Building Forward

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Implications of Seven Billion: Water

Last October, Danica May Camacho, born in the Philippines, was announced to be the world's seven billionth person.  With such a milestone comes a number of questions, not the least of which include how our resources will continue to keep up with this booming global population.  This is the first installment in a series that will examine the implications of this population growth, through a variety of lenses: in this case water.

Water will be a growing focal point of interest in the near future.  Regardless of a nation's status of "developed" or "developing," its respective leaders will soon be faced with difficult decisions regarding how to best preserve this vital life force.   From East Africa to Texas, water shortages and droughts are already showing signs of what the future may hold if current trends are not reversed.

An innovation leading the way toward doing just that provides a potential solution by recycling greywater on a very local level without compromising lifestyle in the process. Currently, traditional models involve using potable water for processes such as air conditioning, irrigation, and industrial purposes.  These uses could just as effectively deploy recycled greywater, a much less finite resource.

Organica's newly-developed BlueHouse provides a flexible model that enables on-site recycling of greywater without the need for extensive pumps or pipes.  This allows the system to be implemented into the urban landscape, a key feature as the world's population continues to migrate to cities on a massive scale.  The BlueHouse is an example of the type of innovation needed to handle upcoming shortages in that it provides a way to drastically reduce water use while providing long-term economic savings in the face of rising water prices.

KEY TERMS:

Potable water - drinking water

Greywater - waste water generated from domestic activities such as laundry, dish washing, and bathing

Blackwater - waste water containing human waste such as that derived from toilets

Check out Organica's video, explaining both the problem at its proposed solution, here.

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Retroficiency: Revolutionizing Green Retrofits

Retroficiency, a firm looking to overhaul the way building retrofits are targeted and executed, is in the process of launching its flagship product: the Virtual Energy Assessment (VEA) system.  VEA is able to produce a full report regarding the energy efficiency of a building, its potential for bottom-line savings, and pinpoint exactly what changes to what systems will have the most impact, all in a matter of seconds.  The system is able to take a process that usually involves months of site visits and advanced diagnostics into a couple of simple, online steps.  

The system works by comparing buildings and energy profiles to a series of benchmarks.  By inputting the building's address and the previous twelve months of energy performance, VEA is able to compare the asset to both relevant buildings that meaningfully match its energy profile, as well as benchmarks of the same profile acting at optimum efficiency.  The result is the production of accurate, actionable recommendations regarding exactly how much value can be added through the improvement of systems within the building, and exactly what systems will most contribute to this value creation.

The implications for the availability of this information and the ease of its production are quite sizable.  This technology provides an opportunity for building owners and operators to streamline energy systems within a portfolio, or for investors and developers to target assets that can be improved upon by adding value to the energy profile.  Through either medium, the innovation has the chance to help reduce the amount of energy our buildings consume, a welcome deviation from current trends.

Learn more about Retroficiency's Virtual Energy Assessment system here.

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WYSIPS: Flexible, Transparent Photovoltaic Cells

WYSIPS has recently announced the creation of the world's first transparent photovoltaic film.  This invention allows any surface to be turned into a solar power generator without even changing its appearance.  The film accomplishes this transparency by layering a lenticular film over the photovoltaic cell layer, a technology used in most 3D imaging productions.

The firm is initially focusing on mobile devices, a space where it claims this innovation can provide 30 minutes of talk time for every hour it is in indoor or outdoor light, all for less than $1.00.  This eliminates the need for wall outlets, and provides a clean, renewable alternative.

WYSIPS is next exploring applying this technology to billboards, but it is not hard to imagine this film eventually being applied to the walls and windows of buildings.  Main obstacles to the installation of photovoltaic cells on buildings have traditionally included expense and space.  By providing a transparent film, WYSIPS has seemingly laid the foundation for solving the space issue by turning any surface into a power source without compromising views through windows.  If the film can be scaled up to this degree without exponentially increasing in price, it could make a huge impact on the way built environment is powered.

See more potential applications of this technology here.

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Sustainable Focus Paying Dividends in the Hospitality Industry

Major hotel companies are finding that a sustainable approach to core business practices can provide a competitive advantage in the industry.  Hilton Worldwide, which installed its proprietary LightStay system in 2008, is beginning to see the commitment to greening operations afford lucrative results.  After including savings from the end 2011, Hilton reported the following aggregated reductions since the implementation of the program:

Carbon emissions: 7.8%

Waste: 19%

Water: 3.8%

Energy: 6.6%

These reductions have combined to produce the number that Hilton management is likely most excited about: bottom-line savings of $74 million.  This success has prompted Hilton to implement the LightStay program in 100% of its properties starting in 2012, and make the ambitious declaration that the firm will reduce carbon emissions, waste, and energy consumption by 20% by 2014.

Other firms are cashing in on the savings offered by sustainable practices as well.  Since Hilton's LightStay, Hyatt has introduced Thrive and Mariott helped launch the Sustainable Purchasing Consortium.  These programs, like LightStay, focus on sustainable practices throughout the supply chain, including everything from the way the building is operated to the composition of the furniture it contains.

Emboldened by such programs, these hotel giants are now attempting to go a step further and establish an industry-wide carbon emission standard, with the hope of establishing clear and uniform measuring practices throughout the space.  Such a standard would be an important step toward understanding the carbon emission consequences of actions for not only the hotels themselves, but for the consumers and businesses that use them.

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VertiCrop Innovation Coming To Vancouver Rooftops

Vancouver has a stated goal to become the world's greenest city by 2020.  To take the next step toward reaching that goal, the city is looking within, to a VertiCrop green roof developed by Vancouver-based Valcent Products, Inc.

VertiCrop, an urban farming innovation, allows for higher crop yields relative to traditional methods, while using a fraction of the resources.  More tangibly, the product avows to provide up to 20 times the yield of soil crops while requiring only 8% of the water.  It accomplishes this feat via a hydroponic system that rotates suspended trays of crops on motorized conveyors, providing optimized quantities of light and nutrients in the process.  This system earned VertiCrop the distinction of being named one of TIME Magazine's 50 Best Inventions in 2009.

Vancouver plans to implement this technology by providing a memorandum to EasyPark, a firm that owns parking garages throughout the city, to begin to install VertiCrop systems on the structures' currently-unused rooftops (pictured below). Doing so would make Vancouver the first home to VertiCrop systems in North America.

The resulting harvest from one of these parking garage roofs is expected to produce an yield equivalent to 16 acres of California farm, conserving resources in the process. Not only do the crops require less water, but growing them on-site allows for dramatically reduced shipping and distribution costs.

Construction on the first of these systems will begin this month, with the initial crops expected to be ready this April.  Depending on the success of this initiative, the VertiCrop model may be one we see repeated throughout the continent. 

Learn more about VertiCrop here

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Global Investment in Clean Energy Hits $1 Trillion Mark

Bloomberg New Energy Finance just announced that global investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and smart energy technologies broke through the $1 trillion benchmark since report started in 2004.

While, out of context, this is a bit of a abstract milestone, current trends in the arena are showing positive signs.  Michael Liebreich, executive chief of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, sees reason to be optimistic:

"The trillionth dollar milestone shows that the world is not waiting for a deal on climate in order to start turning the supertanker away from fossil fuels...Another five years of investment growth at the same compound rates, and the world will have broken the back of emissions growth."

While his prediction may be a bit far-fetched, encouraging data provides a strong foundation to support the claim.  Since these records began, annual investment in clean energy has risen five-fold, from $52 billion in 2004 to $243 in 2010 (outlined below).  This year is projected to continue that trend, as experts estimate record-setting 2011 figures.

While the absolute number may not carry much tangible weight, its symbolic value is buttressed by strong underlying investment fundamentals.  The report succinctly summarizes that, as capital costs for wind, solar, geothermal, marine, hydro and bioenergy continue to fall, and as energy smart technologies remake the world's grids, clean energy investment flows are expected to maintain their long-term rise, supported by a network of policies and initiative around the world.

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Building Energy Efficiency Industry Poised to Take Off

Pike Research's latest proprietary report, Energy Efficient Buildings: Global Outlook, produced quite encouraging conclusions, projecting a boom in spending on energy efficiency in the next five years.  Over this span, Pike Research predicts this market will spike 50%, exceeding $100 billion by 2017.  The main drivers of this growth will be the continuing emergence of energy service companies (ESCOs), and aggressive legislative policy around the globe.

Thanks to reporting by GreenBiz.com author Tilde Herrera, the following key facts can be taken away from the report.  From 2011 - 2017:

High-efficiency equipment will become increasingly desirable.  For example, high-performance HVAC systems will more than double to $6.4 billion.

ESCO global revenues will more than double as well, to $66 billion, becoming the largest segment in the energy efficient building industry.

Legislative initiatives such as February's Better Buildings Initiative in the Untied States provide a baseline framework for policy innovation to come.

Firms leading the way toward making this bullish ESCO prediction a reality include Johnson Controls and Honeywell.

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IBM 'Smart Cities' Start with Smart Buildings

We've all seen the commercials on television where an "IBM-er" tells us that creating a smarter planet starts with building smarter cities.  Going a step further, however, these cities are themselves made up of a network of buildings.  Recognizing this, IBM has taken recent strides in its less-publicized Smart Buildings initiative, attempting to make the structures we live and work in operate more intelligently and efficiently.  And there is a lot of room for improvement.

Currently, buildings consume 70% of all electricity in the United States, up to 50% of which is wasted.  Projections state that by 2025, buildings will surpass automobiles as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet.  

By integrating systems in a building and constantly monitoring them in real-time, IBM's Intelligent Building Management product gives building owners and managers the tools to optimize energy, improve reliability, and save money.  Linking motion sensors with lights, and connecting both to the HVAC system allows a conference room to know when it will be occupied, and prepare light and air for that interval and no longer.  Doing so utilizes space, resources, and energy much more efficiently, and is just the tip of the iceberg of what these seemingly-intuitive systems can accomplish.

Jim Fletcher, IBM's Chief Architect of the Smart Buildings initiative, argues that the term "Smart Building" is itself a misnomer.  Mr. Fletcher instead maintains that our current building stock is so "dumb," the goal can only be to make them a little smarter one step at a time.  While personifying the built environment to this degree may seem like a bit of a stretch, it would be a mistake to overlook obvious and logical inefficiencies occurring in buildings all around us.  Stay tuned: as IBM and other firms continue to gather data in the space, potential synergies and efficiencies will continue to arise, and bottom-line savings will become impossible to ignore.

This approach has contributed to IBM's recent designation by Newsweek as the Greenest Company in America.  Here's to hoping more firms follow the lead.

Read more about IBM's Intelligent Building Management products here.

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MOVIE TRAILER: Surviving Progress

Surviving Progress opened in select theaters this past weekend (December 2).  The documentary brings to life Canadian author Ronald Wright's bestselling book, A Short History of Progress, by presenting the idea that not all progress is created equal.  In fact, the film states, it has precisely two variations: good and bad.  Filmmakers Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks (accompanied by a gentleman by the name of M. Scorsese) present the idea that it is logically unsustainable to continue to use and consume indefinitely if the resources we have are finite.

The film portrays the human species at a critical point in its evolution, and outlines what the next possible steps in that evolution may have to include in order to ensure survival.  It argues that it is time for us as a society to start intelligently controlling our own destiny rather than continuing to make short-sighted, self-centered decisions, further propelling ourselves toward potential crises.

The film is not an entirely pessimistic view of human progress, however, as it makes the case that innate curiosity may be the most powerful (albeit dangerous) tool the species has, and may be the key to unlocking a bright future if we can overcome our primal instincts.  Cameos by global thought leaders such as Stephen Hawking and Craig Venter mix levity and humor into underlying topics as heavy as the discussion of the survival of the human race.

Read more about the documentary here.

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FEATURED COMPANY: Honest Buildings

Honest Buildings, an exciting start-up right here in Manhattan, is poised to take an exciting step toward providing the missing link between a building's high-performance, sustainable technologies, and the corresponding economic and quality of life benefits they provide.  The firm sets out to do this via an unorthodox approach in the real estate realm: a social media-style software platform.

The Honest Buildings platform is designed to give a voice to everyone involved with buildings, which includes... everyone.  Those who build, own, service, work in, and live in buildings will have an opportunity to share their thoughts on the pros and cons of the spaces they are involved in.  In doing so, the site will create a level of transparency currently not available in the market.

Users will be able to see what others have said about a space of interest, and be able to sort through properties in a specific area based on the firm's trademarked Honesty Rating, which measures the overall satisfaction of a building's inhabitants.  Ultimately, the data collected will provide compelling information toward quantifying the correlation between a building's high-performance, sustainable features, and the impacts felt by those involved with it at each stage.  Once the site takes off, this open-source rating system can even have an impact on the value of the spaces listed, allowing pricing to more truly reflect the experience buildings are providing.

Honest Buildings contends that we spend 90% of our time in the built environment in one capacity or another.  It therefore logically follows that we should have a better idea regarding what the buildings we occupy are doing, or should be doing, to maximize the return of this time commitment.  The platform then goes beyond this sentiment, and argues that in addition to this knowledge, we should also be able to exercise personal control, which it provides by giving its users a voice.

Honest Buildings is in its Beta stage, but already has almost 40,000 buildings listed across over 4,500 U.S. cities.  Sign up here to be notified when the site goes live.

Learn more about Honest Buildings via Facebook or Twitter, and check out the firm's blog, covering developing trends in the industry.

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The Many Rewards of Green Schools

The average school in the United States spends more money per year on energy than on school supplies.

This shocking statistic is just one of the indicators that there is a lot of room for improvement in the structures children are learning in around the nation. A greener school featuring high-performance design creates a more facilitative learning environment for students while providing bottom-line savings for the institution, a rare win-win proposition that has enormous implications for schools around the world.

By the Numbers: Studies have shown that students learn better and are healthier in such high-performance atmospheres, and green design can save schools an estimated $100,000 a year in operating expenses.  When aggregated, successfully retrofitting all schools in the nation (including universities) would save approximately $20 billion over the next 10 years.  Considering the entire 2010 budget for the U.S. Department of Education was $56 billion, this amount of savings can have a huge impact.  In that 25% of the population of the United States is currently enrolled in school, this small step can reach a large number of people in a very meaningful way.

What it Means: In addition to the learning, health, and monetary benefits of high-performance green schools, the school itself becomes a teaching tool, wherein students learn how to lead a sustainable lifestyle.  This very global idea has an extremely local impact, in that a community revolves around its school, and changes within a school's walls permeate those within the community it supports.  This phenomenon occurs both now and into the future as the leaders of tomorrow become equipped with the tools to change the environment they live in.  What it means to be a school is an evolving proposition, and outfitting these institutions with green design is another step toward making schools community centers that have positive impacts both today and tomorrow.

The U.S. Green Building Council has recently formed The Center for Green Schools, which states the ambitious goal of providing a green school for every student in this generation.  Learn more about The Center and the work its doing in the video, below:

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U.S. Green Building Council: The Center for Green Schools

Learn more, here

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Organica's BlueHouse

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FEATURED COMPANY: Project Frog

Project Frog, a San Francisco-based start-up, is setting out to revolutionize the construction industry.  The firm takes a modular approach to building, and uses new, technology-based systems to provide materials that can be assembled on-site.  The result is high-performance, facilitative design that uses time, money, and energy more efficiently relative to traditional construction methods.  CEO Ann Hand describes the process as "like a high-quality Ikea building in a kit, but it's hurricane strength."

Project Frog recently received a large capital infusion from GE's Ecomagination Fund, and has completed a handful of projects throughout the country with many more on the way.  The completed projects are projected to contribute 82% less air pollution, 73% less water pollution, and use 87% less fossil fuel than the average building when aggregated over a 50-year life cycle (pictured below).

The firm specializes in the education, healthcare, and retail spaces, and produces environments that are designed to fit into their surroundings while providing facilitative conditions to their occupants.  Most importantly, however, the firm provides an example that it is possible to improve upon the traditional construction model, which has been largely static for the past 100 years, producing waste and inefficiency. 

Learn more about Project Frog

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LEED Silver Cemetery Building

There's no better time than Halloween to discuss a project completed earlier this year that is looking to become recognized as the most energy efficient, environmentally responsible cemetery facility in the country.  The building is a 22,400 square foot, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Welcoming and Information center located on the grounds of St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.

The structure is looking to attain a LEED Silver rating, and has already received the Jeffrey J. Zogg Build New York award for excellence in design and construction.  The building features low-emission windows, advanced MEP and HVAC systems, extensive daylighting, and was made completely out of recycled materials.  The 5-acre sitw is landscaped with natural, low-maintenance greenery that is serviced via a graywater system.

The building is a response to recent legislation in the Town of Babylon (which includes Farmingdale) that requires all new construction in excess of 5,000 square feet to achieve at least a LEED Silver rating.  This aggressive law, passed in 2007, will continue to have interesting impacts on development in Long Island for years to come. 

The firm behind the building's design

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Biomimicry literally means to imitate (mimesis) life (bios).  The discipline is based on the idea that nature has evolved over billions of years, and the results of that evolution are incredible, ingenious systems that human design could learn and benefit a lot from studying.  Nature has a way of functioning and innovating without harming the environment around it that human design could stand to emulate.

The above link provides a slideshow that gives a look into exciting projects that are being explored in this arena.  Everything from solar panel coatings that imitate a moth's eye's ability to reflect light to adaptable building coatings that mimic human skin's regenerative qualities can be seen in the slideshow, each complete with description.

See more biomimicry slideshows here

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"Vertical Street" to be built in Melbourne, Australia

A multi-use tower unlike any other is in the beginning stages of development in Melbourne, Australia.  Upon completion, the building will have five separate communal gardens, each capable of housing trees over thirty feet tall, an industry first.

The building will boast more than just flashy landscaped balconies.  It will feature heat-reflective glass, solar lighting, and efficient heating and cooling systems.  Perhaps most impressive, however, will be the building's ability to catch rain water... with its walls.

A jagged facade and triangular-shaped balconies allow the curtain wall to capture rain water that would ordinarily glance off the side with wind.  This is a revolutionary concept in an urban setting, as a skyscraper naturally has much more surface area on its sides than roof.  The structure is slated to be completed in 2014.

Click here to read more about the building