IES Blog

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.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:Building, Engineers, LEED, reduce

Are you watching closely? Turns out, the new take on the gold, silver and bronze medals is more than just a funky new shape. In an effort to reduce electronic waste, each medal was made with a tiny bit of the more than 140,000 tons of e-waste that otherwise would have been sent to Canadian landfills. And that’s not the only eco-friendly thing about the 2010 winter games.

The Olympic Village in Vancouver has received LEED certification. According to The Vancouver Sun, “The athletes’ village in Vancouver’s southeast False Creek can now be called the greenest community in the North America - possibly the world - Mayor Gregor Robertson said Tuesday morning, as he announced the entire neighbourhood had received a certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.”

Yesterday, “Platinum certification was awarded to the $1-billion, 32-hectare South East False Creek neighbourhood development project based on a variety of factors including its proximity to the downtown core, affordable housing, green buildings and habitat restoration. The Olympic Village is the second development in the world to receive Platinum certification.”

Some of the examples of the design elements of the buildings throughout the athletes’ village are green roofs, cisterns to catch rainwater, passive solar design, upgraded insulation and windows as well as carpets and paint with low or no VOC.

When the announcement was made on Tuesday, USGBC chair Tim Cole called the athletes’ village a “remarkable example” of what is possible.

Lance Hosey, in his Op-Eco blog, looks over the sustainability claims by Olympic organizers that the Vancouver games are “the greenest games ever.” Supposedly, various forms of waste mitigation and energy efficiency will take down the games’ carbon output by 15 percent. But the land-grading methods used to make ski slopes at Whistler are among the most permanently destructive. And, of course, the organizers can’t help it if the air travel involved in bringing people to the games amounts to the annual belchings of 30,000 cars.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:Awards, Building, LEED, reduce, USGBC

With climate change firmly on the agenda of governments around the world, many countries are looking to invest further nuclear energy as a way to reduce their carbon emissions. This begs the question: should Ireland go nuclear? This simple question can provoke extremely heated debates in Ireland. The last time Ireland considered nuclear power was in the late 1970’s. Thousands of people descended on the proposed site in Carnsore Point in Co. Wexford for week long “protest festivals”. The plans were scrapped. Yes, Chernobyl was one of the biggest human tragedies in history but there is simply no comparison between the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl and a modern nuclear reactor. At the moment Ireland imports a significant amount of electricity from the UK and which has numerous nuclear power stations.

I believe Ireland needs to have a reasonable and logical debate on what our long term energy source will be. Do I believe Ireland should go nuclear? Absolutely not, but in my opinion Irish people are vehemently opposed to nuclear power for all the wrong reasons. Is there a single nuclear power station in Saudi Arabia? Unsurprisingly the answer is no. The Saudi’s sit on the world’s largest oil reserves so they have had no need for nuclear. The west coast of Ireland on the other hand has some of the best wind energy potential in the world. Ireland has roughly 2% of the EU’s land mass but about 6% of the wind energy potential. This makes Ireland one of the richest countries in the world in terms of wind energy potential per capita.

The ambitious “Spirit of Ireland” project proposes to build a massive network of wind turbines and hydro energy reservoirs along the west coast of Ireland to not only meet the energy needs of Ireland, but to also export electricity to the UK and mainland Europe. The key principle behind this project lies with the hydro energy reservoirs. These are basically large water reservoirs built on the top of hills or cliffs. The wind turbines are used to power water pumps which will pump water up to these reservoirs. When the water is released from the reservoir it flows down hill through hydro electric turbines to generate electricity for the country. The basic theory is to convert wind energy to hydro energy to electricity.

The major disadvantage of wind energy alone is its unreliability. The wind might blow when you don’t need it and might not blow when you do. The major advantage of using hydro energy reservoirs along with wind turbines is that you will always have a constant supply regardless of the weather! Wind energy alone would never be reliable enough to meet the countries needs. Currently Ireland has only one hydro energy storage reservoir facilities at Turlough Hill Co. Wicklow. Spirit of Ireland envisage building many more of these along the west coast of Ireland.

With natural resources like this why would we even consider nuclear…

For more information on these ambitious plans see http://www.spiritofireland.org/

Tweet This Post

2 Comments

Tags:Building, climate, reduce

I recently read about the Environment 2.0 Exhibition at FutureEverything 2009. In particular two exhibits made a point of highlighting sources of Carbon Emissions in ways that encourage people to think of the impact they could be having on the environment.

The first was Aaron Koblin’s Flight Patterns

It is accepted that air travel is a major source of carbon emissions and will have to be tackled by governments who are aiming to cut emissions to meet increasingly ambitious targets and shows the reality of the current dependence on air travel by animating the flight paths of thousands of aircraft over US airspace in a 24 hour period.

The second was HeHe’s large-scale environmental installation Nuage Vert (meaning Green Cloud).

A laser image was projected on to the cloud of vapour as it spewed out from a power plant chimney (“the ultimate icon of industrial pollution”) over Helsinki with the aim of making the local population consider the emissions from the plant the relationship to their own power consumption. The image shape and size was adjusted according to power consumption and people in the local area were encouraged to reduce electricity usage while the image was projected so that “the green cloud could grow”.

These projects show us how the everyday activities of people are affecting the environment by presenting the effects of our actions in a visual way that anyone can appreciate. In much the same way, IES is constantly working to present solutions to these issues in a way that people can fully appreciate and use to improve building design so that emissions are lowered in future.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:Building, Environment, reduce

We love coming back from the holidays to good news. According to Environmental Leader, and specifically by research released by Zpryme, the U.S. green building market is set to grow 146 percent by 2013.

According to the Environmental Leader article, “The commercial sector should get a boost from the news that major real estate firms have signed up for a pilot program that would help building owners, prospective tenants and buyers ascertain the energy efficiency of a building. The Building Energy Quotient program – Building EQ for short – is administered by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).”

We are looking forward to the results of the Building EQ program. Given our position in the industry, it is (and has been from the beginning) our hope that buildings are as energy efficient as possible. For new buildings, this starts from the earliest stages of design. For retrofits, there are many changes architects can implement during the remodel to ensure a building not only reduces its energy usage, but also reduces it carbon emissions.

On another note, and for a little fun to start your new year off right, our partners at Autodesk have created RetroFits, a game to help raise awareness about the benefits of better, greener buildings. Stop by and check it out! Buildings continue to be the #1 source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. But we can make them more energy efficient, little by little.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:Architects, ASHRAE, Autodesk, Building, Engineers, reduce, USA

I am going to step away from building this time and have a look at the pollution and environmental damage from aviation sector.

I have taken two pictures in Beijing while making a trip there, we can see that the air quality is rather poor during the daytime, the visibility in the city is low and it is not due to the moisture on that day, it is air pollution! I know there are a lot of factors that contribute to the pollution, factories, cars, planes etc. But in this article, we will just focus on aviation.

According to IATA’s Director General, Giovanni Bisignani, by 2010, Asia will be the largest single market for aviation. IATA is focused on reducing fuel burn hence reducing carbon emission, with every litre of fuel saved, reduces about 3kg of CO2 emission.

For speech of the IATA’s Director General, please visit:
http://www.iata.org/pressroom/speeches/2008-02-25-01.htm

The aircraft companies are working hard nowadays to reduce the fuel consumption of their airplanes. We now see better design and better engines, all these are to help create a cleaner environment around. But there are only certain limits that the aircraft companies can do, to solve the problems, everyone (including government body, airlines companies and passengers) should play a role as well in reducing the green house gases emission. With government body, airport management groups and airline companies working on shortening routes, improving air traffic management and spreading best practice in fuel conservation, what can we as passenger do to help?

I recently read one short article from a forum in Asia, one Asian airline has set up a trial policy on certain flight route that they will ask passengers to go to the toilet before boarding the plane in order to lose some weight. By doing this, they estimated that can save around 4.2 tonnes of CO2 emission per month. I personally welcome this approach as not only you help reduce the overall weight of the plane while it’s travelling, but it also gives you bigger and cleaner spaces in modern airport’s toilet. And not to mention the washrooms queuing time that I always see inside the plane!!

Here are some extra small tips that I picked up from an airline magazine about travelling:
1. Bring clothes that can mix and match easily, so you don’t need to bring too many clothes.
2. Only bring necessary accessories.
3. Roll clothes up for tidy packing, so you can use a smaller suitcase.
4. Bring lightweight equipments for business trip.

These are just some examples how we can help to reduce carbon footprint.

Nowadays I have also seen airlines applying strict restrictions and penalties on the weight of check in and hand carry luggage, I think a lot of these penalties are purely to cover the extra fuel that the airlines might need for heavier planes and not from the environmental point of view, but it certainly will help our future generation if we start using less fuel. So let’s start travel as light as possible or even better travel less where possible!

Tweet This Post

1 Comment

Tags:Building, Engineers, Environment, reduce, Welcome

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

Tweet This Post

1 Comment

Tags:Building, reduce, students, University of Copenhagen

Yesterday, the UK Green Building Council’s chief executive Paul King urged architects and builders to reduce carbon emissions as a result of the built environment by 50 percent by the year 2020 (BD Online). At the annual conference in London yesterday, he said, “We have the technology and the know-how in the industry, but we haven’t managed to mainstream these yet.”

According to the UKGBC, buildings are responsible for 44 percent of the UK’s CO2 emissions, a number that needs to be drastically reduced if we hope to solve the global climate crisis. Following our recent attendance at Greenbuild , we know people are on board with change. But what is it going to take to get us there?

Read our PDF research paper on “Building Simulation as an assisting tool in designing an energy efficient building: a case study” to understand our take on how you can start to incorporate these techniques and technologies into the design process right from the early stages.

Tweet This Post

1 Comment

Tags:Architects, Building, climate, Environment, Greenbuild, reduce

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.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

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

As a company, IES is very proud of the fact that it can play a vital role in helping its clients to design buildings that are sustainable, energy-efficient and green. Indeed, it is the cornerstone of what the company aims to achieve, both through its product line and its support for carbon-reduction initiatives such as the 2030 Challenge. However, I often feel that as an individual it can be a little more difficult to see what role we can all play in helping to shape the future of the planet, as it seems like such a vast challenge. We often hear on the news about various government pledges to reduce carbon emissions, but it can easily feel like it is someone else’s problem - the policies introduced by our leaders will somehow be enough to solve the problem of climate change, and that there’s nothing we can really do to help.

I have to put my hand up here and admit that I am as guilty as anyone on this front. We all know about recycling and trying to use public transport more, but even though we know we could (and should) do more, it’s all too easy to simply think that it’s too big a problem and that our own individual actions won’t actually make any difference. But during my time at IES, I’ve come to realise more and more that we all have to take responsibility for what will happen to our climate in future - government policies and initiatives alone will not be sufficient to turn the tide on climate change, so we all need to accept that we have our own part to play.

That’s one of the reasons why I was very interested to hear about the 10:10 challenge, an initiative that has been set up here in the UK by the Guardian newspaper in conjunction with Franny Anderson, director of the climate change documentary, The Age of Stupid. The campaign is hoping to recruit thousands of everyday people to sign-up to a pledge to reduce their own individual carbon footprint by 10% over 2010, by simply making small, simple and achievable changes to the way we live our everyday lives. The campaign site gives lots of information to prove that we all need to take the time to make a difference and explains why the 2010 target is important. We’re all aware of the 2030 and 2050 carbon reduction targets, but the campaign explains that there is a growing belief in the scientific community that our carbon production levels need to peak and start to reduce within the next few years if we’re to have any real hope of our stopping the problem of climate change.

The campaign has already had a lot of positive press and publicity buzz, including various celebrity sign-ups and endorsement from politicians here in the UK. The plan is to continually grow the campaign over the course of the next year, including allowing people to share their own experiences and tips on reducing their carbon footprint. It is this aspect that I like the most - 10:10 is set up to show us that not only do we all need to take responsibility for reducing climate change, but that we can all do it in ways that are both achievable and meaningful. It’s not just about businesses or governments taking action - as responsible citizens, we all have to make changes for the sake of future generations. This can include obvious changes to our lifestyle such as flying less and not keeping electronic devices on standby, but the site also gives lots of other useful ideas for energy saving, along with an approximation of the amount of carbon each action could reduce the footprint by.

Whilst these changes for each of us alone will not be some magical “silver bullet” that means climate change is no longer an issue, I’m hopeful that the campaign will allow individuals to see that they can collectively help to make a difference and that it’s not all someone else’s problem. We can all be very good at talking up our responses to climate change, but ultimately our actions will speak louder.

Find out more about the 10:10 challenge by visiting http://www.1010uk.org and http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/10-10.

Tweet This Post

1 Comment

Tags:Building, Environment, recycle, recycling, reduce, Sustainability