maxim of “garbage in, garbage out” very much holds true for sustainable design tools as well, and it is easy to be seduced by the colorful diagrams and charts and omit to question the veracity of the input and the accuracy of the output. It’s terrific that we have finally reached the point where the input of building geometry to the analysis tool directly from a BIM application has become a commonplace feature—but we have to keep in mind that geometry is only one of the inputs, and that an accurate analysis depends upon a whole host of other input data that has to be specified correctly as well. It is here that the experiences and insights of an energy expert come in and play a critical role in the design of sustainable buildings. Thus, while it is great to have the tools with their ever-increasing capabilities, it is important to not forget the human element that is ultimately needed for the creation of successful sustainable architecture.”

Lachmi has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specialising in intelligent building modelling; she both consults and writes on AEC technology.  Read the full article and sign up to her newsletters at www.aecbytes.com/feature/2009/AIA2009_EnergyApps.html.

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Tags:AIA, BIM, building energy analysis, building information modelling, building performance, energy analysis, energy modelling, Green Building, performance analysis, Sustainable design, VE-Gaia