G R E E N B U I L D I N G & D E S I G N SEP TEM BER+OC TOBER 2016
Structural bamboo panels: building innovation from BamCore, p. 24
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In Conversation: Nancy Sutley, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s chief sustainability officer on the “once-in-a-lifetime transformation” happening in LA, p. 12 Product Lens, a new program from UL Environment, brings clarity to the transparency conversation and adds a missing piece: context, p. 36
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september–october 2016
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
In This Issue September+October 2016 Volume 7, Issue 41
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24
We profile the Wendell Burnette Architects designed Desert Courtyard House, which seamlessly blends the structure with its Sonoran Desert surroundings
Featuring innovations from BamCore, Elkay, REHAU and ecoconscious coiling doors from CornellCookson that were designed to efficiently combat air leakage
Defined Design
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Trendsetters
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A Matter of Context
Product Lens, a new chemical disclosure program from UL Environment, brings clarity to the transparency conversation and adds a missing piece: context
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Disruptive Innovation is Underfoot
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Unlocking the Future
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PHOTO: BILL TIMMERMAN
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WWW. SOLARPO WER I N TER N ATI O N AL . C O M september–october 2016
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Table of Contents September+October 2016 Volume 7, Issue 41
Up Front 12
In Conversation Nancy Sutley
14
Editor’s Picks Curated by gb&d staff
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Barbara Ciesla
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Event Preview Fall 2016
In Profile
Punch List
Spaces 62
LEDs Find a New Light
Bill of Product Health
The technology has roots going back more than 100 years. But economics, environmental concerns, and performance versatility make LEDs a fixture of the future.
As worries over building component ingredients are on the rise, programs like the Living Building Challenge promote product transparency. Look for safer materials in all building typologies soon, including affordable housing – they’re not just for über-green commercial and academic structures anymore.
72 68 Bright Futures, Powered by Daylighting Starfield Lighting Automation brings revolutionary technology to Geneva Middle School
80 Product Spotlight Orbital Systems’ Shower of the Future 84 Guest Column Katrin Klingenberg 86 Sustainable Solution Mobilane 88 On the Spot Nancy Sutley
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ORBITAL SYSTEMS
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gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: DYLAN PATRICK
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UP FRONT
At a Hilton Hotel in Woodland Hills, California, built by Stanford Hotels Corporation, the director of lighting design was responsible for specifying ConTech Lighting LED products in the lobby, bar, and guestrooms. Turn to p. 62 to read more.
gb&d
september–october 2016
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september–october 2016
gbdmagazine.com
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Editor’s Note Chris Howe
PHOTO: COURTESY OF TARKETT
The inspiring subject of our In Conversation interview, the chief sustainability and economic development officer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is Nancy Sutley. She says, “The public in California has always been so willing and supportive of aggressively going after environmental goals.” We couldn’t agree more! So it’s with great excitement that we present this issue at the Greenbuild International Conference & Expo in Los Angeles, a city at the hub of so many exciting sustainability initiatives and a great example of how, when faced with environmental and economic challenges, the private and public sector truly can work together to deliver solutions. This is an issue that boasts solutions reached by bringing the industry together. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Barbara Ciesla, the senior vice president, Strategic Consulting, People + Place at JLL. Her innovative work has brought corporate tenants and building owners closer together, a relationship that has been traditionally thought of as contentious. How did she do it? By emphasizing that healthy buildings are good for everyone. She reminds us, “The commercial real estate industry has done amazing work toward greater efficiency and minimizing environmental impact, but at the end of the day, our buildings are built for human occupation.” You can read the rest of her thoughts on page 18. We’re also proud to report on Product Lens, a new tool from UL Environment. Paul Firth, the director of service development and innovation at UL Environment says, “One of the biggest things we’ve seen is that with more information available there is more knowledge and a growing sense of responsibility from the consumer and business sectors that we need to pay attention to chemical exposure, particularly for sensitive populations.” You can learn more about this exciting new tool on page 36. PROSOCO, an 80-year-old chemical company, continues to challenge themselves on developing greener products. President and CEO David Boyer says, “We see gb&d
buildings constructed with harmful materials every day, and we believe that we as an industry can do better for the environment and human health.” PROSOCO turned to the International Living Future Institute to help qualify their products with the Declare label. Their collaboration has led to PROSOCO now offering multiple Declare labeled products. You can read how they’re being used to create some of the healthiest buildings in the country on page 72. This is an exciting time for us all, and we look forward to discussing this issue with you this year at Greenbuild. If you are in attendance, please visit us at our booth. We also would like to thank our amazing partners at USGBC Los Angeles. We continue to be honored to be your member magazine, and look forward to continuing to serve you all. Together we can create a more sustainable world!
Sincerely,
Chris Howe, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
ON THE COVER Tarkett is a global leader in innovative and sustainable flooring and sports surfaces. The company’s carpets, vinyl, linoleum, rubber, wood, and laminate products are sold in more than 100 countries. Covering 1.3 million square meters per day, the company feels it has a great responsibility to provide a healthier product.
september–october 2016
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Editor’s Note Laura Heidenreich
gb&d Green Building & Design gbdmagazine.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Christopher Howe chris@gbdmagazine.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Laura Heidenreich laura@gbdmagazine.com ART DIRECTOR
With this being our “Greenbuild Issue” one of our most popular issues of the year, we wanted to present some of the most innovative and transformative solutions on the market, and touch on some topics we know will be relevant again this year in Los Angeles. Leadership is a no brainer. The role of leadership for the environment and sustainability is critical for progress and change. We’re thankful for the abundance of strong leaders we have moving the industry forward. You will see many thought leaders in the issue, especially some inspiring females, including Nancy Sutley of the LADWP. This issue is also released in conjunction with our annual Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards (WSLA). You’ll see more coverage on our 2016 WSLA Winners being released online in the coming months. Getting back to this issue, we took a look at the need for modern aesthetics in sustainable design. What we’re all starting to realize, thanks to the market achievements, is that you can have both beautiful
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looks and perfect functionality all while being energy efficient. To prove this point we spoke to J. Michael Sirochman at ConTech Lighting about some of the expanded design possibilities he is providing to huge hospitality clients like Stanford Hotels Corporation. LED technology is rapidly changing the beauty of homes, workplaces, healthcare, hospitality, and more. Strong design can now support great performance all while increasing occupant comfort. Whether it’s talking about health or reliability, the user is often the most important, and sometimes the most forgotten, part of a building. Occupant engagement and behavior is, and has been, the “next big thing” for several years, which is why we’re not going to stop talking about it. We spoke with John Watson, manager of compliance & sustainability at Elkay, about a topic most people are aware of, the Flint water crisis. As they educate us on the critical problems lead can create in our water, Elkay also provides us with an amazing solution, point-of-use filters. Watson explains that the ezH20 is “widely accepted as one of the most reliable means for removing lead from water.” Outside of health and safety, but moving into comfort and reliability, REHAU describes a less serious, but related, issue as they describe the benefits of their GENEO windows. Uninterrupted views, high thermal performance, and user reliability are what most homeowners would desire I’d imagine. You’re going to find more on Elkay and REHAU’s innovative solutions, but so many others, as you flip through this issue.
Ravi Sathia ravi@gbdmagazine.com MARKETING COORDINATOR
Christina Wiedbusch christina@gbdmagazine.com ACCOUNT MANAGERS
Reid Bogert, Audrey Steinbach, Brianna Wynsma CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Barth, Vincent Caruso, Russ Klettke, Katrin Klingenberg, Jeff Link, Margaret Poe, Emily Torem, Christina Wiedbusch DESIGN INTERN
Alec Majerchin
MARKETING INTERN
Ayrie Gomez MAIL
Green Building & Design 1765 N. Elston Ave. Suite 202B Chicago, IL 60642 The Green Building & Design logo is a registered trademark of Green Advocacy Partners, LLC Green Building & Design (gb&d) magazine is printed in the United States using only soy-based inks. Please recycle this magazine. The magazine is also available in digital formats for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play (tablet and mobile), and at issuu.com/greenbuildingdesign.
Green Building & Design is a certified B Corp. B Corp is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA Organic certification is to milk. B Corps are certified by the nonprofit BLab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
Sincerely,
Laura Heidenreich, Associate Publisher gbdmagazine.com
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Trendsetters Features Spaces Punch List
gb&d
12 In Conversation
Nancy Sutley
14 Editor’s Picks Curated by gb&d staff 16 Defined Design
Desert Courtyard House
18 In Profile
Barbara Ciesla
21 Event Preview
Fall 2016
september–october 2016
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER
UP FRONT
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september–october 2016
gbdmagazine.com
UP FRONT
In Conversation Nancy Sutley
LA’s water and energy guru offers words of insight and advice By Brian Barth Nancy Sutley is no stranger to sustainability projects of an immense scope. The chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality from 2009 to 2014, Sutley was a chief architect of President Obama’s 2013 Climate Action Plan. For the past two years she has served as the chief sustainability and economic development officer of the nation’s largest municipal utility—the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). “LADWP is undergoing a once-in-a-century transformation,” says Sutley of the agency, which is unusual in that it combines both a water and an energy utility in one. “We have a very different vision for the future than what we have traditionally done.” That vision includes cutting back heavily on the amount of water imported from afar, and making much greater use of local water resources, including capturing storm runoff and treating groundwater. It’s a massive undertaking, given that Southern California is a naturally arid environment, a constraint that climate change has greatly intensified. From her office overlooking the Los Angeles skyline—which is not so polluted these days, she is happy to report—Sutley recently spoke with gb&d about her work at LADWP and what lessons drought-stricken California, and Los Angeles in particular, holds for the rest of us. gb&d
ABOVE Nancy Sutley also answered our questionnaire; turn to p. 88 for the results.
IN CONVERSATION with Nancy Sutley
PART 1 A GENERATION OF CHANGE gb&d: What events in your upbringing have come to influence your worldview today? Nancy Sutley: When people ask me what inspired me, I tell them about my weekend rides on my little Stingray bike down to Little Neck Bay, this beautiful spot on the Long Island Sound in New York City where I grew up. My mother would tell us we couldn’t go near the water because it would make us sick. These were the days when New York City was basically pumping raw sewage into the East River and Long Island Sound. I don’t know where she got this from but she said if we ever went in the water we would have to get washed off with kerosene. gb&d: What did you think about that at the time? Sutley: I thought it odd that we were making the environment off-limits, that we couldn’t actually enjoy it, because we were harming it. I thought we could do better— and we have. I remember participating in the first Earth Day there when I was little. And all these years later Little Neck Bay is a big spot for kayaking and fishing and all those things that we couldn’t do when I was a kid. gb&d: Thanks to folks like you, a generation later the world is a cleaner place—the movement is working! Sutley: Yes, even here in Los Angeles. My friends who grew up here talk about how on bad air days they couldn’t go out to play and were kept inside school; activities were canceled. When I first started coming to LA in the early 90s my eyes would sting, and now sitting here in my office most days I can see the mountains. Though I have to say it’s still a little hazy on some days. gb&d: You must feel that your work is never This conversation continues on p. 17
gb&d
september–october 2016
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UP FRONT
Editor’s Picks Curated by gb&d staffer, Christina Wiedbusch
Renderings for The Arc House were created by ALIGN3D; visit align3D.com for more information and renderings.
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PROJECT THE ARC HOUSE
COMPANY METROFLOR CORPORATION
PRODUCT CERV BY BUILD EQUINOX
PROGRAM PASSIVE PROJECTS COMPETITION (PHIUS)
BOOK REINVENTING GREEN BUILDING
ORGANIZATION THE MOTOWN MOVEMENT
(pictured above) Green Builder Media and Shelter Dynamics, in partnership with other sustainable innovators, have brought The Arc House to life as part of the VISION House series. Adara Power was selected to supply the energy storage system for the house, combining tiny house living with cutting-edge building science. greenbuildermedia.com/ vision-house-arc-house
MetroFlor Corporation/Halstead International has appointed their first Chief Sustainability Officer, Rochelle Routman, LEED AP, O+M. The company is committed to being as sustainable as possible with principles of responsible sourcing, conserving water and energy, reducing emissions, and recycling embedded into the entire business. metroflorusa.com
Build Equinox has developed the CERV automated fresh air ventilation system for green homes. The CERV provides energy recovery ventilation based on real-time indoor air quality levels. The system was designed in response to a growing awareness that indoor air quality standards are inadequate and that real-time monitoring and smart ventilation is vital to human health and wellbeing. buildequinox.com
The 2nd Annual Passive Projects Competition is back by popular demand. The juried competition recognizes fully certified passive building projects of all types and climate zones. To showcase your work or celebrate the successes made in passive building, visit naphc2016.phius. org/2016-passiveprojects-competition/
Jerry Yudelson, LEED Fellow and author of 13 other green building books, tackles the industry’s latest topic: why certification systems aren’t working and what we can do about it. Yudelson provides an insider’s critique and explains why certifications are failing to provide large-scale carbon reduction. reinventinggreenbuilding.com
This non-profit organization is run by three architecture students from the Netherlands aiming to make sustainable housing accessible for everyone. Their goal is to transform a home in Detroit into a living model of sustainable design. The model home will help residents find affordable ways to retrofit their houses and save money. themotownmovement.com
september–october 2016
gbdmagazine.com
UP FRONT
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september–october 2016
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UP FRONT
Defined Design Desert Courtyard House By Christina Wiedbusch
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PHOTOS: BILL TIMMERMAN
Wendell Burnette Architects designed this stunning home in Scottsdale, AZ to exemplify the Sonoran Desert topography by seamlessly blending the structure with its surroundings. Because of this, the Desert Courtyard House is built from materials found on the site. The other building materials were strategically selected in order to help the house recede like a shadow into the desert floor, blending it with its environment and minimizing the obstruction of the expansive vista from the community above it. Because the house has spectacular views across the desert, an inner courtyard of shaded glass walls became a key component to this design. The architect arranged main living areas around existing natural features—such as small rock outcrops and a saguaro—further showcasing the delicacy and serenity of the landscape. At night, a metal ceiling inside matches the color of the night sky to give the sense that one is actually outdoors. gb&d
Plinth /plinTH/ (noun) A heavy base or platform upon which a structure rests. The plinth provides protection from rain and erosion to the rammed earth walls. Materials from the local river beds were also incorporated into the plinth. The architects worked the surfaces of the plinth in order to reveal the composite qualities, creating a window into the geologic time of this place.
gbdmagazine.com
UP FRONT
IN CONVERSATION with Nancy Sutley
Monocline /ˈmänəˌklīn/ (noun) A bend in rock strata that are otherwise uniformly dipping or horizontal. The location of this build site was carefully selected according to the landform. The overall height follows the design guidelines and therefore the ground at precisely 24’ above natural grade in a segmented monocline. The roof begins at the outermost edge of the monocline and continues toward the courtyard, creating an irregular frame for the sky.
Continued from p. 13
done. That said, California has come farther than most places in terms of the environmental movement. Sutley: For me that just demonstrates how political will and the practical application of knowledge, technology, science, and law have really made a huge difference. I was working for the EPA in Washington in the early 90s, and decided to take a position at their regional office in San Francisco because it seemed like the place to be if I wanted to make a difference with environmental policy. So I got to experience up close and personal the kind of leadership that California has always shown regarding the environment. gb&d: Why do you think the state has become such a leader in the movement? Sutley: Because we are so big, the problems are bigger. But that just means that the opportunities are also bigger. I think the public in California has always been so willing and supportive of aggressively going after environmental goals. It has made a huge difference with things like air quality. And it is not just our lungs that have benefited from that leadership, but I think the economy has benefited from a better quality of life and a healthier place to live. It is part of what keeps California a very attractive place to live and do business. gb&d: The notion of the environment versus the economy doesn’t gel with that picture at all.
PHOTOS: PLACEHOLDER
Rammed Earth /ræmd ərTH/ (noun) A technique for building walls, foundations, and floors using natural raw materials. Using one of the oldest methods of construction, the walls for this project were made by compacting soil removed from the site during the excavation process. The walls act as thermal mass to support the expanses of glass and help keep the home’s temperature stable.
Sutley: Absolutely not. Many other states across the country would love to be California in terms of the economic growth and job opportunities we have here. PART 2 LESSONS FROM A DRY LAND gb&d: The LADWP has an unusual history. How did the water utility and energy utility come to be under one roof? Sutley: As with many institutions of government there are both historical reasons and contemporary reasons that certain aspects of infrastructure are the way they are. The Department of Water and Power started out as the water department back at the turn of the 20th century. The power business came out of that because the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which brings water to LA from the Owens Valley over 200 miles This conversation continues on p. 19
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september–october 2016
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UP FRONT
In Profile Barbara Ciesla
gb&d: Could you explain the business case for your initiatives?
Chris Howe, editor-in-chief at gb&d, sits down to talk with Barbara Ciesla, senior vice president, Strategic Consulting, People + Place at JLL. gb&d: Tell me about your path to sustainability. Barbara Ciesla: I come from the design side. I’m trained as an interior designer. I designed restaurants for the first eight years of my career and loved it. But, I got to a point where I wanted to make more of a difference. I thought I was going to have to leave and become a doctor or lawyer, and then I heard about this thing called sustainable design. I heard someone from HOK speaking about it, and I just became fixated on joining HOK and learning more about
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sustainability. That’s really where my move into sustainability happened. I worked for some wonderful leadership at HOK who gave me the chance. I was doing work in LEED EB certifications. In that work I had the opportunity to meet with tenants, and every time I did they kept saying, “If the landlord gave us the (sustainability) tools, we’d use them.” I was reading about behavioral science and had this idea for an engagement program to help improve the performance of a green building. We know we can design and build a
“When we talk about sustainability we’ve made the mistake about talking about things like the melting ice shelves and stranded polar bears, and while that’s very important it’s just so distant for us as an individual. “ Ciesla: In terms of business case, it’s the same as everyone else. I’ve got my P&L, I’ve got my revenue targets for the year, and I’ve got to manage to that. I think where sustainability professionals get challenged is when they’re viewed as overhead and then constantly have to prove their value internally. What I see with some of my sustainability colleagues is they get pushed into this position of being the subject matter expert on sustainability to support the business, but also having to generate revenue. That’s the same
as going to your HR department and saying, “hey HR, you’ve got to serve our needs, but you also need to bring in some consulting work to pay for your own labor.” That doesn’t make sense. Nor does it make good business sense. So while the shift in companies has been happening, it needs to continue. They have to understand that this is no longer a differentiator but a part of doing business. That said, when you’re running a sustainable consulting practice, you are running a business. So you do have to have wear, and understand, both hats. gb&d: The discussion on sustainability now includes employee productivity. Is there a way you connect sustainability and productivity to defend value? Ciesla: The tool I was brought in to operationalize was built on the principle of 3/30/300. It’s an illustrative principle that says if rent costs are thirty dollars a square foot, your utility costs are about three dollars a square foot, but your people costs can be three hundred dollars, or more, a square foot. So rather than just working on getting a dollar or two off that thirty dollars a square foot in rent, let’s look at how we can put people in great real estate to enhance the three hundred cost. From a real estate perspective, when we’re looking at improving energy efficiency, we’re looking at 10, 20, maybe 30 percent off that three dollar a square foot utility bill. So, that’s what, 30-90 cents? But we gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: COURTESY OF JLL
green building, but as soon as you occupy and operate those buildings you can lose those savings. There are really good studies that have shown that. So (while at HOK) I kicked off an occupant engagement program with Cadillac Fairview’s TD Centre property. We’re now in our 6th year of running the occupant engagement program there, and have rolled it out to many more properties. It’s phenomenal!
UP FRONT
IN CONVERSATION with Nancy Sutley Continued from p. 17
away, has numerous small hydro plants along the length of it. They still produce energy currently. gb&d: What is the relevance of that arrangement today?
can get 10 percent more productivity out of their people, that’s thirty dollars per square foot of savings. That’s your total cost of rent! When our Brokers speak to tenants about this they get it. One of my clients has said, “real estate is a very human experience. If our buildings don’t serve the human experience, they are worthless.” That’s pretty profound for a real estate owner to say!
“If our buildings don’t serve the human experience, they are worthless.” gb&d: Is health and wellness just a trend? How are building owners and tenants connecting that with sustainability? Ciesla: Health and wellness is not a trend. It’s the way we should have always been doing business. Somehow, over time, we lost our way, just like we did with sustainability. Health and wellness has a way of engaging people that is far greater than the sustainability messaging. When we talk about sustainability we’ve made the mistake about talking about things like the melting ice shelves and stranded polar bears, and while that’s very important it’s just so distant for us as an individual. Now, the built environment is really starting to get exciting for an individual, for the occupier. At the TD Centre, the property I first started rolling out occupant engagement, we have rolled out two energy campaigns, a waste campaign, and gb&d
an environmental air quality campaign. We have now completed our second health and wellness campaign, getting ready to roll out our third, and the adoption rate is huge! It’s really exciting times. I don’t think it’s a trend. The commercial real estate industry has done amazing work towards greater efficiency and minimizing environmental impact, but at the end of the day, our buildings are built for human occupation. gb&d Active in sustainable initiatives throughout her career, Barbara Ciesla, LEED AP, ARIDO, NCIDQ, is focused on helping clients assess and manage their environmental impacts, and providing innovative solutions that support and add value to achieving business objectives tied to environmental and human capital objectives. Barbara’s work includes providing strategic direction on sustainable practices and health + wellness initiatives including WELL certification. By combining her understanding of tenant’s organizational needs, building operations & behavioural science, she developed an industry leading and award winning program for occupant engagement. Outside of the industry, Barbara serves as a board member for Eva’s Initiatives, a non-profit organization whose mission it is to work with homeless and at-risk youth to help them reach their potential to lead productive, self-sufficient and healthy lives by providing safe shelter and a range of services that create long term solutions for homeless youth.
Sutley: Today there is a lot of focus on the water-energy nexus, whether you’re looking at it from the energy perspective or the water perspective—i.e. the energy intensity of water, or the water intensity of energy. We are rebuilding our coastal power plants so they don’t rely on ocean water for cooling, given the impacts on marine resources, for example. By 2029 we will fully be out of using ocean water for cooling. gb&d: What are your top priorities currently? Sutley: On the energy side, it’s more renewable energy, more energy efficiency, and less polluting sources. We are divesting our coal-fired power plants—in fact, this summer we divested ownership of a 300 MW coal plant in Arizona. We plan to divest our last coal plant by 2025, which is in Utah. gb&d: What forms of renewable energy are you pursuing? Sutley: We’re making investments to encourage the development of solar in the city. We have lots of solar on rooftops, and we continue to offer incentives to our customers to put solar on their roofs. We have a feed-in tariff that is basically a standard contract for people who want to build solar facilities in the city. And soon we will launch a community solar program which will allow people who don’t have a roof, or can’t afford to do it on their own roof, an opportunity to participate in ownership of rooftop solar. We’re also making investments in electric vehicle charging. This is a huge transformation. gb&d: What about on the water side of the equation? Sutley: We have traditionally relied on water coming from hundreds of miles away from Owens Valley, Northern California, and the Colorado River, but we’re shifting to more reliance on local sources of water and using more recycled water. We’re capturing more of our storm flows when it does rain here—it does occasionally rain here, although we are starting to forget that! This conversation continues on p. 21
september–october 2016
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UP FRONT
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gbdmagazine.com
UP FRONT
Event Preview Fall 2016
IN CONVERSATION with Nancy Sutley Continued from p. 19
gb&d: Los Angeles is known as a leader in water conservation. Tell us about your progress with that.
By Christina Wiedbusch
Sutley: We have made huge investments in water conservation, which has made a tremendous difference. Today we use about the same amount of water as we did in 1990, even though we have added 1 million people in the city of Los Angeles. So our per capita water use is down about 15 percent from that time. gb&d: What do you see as the biggest challenges your agency faces?
Solar Power International
DETAILS
Billed as the largest gathering of solar installWhen September 12-15 Where Las Vegas, NV ers, manufacturers, and energy storage profesWeb solarpowerinternational.com sionals in North America, SPI is a must-attend event for industry professionals. This year’s conference is expected to draw a crowd of over 15,000 attendees and more than 600 exhibitors. With a heavy emphasis on education, there are eight tracks to choose from when making your schedule, including smart homes, grid integration, and solar storage.
Greenbuild International Conference & Expo
DETAILS
PHOTO: COURTESY OF GREENBUILD INTERNATIONAL
When October 5-7 Presented by the U.S. Green Building Council, Where Los Angeles, CA Greenbuild is the world’s largest conference and Web greenbuildexpo.com expo dedicated to green building. The three day event will feature inspiring speakers, invaluable networking opportunities, industry showcases, LEED workshops, and tours of green buildings in Los Angeles. Exhibitors will showcase the latest green building equipment, products, services and technology for today’s market.
ASLA Annual Meeting & Expo
DETAILS
The American Society of Landscape Architects When October 21-24 Where New Orleans, LA will be hosting their annual meeting and expo Web aslameeting2016.com this year in New Orleans. As the largest gathering of landscape architecture professionals and students, the event will be offering over 130 courses, allowing attendees to earn up to 21 professional development hours (PDHs). The most popular events are the field sessions, where attendees travel to iconic landscapes, gardens, and sanctuaries throughout Louisiana and Mississippi. gb&d
Sutley: There are a lot of stresses on our water supply, some which are related to climate change. Over the next 20 years or so we’re going to make very large investments to try to get 50 percent of our water coming from local sources, which is a big change for us. It makes our water supply more reliable and more resilient, whether to climate change, earthquakes or other things that could potentially disrupt it. gb&d: What projects are you working on now in order to reach that goal? Sutley: One of our big projects involves a very large groundwater basin that lies under the San Fernando Valley [in the Los Angeles suburbs]. The problem is that it is a Superfund site. It has a history of industrial pollution going back to the Second World War and before. But we are trying to get it cleaned up and restored to its full capacity so that we can use it, not just to take groundwater out, but also as a place to put captured storm water and recycled water, essentially to use it as an underground reservoir. That will give us a lot of flexibility with our water supply in the future. PART 3 NATIONAL LEADERSHIP gb&d: After five years at the White House were there any nuggets that you took away in terms of the national conversation about sustainability? Sutley: When I worked at the EPA in Washington in the early 90s, the environment, at a federal level, was the EPA’s issue. It was not something that was front and center for most federal agencies. It was left to the agency that had ‘environment’ in its name. But when I came back to take the job at the Council on Environmental Quality one This conversation continues on p. 82
september–october 2016
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UP FRONT
Like the iconic screen roles and the Chinese Theater, our buildings have withstood the test of time. When we think of icons, we conjure up images of people, places and things that withstand the test of time, symbolizing our beliefs, culture and community. Greenbuild 2016 celebrates the icons of our movement. Those who are working in the trenches today, and those who are in line to take up the banner and lead the way into the future. Plan now to join us for an epic celebration at Greenbuild 2016: Iconic Green in Los Angeles, California.
REGISTER TODAY!
expo:
OCT. 5-6 conference: OCT. 5-7
los angeles convention center los angeles, ca
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gbdmagazine.com
FRONT GREEN BUILDING UP & DESIGN
Up Front Trendsetters Features Spaces Punch List
24 Green to the Core
Enviro-conscious power couple in paradisiacal Mill Valley among early adopters of revolutionarily sustainable building material
28 Quick, Clean, Green, and Lead-free
ezH2O bottle filling stations offer fresh, clean and healthy water on-the-go
30 Doorway to Excellence CornellCookson, a company with
a rich history and a wealth of powerful, insulated door technologies, successfully defeats a long-standing rolling door challenge–air infiltration
32 On the Green High-performance windows
gb&d
give Manitoba homeowners unobstructed views
september–october 2016
23
Green to the Core
Enviro-conscious power couple in paradisiacal Mill Valley among early adopters of revolutionarily sustainable building material. By Vincent Caruso
Tranquil and temperate, Mill Valley, California is a small, idyllic town roughly 15 miles north of San Francisco. Despite being characteristically quiet and relatively obscure, it is a city marked by a handful of defining qualities. Enjoying access to a variety of natural touchstones like the Muir Woods and Edgewood Botanic Garden, Mill Valley has historically been a magnet for creative types to retreat to for undisturbed artistic focus (from Van Morrison to Jerry Garcia and George Lucas). It should come as no surprise then that such creative energy would be expended in service of the city's
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natural environment when an award winning environmental writer and an environmental artist decided to use fledgling bamboo paneling company BamCore to transform their pacific residence from the ground up. The owners of the Mill Valley property, BamCore CEO Hal Hinkle says, wanted to construct a replacement home that was “much more thermally efficient” and “super green” in terms of the materials used. These are noble goals, and ones that would be familiar to BamCore founder William McDonald, whose frustration with the inefficient thermal
bridging of traditional stud walls and passion for material renewability led him to devise the paradigm-shifting innovation now known as BamCore. In these terms, BamCore is the most revolutionary product on the market in the most literal sense of the word. It subverts the established, and woefully outdated, model of wood framing by introducing a new foundational resource—bamboo— and liberates building framing from the need for its securing and inherently flawed core of studs. "In order to solve the thermal bridge problem, you can't have any studs in the wall,” Hinkle instructs. But since studs serve the fundamental purpose of framing a conventional wall and supporting the roof and floors above, spotty thermal performance has long been a sacrifice most contractors and architects have accepted as the price of framing the wall. After all, what good is a great
thermal performance if you can’t hold up the roof? What BamCore has discovered is that by supplanting wood studs and exterior OSB sheathing with structural bamboo panels in a robustly efficient, hollow dual-panel system, you can both achieve all the structural requirements of the wall while also substantially improving the thermal performance. This opens up the insulation decision to any type of blown-in material. Eliminating studs from the structural equation elevates the energy efficiency performance of a building spectacularly, most notably by reducing the aforementioned thermal bridging. The dual panel hollow-wall system tightens the building envelope of the home, thereby reducing air infiltration and maximizing insulation. Diminished airflow invasiveness translates to diminished energy consumption, which culminates in splendid cost savings for the gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: COURTESY OF HARVEY ABERNATHY
TRENDSETTERS
TRENDSETTERS
By supplanting wood studs and exterior OSB sheathing with structural bamboo panels in a robustly efficient, hollow dual-panel system, you can both achieve all the structural requirements of the wall while also substantially improving the thermal performance. This opens up the insulation decision to any type of blown-in material.
CONTAINING CO2 A Snapshot of BamCore's Diminished Greenhouse Gas Output
RENDERING: COURTESY OF 361 ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN COLLABORATIVE
If the early approximations of BamCore's greenhouse gas attenuations are any clue, the industry might soon have to adjust to a cataclysmic shift. By analyzing a 2014 study conducted by Delft University of Technology that measured the carbon impact of seventy foreign bamboo-based materials produced in a style similar to BamCore, the company was able to estimate that the BamCore wall system can abate 33 Metric Tons (MT) of CO2 over the service life of an average US house. To put this in perspective, the company reported that this is “twice amount of CO2 as the annual US per capita CO2 production from all sources of CO2 production.” The CO2 reduction can be assessed by observing the varying levels of CO2 savings at different steps of the production process. Throughout the initial production stage and transportation of the panel system, only 8 MT of CO2 is released, which is practically negated by the 10 MT that is captured by the bamboo and kept from entering the atmosphere. Because of the absence of job site waste, and a 75% reduction in installation time dwarfed by 75% compared to stud-oriented wood paneling, CO2 output is further minimized.
gb&d
residents. And sealing the thermal bridge has the ancillary effect of likewise shuttering the acoustic bridging, a feature admired by Daniel Weaver of 361 Architecture and Design Collaborative, who was the principal architect on the Mills Valley residence. Weaver recalls the follies of earlier California-based developers. “When they started building lofts and converting warehouses in San Francisco, they would insulate them with old wood timbers,” he recollects, “so when they went to sell them they realized the sound was transferring through the floor beams and the roof beams. It was a huge selling issue for those projects.” The market had decided that sonic constraint is a safeguard of human comfort. The bamboo alternative has enormous potential to combat “clearcutting,” the scorched earth process of logging that entails deforesting a wealth of trees in a given area. This is in
part due to the rapid pace at which timber bamboo grows in contrast to most strains of wood. “When you cut down trees you're cutting down something that took a minimum of 15 to 25 years or more to grow,” Hinkle says, while timber bamboo grows about five times faster than all construction wood timber. Not to mention, when you cut down a tree, stump form is a life sentence, whereas bamboo can regenerate to full height and be re-harvested annually. Bamboo also has the environmental advantage of mitigating the greenhouse effect. “While growing in its plantation,” Hinkle explains, “bamboo sequesters more carbon dioxide per square area per acre than a typical wood forest does.” Therefore, by switching from wood to bamboo, the industry could dramatically curtail the amount of CO2 that enters the lower atmosphere and is causing the climate to change. september–october 2016
25
TRENDSETTERS
BAMCORE EXTERIOR WALL SYSTEM An isometric view of BamCore's revolutionary wall system
Top mounting track
Joint splines
High-recycled content 20 gage galvanized sheet metal runs 10’ laterally and ties the top of panels into their vertical position. Truss or ceiling joists connect to the top track through a patented sheet metal bracket (not shown).
High-recycled content 20 gage galvanized sheet metal 3” wide splines connect adjoining panels vertically.
BamCore Prime Wall Panels Low-embodied energy, engineered panels constructed from four 1/4” layers of timber bamboo and two 1/8” veneers on each face, laminated with a formaldehyde free glue. Panel attachment to tracks and splines with 8” o.c. self-taping screws. Corner Splines High-recycled content 20 gage galvanized steel sheet metal broken to 90 degrees holds the corner joint true, plumb and square.
High-recycled content 20 gage galvanized sheet metal runs 10’ laterally and ties the bottom of the panels into their horizontal position. Track width determines wall thickness. Tracks anchored to subfloor or foundation anchor bolts as specified in structural plans. Shear holds are incorporated into bottom attachment (not shown).
What perhaps makes Bam- Hinkle explains. “The builder Core most ripe for an indus- no longer needs to offload all kinds of studs,” he illustrates, try-wide paradigm shift is the simplicity with which they “having to cut them all to their equip you to facilitate it. Rather length and then figure out how than building on-site, BamCore to rough frame all the windows takes the architectural CAD and doors.” It's a process Weavdrawings of a building design, er implies could potentially cuts the wall panels prefab have democratizing effects on from the factory, and delivers the profession. “The way Bamthem to the site with foolproof Core is assembled is relatively instructions that enable the simple,” Weaver affirms. “With contractor to assemble the pan- very little training you could els in the order they're num- build a 20 foot wall of Bambered. “It's paint-by-numbers,” Core relatively quickly.” As gen-
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eral rule, when approaching a task, most people gravitate toward modes of labor that reduce their mental and physical strain. By rendering the greenest mode of production the most undemanding, BamCore stands to make sustainability a no-brainer. Weaver’s job was to help the owners build an environmentally-sensitive house on a challenging hillside lot. This drove a strong contemporary design, which included a butterfly roof that catches rainwater. Builder David Hill of Spellbound Construction, had the job of building the contemporary style home with a highly sustainable but radically new way of framing walls. “Despite challenges due to the design and BamCore’s new way of framing,” Hill explained, “I would gladly do it all over again. I truly believe that BamCore is at the forefront of a new way of smarter building.” gb&d gbdmagazine.com
RENDERING: COURTESY OF BAMCORE
Bottom mounting track
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TRENDSETTERS
Quick, Clean, Green, and Lead-free ezH2O bottle filling stations offer fresh, clean and healthy water on-the-go. By Emily Torem Lead has been a notoriously sneaky offender when it comes to environmental pollutants. The heavy metal can leach into water when old pipes containing it break down, contaminating a building’s water supply. When highly corrosive water from the Flint River flowed through old lead pipes in the Flint, MI water crisis, it ate away at the pipes, exposing lead and depositing dangerously high concentrations of it in the local community’s water supply. Whether in chronically small or acutely large doses, lead can be a potent neurotoxin, as well as trigger a host of other health problems. Since fresh, clean water is the cornerstone of human health, this crisis caused anguish, outrage and fear. Even when lead-free water comes from a perfectly safe public water system, lead can leach into the water from older supply lines leading up to a building, or from old plumbing within the building itself that contains lead.
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Obviously, it would be difficult for any individual to monitor the purity of the water being delivered from the tap in any given building environment, leading to general unease around tap water consumption, especially for children in public schools. Elkay, a leading US-based manufacturer of bottle filling stations, offers an easy way for public institutions, such as schools, airports and stadiums, to feel confident that the drinking water they offer to patrons, students and attendees is safer for consumption with their ezH2O filtered bottle filling stations. ezH2O’s point-of-use filters remove contaminants such as lead in compliance with the NSF/ ANSI Standard 53. With a digital display that monitors the useful life of the filter, prompting it to be changed whenever needed, ezH2O continues to offer easier ways for the public to keep tabs on the water they consume. You’ve likely seen bottle filling stations on college campuses, in yoga studios and office buildings, where their bright green displays tally up how many plastic containers have been diverted from the waste stream. The technology has been made popular over the past six years, where their gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ELKAY
TRENDSETTERS
efficiency in filling reusable containers reigns supreme to the water fountain. “They save water because when you try to fill water bottles from a drinking fountain, you can’t fill them more than half way and a significant amount of water goes down the drain,” says John Watson, manager of compliance and sustainability at Elkay, where Elkay’s ezH2O filtered bottle filling stations were conceived. “These products fill at 1.1 gallons per minute. Much faster than a water fountain.” Watson’s role includes responsibility for maintaining Elkay’s required product certifications across all product lines. But Elkay’s ezH2O filtered bottle filling stations don’t just save water and encourage the use of reusable water containers, they also filter lead extremely effectively, as evidenced by their certification to NSF/ANSI 53 requirements. “Our carbon block filters employ a two-step process: mechanical filtration based on particle size and chemical filtration via adsorption,” Watson explains. “This technology is widely accepted as one of the most reliable means for removing lead from water.” To explain, certification testing qualifies a product’s ability to remove certain contaminants like lead by using test water with high concentrations of the contaminant and then measuring the filter’s ability to remove those contaminants. Elkay’s filters remove over 99% of the lead in water based on certification test results. The testing included both dissolved lead and particulate lead to test both kinds gb&d
of filtration. Elkay’s filters are third-party certified to comply with NSF/ANSI 53. Elkay’s water delivery products themselves have been lead-free since 1991. “In the early 1990s, the movement towards lead-free products was spurred primarily by the onset of products needing to be certified to NSF/ANSI 61 standards. During that time, Elkay knew that lead-free drinking water products were the safest approach and anything that wasn’t already lead-free was converted to lead-free at that time. Given our vision and commitment to manufacture the safest products possible, we’ve been way ahead of the lead-free curve for decades,” Watson says. Given the recent state of emergency declared in Flint over high levels of lead in drinking water, and that many pipes contain some lead, it simply isn’t enough to filter water before it enters the waterways, on its way to citizen’s faucets, drinking fountains and ice cube trays. For public institutions such as the aforementioned schools, airports and stadiums, the EPA recommends testing for lead at each point of delivery in the building–particularly where drinking water is concerned–to determine the actual lead level before determining whether a point-of-use filter is a sufficient solution, or whether a different remedy is needed. “Although they are not designed for use in extremely high lead level conditions like we saw in some places in Flint, MI, products like our bottle filling stations are a great safeguard in many applications
"Products like our bottle filling stations are a great safeguard because they are point of use filters. These are the best way to protect the users who get drinking water from our products." JOHN WATSON, MANAGER OF COMPLIANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY AT ELKAY MANUFACTURING
because they contain point-ofuse filters. This is the best way to protect the users who get drinking water from our products,” Watson says. The new bottle filling stations not only filter out lead and other contaminants, they include diagnostics that let staff and guests know, for example, that their filter is about to reach its maximum use point when it needs to be replaced entirely. Additional features allow building maintenance to regulate when the compressor is turned on so that the ezH2O doesn’t run during periods of non-use, explains Watson. Beyond already diverting much plastic waste from landfills and economizing clean, chilled water, these stations also help schools and other public institutions (which could always benefit from a reduction in costs!) lower their energy bill and shrink their carbon footprint. Advocating for sustainability means establishing infrastructure that is not only green for future generations, but also accessible to everyone, today. Elkay’s filling stations are a great option to provide clean water economically to large student bodies. Their design also makes it easier for wheelchair users or those who are unable to comfortably sip from a typical drinking fountain. When it comes to green or sustainable design and the safety of our waterways, bottle filling stations are a no-brainer. And the more we see of them on our daily commute, the more likely we are to take one more small and mighty step toward a sustainable future. gb&d
september–october 2016
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TRENDSETTERS
Doorway to
Excellence CornellCookson, a company with a rich history and a wealth of powerful, insulated door technologies, successfully defeats a long-standing rolling door challenge—air infiltration. By Vincent Caruso
“The Door to Building Excellence” is the mantra found on the CornellCookson webpage. And a cursory inspection of their credentials would yield a convincing case in support of it. The company, having existed in varying incarnations since the early 19th century, has a decorated history of achievements, innovations, and awards. From holding the patent for metal dual-slat storefront shutters in 1854, to providing the base and stairways for the Statue of Liberty in the 1880s, to receiving
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the 2007 International Door As- efficiently combat air leakage, sociation's Heritage Award, to a common rolling door vulsecuring five patents so far this nerability that is notoriously year alone, CornellCookson is difficult to fully remedy. Disno stranger to industry success. tinguished Architect and TechAnd their latest green product nical Director at Perkins + Will, advancement, Thermiser Max Marc Chavez, has observed that Insulated Rolling Doors, comes “for more and more communibacked with the data and tools ties around the country, energy designers desire. conservation is gaining greater The patented Thermiser importance. I simply cannot Max Insulated Rolling Doors expect my building owners are as much an asset for the in- to accept a giant hole in their dustry as they are for the envi- building envelopes any longer.” ronment. These eco-conscious Compared to competing prodcoiling doors were designed to ucts on the market, Thermiser
Max reduces air filtration by more than 90% and can also help contribute up to 38 LEED credit points in five different categories, a boon for clients like Chavez's. Thermiser Max also helps buildings comply with ever-increasing air leakage standards. While many do not know about these non-negotiable standards, there are, in fact, several. The stringent IECC and ASHRAE 90.1 are two national energy codes that enforce rigorous air leakage standards for building envelopes, so as to drive down the energy consumption required for heating and cooling. According to Dave Spath, CornellCookson director of product management, they were “a crucial driver” of the development of Thermiser Max. “The adoption of air leakage standards in the IECC and ASHRAE 90.1 gbdmagazine.com
CAN FIX THIS
TRENDSETTERS
Thermiser Max reduces air filtration by more than 90% and can also help contribute up to 38 LEED credit points in five different categories.
BY THE NUMBERS
94% When contrasted with similar products on the market produced by competing manufacturers, CornellCookson's Thermiser Max installations yield 94% less air infiltration.
50,000 cycles The robust Thermiser Max rolling doors are designed to withstand undergoing 50,000 cycles throughout its service life.
30 & 27 In addition to praiseworthy thermal performance, the acoustical performance demonstrated by Thermiser Max can reach a STC (Sound Transmission Class) rating up to 30 for curtain alone, and 27 for the installation as a whole.
0, 10 & 0 The door curtain's foamed urethane insulation, as confirmed by ASTM E84 test results, produce a Flame Spread Index of 0 and a Smoke Developed Index of 10. Thermiser Max also boasts an Ozone Depletion Potential of 0.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF CORNELLCOOKSON
.27 At an air infiltration value of less than 0.3 CFM/FT² (Cubic Feet per Minute per Square Foot), Thermiser Max doors perform at the requisite thermal level to meet, and exceed, ASHRAE 90.1 and 2012 IECC (International Energy Conservation Code) standards. gb&d
helped drive the development of a product solution,” Spath states, “that ultimately reduced air leakage for coiling doors by an astounding 94 perecent. And what is important to note tive calculator returns annual some real respect in hospitals,” about these standards is that energy and kilowatt per hour Chavez observes; healthcare is a trade-off path to approval savings an owner can expect an industry where you can find is not permissible, meaning by switching to Thermiser Max. many CornellCookson products. you can’t ‘green-up’ elsewhere 3) LEED Information: The pa- But orienting insulation in such in exchange for installing perwork of LEED can be daunt- a way that considers acoustia rolling door with a high- ing. CornellCookson makes it cal benefits is worth adopting er-than-mandated air leakage easier to complete by providing across lines of all major facilrate. Air leakage requirements comprehensive LEED docu- ities. “Acoustic performance are mandatory.” mentation that will help any is important for diminishing While air leakage require- architect or designer hoping to sound pollution,” Salb affirms. ments may be mandatory, it achieve LEED certification. “Factories can reduce noise doesn’t mean that they’re But the benefits of Ther- levels and operate equipment widely understood or strict- miser Max doors aren’t just ap- with a lower decibel of sound ly enforced. And adoption of parent to CornellCookson. Phil emittance.” The Thermiser these codes varies state-by-state, Salb, owner of Illinois-based Max door seals and double incompounding the confusion. House of Doors supplier, sulated curtains reduce sound CornellCookson hopes its new speaks favorably of the environ- transmission to a Sound Trans“Stop Air Leakage” campaign mental mastery characterized mission Class (STC) rating of 27, will help to educate and inform by Thermiser Max, noting the ensuring the elimination of disthe industry about these vital improved “8.0 R-Value (capacity turbances emanating from the requirements. The company to resist external heat) rating other side of Thermiser Max's created www.stopairleakage. that is achieved using high effi- robust rolling doors. com to house a number of help- ciency polyurethane insulating Much of what makes Therful tools for those designing a core,” exhibited by the door cur- miser Max a green alternative green building envelope. The tain’s slats. “They continually is the materials used in its consite features three main tools: eclipse expectations,” says Salb struction. CornellCookson uses 1) Air Infiltration Require- of CornellCookson's air leakage primarily steel and aluminum ments by State: While there are ingenuities, pointing to the lin- to manufacture the Thermiser generally accepted national air tel seal of the head and “the ex- Max doors, which are among leakage standards, each state tra foam insulation that goes in the greenest materials one can must decide how and what the guides.” The thermally bro- use. Much of the Thermiser Max parts of each standard to adopt. ken guides create a barrier to components can be recycled and For architects and designers the door on either side, which repurposed. Mr. Salb says that, that work nationally, this can in turn reduces thermal energy “using highly energy-efficient be a challenge. That’s why loss, improves U-Factor (i.e., val- materials, installing product CornellCookson offers a state- ue of heat transference), and en- properly with a minimum of by-state code tool that provides hances air leakage performance. air infiltration, [and] increasing specific air leakage codes, along One attribute that often recycled material content,” are with the exact maximum air dovetails with enhanced ther- in large part what makes Therleakage allowed. mal performance is enhanced miser Max such a profoundly 2) Return on Investment Cal- acoustic performance, which valuable resource for attaining culator: If you ever wondered doesn’t spring to mind when LEED accreditation. In short, the how much money you’d save by thinking of eco-friendly design. CornellCookson Thermiser Max switching to an insulated door, Until rather recently, anyway. doors will blow you away by not wonder no more. This interac- “Acoustics are finally getting blowing you away. gb&d september–october 2016
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On High-performance windows give Manitoba homeowners unobstructed views By Margaret Poe
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september–october 2016
Living next to a golf course has its perks. There’s easy access to the fairway, of course. It’s a quick walk to the pro shop or clubhouse restaurant. Best of all, though, is the view, with its wide expanses of green and seemingly endless acres of woods. Developer Bill Olschewski knew he needed to make the most of that view as he planned Country Club Estates, a fivehome project adjacent to the Minnewasta Golf Course in Morden, Manitoba. The right
FACING PAGE As opposed to a traditional, outwardopening window, GENEO windows open inward for easy cleaning. In addition, they tilt for better and safe ventilation, allowing for better temperature regulation.
windows were essential for the bungalow-style homes, which are being completed this year. Olschewski knows from personal experience how the wrong window selection can derail an otherwise successful build. After building his own home six years ago, he soon struggled with noise issues and leaks during Manitoba’s bitterly cold winters. Those problems disappeared after he installed REHAU’s GENEO windows. So when it was time to pick gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: COURTESY OF UNPSLASH
TRENDSETTERS
TRENDSETTERS
BY THE NUMBERS
86mm Depth of window frames
Down to 0.13 U-factor of the windows
Up to 3
PHOTOS/RENDERINGS: COURTESY OF REHAU
Panes of glass in the windows
the windows for Country Club windows much easier to open Estates, he turned once again and close, and it greatly imto GENEO, and to his trusty proves safety and ease during supplier, Henry Wiens, owner cleaning. As opposed to a tradiof Access Window and Door tional, outward-opening window, these open inward for easy Design Centre. He knew the windows needed to allow for cleaning. This prevents owners uninterrupted views of the from having to balance on a golf course, and they had to ladder outside, for example. meet the highest standards of They’re also easy to use, even if energy efficiency. Beyond that, the user has arthritis. In addithey also needed to be easy to tion, they tilt for better and safe use and clean, as the condo- ventilation, allowing for better miniums are designed for indi- temperature regulation. viduals ages 55 and older. Wiens’ firm designed cus“We wanted to build some- tom screens for the Country thing reliable for our customers, Club Estates homes to provide so they wouldn’t have any prob- the highest thermal perforlems down the road,” Olschews- mance and reliability. Given the large size of the windows, ki says. GENEO windows use a triple the screens on the market simcompression-seal technology, ply wouldn’t have the strength which can stand up to Manito- to stand up to the climate. The ba’s harsh climate, which spans company designed a solution from below-zero temperatures that could withstand even the in the winter to hot, sticky strongest winds. They may look summers. This secure system sleek and simple, he says, but prevents energy loss and also “there’s a lot more engineering makes for a much quieter than what meets the eye.” interior. Due to the tilt-turn design, At a buyer’s request, the screen stays on the outside, Olschewski and Wiens altered even when the windows are the living room design from open. That’s a major boon in two smaller windows to one “bug country,” as Wiens dubs larger one looking out over the their region, because insects golf course—10 feet by 6 feet in don’t get trapped inside. In adsize. When potential homeown- dition, homeowners can choose ers visit, many are struck by the custom finishes and colors for sheer size and elegance. the windows. “We can build a 21-squareAnother benefit is that the foot window—that’s a lot of windows lock on all four sides. glass (and thus weight),” Wiens When a window has only one says. “People [say] how in the locking point, it causes negaworld can you build such a big tive pressure and can allow air window in the residence and to seep in or out, Olschewski still have it operable?” says. They’re operable thanks to “You control your air flow their tilt-turn system. That was and ventilation a lot better Wiens’ suggestion, as opposed that way,” he says, adding that to a traditional casement style. this lessens the burden on the The tilt-turn design makes the home’s HVAC system. “Those gb&d
systems have to work a lot harder if the windows don’t seal tightly,” he says. With a 100 percent airtight seal, you have much greater control—and as a result, waste less energy. Having Access manufacture the windows locally in nearby Winkler also gave Olschewski peace of mind. If any issues arise, someone can come check it out right away. Not that he’s expecting to have many problems with the windows. In fact, he’s already planning to use REHAU GENEO products for his next project. gb&d
REHAU's GENEO window systems include engineered screw channels for excellent screw retention, and no need for steel reinforcement.
september–october 2016
33
TRENDSETTERS
LOW OR NO HAZARD IDENTIFIED
MODERATE HAZARD IDENTIFIED
HIGHER HAZARD IDENTIFIED
CANNOT BE FULLY ASSESSED
HIGHLY PROBLEMATIC MATERIAL
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2016 –october ULseptember and the UL logo are registered trademarks of UL LLC ©
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GREEN BUILDING TRENDSETTERS & DESIGN
Up Front Trendsetters Features Spaces Punch List
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36 A Matter of Context
Product Lens, a new chemical disclosure program from UL Environment, brings clarity to the transparency conversation and adds a missing piece: context
44 Disruptive Innovation is Underfoot
For floors from Tarkett the sky is the limit: They’ve devised new ways to make and reuse carpeting and vinyl flooring—and you’ll breathe easier as a result.
52 Unlocking the Future
Door and lock giant ASSA ABLOY finds the keys to making one of the smallest, but most critical, parts of any building a deeper shade of green
september–october 2016
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A Matter of context FEATURES
Product Lens, a new chemical
disclosure program from UL
Environment, brings clarity to the PHOTO: COURTESY OF UL
transparency conversation and adds a missing piece: Context By Jeff Link
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FEATURES UL ENVIRONMENT
Innovations in Transparency Practice
No one wants toxic materials in their home or workplace. Which is why the building materials industry has made a dramatic shift in the last decade to weed those substances out of their supply chains and provide full disclosure to designers and end-users regarding their product formulations. Environmental Product Declarations and Health Product Declarations have become part of the core business practices of leading edge suppliers. Volumes of data are now available on the potential negative impacts of virtually all common building materials, and public sentiment is slowly shifting. The industry is developing a reputation for environmental stewardship, and is improving health and wellness within the built environment, pointing a bright road ahead. What more could we want? Quite a lot, actually, says Paul Firth, director of service development and innovation at UL Environment. “More data does not necessarily equate to better information. While manufacturers have started responding to the demands for chemical information disclosure, it has left users a bit perplexed at how to effectually use what they’ve been given in their day to day processes.” In other words, the most salient points about potentially toxic substances and their appropriate applications are too easily lost between the reams of available data and the myths and misinformation out there about certain ingredients, which may pose a threat in one context, but not in another. That’s where UL’s Product Lens Program comes in. Designed specifically with LEED v4 in mind, as it assists in achieving the new Material Ingredients credit, this new program launched in July in collaboration with MBDC, a product and material assessment company, and the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. While the Product Lens Report provides the transparency now demanded in the marketplace for products from paint to particleboard, carpet to Ethernet cables and everything in between, it goes further
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to present the information on potentially hazardous substances in the appropriate context—“something unique among programs today,” says Firth. By accounting for potential exposures, he says, the Product Lens Report reveals a product’s chemical assessments in a meaningful context that enables architects, designers, and specifiers to be better informed—and make better decisions—about the products they use. Belden: An Early Adopter for Connectivity and Networking Products
With over a century of experience and more than 1,000 standards under its belt, UL has literally “set the standards for safety.” UL’s technical expertise was certainly up for the challenge of creating a robust chemical disclosure vehicle, but Firth says their approach to structuring the Product Lens report came directly from the people who would use the reports. “We met with a group of A&D firms and asked them: What would be most useful to you in a chemical ingredient transparency solution? If we could design that solution for you, not just a list of ingredients and their hazards, what would it look like? What would actually make your life easier?” In 2015, 10 manufacturers enrolled in UL Environment’s pilot for the Product Lens Program, including Allegion, ARAUCO North America, Mannington, Milliken and Sherwin-Williams. One of the earliest adopters was Belden, a global leader in the connectivity and networking products space and a provider of high-quality, endto-end signal transmission solutions. “After thoroughly reviewing various options, we decided to partner with UL Environment, an internationally recognized and highly respected company, to participate in the pilot launch of the program,” says Alice Albrinck, a senior materials development engineer at Belden. Albrinck says Belden has entered into a contract with UL Environment to obtain Product Lens reports for up to 2,000 products. All of these products are included
facts at a glance Leed V4 Chemical Disclosure Credit
LEED v4 launched and included a credit for chemical disclosure: MR Credit: Building Product Disclosure and Optimization Material Ingredients. Manufacturers who fail to respond risk their products being removed from material libraries, being shut out of billions of dollars of project opportunity, and increased competitive threats. Demand Among Designers
30+ top design firms have issued open letters to manufacturers demanding disclosure of chemical ingredients. Falling Behind in Sustainability Means Falling Behind In Business
LEED is referenced in project specifications for 71percent of projects valued at $50 million and over. The green building materials market was valued at $106.32 billion in 2012 and is expected to reach $234.77 billion by 2019. (Source: Transparency Market Research report titled, “Green Building Materials Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 – 2019”).
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FEATURES
“Product Lens allows us to open the doors,
providing insight into our ingredients, without
necessarily telling them the specific recipes.” —Alice Albrinck, Senior Materials develOpment Engineer, Belden
PHOTO: COURTESY OF UL
in the Enterprise Connectivity platform of our business and include data networking, fiber, fire alarm and sound/security cables. “Our guiding philosophy at Belden is that customers define our success—and our customers are demanding more and more product material declarations,” says Albrinck. UL’s ability to provide transparency with context was part of what clinched the deal, but there was another factor that weighed in heavily: UL’s commitment to protecting proprietary information contained in product formulations and ingredient lists, a major concern for any manufacturer. Says Albrinck, “Product Lens allows us to open the doors, providing insight into our ingredients, without necessarily telling them the specific recipes.” Protection of proprietary information is a cornerstone of UL’s business, says Firth, and contractual agreements provide tight control over who gains access to chemicals
BELOW Paul Firth, director of service develop-
ment and innovation at UL Environment. Since landing at UL Environ-
ment, Firth has joined the Materials and Resources Technical Advisory
Group of the U.S. Green Building Council, the
team that oversees the
LEED category for Building Product Disclosure
and Optimization, which includes the Material Ingredients credit.
and formulations, ultimately dictating how much detail is revealed. In the case of Product Lens, suppliers and manufacturers disclose their full formulation contents to UL, but where indicated, chemical ingredients remain proprietary. Only the potential impact of the chemicals is revealed through an easy to understand color coding system: green, yellow, red or black—are reported publicly. These ratings are a simplified way to communicate that materials are ideal or they have something along their life-cycle identified as having mild or moderate hazards found, problematic hazards found, or something designated as a CMR (carcinogen, mutagen or reproductive toxin). The UL Environment Vision and the Leadership of Paul Firth
Paul Firth is quite the trailblazer in the burgeoning transparency movement of the building materials industry. After starting his career at Interface, the Georgia-based modular carpet company led by the late sustainability guru Ray C. Anderson, he became the vice president of The Green Standard, a non-profit organization, where he led the creation and launch of the first North American Environmental Product Declaration program. Since landing at UL Environment, Firth has joined the Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group of the U.S. Green Building Council, the team that oversees the LEED category that includes Building Product Disclosure and Optimization, which includes the Material Ingredients credit. Firth says his past experiences have opened his eyes to the power and influence of demand drivers such as the LEED rating system to transform the industry. “It has been a natural path to becoming more interested in and focused on the area of transparency,” he says. “There is nothing like a real-world education to motivate your interests.” In joining UL Environment in 2009, Firth saw an opportunity to deepen and globalize his impact september–october 2016
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FEATURES UL ENVIRONMENT
“Right now, I’m
working on a laptop
with carbon black
plastic pigmentation. Carbon black is a
known cancer causing
chemical But it only causes a problem in a specific form and
through a specific
exposure pathway, if
you inhale it. Ideally, yes, we would like to replace it with
something that is not carcinogenic, with
something that doesn’t
pose a hazard of any
by applying himself in an organization of such technical depth and global breadth. Several initiatives quickly presented themselves as a means to strengthen the science behind, and credibility of, environmental and human health standards and certification programs in the industry. “One of the big question marks for sustainability initiatives was: How much of this is underpinned by science?” Firth says. “The thinking at the time was that more is better—the more criteria you can build into a standard, the better that standard. But when you really apply science to it, sometimes less is more.” He explains that often the major impacts of hazardous substances are affected by only a few key criteria. So as the industry evolves in its knowledge and experience, Firth feels it’s important to balance the desire to include every possible piece of information in the name of full disclosure, “with the reality of true benefit.” Rather than assuming a substance will cause harm, he proposes providing the next level of information, context, to allow for more informed decision making. “Right now, I’m working on a laptop with carbon black plastic pigmentation,” he says. “Carbon black is a known cancer causing chemical. But it only causes a problem in a specific form and through a specific exposure pathway: if you inhale it. Ideally, yes, we would like to replace it with something that is not carcinogenic, with something that doesn’t pose a hazard of any kind. However, we must be visionary with our goals, desires, and expectations; and yet at the same time, we must be prag-
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ABOVE UL is a global
independent safety science company offering expertise
kind. However, we
must be visionary with
our goals, desires, and expectations;
across three strategic
businesses: Commercial &
and yet at the same
Industrial, Consumer and
UL Ventures. Dedicated to promoting safe living and
working environments, UL helps safeguard people,
time, we must be
pragmatic with where
products and places in
important ways, facilitating
trade and providing peace of mind.
we are today.” —Paul Firth, Director of
Service Development and
Innovation, UL Environment
matic with where we are today.” That type of thinking is what led UL Environment to the creation of the Product Lens Program. Firth says another major goal of UL Environment is to bring about greater harmonization among the plethora of product certifications and disclosure protocols within the building sector, each of which addresses one or more stages in a product life cycle, from the supply chain and manufacturing end of the spectrum all the way to installation, use, and “end of use” or re-entry into the supply chain. Methodological harmonization among all of these is an increasingly important need within the industry, and one which is embodied by Product Lens. For example, for companies such as Belden, Product Lens can acts as a springboard to some of the most stringent sustainability standards in the industry, such as those set out by gbdmagazine.com
FEATURES
THE
CHALLENGES TO TRANSPARENCY
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Operational Challenges
Tension with suppliers who may be unwilling or unable to provide disclosure
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Liability & Competitive Challenges
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Risk to proprietary information and trade secrets Increased liability from chemical information being disclosed out of context
Marketing & Brand Challenges
Brand damage Product being de-selected Perpetuation of misinformation about product health risks
The Product Lens Solution
This chemical ingredient disclosure program provides context, clarity, and data accuracy to mitigate potential risks for a company and its suppliers and customers.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF UNSPLASH
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Protecting Proprietary Information
Providing Contextual Overlay
Ensuring Market Acceptance & Credibility
Confidential business information of both manufacturers and their suppliers is protected–removing operational challenges. Suppliers and manufacturers disclose full formulation information to UL. When protecting confidential information is needed, only assessment results are disclosed.
Context overlay communicates hazards with clarity and prevents the inaccurate conclusion that a product is harmful. This serves both manufacturers and architects and designers by clarifying the true health concerns, or absence of health concerns.
The Product Lens report was developed in concert with an advisory panel to meet and exceed the chemical disclosure requirements outlined by the design community and LEED. UL Environment is a member of the LEED Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group, the body that determines LEED credit requirements.
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FEATURES UL ENVIRONMENT
MBDC and the Cradle to Cradle Products SmithGroupJJR and PerInnovation Institute, accelerating their kins + Will, have issued sustainability journey. “That was the in- open letters to manufactent behind our harmonization efforts— turers demanding discloproviding opportunities to leverage the sure of chemical ingrediwork a company does for more than just ents, according to a UL one output,” Firth says. company analysis. Under Firth’s leadership, UL EnvironMark Rossolo , pubment has significantly expanded its Envi- lic affairs director at UL ronmental Product Declaration program, Environment, says that which is now the largest in North America, “on a higher level, what’s representing 60 to 80 percent of the mar- driving these massive ket share, and is one of the top five glob- numbers in the green and ally. UL Environment has also assumed a sustainable building econleadership role with their GREENGUARD omies is greater acknowland ECOLOGO Certification programs edgement of the costs of as the company continues to advance its health impacts of harmgoal of harmonizing sustainability stan- ful chemicals. We’ve seen dards and creating leading solutions for a convergence, in the last our customers. As time goes on, he says few years, between the UL Environment is perfecting both the building community and science and art of product transparency those focused on health in a way that meets the long-term needs and environment issues.” of the industry by putting hazards into the Where UL Environproper context. ment sees real opportunity for Product Lens is among those manufacturers seeking to The Business Case for meet transparency demands stemming from LEED v4 and present their product Better Transparency information to their customers in the right context—which begins with an understandHow do Firth and his team make the busi- ing of what is actually in their products. ness case for greater product scrutiny, and Jay Bolus, the president of certification for the nuanced approach inherent in a services at MBDC, says that because ingreProduct Lens report in particular? There dients are sourced globally and often from are three key selling points: Product Lens a web of third-party suppliers, chemical signals trust and legitimacy to buyers; it formulations can be nearly impossible to provides an appropriate context for mak- determine. “There’s not a manufacturer ing meaningful disclosure, not just trans- around that knows 100 percent what’s in parency for the sake of transparency; and their product once they’ve drilled down five it protects proprietary information. or seven layers deep into their supply chain. But driving it all is the undeniable fact We can help them get together with their that demand for sustainable products is suppliers to phase out bad ingredients and increasing dramatically. A report by BBC optimize formulas.” In addition to clarifying the origins of Research forecasts that the U.S. market for green building materials will reach nearly $69 a product’s ingredients, Bolus says, Prodbillion by 2019. This demand is driven, in part, uct Lens provides a useful middle-ground by the LEED rating system, which, according alternative to the Cradle to Cradle Certo a McGraw Hill report, is listed in project tified Product Standard, which can be specifications for 71 percent of projects val- prohibitively rigorous for companies just ued at $50 million and over. And recently, starting out on their sustainability jourmore than 30 top design firms, including ney, and the Health Product Declaration
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setting the standard UL is an industry leader in standards innovation. With over a century of experience and the development of more than 1,000 standards, UL continues to break new ground in its mission to help create a safer, more sustainable world. Below are other standards developed by UL: Environmental Product Declarations Program Operator, UL identifies existing or creates new Product Category Rules for internationallyharmonized EPDs Environmental Claims Validation for “Free-of” Claims Environmental Claims Validation for Calculation of Estimated Recyclability Rate Environmental Claims Validation for Comparing Environmental Impacts of Sterilization Equipment GREENGUARD Certification for Low-emitting Products ECOLOGO Multi-attribute Standards
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FEATURES
Inside UL Environment’s
Certification/ Validation Marks:
PHOTOS/MARKS: COURTESY OF UL
A UL certification mark can give manufacturers a clear competitive edge and make product selection easier for purchasers. Below is a breakdown of the marks.
Open Standard program, which relies on self-reporting and is viewed by some as too flimsy. Third-party verification is widely accepted as a minimum basis for maintaining credibility in any industry. But that premise was reinforced by a recent UL study which found that 77 percent of architects and designers are skeptical of self-declaration programs, and consider products with third-party substantiation to be more reputable. The Product Lens methodology is based on that of the Cradle to Cradle Certified program’s Material Health Assessment, for which MSBC is one of only four accredited material assessment teams in the world, says Bolus. In this rigorous framework, scientists evaluate each ingredient against 24 human and environmental health criteria, such as cancer and birth defects, in the process of awarding a product color rating. The rigor of the evaluation protocols and their harmonization with other certification programs are major market differentiators for the Product Lens Program. Bolus also stresses that maintaining a high level of sensitivity to proprietary information is an equally important market differentiator. “What we don’t want is for companies to feel like this a food product, with all the ingredients on the label, stifling innovation overnight,” Bolus says. “What manufacturers want is a trusted third party who can access the deep-level chemistry, evaluate it, and then come up with a high-level summary.” On the engineering and R&D side, Firth adds that “the assessment that goes into the report is useful for internal measurement, analysis and development, providing an environmental dashboard of sorts to help guide you in your decision making,” Firth says. “This type of information is very helpful when making key decisions about the future improvement of your products, helping achieve the best of both worlds—economic and environmental returns on your investment.” Doing the right thing while improving the bottom line: that’s the power of transparency. gb&d
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UL’s Product Lens Certification is an ingredient disclosure tool that provides hazard information in context, fulfilling the new demands for product transparency.
ECOLOGO Certified products, services and packaging are certified for reduced environmental impact. ECOLOGO Certifications are voluntary, multiattribute, lifecycle based environmental certifications that indicate a product has undergone rigorous scientific testing, exhaustive auditing, or both, to prove its compliance with stringent, thirdparty, environmental performance standards.
UL XXXX
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a comprehensive, internationallyharmonized report that documents the ways in which a product, throughout its lifecycle, affects the environment.
The products that we use to build and furnish our indoor environments can have a significant impact on indoor air pollution levels. Products that have achieved GREENGUARD Certification are scientifically proven to meet some of the world’s most rigorous, third-party chemical emissions standards—helping reduce indoor air pollution and the risk of chemical exposure while aiding in the creation of healthier indoor environments.
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F O R F L O O R S F R O M TA R K E T T T H E S K Y IS THE LIMIT: THEY’VE DEVISED NEW WAY S T O M A K E A N D R E U S E C A R P E T I N G A N D V I N Y L F LO O R I N G — A N D YO U ’ L L B R E AT H E E A S I E R A S A R E S U LT.
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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF TARKETT
By Russ Klettke
gbdmagazine.com
FEATURES
A solid generation into the LEED program–created by the U.S. Green Building Council in the early 1990s, with at least one certified project in all 50 states by 2004 and 230,000 certified residential units plus 78,600 commercial projects as of 2016–much has been accomplished and much has been learned. But along the way of good intentions some unforeseen consequences have proven to be problematic. Specifically, the drive to reduce greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions and our overall dependence on fossil fuels netted out with tighter building envelopes. These snugly-fit windows and doors and high R-value insulation significantly cut energy use, reduced GHGs and saved building owners money. So problem solved, right? Well, not exactly. Energy efficiency as an ultimate value can mean reducing ventilation, particularly in poorly designed or mismanaged structures. That in turn reduces the air exchange rates (air coming in from the outdoors) within those buildings. This coincides with a time when people spend more time indoors—our information-intensive economy has us working on screens of all types more often. What occupants are exposed to in these interior environments can have a negative impact on their health. The substances they are breathing, and sometimes touching, include formaldehyde, ortho-phthalates (including that in polyvinylchloride, PVC, found in vinyl sheet flooring), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Older homes might still have asbestos in insulation, paints, and floor tiles. The average American home contains gb&d
about 10 gallons of synthetic chemical products, with higher concentrations in newer homes with newer materials present. True to the nature of evidenced-based thinking, green advocates and their respective organizations are coming to terms with these problems. Creating a healthy indoors while improving upon the global environment aren’t mutually exclusive ideas; science and technology have overcome much larger, much more perplexing problems. We should be able to make floors, carpeting, walls, insulation, and furniture that are healthy for the earth and its inhabitants. The journey of one company– Tarkett, a global leader in innovative and sustainable flooring and sports surfaces—illustrates this new wave of innovation around healthier indoor environments within the context of sustainable structures. The company’s carpets, vinyl, linoleum, rubber, wood, and laminate products are sold in more than 100 countries. They are used in hospitals, schools, hotels, offices, housing, retail environments, and on sports fields. Covering 1.3 million square meters per day, the company feels it has a great responsibility to provide a healthier product underfoot, the places where children play and learn, where adults work and heal, and where families go about their daily lives. Why Tarkett has taken a leadership role in this regard might be due to several things. A single family is the majority shareholder and they have demonstrated patience in longer-term product investments. The company also has a history of environmental awareness and a vice-president of sustainable strategies and planning who personally “gets it.” september–october 2016
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Adding Value, Changing the Game Diane Martel is that sustainability planning VP. She’s held this position in the company’s Chagrin Falls, Ohio headquarters (between Cleveland and Akron) for about seven years, but has been working in marketing for the company since January 2001. “Personally, sustainability was always important to me,” she says. At one time, carpeting and vinyl flooring went from the company’s mills and manufacturing plants to installations at customer sites— think of the thousands of square meters of product in an average size hotel or hospital—then, after eight or ten years of use, it was passed on to its final resting place in landfills. That line, the linear path, is now becoming a circle. Adopting the Cradle to Cradle Philosophy—“C2C” as authors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, William McDonough and Dr. Michael Braungart, refer to it—Tarkett carpeting is now often retrieved and recycled. The company’s European Desso unit, acquired in 2015, was the first carpet tile manufacturer to achieve C2C gold level certification from the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, based in San Francisco. Made with EcoBase backing (from upcycled re-engineered calcium carbonate extracted by local drinking water companies), it contains a 100 percent regenerated nylon made from recovered materials that include post-consumer yarn waste from the company’s own plant. The Desso “take back” program of retrieved (discarded) carpeting was enabled by a proprietary separation technique called Refinity, which separates yarns and other fibers from its backing, creating two separate materials for recycling (the bitumen backing is sold to the road and roofing industries in Europe). Stateside the other units of Tarkett, its Tandus Centiva division in particular, also close the circle with carpet recycling centers in Georgia (the Tandus Centiva Environmental Center) and Alabama (Florence Recycling Center). A third party certified
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Diane Martel is Vice President of Environmental Planning and Strategy for Tarkett North America, responsible for driving the company’s sustainable messaging, programs, initiatives, education, training and industry awareness. As Vice President of Environmental Planning and Strategy, Martel serves as an internal and external spokesperson working with all divisions of Tarkett North America to develop and implement an environmental strategy and action plan and to ensure message penetration across the industry.
the Dalton facility in 2010, but in fact it’s been in operation since 1994. In the time since it first opened, more than 284 million pounds of postconsumer carpet and waste has been diverted from landfills. The company even has a sample-return program coordinated between sales associates and customers. Nearby, also in Dalton, is the Carpet American Recovery Effort (CARE), a consortium of carpet manufacturers that include the Tandus Centiva division, several states and the federal Environmental Protection Agency as well as several non-governmental groups. The goal is to tackle the challenges of carpet recycling across the entire country, as the national infrastructure to do so is in an embryonic stage at best, dependent on individual dealers and mills.
But again, the goal to reduce landfill use cannot be evaluated in a vacuum. Martel repeats that sustainability is an innovation driver, but that the impact of flooring materials on human health warrants a great deal of attention as well. “The EPA has told us that indoor air is three-to-five times worse than outdoor air,” she says. It’s a problem not entirely caused by the floor covering industry, but enough so that Tarkett (and its competitors, a bit later in time) have responded by removing the most worrisome components. Those product ingredients include ortho-phthalates. The substance is believed to be an endocrine disrupter, with adverse effects on human reproduction. It’s also found in wall coverings, sheets, automobile parts (cables, wiring), gaskets, medical devices, toys, food packaging materials, coated textiles and garments with printing, sports equipment, leather, shoes, and furniture. Most of these industries are responding to concerns on some level. Toys, food packaging, and carpeting get most attention due to the close interaction each has with humans, children in particular. Another ingredient removed by Tarkett is biocides, which are designed to reduce growth of mold, often with formaldehyde as the key ingredient. Off-gassing of formaldehyde in carpets and other building materials becomes apparent when temperatures are above 72 degrees, when humidity rises above 50 percent, and especially if doors and windows are closed in those conditions. Not enough evidence exists to definitively say formaldehyde is toxic to human, but rat and mice studies show long-term exposure causes nasal cancer. At high levels, evidence suggests that formaldehyde can cause myeloid leukemia and nasopharyngeal cancer. That is enough to convince many countries and manufacturers to remove this and other biocides from the company’s product cycle. “This was done in the spirit of destruction,” says Martel. “We help build people-friendly places. Removing these components helps distinguish us as providers of good, healthy materials.” gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF TARKETT
FEATURES TARKET T
FEATURES
This is a Long-term Strategy Indeed, the company was able to distinguish itself in the marketplace by being among the first to remove ortho-phthalates and biocides from its carpeting, beginning in 2011. It wasn’t until four years later that all three of the major, national building products retailers – Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Menards – told their suppliers and customers that they would phase out phthalate plasticizers in vinyl floors by the end of 2015. In the mix of what prompted this was a 60 Minutes story in 2015 on retailer Lumber Liquidators. The investigative journalists found that composite wood flooring from the retailer, with 360 stores in 46 states selling a billion dollars annually of hardwood flooring made in China, entirely failed to meet California’s stringent formaldehyde emissions standards. A federal-level investigation by the Centers for Disease Control—the National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry—concluded in a 2016 report (Possible Health Implications from Exposure to Formaldehyde Emitted from Laminate Flooring Samples Tested by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, March 22, 2016) that “the amount of formaldehyde released could cause health symptoms in residents…symptoms include an increase in breathing problems and short-term eye, nose, or throat irritation…symptoms are more likely to occur at lower concentrations for people with pre-existing health conditions like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).” It further stated that “the lifetime risk of cancer to be between 6 and 30 extra cases for every 100,000 people” due to formaldehyde exposure. Which is not the kind of publicity a retailer and its vendors want to increase market share. Lumber Liquidators is pursuing a turnaround strategy, but its stock price is one-sixth of what it was before the 60 Minutes story ran with net losses of $60 million in 2015, down from a net income of about $80 million in 2013. gb&d
Tarkett doesn’t wait for a news organization to evaluate its products. With so many formulation changes, striving to create the most people-friendly products possible, it uses a third-party testing agency to validate its case. The company contracts with Dr. Braungart’s Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) to test full recipes of product ingredients that check for problematic interactions and to create an Environmental and Health Statement (EHS) that is subsequently made available to customers. The EHS differs from other declaration documents in that it ascertains where chemical hazards combine with likely exposures to create potential threats to both the environment and human health. Just as important, it is graphically designed to provide transparency in an easy-to-read way. “This is a systematic approach to testing our ingredients,” says Martel. “Every recipe goes through testing. It’s looked at in terms of how the chemistry affects the end user as well as workers in the supply chain.” EPEA and Tarkett now layer on an additional evaluation and analysis known as a Material Health Statement (MHS). It assesses and discloses raw materials according to their Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number; it screens for chemicals with a hazard rating under the Green Screen List Translator; it also performs a C2C material assessment over the product lifecycle, including an analysis of human health impacts; and, it can involve reformulation to achieve an optimization of all these factors. Of course, this adds cost to the process. But it’s a cost with benefits. “When we moved out of ortho-phthalates in 2011 to people-friendly products, most of our competitors were not there yet,” continues Martell. “We tend to invest with a long-term vision. When retailers like Lowe’s and Menards required phthalates be removed, it was a market shift that we anticipated.” The company takes an even longer view with regard to its affect on the environment and its own supply chain. Martel explains that by building a recycled content capability and infrastructure, it positively affects the company’s own business sustainability.
Tarkett set goals for the year 2020 and beyond, based on four innovative drivers: smart material selections, resource stewardship, recycling, and creating people friendly spaces with products. Material selection Supply chain management by another name – is at the core of these four drivers. The company strives to find renewable and abundant sources. Resource stewardship The second innovation driver, looks at different inputs: water, energy, waste, recycling, and emissions. Recycling The third driver, is a hugely important and an intensive focus of the company. People friendly spaces This driver perhaps stands a bit higher in innovation priorities, because this is the sole touch point with end users over years of use.
Tarkett designs products for reuse according to the Cradle to Cradle principles for a positive impact on people and the environment.
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Tarkett has identified three metatrends that the company believes it can address with products and processes in the decades ahead. What they are and how the company can contribute to optimal outcomes are as follows:
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An aging population – Particularly in developed countries, the average age of the population is getting older. By 2050, about a fifth of all humans (1.9 billion people) will be age 60 and older, and the number of people over the age of 80 will be three times what it is today. Tarkett has already released “Floor in Motion,” a flooring product system that detects movement and falls that alerts caregivers to patient or resident needs and whereabouts. Resource scarcity – The size of the global middle class will increase by a factor of ten by the year 2050, from 300 million to three billion. That means resource consumption could rise proportionally. This is why Tarkett is already migrating to a circular economy, reusing and reducing resources with recycling – which includes identifying better manufacturing economics and creating a smart infrastructure to support these goals.
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Urban growth – By the year 2050, 70 percent of the global population will live in cities. While that can lend itself to congestion, dust, and germs – in a world where people will spend 90 percent of their lives in indoor environments – Tarkett can devise floor solutions that improve that indoor air quality. Where we walk can also absorb dust and tamp down bacteria. In very large buildings, flooring designs can be part of wayfinding while adding to an aesthetic that is pleasant and inspiring.
FEATURES
Tarkett strives to use renewable and abundant sources in their products. To illustrate creative thinking on the recycling side, they reached outside of carpeting to find a polymer that can be recaptured from disposed automobile windshields and safety glass.
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“We see recycled content as a resource,” she says. Broadening the perspective, she describes the projected growth of global population and the challenges that will create. “There will be nine billion people living in 2050. The middle class will grow from 300 million today to three billion then. That’s a lot of people using a lot of resources. We are currently borrowing from the planet’s future in our resource use. There is great risk in depending on finite resources. We are responsible to our employees to be in business in 20 years.” For a shorter-term way to think about that, it helps to consider that the majority of ingredients in flooring materials are petrochemical in origin. Oil price volatility can make or break an enterprise, so it’s understandable if Tarkett wishes to smooth that out with circular, C2C practices. The company’s Desso unit expresses this clearly in their corporate responsibility web page: “Our reliance on fossil fuels is not only unsustainable in the long term, but also makes us vulnerable to economic shocks now,” it says, going on to quote economist and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin, who is a senior advisor to the European Union and author of 20 books on scientific and technological change: “When fuel costs rise, all the other prices across the supply chain go through the roof, because everything’s made of fossil fuels: fertilizers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, construction materials, synthetic fibers, power, transport, heat and light.” The Desso statement also speaks to raw material scarcity, speaking of the finite nature manufacturing inputs: “We simply don’t have an endless supply of raw materials in the earth—copper, phosphates, zinc, oil and the like—with which to continue the economic growth rates of the past century. At present, about 80 percent of waste from consumer goods, whether packaging, clothes or shoes, ends up in incinerators, landfill, and wastewater. Yet there is commercial value to be gained from finding recycle-and-reuse business models, which could amount to $700 billion in consumer goods material savings every year. Even better if those practices win the company eco-minded customers. september–october 2016
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Why Being First Matters
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Florence, Alabama, where the manufacturing equipment has achieved a circular economy with water; in fact, half of all Tarkett plants have closed water circuits that circumvent the need for fresh water. There is zero production wastewater as a result of recycling process water and the elimination of certain wet processes. They also inventory GHGs for all manufacturing facilities, showrooms and offices. On a per-square-yard basis, GHGs were reduced by 15 percent since the baseline year (2006). Recycling, the third driver, is a hugely important and (as discussed) an intensive focus of the company. An additional measure of its effectiveness is how less than 0.1 ounce per square yard of manufactured goods escapes the recycling process and ends up in a landfill. The Tandus Centiva division can also take back old vinyl flooring at the Florence, Alabama recycling facility. But perhaps people-friendly spaces stands a bit higher in innovation priorities, because this is the sole touch point with end users over years of use. This is more than a marketing claim: a number of different certification organizations provide third-party validation of the Tarkett products. Certification from the Carpet & Rug Institute Green Label Plus program ensures that both carpet and adhesives conform to indoor air quality requirements of California Section 01350, a statute under the state’s green building codes. FloorScore certification is set by the same California statute, as does the GREENGUARD certification of adhesives. The structure of Tandus Centiva carpets with a Powerbond Cushion minimizes the need for chemical cleaners, and provides an added thermal
Half of all Tarkett plants have closed water circuits that circumvent the need for fresh water. There is zero production wastewater as a result of recycling process water and the elimination of certain wet processes.
benefit to reduce energy costs. What it all amounts to is flooring materials at the safety level of food packaging and “mouthable toys,” (a term the U.S. EPA uses to describe children’s toys that might end up in their mouths), and very low emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Much of this work is done by the company’s 180-person research and development team, based in Wiltz, Luxembourg, plus technical staff in 24 regional centers and application laboratories in 14 countries. Overseen by a scientific council, the company partners with universities and other third parties to develop new ideas. So much of what is happening with healthier interior products, flooring in particular, gives us plenty of reason to be optimistic about the future. Products are considered in relation to each other, as are product ingredients. There are teams of people working on proprietary products at Tarkett, while the industry as a whole seems to share an interest in sustainability in every way possible. So how do Tarkett employees think of competitors copying what they do? “We think of our selves as a thought leader,” says Jonathan Klinger. “We consider copying a point of success.” And perhaps that is what the USGBC had in mind all along. gb&d gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF TARKETT
Smart business practices (with a long-term view) aside, legislation might well drive some–or a lot–of carpet recycling. The California Carpet Stewardship Bill, law AB 2398, mandates landfill diversion by imposing an assessment of 20 cents per square yard of carpet sold in the state. The funds generated are used to support and incentivize development and markets for products made from recycled carpet, to underwrite the collection and transport of used carpet in rural counties, and to educate the public about the program, why it is needed, and its benefits. Very often what is created in California spreads to the rest of the country. The technological hurdles that must be overcome to build the infrastructure for recycling carpets there can be instructive elsewhere. Also, economies of scale will undoubtedly be achieved that make all of this more affordable. But in all likelihood, the companies that succeed the most under regulatory requirements are those companies that understand and embrace the larger goals thoroughly and early. And, they will have a strong market advantage. Jonathan Klinger, Tarkett’s chief marketing officer, joined the company only in late 2015, drawn to its innovative culture and belief in sustainability. “There’s a tremendous alignment and shared passion here,” he says. “Innovation is tremendously important, not just in the products but in service, the program, and the customer experience. It’s the only sustainable way to deliver value.” The Tarkett group of companies has tactically proven this is the direction where they are headed. Diane Martel says this goes higher than marketing and research and development. The company set goals for the year 2020 and beyond, based on four innovative drivers: smart material selections, resource stewardship, recycling, and creating people-friendly spaces with products. Material selection—supply chain management by another name—is at the core of these four drivers. While recycled inputs, as described above, make up an increasing share of materials, for the time being there still need to be raw sources. The company strives to find renewable and abundant sources as well. And to illustrate creative thinking on the recycling side, they reached outside of carpeting to find a polymer that can be recaptured from disposed automobile windshields and safety glass. Resource stewardship, the second innovation driver, looks at different inputs: water, energy, waste, recycling, and emissions. A good example is the Tandus Centiva division production facility in
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The aspirational standards of the Living Building Challenge push the entire industry to do better. We’re proud of our decision to remove phthalates from our R-Guard line of air and water-resistive barriers – a move which gave our products the green light for the Bullitt Center, the R.W. Kern Center and every Living Building in between. gb&d
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE
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UNLOCKIN THE FUTURE
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DOOR AND LOCK GIANT ASSA ABLOY FINDS THE KEYS TO MAKING ONE OF THE SMALLEST, BUT MOST CRITICAL, PARTS OF ANY BUILDING A DEEPER SHADE OF GREEN BY BRIAN BARTH
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NEW WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT AN OLD-FASHIONED INDUSTRY
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ASSA ABLOY is the largest door and lock company in the world. The company has LEED documentation, EPDs, HPDs, GREENGUARD Gold certification, and Declare labels for many of its products, making them the go-to source for access control solutions among the world’s most forward-thinking designers.
way for good fire code practice, but it’s possible to achieve that without energizing them at all times.” ASSA ABLOY has done the R&D to enable this more energy-efficient approach to designing secure entryways, and they’ve done it without bumping up the per-unit price. “Our locks cost the same as their predecessors, but now they have drastically lower power consumption,” says Boriskin. “It’s part of a major push toward new product development with a focus on sustainability.” The development of this lock fueled the development of energy efficiency solutions across other ASSA ABLOY divisions, including Securitron in Phoenix, AZ. The masterminds inside this LEED Silver certified facility have developed a power supply that reduces the standby energy consumption of the power supply from 6W or more down to 8.5mW. The combination of the EcoFlex lock and EcoPower power supply decreases a door’s power use by 99 percent, as certified by GreenCircle. The results of this initiative are found in an impressive number of net-zero, LEED Platinum, and Living Building Challenge certified projects that have been built over the last several years. Visit the Class of 1966 Environmental Center at Williams College in Massachusetts, a Living Building Challenge certified retrofit of a 1790s structure, and you will find components from at least seven different ASSA ABLOY brands, like Ceco doors and Corbin Russ-
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ASSA ABLOY
When envisioning a state-of-the-art net-zero building, doors and locks probably aren’t the first thing that comes to mind. Perhaps it’s a living machine to filter wastewater, or a parking lot shade structure made of photovoltaic panels. But such features represent the tip of the iceberg of what it takes to achieve net-zero, or to reach the stringent standards of the Living Building Challenge. Beyond those big items are a long list of tiny details that add up to a truly sustainable project. Not least on that list are entryways and their associated hardware. “The building envelope is where roughly 40 percent of energy loss occurs in a building,” explains Stacey Callahan, vice president of marketing and innovation for the door and frame division at ASSA ABLOY, the Swedish door and lock company. “So we are taking something very traditional in nature like doors and frames, power supplies, accessories, and locking devices, and figuring out how to refashion them in alignment with sustainable building practices.” One instance of their ingenuity is found in the EcoFlex line of mortise locks. Peter Boriskin, vice president of commercial product management for the Americas division at ASSA ABLOY, points out that conventional electrified mortise locks, such as those used for emergency exits, are always energized when in the closed position; power ceases to flow to the device only in the relatively infrequent moments that it is open. EcoFlex locks reverse that scenario with a motorized actuator, resulting in 96 percent less power consumption. “If you’ve ever touched the handle of a lock in the fire stairwell of a building, you’ve probably noticed it is warm to the touch—it’s like running the car in your garage all the time,” Boriskin says, noting the significant energy costs that accrue from that traditional design when it comes to a large commercial or institutional facility that may have thousands of such doors. “We need those locks to behave in a certain
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ASSA ABLOY products go far beyond energy efficient locks. They include
“THE BUILDING ENVELOPE IS WHERE ROUGHLY 40 PERCENT OF ENERGY LOSS OCCURS IN A BUILDING, SO WE ARE TAKING SOMETHING VERY TRADITIONAL IN NATURE LIKE DOORS AND FRAMES AND LOCKING DEVICES, AND FIGURING OUT HOW TO REFASHION THEM IN ALIGNMENT WITH SUSTAINABLE BUILDING PRACTICES.” STACEY CALLAHAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AND INNOVATION FOR THE FRAME AND DOOR DIVISION AT ASSA ABLOY
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products with exceptionally high recycled metal content and doors that incorporate sustainably grown agrifiber.
win key systems. At the Santiago Calatrava-designed Innovation, Science and Technology Building at Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, sleek stylish Harmony locks—a line made by Sargent, an ASSA ALBOY Group brand known for its refined hardware and state-of-the-art access controls—have been fitted throughout the open concept structure, providing a technologically integrated security system that meshes with the iconic architectural design of the building. Similarly, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) South Table Mountain Campus in Golden, Colorado employs an array of ASSA ABLOY products to meet its complex access control needs in the context of advanced energy-efficient building design. Two of the eight buildings on campus are LEED Platinum and one is net-zero. The campus acts as a demonstration site for the NREL’s Campus of the Future initiative, showing the attention to detail that it takes to source every component of a building with an eye towards achieving an energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly result. The ASSA ABLOY products found in buildings like these go far beyond energy efficient locks. They include products with exceptionally high-recycled metal content and doors that incorporate sustainably grown agrifiber—essentially making use of
agricultural waste products. The company offers improved weather stripping design to further tighten the building envelope, and doors and door frames with a “thermally broken” interior for enhanced insulating capacity. “The thermally broken frames make it so the inside of the building doesn’t convect heat or cold to the outside and vice versa,” explains Callahan. “It’s like an air barrier inside both the door and the frame.” The company has all its ducks in a row with LEED documentation, EPDs, HPDs, GREENGUARD Gold certification, and Declare labels for many of its products, making them the go-to source for access control solutions among the world’s most forward-thinking designers. Perhaps Greg Mella, vice president at SmithGroupJJR and design architect for the Living Building Challenge certified Brock Environmental Center on Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, said it best when ruminating on the thousand-plus products in the building, which each required documentation and an “ingredient list” in order to achieve certification: “It’s a complicated process because most products contain subcomponents sourced from all over the world. We know that ASSA ABLOY has a shared commitment to the product declarations so if there was an ASSA ABLOY product we could use, we gave preferences to those.” THIS IS WHAT REAL SUSTAINABILITY LOOKS LIKE AT A CORPORATE GIANT With nearly $8 billion in annual revenue and 46,000 employees worldwide, ASSA ABLOY is the largest door and lock company in the world. Since its formation in 1994, ASSA ABLOY has made more than 200 corporate acquisitions, and now has 100 brands globally. So when it comes to influencing design, sourcing and manufacturing processes in the industry, the company has immense sway. It also means that operationalizing sustainability objectives is extremely complex. Richard Hafersat, who as director of strategic initiatives for ASSA ABLOY’s Americas division oversees progress on sustainability september–october 2016
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ASSA ABLOY BY THE NUMBERS 46,000
employees worldwide
$8 BILLION
in annual revenue
8,000
suppliers
PHOTO: COURTESY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE
The Class of 1966 Environmental Center at Williams College in Massachusetts, is a Living Building Challenge certified retrofit of a 1790s structure. The building includes at least seven different ASSA ABLOY brands.
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HOW TO BUILD A GREEN DOOR Stacey Callahan, vice president of marketing and innovation for the door group for ASSA ABLOY’s Americas Division say doors are the most overlooked part of a building where energy savings can be realized. Doors and their associated hardware comprise just two percent of the materials going into the average building, yet roughly 40 percent of a structures energy loss occurs through the building envelope. Which is exactly why the ASSA ABLOY family of companies has developed a host of sustainable and energy-efficient door products in recent years, such as the Trio-E and Mercury lines of steel stiffened hollow metal doors which are typically used on exterior doors for strength, but promotes thermal transmission through the door. These innovative steel reinforced doors are filled with polyurethane foam that expands inside the door, eliminating air pockets that could allow thermal leakage. Resource use in manufacturing processes is another area of focus. One example is Maiman, a manufacturer under the ASSA ABLOY Wood Door umbrella, offers Thermal Fused Flush wood doors made from 99 percent recycled material, as certified by GreenCircle. “Using these products saves energy in any building; they are just as useful in a warm climate where you want to keep the heat out and the cool air-conditioning in,” says Callahan. Here are but a few of the ways that ASSA ABLOY looks at the door design and manufacturing from a sustainability perspective.
OPTIMIZING ENERGY PERFORMANCE Energy efficient openings go beyond the door, with specially designed “thermal break” frames that improve the insulating properties of the building envelope considerably by preventing heat and cold transfer. An internal air barrier provides a positive thermal break within the frame, so that in cold weather, the frames reduce heat loss and prevent condensation or frost from forming on the interior portion of the frame. ASSA ABLOY also offers numerous R-valued insulated doors to further improve building envelope thermal
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performance. Used on exterior openings in conjunction with thermal break frames and good quality weatherstripping from ASSA ABLOY Group brand Pemko, these doors provide optimum control of energy used for building heating or cooling. ASSA ABLOY demonstrates leadership in the industry by reporting operable total opening thermal efficiency instead of a calculation. Providing operable values helps building owners and architects have a greater indicator of performance.
MATERIALS Nearly all steel doors include a small percentage of recycled material, but ASSA ABLOY focuses on steel production methods that enable the highest possible recycled content. For example, “integrated mills,” which use blast furnaces to turn iron ore, coke and scrap iron into pig iron feature recycled content that typically exceeds the levels targeted by many green building standards. And “mini-mill” steel production relies almost entirely on scrap metal as the raw material, so instead of mining the earth to feed its furnaces, mini-mills instead mine junkyards for old cars and scrap metal—it is estimated that 20 doors can be produced from the steel of one scrapped car. ASSA ABLOY recognizes that understanding where a product is made, how it is made, is becoming paramount in the industry, especially with LEED v4 around the corner. When it comes to wood doors, ASSA ABLOY maximizes the use of lumber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and offers a number of doors constructed with agrifiber cores, which are made from wheat and straw shafts—essentially recycling a byproduct of agriculture. ASSA ABLOY Group brand Graham offers an agrifiber core door that is free of added urea formaldehyde and also happens to be the only wood door in the industry to have obtained a Declare label, in support of the Living Building Challenge building certification program. Callahan and her team have been working for years to keep doors and frames on the forefront of material transparency, offering the first EPD and HPD in the industry for their Trio-E door in 2013. They continue to stay focused on providing sustainable and transparent door and frame solutions for any application.
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The five-year targets of the company’s 2010 sustainability plan were achieved by the end of last year, and new targets have been set for 2020. One of the biggest pushes in their sustainability plan was to start eliminating the use of toxic materials in all of their products.
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indices for the 36 brands in the North, South, and Central American markets, describes the company’s sustainability auditing process is something akin to a scavenger hunt. No stone is left unturned: “With each of the 36 companies I deal with I discuss with them at least every quarter what improvements they are making to sustainability within their organization. From there we roll it out to what our vendors are doing, and we go through our whole list of manufacturing plants to make sure they are following their sustainability plan. I’m the one following up with them on their timetable to execute certain improvements and hold them accountable to those dates.” ASSA ABLOY was founded on a vision to be the most innovative company of its kind, but its sustainability journey began in earnest in the late 2000s with a directive from the CEO. In 2010, company-wide sustainability goals were set and a comprehensive reporting system was established. With over 10,000 suppliers at the time (this has since been consolidated to around 8,000), the auditing and reporting process was complex to say the least—the bureaucratic infrastructure required rivals that of a small city. As a company built primarily on acquisitions, ASSA ABLOY’s sustainability officers were forced to travel the globe looking into the affairs of every entity within the corporate family. Occasionally suppliers were blacklisted when it was found that they did not meet the company’s minimum standards of compliance with social and environmental policy, while others are classified as “new business hold,” meaning they would not be eligible for new business from any ASSA ABLOY entity until they came into compliance. The five-year targets of the company’s 2010 sustainability plan were achieved by the end of last year, and new targets have been set for 2020. Globally, between 2010 and 2015, ASSA ABLOY reduced energy use by 23 percent; carbon emissions by 21 percent; and hazardous wastes by 56 percent. Water use efficiency improved by 21 percent, and health and safety indices were up by 13 percent. Hafersat says one of the biggest pushes was to start eliminating the use gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ASSA ABLOY
FEATURES ASSA ABLOY
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“WE CONTINUOUSLY EVALUATE OUR PRODUCTS TO MAKE THEM BETTER, BOTH IN FORM AND FUNCTION. LOOK AT HOW OUR PRODUCTS HAVE EVOLVED OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS: WE’VE TAKEN DOORS AND LOCKS AND TURNED THEM INTO HI-TECH, ELEGANT DEVICES THAT ENHANCE THE PERFORMANCE OF A BUILDING. AND NOW WE’VE ADDED SUSTAINABILITY TO THE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT EQUATION. EVERY NEW PRODUCT IS EXAMINED TO IMPROVE ITS SUSTAINABILITY ATTRIBUTES.” AMY VIGNEUX, DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABLE BUILDING SOLUTIONS, ASSA ABLOY AMERICAS DIVISION
2010 250
EPDs created
23%
reduction in energy consumption
of toxic materials in all of their products. The diversity and depth of solutions to the conundrums of a manufacturing industry built on not-so-sustainable practices is astonishing. In one instance Hafersat reports that an ASSA ABLOY company in Mexico has started treating the rinse water from their metal plating room and is using it to flush toilets as part of their effort to meet the company’s stringent standards. Talk about a deep dive! But the effort is starting to pay off with major recognition in the green building industry: ASSA ABLOY was just awarded the 2016 Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Award from the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, as well as the Manufacturer’s Visionary Award for their work in transparency from the International Living Future Institute. NOT WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT, BUT BETTER
21%
reduction in carbon emissions
56%
reduction in hazardous waste
21%
improvement in water use efficiency
2015 gb&d
As with most companies that have a green agenda, ASSA ABLOY has done tons of work auditing their suppliers, and have looked for ways to reduce the carbon footprint of each product, and of their operations more broadly. Using tools like the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) has generated significant savings in energy use, as well as the streamlining of operations that can come through such a deep auditing process. These steps alone have created a good return for their investment in sustainability, but at ASSA ABLOY, “the business case for sustainability is not what you might think,” says Amy Vigneux, director of sustainable building solutions for the company’s Americas division. Door hardware makes up only about two percent of the typical project budget for a new building, so savings that result from sustainability initiatives don’t move the needle much in that regard, says Vigneux. “However, we’ve found sustainability to be a significant business differentiator for us.” Architect Greg Mella was certainly aware of that difference when he specified ASSA ABLOY products for the Brock Environmental Center. Dave Moncure of ASSA ABLOY Door Security Solutions Chesapeake,
who assisted in developing a custom door and lock system for the project, echoes that sentiment. “We were able to bid and win this project in large part because we are transparent about where our products are made, how they are made and what we do during the manufacturing process. We are not just selling a door or a hinge, but our transparency and ability to communicate sustainable solutions.” Vigneux offers a striking statistic that highlights the reality of the door and hardware industry from a sustainability perspective: ASSA ABLOY Americas currently has 65 environmental product declarations on the books (globally, the company has 250); earlier this year their closest competitor came out with their first set of nine EPDs. In other words, when specifying hardware for a Living Building Challenge project, there are not many options to choose from, especially if you’re not willing to take on the exhaustive legwork of verifying the supply chain of every manufacturer you work with. By leading the way in sustainable sourcing, the bar is raised for the industry as a whole. Through the process of restructuring their supply chain in alignment with sustainability principles, the company has created a special type of brand recognition for itself in the marketplace. Naturally, that recognition also extends to the pool of prospective employees, helping the company to attract and retain creative, future-thinking talent—a positive feedback loop that reinforces the goals of any leading-edge company. In this way sustainability, and a culture of innovation more generally, has become part of the bedrock of ASSA ABLOY’s corporate identity. One might expect that sort of corporate culture in a tech startup, for example, but Vigneux is quick to point out that this is not the norm in the door and lock industry. “This industry can be a little dated,” she says. “It is very much steeped in history, with lots of family-owned companies that have been around for generations—which is all very important—but we’re trying to look at how to make the industry more progressive. So sustainability has been a very important storytelling piece in that regard.” gb&d september–october 2016
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GREEN BUILDINGFEATURES & DESIGN
Up Front Trendsetters Features Spaces Punch List
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62 LEDs Find a New Light
The technology has roots going back more than 100 years. But economics, environmental concerns, and performance versatility make LEDs a fixture of the future.
68 Bright Futures Powered by Daylighting
Starfield Lighting Automation brings revolutionary technology to Geneva Middle School
72 Bill of Product Health
As worries over building component ingredients are on the rise, programs like the Living Building Challenge promote product transparency. Look for safer materials in all building typologies soon, including affordable housing – they’re not just for über-green commercial and academic structures anymore.
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S PA C E S S TAY
LEDS FIND A NEW LIGHT The technology has roots going back more than 100 years. But economics, environmental concerns, and performance versatility make LEDs a fixture of the future.
PHOTO: DYLAN PATRICK
By Russ Klettke
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SPACES
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PHOTOS: DYLAN PATRICK
The phenomenon of electroluminescence–the heart of light emitting diodes, or LEDs–was discovered in 1907. And while research in the 1950s focused on how diode structures can be short-distance communications devices, it still took decades for the actual illumination benefits to be explored and appreciated. But of course LEDs are the transformative element of a whole new world of lighting today. The technology is rapidly changing homes, workplaces, spaces for learning, healthcare environments, retail settings, hotels, bars, restaurants, and even sports stadiums and how they look on high-definition TV. Navigant Research, which analyzes global clean technology markets, projects that by 2021, 63 percent of lamps sold to retrofit projects worldwide will be LED-based. “The long lifespans of LED lamps will change how lighting designers and installers think about the integration of light within built spaces,” reports the firm. The widespread excitement over LEDs key benefit, energy efficiency, is well placed and continues to be the driver of its adoption. But companies such as ConTech Lighting of Northbrook, Illinois are finding that the aesthetics of lighting technology are revolutionary in their own sphere. It’s a world of rapid evolution. ConTech’s Northwest sales manager J. Michael Sirochman says the broad design versatility of the technology gives him plenty to discuss with customers—aesthetics, energy efficiency, and even reduced maintenance costs due to longer-life LED bulbs. But while it’s commonly believed that environmentalism and economics drove LED development, it’s a bit more complicated than that. “LED advances are a result of continued solid state lighting developments in mobile phones, PCs and TVs,” says Michael Lehman, vice president of Product Development, Marketing and Design for ConTech. He adds that building energy codes, which demand greater efficiencies, added incentive to make use of those technological advances in lighting. This then led to a “paradigm shift away from traditional technology as a result of gbdmagazine.com
SPACES
the size and capabilities of LEDs,” says Lehman. “The small size allows manufacturers and designers to imagine new ways of applying lighting.” He notes that diminutive fixtures in particular add a new level of design flexibility—space as little as 1/8-inch wide can accommodate an LED light. It’s also about the light itself: “LEDs allow for any color of white light desired, from 2200K to 7000K, and very high color quality.” The “K” refers to Kelvin, where a higher K value yields a migration from yellowish to white to blue as it climbs, a range that is otherwise limited in incandescent lighting. Indeed, lighting designers, interior designers, architects, and others are catching on to this new versatility in design. While more complicated for designers than incandescent and fluorescent lighting, LED complexity broadens the range of choices. Count that as a good thing. Seeing what’s in those choices makes it hard to gb&d
imagine going backward. Contract designers value them for task and cove lighting, downlighting, and very often to replace compact fluorescent bulbs wherever they may currently be in use. Lighting designer Jackie Hui (LC, CLEP, MIES, LEED Green Associate), the director of lighting design at Stanford Hotels Corporation, is effusive about what he has been able to incorporate into the company’s properties already. “LEDs allow minimalist design on much smaller light fixture enclosures, as well as better integration with architecture and interior design,” Hui says. In other words, you more likely notice the lit area and much less of the light source above or below it. He and others speak of the drama this can create, in intimate places such as powder rooms and very public spots such as hotel lobbies, restaurants, and bars. He adds that warm-dim technology now
THIS SPREAD LEDs allow minimalist design on much smaller light fixture enclosures as well as better integration with architecture and interior design.
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products in the lobby, bar, and guestrooms. He chose 2”-diameter aperture LED recessed downlights and LED linear lights. Aside from product quality factors, he selected both for aesthetics, lighting performance, and ease of installation and maintenance (the low-maintenance and long-life features are an additional cost savings to hotel operations). Hui is quick to point out that not all LEDs are created equal. “I am careful about choosing LED products to use on my projects as the technology is rapidly advancing and quality varies greatly between manufacturers,” he says. His criteria for LEDs also includes lumen output, beam angle, glare control, efficacy, accessories, heat management within the light fixture, color rendering, color shift, the dimming technology used, and its compatibility with the lighting control systems. He has to be picky because the pressure in the hospitality industry to make the lighting system perform has a profound influence on the guest experience. He describes the “extreme pressure” felt everywhere to reduce energy usage, but that alone as a singular criterion can backfire. “When the economy turned bad in 2007, energy retrofit companies approached us to offer strategies to lower energy use and operating costs,” he says. “A big drawback was how it impacted [adversely] the lighting design intent.” Furthermore Hui notes that California legislation in the form of Title-24–energy efficiency standards administered by the California Energy Com-
THIS SPREAD The Hilton Hotel in Woodland Hills uses ConTech Lighting LED products in the lobby, bar, and guestrooms. They were selected both for aesthetics, lighting performance, and ease of installation and maintenance.
mission, along with standards established by ASHRAE 90.1, IESNA Lighting Guidelines, and LEED certifications enforce stringent guidelines to reduce lighting energy consumption. This pushes today’s lighting designers to be creative in meeting energy codes without sacrificing aesthetices. As those standards are raised—along with expectations of end-users—the actual costs may drop, according to Navigant Research. “Advanced lighting controls will also proliferate as the cost premium shrinks for LED drivers that include dimming, wireless communications, and color tuning,” they report. Which makes one wonder: What else was discovered but shelved a century ago? gb&d
PHOTOS: DYLAN PATRICK
mimics incandescent dimming performance, a barrier to adoption just a few years ago. But he cautions that inexperienced lighting designers might not properly manage dimming ranges, particularly at the low-end threshold. Or, while dimming technology allows for smooth gradients there are occasions where a stepped system might be more appropriate economically—assuming the designer uses LED-compatible dimmers. Another challenge within the design community with regard to LEDs (and the predecessor sustainability-oriented lighting technology, CFLs) is the consistent quality of color temperature of cast light. “This is critical to good design,” says Hui. He says that color-temperature shifts of those lights are difficult to prevent. But despite the challenges, he’s managed to devise those aforementioned dramatic effects using the technology. He is also able to digitally adjust the color to a very specific hue. “Color is a very powerful tool when used properly,” he says. He describes a LED color lighting system integrated into an architectural detail, a textured surface wall, where the light “grazes” irregularly raised surfaces in a play of hued shadows and light. He says it’s also possible to accommodate a corporate event with the company’s logo color, or to match the specific pigment used in a wedding. At a recently renovated Hilton Hotel in Woodland Hills, California, owned and operated by Stanford Hotels Corporation, Hui was responsible for specifying ConTech Lighting LED
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BRIGHT FUTURES POWERED BY DAYLIGHTING gb&d
Starfield Lighting Automation brings revolutionary technology to Geneva Middle School By Vincent Caruso
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ABOVE The Intelligent Room Integration System by Starfield Lighting Automation was used at the Geneva Middle School. It outperforms its competitors both in energy savings and in user-intuitiveness.
techno-futuristic connotation, has turned this formality inside out. With the automated daylighting apparatus, with which they equipped Geneva Middle School, the effectiveness of the system is directly measured by how removed it is from the visual and mental peripheries of those actively benefitting from it. The system, which Starfield now markets under the acronym “IRIS,” for Intelligent Room Integration System, accomplishes a lot while remaining tucked modestly into the background, outperforming its competitors both in energy savings and in user-intuitiveness. Some of these feats can in part be attributed to the structural design of the building, armed with maximal daylight-capturing properties such as high ceilings and tactfully sloped ceilings. But how Starfield’s apparatus manages the collected abundance of daylight is what makes this site an Olympic long jump for daylight harvesting technology. The Starfield system incorporates the three fundamental features of a green energy system—that is, daylighting, user control, and “auto-off”—but harnesses them in an integrated way that allows each function to coordinate with one another so as to optimize overall performance. “Doing any one thing is easy,” explains Wayne Morrow,
PHOTOS: ERIC HANSON
As the domains of science and industry continue to grow in acquiescence to the urgent demands of environmental pressures, sustainability in design and architecture is becoming ever more embedded into the mold of our daily lives. Once a luxury limited to the virtuous precincts of high society with access to self-styled eco-friendly design firms on the upper-end of the scale, energy efficient methodologies are increasingly as fundamental to the contractor’s inventory as brick and mortar. And out of this democratization of green values has emerged a paradigm shift in the epistemic underpinning that not only encourages the inclusion of energy performance of built environments, but posits how such features ought to perform. It’s a question to which Ohio-based Geneva Middle School was made acquainted by revolutionary Starfield Lighting Automation, whose technology proves seemingly as celestial as its name suggests. Because utilizing environmentally friendly technologies had until recently demanded fairly immodest means, much of what the marketplace produced has often been marked by ostentatious user modules and a sleek modernist design, signaling and asserting their value. Boulder-based Starfield Lighting Automation, despite its
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF STARFIELD LIGHTING AUTOMATION (SENSOR)
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sales and application engineer at Starfield Controls, while facilitating a gainful relationship between them is what will actually advance energy efficiency. Conventional daylighting systems are operated akin to a thermostat and are manually calibrated by a technician who sets a particular setpoint that determines electric light output. And while this seems efficient enough at first glance, further inspection suggests that there are competing interests perpetually muddling the calibration of the standard daylighting system. Traditionally, daylight sensors are ceiling-mounted and measure reflected light to determine the system’s electric light output, informed by a given setpoint. But since reflected light is determined by factors that change throughout the course of the day, the sensor can’t accurately accommodate the condition of the room without attentive recalibration. What’s more, by the very nature of how the industry standard of such systems operate, any user adjustments must first disable daylight harvesting, and thus any prospect for meaningful energy savings. The IRIS system, on the other hand, utilizes patented artificial intelligence technology to integrate each component in a way that allows the system to behave adaptively and perform efficiently. “The system uses a form of artificial intelligence called ‘complex adaptive systems,’” Morrow elucidates, that allows each component to operate independently but coordinate globally. “It’s like social media or the stock market. Each component listens for what the other components are doing and then adapts to create an emergent process of continual calibration and coordination.” According to Morrow, the weakness of the conventional model is its singular focus on saving energy. Or, more specifically, excluding users from the design conversation largely negates the majority of potential en-
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ergy savings. The system boasted by Geneva Middle School, however, is among the first that can honestly be described as user-centric, and delivers a whopping 71 percent space energy savings in occupied spaces as a result. While standard daylighting systems impose a high setpoint (150 percent of design light level) as a means of attempting to manage the constantly changing nature of reflected light, IRIS starts at 50 percent. Users can adjust this as many times as they want, and instead of shutting down, the system components respond accordingly and continue harvesting daylight. The sincerest metric of user-friendliness for a system of this nature is how aware of it its users are. If you’re conscious of the lighting of the environment encompassing you, it’s likely because you find said lighting bothersome. If it couldn’t be further from your mind, on the other hand, chances are that it’s because the lighting level is pleasant and unobtrusive. Morrow recollects, “When we were commissioning [the Geneva Middle School installation] we went into some of the rooms, adjusted lights up and down, and tried to see it working. We couldn’t. Our instruments showed it working but our eyes said otherwise.” This is also true from a maintenance perspective. Jarrod Burgard, who is the buildings systems manager of Geneva Area City Schools, professes that because the system is so self-efficient and self-maintaining it’s hardly even on his radar. “We don’t even use half of the energy of the typical school,” Burgard states, “and yet it requires almost no input from me. As far as day-to-day maintenance goes, there really isn’t any.” Despite the effortlessness of the platform, the school earned a LEED Silver accreditation. What’s true elsewhere in technology is ultimately true of energy efficiency: if technology serves its users, its users need not serve the technology. The students and faculty of Geneva Middle School are at the luxury of enjoying one of the greenest facilities in their district whether they know it or not. And if they don’t, well that only reinforces its proficiency. gb&d
Intelligent: having or showing the ability to easily learn or understand things or to deal with new or difficult situations. The Geneva Middle School daylighting system is operated by an artificial intelligence called IRIS. While most lighting is determined by manual settings and user calibration, IRIS is self-calibrating, self-sufficient, and self-maintaining. Intuitive: having the ability to know or understand things without any proof or evidence, having or characterized by intuition. The minimalism of the school’s daylighting system demands translates to advanced user intuition. IRIS is installed with foolproof simplicity and then takes care of the rest. Certified: having earned an official approval from an authority in a given sphere of civic life to perform a function or service. The IRIS (AI) daylight harvesting system is fully code compliant, meeting all legal energy requirements and exceeding many. Geneva Middle School has earned a LEED Silver certification in no small part thanks to the Starfield Lighting System. Comprehensive: of large scope; covering or involving much. A single IRIS system can scale from a small office to full size assembly hall and can optionally be integrated into a network of up to 33,000 rooms managed by a single centralized control system. The system network can increase in complexity and expand in scope while remaining simple, intuitive and inconspicuous in the eyes of the user.
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BILL
OF
PRODUCT PHOTO: COURTESY OF PROSOCO, INC.
HEALTH
By Russ Klettke
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As worries over building component ingredients are on the rise, programs like the Living Building Challenge promote product transparency. Look for safer materials in all building typologies soon, including affordable housing—they’re not just for über-green commercial and academic structures anymore. The building and design community has fallen in love with shiny concrete floors. We see them everywhere, from multi-million-dollar high-rise condominiums to Walmart stores, Harley-Davidson showrooms and elementary schools. Some, not all, of those floors are green in two ways. One is that polished concrete surfaces eliminate the use of carpets, tiles, laminates, linoleum, hardwood, and glues— materials that end up in landfills when it’s time to replace the floor in 10 years. Second is an innovation in chemicals—lithium silicate, which reacts with concrete to harden the substrate, repel moisture, reduce dusting and resist scratching from everyday spills and traffic—makes these lustrous floors LEED v4—and LBC-ready, and compliant with architectural coating VOC content regulations across North America. Maintenance is much easier and cleaner as well. If this proprietary concrete finish system (called Consolideck) continues its build in popularity, many more buildings will sport this cool look, sometimes with custom designs dyed into the concrete. But while floors catch our attention, there are an awful lot of things going on behind walls and ceilings, unseen and yet critically important. Building envelopes are getting tighter to maximize energy efficiency. As air exchange is reduced in homes and workplaces, worries mount over VOCs and other off-gassing that might adversely affect human health. gb&d
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R.W. KERN CENTER
Healthy building materials represent just one portion of the Living Building Challenge, but it’s one of the biggest challenges, according to many designers and builders. The project team for the R.W. Kern Center selected multiple PROSOCO products for the project — one choice made easier due to the products’ Declare labels and LBC compliance. PROSOCO products were used on the structure’s exterior masonry, concrete floors and building envelope. RENDERING COURTESY OF BRUNER/COTT ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS
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Masonry façade – stone quarried from 18 miles away, protected with Sure Klean Weather Seal products including Natural Stone Treatment WB Plus.
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Exposed concrete floors finished, densified and protected with Consolideck products including LS and LSGuard.
Super-insulated wall system with an R-40 value made possible with PROSOCO R-Guard products including Joint & Seam Filler, FastFlash, Cat 5, and AirDam.
NOTEWORTHY: The soon-to-be largest Living Building in New England, the R.W. Kern Center, recently opened at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. It was built with the goal of certification under the world’s most advanced green building standard, the Living Building Challenge (LBC). LBC calls for the creation of building projects at all scales that operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature’s architecture. To be certified under the Challenge, projects must meet a series of ambitious performance requirements over a minimum of 12 months of continuous occupancy.
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ABOVE David W. Boyer, president and CEO of PROSOCO, believes that the building industry can do better for the environment and human health.
Researchers are working to solve this problem. The company that created the Consolideck concrete flooring products, PROSOCO, Inc. of Lawrence, Kansas, might seem an unlikely entry into the green building materials supply chain. But the firm illustrates an encouraging sign of manufacturer transformation. “We are an 80-year-old chemical company,” says David W. Boyer, president and CEO of PROSOCO. “We took on the challenge of developing greener products because we see buildings constructed with harmful materials every day, and we believe that we as an industry can do better for the environment and human health.” The challenge Boyer references involved not just the development of a new product, but one that pushed its technical staff to check up and down the supply chain for worrisome Red List ingredients in its products. This approach has changed the way PROSOCO designs both new products and products that have been on the market for decades. It reformulated its core R-Guard line of air and water barrier products and is optimizing its Consolideck line of concrete flooring finishing products. And per-
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haps most important, many of its products qualify for a Declare label from the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), the organization that runs the Living Building Challenge (LBC) and maintains the Red List. Relatively new in the buildings industry, Declare is aptly described as the “nutrition label” for building materials. It requires ingredient transparency and focuses on the elimination of worst-in-class chemicals of concern, enabling designers and builders to achieve green certifications (LEED2009, LEED v4, LBC, and others) with greater ease. When a product gets a Declare label, it streamlines both the selection and certification processes. “Declare has stimulated transformation of the construction product ecosystem,” says Dwayne Fuhlhage, the sustainability and environment director at PROSOCO who has also served on the LEED Technical Committee and Indoor Environmental Quality Technical Advisory Group with the USGBC. He says the upstream supply chain has had to root out chemicals and polymers that are known to be detrimental to human health and to come up with safer substitutes. “Project teams, users and building occupants benefit from broader availability of high-performance, low-emitting products formulated with better ingredients.” The industry’s discovery and wider-spread adoption of healthier building products is one of the good things that came out of the recession that began in 2008, CEO Boyer says. “Only green buildings were being built at the time,” he says. Boyer anticipates building codes will increasingly require elimination of Red List materials. Amanda Sturgeon, CEO of the ILFI, firmly believes the Declare label will broadly affect the industry. “Designers and builders are thankful to have an easy to use, simple way to understand toxic ingredients in building materials,” she says. “The range of materials is now extensive enough to be a go-to source for product selection. Even if a project is not seeking Living Building Challenge certification, selecting Red List-free materials is a logical choice whenever they
Declare is a ‘nutrition-label’ for products, providing a clear, elegant and informative method to disclose ingredients. A number of PROSOCO products have received a Declare label from the International Living Future Institute. See the comprehensive list of Declare products at livingfuture.org/declare-products
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PHOTOS/LABELS: COURTESY OF PROSOCO, INC.
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RENDERING: COURTESY OF BRUNER/COTT ARCHITECTS & PLANNERS.
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do not cost the client any more. Why select toxic materials when you don’t need to?” Two projects in particular illustrate the application of the Red List and Declare. Seattle’s Bullitt Center, the first U.S. commercial structure certified as an LBC, was able to use PROSOCO’s R-Guard system because phthalates were removed from the formulations. The R.W. Kern Center at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, was also built to LBC standards, and used R-Guard as well as Consolideck products on the multipurpose facility, opened in 2016. According to Jason Jewhurst, principal architect (firm: Bruner/Cott & Associates) on the Kern Center, the design team experienced challenges related to material sourcing. “Much like other LBC projects, sourcing complex components and products for intricate building systems demanded a prolonged focus, attention and at times real pressures,” he says. “Architects, engineers, owners, and builders need to continue to embrace manufacturers and suppliers in the process. We all have a vested interest in transforming the building industry into a greener, healthier economy.” Which is fine in rarified institutions. But gb&d
are net-zero, shiny-floor, clean-air environments something that ordinary Americans will experience in homes, workplaces, and elsewhere? Architect Tim McDonald at the Philadelphia design-build firm Onion Flats absolutely believes that to be possible. In 2015 he successfully lobbied the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, with the support of like-minded affordable housing developers, to provide housing tax credits to builders of projects that meet the rigorous Passive House standard. The result is encouraging no matter how you look at it—it’s driving the market for making extremely energy-efficient Passive House structures within reach regardless of occupants’ economic status. McDonald estimates that within one year, more than 900 new affordable housing units will be net-zero energy-capable dwellings made with select Declare-labeled materials. It’s the shiny floors that we notice first. But when housing authorities reduce energy consumption and honor occupant health as much as they do commercial and institutional buildings, it’s a step in the right direction indeed for greener buildings. gb&d
ABOVE The R.W. Kern Center at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, was built to LBC standards, and used R-Guard as well as Consolideck products on the multipurpose facility.
Find the full list of PROSOCO’s Declarelabeled and LBC-compliant products at prosoco.com/sustainability
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Beauty & Performance in Wood TM
Real wood Maximum hardness & stability www.tusj.no
Guaranteed long life
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www.kebony.us september–october 2016
855.230.5656
KebonyWood gbdmagazine.com
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Trendsetters Features Spaces Punch List
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80 Product Spotlight
Orbital Systems’ Shower of the Future
84 Guest Column
Katrin Klingenberg
86 Sustainable Solution
Mobilane
88 On the Spot Nancy Sutley
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Product Spotlight Orbital Systems’ Shower of the Future What if you could double your flow rate and only use 10 percent of the water?
ABOVE The Real Time Water Data App and Portal tracks and reports on water and energy savings related to your shower.
By Christina Wiedbusch
MIDDLE Along with the use of digitally controlled temperature regulation, you won’t ever have to experience drastic changes in temperature while showering.
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BOTTOM The shower doesn’t compromise on pressure or temperature and actually supplies cleaner water at a greater pressure.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ORBITAL SYSTEMS
The shower of the future is here. Orbital Systems is redefining eco-luxury for both homeowners and enterprises with its aptly named Shower of the Future. The revolutionary design incorporates space nanotechnology that enables the shower to use only 10 percent of the water and 20 percent of the energy required by ordinary showers. Furthermore, the shower doesn’t compromise on pressure or temperature and actually supplies cleaner water at a greater pressure—up to 20 liters per minute to be exact. The groundbreaking nanotechnology, which is Space Certified Technology, was originally used by an academic project with NASA. The Shower of the Future uses NASA’s space sustainability practices in order to conserve precious resources, such as water and energy. And it doesn’t stop there—along with the use of digitally controlled temperature regulation, you won’t ever have to experience drastic changes in temperature while showering. What about improving hygiene? The sensors in the shower can measure water quality and can actually clean the shower water through the use of its two purification capsules. The first is the Micro Capsule, which purifies the recycled water and provides efficient
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IN CONVERSATION with Nancy Sutley Continued from p. 21
of the things that really struck me was that pretty much every federal agency felt that they had a part to play and a stake in meeting the environmental goals of the administration. Every agency could see themselves in those goals. gb&d: What do you attribute that to? Sutley: I think it really reflects the evolution of the way people think about sustainability. You see it reflected here in Los Angeles where the sustainability initiatives being undertaken are really not just stovepiped to one department, but that there is a role for every department to play—transportation, buildings, energy use, it’s really everybody’s issue now. I think that’s the way people think about the environment these days. gb&d: The unfolding of Frank Gehry’s LA River Plan has been a major inspiration for other cities around the country trying to revitalize neglected waterways. Can you give us an update?
“I thought it odd that we were making the environment off-limits, that we couldn’t actually enjoy it, because we were harming it. I thought we could do better—and we have.”
filtration capabilities. All unwanted molecules are then filtered from your water, therefore removing all contaminants, making your shower experience as pure and hygienic as possible. The second is the Nano Capsule. The function of this capsule is to preserve the purity of the water. It keeps all undesired particles, including viruses, bacteria, and 99.9 percent of toxins, metals, and oils out of the water, making it cleaner than other conventional products. In addition to saving up to 90 percent of water and up to 80 percent of energy, you will also save money. The Real Time Water Data App and Portal tracks and reports on water and energy savings related to your shower—including savings—as well as tracks progress towards aggregate sustainability goals. How can you experience this blissful shower experience from the future? The award-winning design, including an Edison Award and GreenTec Award, is produced and manufactured in Sweden and shipped globally for commercial and residential installations. It is currently available for order, delivery, and consultative installation support in the United States. gb&d
Sutley: The plan was ratified by the LA City Council just in June. So we’re working through the process with the Army Corps of Engineers. We have this incredible asset that runs through the middle of the city for 32 miles, which right now it’s just kind of a forgotten, sad flood control channel in many places. gb&d: It is certainly a symbolic project for Angelenos.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ORBITAL SYSTEMS
Sutley: The river is kind of why the city was founded. The story that’s told is that Los Angeles was founded by 44 settlers who walked nine miles from Mission San Gabriel to find this flowing river under some trees—it’s not too far from where I’m looking out my window here. So the city’s history is very tightly connected to the river. Reconnecting the city to its history and reThis conversation continues on p. 89
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We in the classroom.
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LEED, the most widely used green building program, is helping buildings and homes everywhere use less water and energy, provide a healthier environment
and a commitment to people.
#FindyourLEED gb&d
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Guest Column Although specific climate challenges may shift from one region to the next, the imperative of achieving resiliency and adaptability at the human scale remains the same.
Greenbuild is the lens through which we can reflect on the progress made by the green building industry thus far and look forward to the continued collaboration that will help us to achieve a future that is more equitable, resilient, and sustainable than ever before. Since our inception, Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) has been coming to Greenbuild to showcase best practices and learn from industry peers. Through the support and collaboration fostered by events like this, we have seen the green building industry grow to become a major force in the efforts to not only make high-performance buildings the leading market standard but to bring the benefits of these buildings—health, comfort, safety, resiliency and efficiency—to the mainstream. Each year the industry comes together for Greenbuild
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specific location. When your organization has certified projects spanning from hot and humid Louisiana to the arid southwest to the arctic cold of Alaska as well as internationally as far away as Japan and Korea as PHIUS has, you recognize the need for a climate-specific approach to performance. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for our crisis; what we need are tailored solutions at the local level that add up to achieve wide-scale adaptability. Yet how do we know if we’re making progress in the right direction? We are collecting detailed performance data and metrics to demonstrate that sound building science works as the foundation to achieving the durability and health benefits needed to address the larger climate imperatives of our day. The data we collect is then made available on our Multifamily Resource Center at multifamily.phius. org to help inform designers, developers, policymakers, program managers, and investors about the levels of performance they can come to expect from a PHIUS+ certified building. PHIUS’ performance-based metric focuses on reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint while maximizing human health and comfort. Verification of demonstrated performance has been the cornerstone of our certification program from day one. PHIUS requires rigorous onsite QA/QC for project certification. We have trained over a thousand consultants, raters, and verifiers with the skills and know-
how necessary to independently verify that these buildings are built and perform as designed and modeled so that users enjoy the health, comfort, and performance benefits they have come to expect from a passive building. From building the very first passive house in North America in 2003 to this year reaching the milestone of over 1 million square feet of certified and pre-certified projects, PHIUS has been a key player in advancing the strength of the high-performance building industry over the past 10 years. When Greenbuild returns to our hometown of Chicago in 2018, the need for verified data and performance evaluation will be all the more crucial as we continue to work together to tackle the challenges of the next decade and beyond. Katrin Klingenberg is the Executive Director of Passive House Institute US (PHIUS), which she co-founded in 2003. A German-born and trained architect, she drove the development of the new climate-specific, costoptimized PHIUS+2015 Passive Building Standard and now directs the technical and research programs of PHIUS.
PHOTO: KATRINA KRAMENA VIA PHIUS
Katrin Klingenberg Executive Director Passive House Institue US | PHIUS
in a new city, allowing the discussions to be framed around the economic, social, and environmental opportunities and challenges facing each specific location. Greenbuild 2014 in New Orleans showed us a community in the midst of revival less than ten years since the ravaging floods of Katrina, while driving home the sheer magnitude of the impact these types of events have at the local level. As this year’s Greenbuild comes to Los Angeles and a region grappling with the economic, political, and environmental impacts of drought, water shortages, and rampant wildfires, we see up close the impacts of these threats to human health and wellbeing on a community scale. Although specific climate challenges may shift from one region to the next, the imperative of achieving resiliency and adaptability at the human scale remains the same. Given the myriad challenges facing our communities, how do we establish a framework for achieving the buildings able to be resilient and adaptable in the face of these threats? Questions like these were a driving factor behind the development of the PHIUS+ 2015 Passive Building Standard released by PHIUS this past year. PHIUS+ 2015 is the first and only passive building standard based upon climate-specific comfort and performance criteria aimed at presenting an affordable solution to achieving the most durable, resilient, energy-efficient building possible for a
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Sustainable Solution Mobilane By Christina Wiedbusch
The world’s largest manufacturer of athletic shoes and apparel recently opened a brand new European distribution center that does everything a little bit differently. The ultra-sustainable facility is centrally located in Belgium and is surrounded by six enormous wind turbines that produce enough electricity to power 5,000 houses. In addition, solar panels cover an area the size of three soccer fields, incoming shipments arrive by canal, and the entire operation runs on renewable energy. If that’s not enough to impress you, they even plan to increase the biodiversity of the area by using
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green roofs and green walls to attract birds, insects, and bees. This American multinational corporation is a leader in designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing footwear, apparel and sports equipment, but their new distribution center proved that they can also be a leader in the green building movement. With the help of Mobilane and BSI Bomenservice, they designed and built the largest exterior greenwall in Europe. Mobilane specializes in developing and manufacturing innovative, cost effective, and sustainable living wall systems for the built environment. BSI Bomenservice
was tasked with the installation and maintenance of Mobilane’s greenwall system. The greenwall is 23,000 square feet and contains over 100,000 plants from 14 different species including Alchemilla, Bergenia, Campanula, Geranium, and Nepeta, among others. After having tested a number of different systems on the market, Mobilane’s LivePanel living wall system was specifically selected for this project because, along with its proven performance, it is an incredibly sustainable system with very low water consumption. Furthermore, LivePanel’s simple modular design helped simpli-
fy the installation process and shorten the overall build time. The giant living wall is relatively low weight and contains a total of 11,000 interchangeable “plant cassettes.” Rows of plant cassettes are placed in between horizontal rows of aluminum “gutters,” which also serve as a water reservoir. The plants in the cassettes are watered and fed by an innovative cloth wicking system that uses capillary action to suck water from the reservoirs up to the plant roots in an even and constant manner. Water level sensors in the reservoirs automatically signal a computerized pump to deliver more water to the reservoirs when needed. The integrated irrigation system continuously distributes just enough water and fertilizer throughout the wall, minimizing water consumption and ongoing maintenance. Mobilane’s living wall products are able to transform any working or living environment into a relaxing and healthy green environment. They produce a range of different greenwall products that can be installed both indoors and outdoors. Once disassembled, the living walls can be completely recycled. Mobilane’s full line of living wall products are exclusively available in North America through Suite Plants (www. suiteplants.com). gb&d gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: NICK LUYPEN
LEFT The giant living wall is relatively low weight and contains a total of 11,000 exchangeable plant cassettes.
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The FM story is being told around the globe; and the more it’s told, the more it becomes a story worth listening to. Robert’s Story
Get Involved. Get Informed. Get Inspired.
We’re all writing FM’s epic story together. World Workplace is where we gather to compare notes, share triumphs and lessons learned, and add new chapters to the ongoing tale of FM’s progress.
We each have a different FM story, but we’re all on the same page. We share broad-scale concerns and objectives; but every FM has a unique set of challenges that require specific solutions.
Register today at worldworkplace.org
— early birds catch a $100 savings on registration. gb&d
I attend World Workplace to increase my knowledge of leading FM trends and network with FMs who deal with similar issues. Returning to my position after spending time with fellow FMs reinvigorates me to make our FM department the best it can be. - Robert Kleimenhagen, Jr., CFM, Facilities Strategic Planning & Program Manager, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission
We adapt the FM story to meet our specific needs. As a community, we build solutions together. As skilled professionals, we turn best practices into the best practices for us.
In collaboration with
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER
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On the Spot Nancy Sutley The subject of this issue’s In Conversation interview, Nancy Sutley–the chief sustainability and economic development officer at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power–fills out our questionnaire, picks walking as her favorite mode of transportation, and reminds us to be kind to the Earth.
MOST MEMORABLE HOMETOWN HAUNT
Little Neck Bay, Queens, NY.
GREATEST PROFESSIONAL PET PEEVE
Intolerance.
INDUSTRY JARGON YOU WOULD BANISH
Business as usual.
A CURRENT EVENT WE SHOULD FOLLOW MORE CLOSELY
Climate Change.
ENVIRONMENTAL COME-TO-JESUS MOMENT
Super-storm Sandy.
MOST COMPELLING ARGUMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP
It’s about us.
WAY TO MAKE THE ENVIRONMENT A NON-PARTISAN ISSUE
Talk about grandkids.
YOUR PERSONAL DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABILITY THE PERFECT CITY WOULD HAVE
Lots of green buildings, solar panels and graywater systems. ONE TECHNOLOGY ON THE HORIZON THAT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
Energy storage.
YOUR TOPIC IF YOU WERE ASKED TO GIVE A TED TALK
The Water-Energy Nexus.
THE NEXT BIG IDEA WILL COME FROM
Leaving the earth a better place.
WHAT YOU’D PITCH TO PRESIDENT OBAMA IF YOU HAD 30 SECONDS
Retirement in Los Angeles.
WHAT YOU’D TELL THE GREEN MOVEMENT IF IT WAS YOUR CHILD
Grow forth and multiply; start now!
THE BOLDEST IDEA IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
LA River Plan.
MOST IMPACTFUL EXPERIENCE IN NATURE
LaKretz Innovation Campus.
Sleepaway camp in the Catskills.
BUILDING YOU WOULD SAVE IF THE WORLD WAS GOING TO END
President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.
A CENTURY FROM NOW HUMANITY WILL
ONE QUESTION INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS SHOULD ALWAYS BE ASKING THEMSELVES
LA City Hall.
Travel through teleportation.
ONE BOOK EVERYONE SHOULD READ
The Power Broker by Robert Caro.
MOST MEANINGFUL PROJECT YOU’VE COMPLETED
How will this impact the underserved? OR Is this the right thing to do at this time? THE THOUGHT OR IDEA THAT CENTERS YOU
MOST MEMORABLE MENTOR OR TEACHER
Everyday is an opportunity to make the world better.
HARSHEST CRITICISM YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED
Helping.
FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
Still An Inconvenient Truth.
WASTEFUL HABIT YOU’RE TRYING TO KICK
It’s not easy being green.
MOST FULFILLING HOBBY
Be kind to the earth.
Mary Nichols. Too quiet.
Walking/My legs.
Taking the elevator or indulging in junk food. Traveling or reading.
gb&d
IN CONVERSATION with Nancy Sutley Continued from p. 82
ally making it into an asset is really exciting. There are projects that have already been built along the river that demonstrate the potential of the city’s restoration plan. gb&d: Both LA and California have extreme environmental challenges, but are also considered leaders in building resilience. What can the rest of us learn from those challenges, and leadership, in this part of the country?
“Over the next 20 years or so we’re going to make very large investments to try to get 50 percent of our water coming from local sources, which is a big change for us.” Sutley: It’s important to walk the talk. The LADWP has a lot of real estate here and we are trying to show residents that you can have attractive outdoor spaces without using a lot of water, so we’ve taken out the turf at most of our facilities to reduce water use. The city created the Los Angeles Clean Tech Incubator, which is housed in the same facility as the LADWP efficiency labs and our technical evaluation staff. We are really trying to foster that interaction between the entrepreneurs in the clean tech incubator and the utility which we think is a unique model for around the country. gb&d: Overall it sounds like you have a very simple equation for achieving sustainability on a large scale: political will plus a grand, innovative vision plus incremental action, equals positive results. Sutley: If you focus on making efforts toward sustainability, you can really see the results. You literally just have to look out the window to see how much our environment has improved and how vibrant a city this is. You can really do these things. gb&d
SOCIAL MEDIA—HELPING OR HURTING
MOST RESONANT DOCUMENTARY
MOST COMMON GREEN MYTH
EXPLAIN “GREEN” TO A KINDERGARTNER
september–october 2016
89
PUNCH LIST
Directory & Index
ADVERTISERS
A ASSA ABLOY, 1 Assaabloy.com 630.682.8800 C Cityscape Global, 27 Cityscapeglobal.com +971 4 407.2528 Cornell Cookson, 15 Cornellcookson.com 800.233.8366 E EcoDistricts Summit, 60 Summit.ecodistricts.org 503.863.2565 Elkay, 8 Elkay.com 630.574.8484 Excel Dryer, 91 Exceldryer.com 888.998.7704 F Fabcon, 20 Fabcon-usa.com 800.727.4444 G Greenbuild, 22 Greenbuildexpo.com 972.536.6456 I IFMA World Workplace, 87 Worldworkplace.ifma.org 281.377.4739 P Pine River Group, 78 Pinerivergroup.com 855.230.5656 PROSOCO, 53 Prosoco.com 800.255.4255 R REHAU Construction, LLC, 92 Rehau.com 612.253.0576 S Solar Power International, 5 Solarpowerinternational.com 703.738.9460 T Tarkett, 2 Tarkett.com 610.266.5504 U UL Environment, 34 Iindustries.ul.com/environment 847.272.8800 USGBC, 83 Usgbc.org 800.795.1747 PEOPLE & COMPANIES # 2016 Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Award, 59
90
september–october 2016
361 Architecture and Design Collaborative, 25 A Access Window and Door Design Centre, 33 Adara, 14 Albrinck, Alice 38 Allegion, 38 American Society of Landscape Architects, 21 Anderson, Ray C., 39 An Inconvenient Truth, 89 Arauco North America, 38 Army Corps of Engineers, 82 ASHRAE 90.1, 67 ASLA Annual Meeting & Expo, 21 ASSA ABLOY, 54 B BamCore, 24 BBC Research, 42 Belden, 38 Bolus, Jay, 42 Boriskin, Peter, 54 Boyer, David. W., 76 Braungart, Dr. Michael, 46 Brock Environmental Center, 55 Bruner/Cott & Associates, 77 Build Equinox, 14 Bullitt Center, 77 Burgard, Jarod 71 C Cadillac Fairview, 18 California Energy Commission, 67 California Section 01350, 50 Callahan, Stacey, 57 Caro, Robert, 89 Carpet & Rug Institute Green Label Plus, 50 Carpet American Recovery Effort (CARE), 46 Ceco, 54 Centers for Disease Control, 47 CERV, 14 Chavez, Marc, 30 Ciesla, Barbara, 18 Class of 1966 Environmental Center at Williams College, 54 Climate Action Plan, 13 Climate Change, 89 Consolideck, 73 ConTech Lighting, 64 Corbin Russwin, 54 CornellCookson, 30 Council on Environmental Quality, 82 Country Club Estates, 32 Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard, 42 Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, 38, 46 D Declare, 55, 76 Delft University, 25 Desert Courtyard House, 16 E Earth Day, 13 EcoBase™, 46 EcoFlex, 54 ECOLOGO, 42 EcoPower, 54 Edgewood Botanic Garden, 24 Edison Award, 82 Elkay, 28 Enterprise Connectivity, 39
Environmental Product Declarations, 38, 55 Environmental Protection Agency, 29, 46 Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA), 47 Eva’s Initiatives, 19 ezH2O, 28 F Firth, Paul, 38 Florida Polytechnic University, 55 Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), 57 Fuhlhage, Dwayne, 76 G Garcia, Jerry, 24 Gehry, Frank, 82 GENEO, 32 Graham, 57 Green Builder Media, 14 Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, 21 GreenCircle, 54, 57 GREENGUARD Gold, 55 GREENGUARD, 42 Greenhouse gas (GHGs), 45 GreenTec Award, 82 H Hafersat, Richard, 55 Halstead International, 14 Hampshire College, 77 Harley-Davidson, 73 Harmony, 55 Health Product Declaration Open Standard, 42 Health Product Declarations, 38, 55 Hill, David, 26 Hilton Hotel, 66 Hinkle, Hal, 24 HOK, 18 Home Depot, 47 House of Doors, 31 Hui, Jackie, 66 I IESNA Lighting Guidelines, 67 Indoor Environmental Quality Technical Advisory Group, 76 Innovation, Science and Technology Building, 54 Intelligent Room Integration System, 70 Interface, 39 International Door Association’s Heritage Award, 30 International Living Future Institute (ILFI), 59, 76 IRIS, 70 J Jewhurst, Jason, 77 K Klingenberg, Katrin, 85 Klinger, Jonathan, 50 L LA City Council, 82 LA River Plan, 82 LaKretz Innovation Campus, 89 LEED Fellow, 14 LEED Platinum, 54 LEED Silver, 54 LEED Technical Committee, 76 LEED v4, 38, 57, 73 LEED, 45, 71 LEED 2009, 76 LEED EB, 18
Lehman, Michael, 65 Living Building Challenge (LBC), 54, 76 Los Angeles Aqueduct, 19 Los Angeles Clean Tech Incubator, 89 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), 13 Lowe’s, 47 Lucas, George, 24 Lumber Liquidators, 47 M Maiman, 57 Mannington, 38 Manufacturer’s Visionary Award, 59 Martel, Diane, 46 Material Health Statement (MHS), 47 Material Ingredients, 38 Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group, 39 MBDC, 38 McDonald, Tim, 77 McDonald, William, 24 McDonough, William, 46 McGraw Hill, 42 Mella, Greg, 55 Menards, 47 Mercury, 57 Metroflor Corporation, 14 Micro Capsule, 80 Milliken, 38 Minnewasta Golf Course, 32 Moncure, Dave, 59 Morrison, Van, 24 Morrow, Wayne, 70 Muir Woods, 24 Multifamily Resource Center, 85 N Nano Capsule, 82 NASA, 80 National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) South Table Mountain Campus, 55 Navigant Research, 64 Nichols, Mary, 89 North American Environmental Product Declaration, 39 NSF/ANSI 61, 29 NSF/ANSI Standard 53, 28 O Olschewski, Bill, 32 Onion Flats, 77 Orbital Systems, 80 P Passive House Institute US (PHIUS), 85 Passive House, 77 Passive Projects Competition, 14 Pemko, 57 Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, 77 Perkins + Will, 30, 42 PHIUS + 2015 Passive Building Standard, 85 Powerbond Cushion, 50 President Obama, 13 President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, 89 Product Lens Program, 38 Product Lens Report, 38 PROSOCO, Inc., 76
R R-Guard, 76 R.W. Kern Center, 77 Real Time Water Data App and Portal, 82 Red List, 76 REHAU, 32 Rifkin, Jeremy, 49 Rossolo, Mark, 42 Routman, Rochelle, 14 S Salb, Phil, 31 Santiago Calatrava, 54 Sargent, 55 Second World War, 21 Securitron, 54 Shelter Dynamics, 14 Sherwin-Williams, 38 Shower of the Future, 80 Sirochman, J. Michael, 64 SmithGroupJJR, 42, 55 Solar Power International, 21 Sonoran Desert, 16 Space Certified Technology, 80 Spath, Dave, 30 Spellbound Construction, 26 SPI, 21 Stanford Hotels Corporation, 66 Starfield Controls, 71 Starfield Lighting Automation, 70 Sturgeon, Amanda, 76 Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, 59 Sutley, Nancy 13 T Tandus Centiva, 46 Tarkett, 45 TD Centre, 18 The Arc House, 14 The California Carpet Stewardship Bill, 50 The Motown Movement, 14 The Power Broker, 89 The Water Energy Nexus, 89 Thermal Fused Flush, 57 Thermiser Max Insulated Rolling Doors, 30 Title-24, 67 Trio-E, 57 U U.S. Green Building Council, 21, 45 UL Environment, 38 US Green Building Council, 39 USGBC, 50, 76 V Vigneux, Amy, 59 Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), 50 W Walmart, 73 Watson, John, 29 Weaver, Daniel, 25 WELL, 19 Wendell Burnette Architects, 16 White House Council on Environmental Quality, 13 White House, 21 Wiens, Henry, 33 Y Yudelson, Jerry, 14
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