ASHRAE and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering have released for public review a proposed standard for the design, construction and operation of green health-care facilities. ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 189.3P: Standard for the Design, Construction and Operation of Sustainable, High-Performance Health-Care Facilities is open for public comment through Jan. 21. The draft standard contains procedures, methods and documentation requirements for the design, construction and operation of sustainable health-care buildings. It would apply to patient-care and related support areas within health-care facilities, including hospitals, nursing homes and licensed outpatient facilities, according to ASHRAE.Among other things, the standard covers site sustainability, water-use efficiency,
Related Links: Green Building Information Gateway Energy Star Sustainability leaders are praising a new search engine for green-building data, calling it a crucial tool for making informed design decisions and crafting government policy. The Green Building Information Gateway (gbig.org) aggregates and assesses design and performance data for thousands of buildings worldwide, collected under the popular green-building rating system called LEED. The site is free to users."GBIG organizes and enhances transparency of building-sustainability efforts," says Barry Hooper, green-building program coordinator, San Francisco Dept. of the Environment. "As a transparency tool, GBIG supports effective decisions and competition among real estate owners, enhances
Courtesy of the Living Building Challenge Reporting of building product contents and their impact on health is gaining traction. Related Links: U.S. Green Building Council Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Institute Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Institute Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Institute Thanks to a $3-million grant from Google Inc., the U.S. Green Building Council plans to build a body of scientific evidence around the content of green building products and materials. USGBC says the research will make it easier to have discussions with interested parties, including opponents of the expanded eco-friendly product credits in the proposed update of
Related Links: Source: Crane Pick Hit Column Before Miami Garage Collapse Two independent sources with knowledge of the investigation into the Oct. 10 collapse of a parking garage at Miami Dade College have refuted a claim reported by Engineering News-Record that the structure was struck a second time by a crane pick just prior to the fatal incident.Officials with the project's general contractor, Ajax Building Corp., were the first to dispute the claim. Bill Byrne, president of the Tallahassee, Fla.-based firm, stated by e-mail, "We are not aware of any precast panels having hit the structure. [And] we are not
Photo by AP Wideworld Workers deliver new equipment for flooded building systems in lower Manhattan. Downtown New York City went dark during Superstorm Sandy because of a utility substation failure. Related Links: Urban Green Council While debate intensifies over long-term solutions to deal with storm surges in coastal New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the real estate sector is brainstorming for near-term solutions that would make the individual building the last line of defense."It's time to consider stricter requirements for flood-proofing boilers, generators and electrical equipment or [to require] water systems that use sensor-based technology that can work during a
Related Links: NYC Building-Energy-Use Reg Steps Toward Saving Energy Work Continues on Updated Commercial Building Energy Survey (subscription req.) SOM Website: Freedom Tower & BIM Wikipedia: Moore's Law Backgrounder Dept. of Energy SEED Program Computing power has grown 100 times over last 10 years, helping to create rapid and profound changes in the tools of building design and construction. But as sophisticated building- information-modeling tools help create ever more complex buildings, why aren't they doing more to design buildings that have greater energy efficiency?These were some of the key points—and challenges—that building experts outlined during Architectural Record's "Innovation Conference 2012"
Related Links: N.Y.C. Greener Greater Building Plan Green-building boosters are lauding the disclosure last month of private-sector building energy-use data for nearly 1.8 billion sq ft of space in New York City. The data, collected as part of the city's "Greener, Greater Buildings Plan," is seen as a positive step toward energy conservation.The report is an eye-opener, especially for small and midsize building owners, says Kevin Hamilton, CEO of NuEnergen, a White Plains, N.Y., energy consultant. "They can see in black and white what they are consuming and … they can start to think about what to do to conserve,"
Related Links: VIDEO from FIDIC 2012: Why are you an engineer? FIDIC Report Highlights Ratings, Risk and Sustainability in the new FIDIC report An old Korean proverb says, "Even monkeys may fall from trees." In other words, even experts make mistakes, including, perhaps, experts on sustainable design and construction.With the sustainability landscape populated by dozens of decision-making tools and rating and certification systems, engineers and building and infrastructure developers may believe the existing methods guarantee a simple, failure-proof means of attaining sustainability. But a rating system is no substitute for rigorous decision-making. That was a key concept driving the report
Related Links: HP Labs Architectural Record HP Labs, the research arm of computer technology giant Hewlett-Packard,is giving back to the environment. The lab has set a goal to develop a method for designing and operating a data center that would consume no net energy from the public utility grid over the lifetime of the facility."This would take into account the building's embedded energy and operational energy," says Cullen Bash, director of ecosustainable systems for HP Labs, Palo Alto, Calif.For the project to be a success, the data center would have to have a two-year payback period for the up-front investment
photo courtesy of skanska modular RISING Factory-built data centers can save owners 30% to 40% on up-front capital costs because they are the right size for current demand and can grow in response to increased future demand. photo courtesy of integrated design group rows of racks Dense computer servers and related equipment generate heat that must be constantly ejected to avoid meltdowns. Related Links: EPA's Energy Star Program The Green Grid ASHRAE Uptime Institute Gartner Inc. Data centers in the U.S. gulp an estimated 388 billion liters of potable water every year. Experts say that's enough water to fill 155