gb&d Issue 35: September/October 2015

Automation Domination: Lutron and Delta Controls improve building performance and conserve ample energy

In Conversation with Mary Ann Lazarus, former director of Sustainable Design at HOK and AIA Resident Fellow

How Valspar, Covestro & Huber Engineered Woods are looking beyond net-zero

UP FRONT

Better you hear it from us

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OCTOBER 26-29 SAN JOSE VERGE explores the technologies and systems that are accelerating sustainability solutions across sectors in a climate-constrained world. The transformative, actionable exchanges taking place at VERGE are framed by seven program tracks: Next-Gen Buildings, Grid 2.0, Smart Cities, Connected Transportation, Intelligent Supply Chains, Food & Ag Tech and Sustainable Water Systems.

Learn more at www.greenbiz.com/verge

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NEXT-GEN GRID 2.0 september–october 2015 BUILDINGS

CONNECTED TRANSPORTATION

FOOD & AG TECH

SUSTAINABLE WATER SYSTEMS

INTELLIGENT gbdmagazine.com SUPPLY CHAINS

SMART CITIES

GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN

In This Issue September+October 2015 Volume 6, Issue 35

92 26

Typology: Passive Houses

PHOTO: DOUG SCOTT

Check out three projects paving the way toward positive energy

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The global paint and coatings giant’s energyefficient solutions

Bayer MaterialScience re-launches and places people and planet at the top of its innovation agenda

Roadmap to Positive Energy: Valspar

Roadmap to Positive Energy: Covestro

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Roadmap to Positive Energy: Huber Engineered Woods LLC

Making sustainable, high-performance buildings more achievable and cost-effective

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Special Section: Building Automation

How Lutron is fostering a culture of innovation and meeting our changing 21st Century needs

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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN

Table of Contents September+October 2015 Volume 6, Issue 35

Up Front

Spaces

Special Section: Building Automation

Punch List

12 In Conversation Mary Ann Lazarus

76

A Sundrenched Oasis Amid an Asphalt Desert Featuring The Gores

104 The Post-Occupancy

116 Company Profile Kohl’s

15 Editor’s Picks For Positive Energy

16 Product Spotlight Elkay’s ezH2O Bottle

Filling Stations

80 Where Past and Present Reside A residence that

22 Notebook Sustainable Cities Index

84 Child’s Play An urban daycare draws

Group HQ

20 Green Space Facebook West Campus

23 Defined Design Hutton Hotel

Problem Delta Controls and

blends the elements of architecture, nature, and home

CopperTree Analytics seek to improve building performance over time, reversing the energy drain of existing buildings

120 Sustainable Solution MacroAir’s AirVolution-D

124 Material World Unilock Eco-Optilock

127 On the Spot Mary Ann Lazarus

inspiration from the natural world

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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF COVESTRO, LLC (LEFT); COLIN MILLER (RIGHT)

24 Event Preview PHIUS Conference

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“There is a productive tension between tradition and innovation. And that threshold is one we are always trying to navigate.” 82 gb&d

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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN

Editor’s Note Chris Howe

If you’re like me (which, considering you’re holding this magazine, I presume you are), you tend to keep an ear to the ground for the latest developments in sustainability and built environment news. And, in doing so, you have then observed that the past several years have seen an unmistakable surge in outlets aligned with focusing specifically on such topics (putting Green Building & Design in the good company of a variety of like- minded media compatriots). This has led not only to calls of action, but to proactive innovations armed with specific delineations of how precisely to act in order to better our planet and future via the power of design. It is demonstrated in this issue that a groundswell of major companies are working not only toward net-zero but paving a “roadmap” of positive energy that links cities across the planet to a common cause. For more, check out our massive feature well, starting on p.

38, which features case studies, executive profiles, and the business case for sustainability from the likes of Valspar, Covestro, and Huber Engineered Woods LLC. Most of the additional projects you’ll learn about in this issue also comply with the requirements of programs such as the now ubiquitous LEED accreditation system and the 2030 Challenge. With many of these projects, however, that’s merely the tip of the iceberg. Take for example, the Passive House methodology—one of the central themes of this issue. Our Typology section (p. 26-35) features three architectural luminaries adopting Passive House efficiently and affordably in constructing spaces simply for modest residential living. In our own bustling backyard Chicago, we see a variety of examples of eco-focused mobilization at the local level continuing to crop up. By employing initiatives like Retrofit Chicago, for instance—and making ambitious strides toward bicycle transport accommodations (see p.

22)—Green Building & Design’s homestead is enacting swift measures making a powerful difference. gb&d

In the face of the visible sway of legislative bodies and evident ease in which architecture and design firms have overcome potential regulatory boundaries, I’ve arrived at the realization that among the most important means to staying informed and involved is remaining locked into the public policy aspect of environmentally centered current events, for following the institutionalization of positive energy initiatives is to see real change happening in real time. And change is, after all, our goal.

Sincerely,

Chris Howe, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

ON THE COVER The roadmap to positive energy is an exciting one marked by pushing boundaries in innovation, as well as initiatives such as the adoption of the 2030 Challenge guidelines, building to Passive House Standards, and imploring new building automation technologies.

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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN

Editor’s Note Laura Heidenreich

Being consistently tuned in to the world of green energy and efficiency is a pursuit that is rewarding in a number of ways. For one, it’s satisfying to witness evolution as seemingly banal, but virtuous, chores like raising awareness or sharing information blossom into serious change. Another hugely enlightening benefit to keeping one’s ear to the green ground? The coinciding, up-close spectacle of technology that is advancing at a mind-blowingly rapid rate with uses that are incredibly vital.

An unforeseeable function hardly a decade ago, the proliferation of autonomy in energy reduction technologies has gained considerable traction in the field of eco-conscious design and architecture. For this reason, we carved out a special vacancy in this issue dedicated to exploring the topic in exclusivity.

Here, in our Building Automation special section (p. 93-113), we shed light on both Delta Controls and Lutron, who have built a skyscraping reputation on lifting the task of monitoring consumptive

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components of energy management like lighting, heating, and cooling from the individual and placed it in the hands of digital automation software.

As you will see as you read on, automation has been proven to produce tremendous benefits, from severing your utility bill to fading your consumption footprint to increasing workplace productivity. One could sit and conjure up any number of reasons why breakthroughs like these are of tremendous importance, but most immediately comprehensible is the mere fact that it simplifies our experience.

As Chris Kwong, Delta’s director of engineering says, “Our vision is of occupants going into buildings and buildings serving their needs, whether it’s access of lighting or comfort or security. As an occupant enters a building, the building should know that they entered and enable the things the occupant needs—and it should do that with the least amount of waste possible.”

It’s pretty amazing stuff. Automation technologies are remarkable in that they’ve introduced us to a bizarre parallel dream universe where doing less physically can serve more environmentally.

gb&d

Green Building & Design gbdmagazine.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Christopher Howe chris@gbdmagazine.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Laura Heidenreich laura@gbdmagazine.com MANAGING EDITOR

Amanda Koellner amanda@gbdmagazine.com ART DIRECTOR

Ravi Sathia ravi@gbdmagazine.com MARKETING DIRECTOR

Jenny Maraccini jenny@gbdmagazine.com CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR

Krystle Blume krystle@gbdmagazine.com ACCOUNT MANAGER

Colleen Kelley CONTRIBUTORS

Brian Barth, Russ Klettke, Kris Lenz, Margaret Poe, Emily Torem DESIGN INTERN

Michael Curiel EDITORIAL INTERN

Sincerely,

Vincent Caruso MAIL

Green Building & Design 1765 N. Elston Ave. Suite 202B Chicago, IL 60642

Laura Heidenreich, Associate Publisher

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) or at issuu.com/greenbuildingdesign.

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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN

Up Front Typology Features Spaces Special Section Punch List

gb&d

12 In Conversation

Mary Ann Lazarus

15 Editor’s Picks

For Positive Energy

16 Product Spotlight Elkay’s ezH2O Bottle Filling Stations

20 Green Space

The rooftop at the Facebook West Campus

22 Notebook

ARCADIS’ Sustainable Cities Index

23 Defined Design

Nashville’s Hutton Hotel

24 Event Preview

The 10th Annual PHIUS Conference

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UP FRONT

In Conversation Mary Ann Lazarus

“Let’s be real blunt,” Mary Ann Lazarus, FAIA LEED AP BD+C, declared about halfway through our conversation here, “… ‘Satisfied’ is not the word of the day at all—‘urgent’ would be the word of the day.” The seasoned architect, while eternally inspired by the work of her colleagues, spoke of the fact that there are “never enough people really integrating sustainability into their projects and working toward achieving the 2030 goals.”

Lazarus, however, doesn’t fall into that category. Her career has centered on sustainability since before sustainability was even a recognized term in the field, and she recently wrapped two years as the American Institute of Architects’ resident fellow for sustainability after working for HOK for 30+ years (where she served as one of the founders of the sustainable design initiative). In 2008, she also spearheaded the formation of the firm’s alliance with the Biomimicry Guild to work toward a wider use of nature’s innovations in the planning and designs of the built environment.

Taking a break from her consulting work and gig as an adjunct faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, Lazarus spoke with me about her time at HOK, biomimicry, and the future of building technology. gb&d —Amanda Koellner, managing editor

IN CONVERSATION with Mary Ann Lazarus

PART 1 THE FORMATIVE YEARS gb&d: What was the conversation surrounding sustainability like when you got your start?

Lazarus: When I started at Washington University, my first studio was with a junior faculty member, George Z. Brown, who has gone on to become one of the leading professors in sustainability in the country. We didn’t use that term, but there was a lot of concern surrounding energy and resources in the ‘70s. We studied environmentally friendly design, we built solar collectors, and we designed off-the-grid homes. That’s what I was introduced to in architecture school. It gave me a strong background in the early version of sustainable design. gb&d: And what was the conversation like once you got to HOK?

Mary Ann Lazarus recently wrapped 30+ years at HOK and two years as AIA’s resident fellow for sustainability.

Lazarus: When I started at HOK as a junior architect, there was an undercurrent of people who were working across the firm as a “green team” toward bringing green strategies to our design. You might be familiar with the HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design. The original guidebook was born in the mid ‘90s from a checklist that HOK’s green team developed for internal use. And then people started sharing it around outside of HOK and interest grew, leading to the publication of the Guidebook. There was clearly an interest and a need for some guidance, and we had done all this legwork on our own. gb&d: And how did you become the firm’s director of sustainable design?

PHOTO: COURTESY OF HOK

Lazarus: HOK adopted sustainable design as a core value in the ‘90s as a goal to address in all of our work, which was visionary. The sustainable leader position was created in 2000 or 2001 after the publication of the first Guidebook when leadership recognized that it was a real opportunity The conversation continues on p. 17

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Editor’s Picks Paving the Way To Positive Energy

PHOTO: COURTESY OF SAGEGLASS

Curated by Mary Ann Lazarus, text by Vincent Caruso

GLASS SAGEGLASS

WINDOWS CASCADIA WINDOWS & DOORS

SHADE KAWNEER NORTH AMERICA

INSULATION ECOBATT

SOFTWARE CLOCKWORKS

REFERENCE BUILDINGGREEN

(pictured above) For the quintessential Passive House building, the concept of energy efficiency must literally be embedded in the walls of a project.

Here, The Frost School of Music at the University of Miami is using electronically tintable SageGlass, a product of Saint-Gobain, to offer students a more comfortable and creative environment for music making while also achieving aggressive energy-efficiency goals. sageglass.com

As you’ll discover thumbing through this issue, glazing plays a central role in steering the construction of a building to Passive House standards. For attaining such desirable Passive House window features as triple glazing and ideal thermal performance, Cascadia Windows & Doors is one of Mary Ann Lazarus’s go-to brands. cascadiawindows.com

With the generally large glazing that tends to accompany the application of electrochromic glass, effective shading is often in order. Though integrated exterior shading devices, like the kind Kawneer offers, are sustainable luxuries we’ve long saluted our peers overseas for championing, the good word has spread to the US. kawneer.com

Good quality insulation is one of the chief requirements in reaching the gold standard of Passive House perfection.

Lazarus proclaims EcoBatt by Knauf Insulation to be among her most favored options for insulation that is both effectual in peeling back energy consumption and reliable for meeting all requisite human and environmental health necessities. ecobatt.us

Living in the digital age, it is practically incumbent upon us to utilize the technologies unavailable to generations past for the betterment of executing sustainability practices. Our guest editor endorses the KGS Buildings product Clockworks for useful organizational properties such as benchmarking and reporting. kgsbuildings.com

As far as the internet goes, for building green Lazarus’s go-to is, quite fittingly, BuildingGreen.com.

Lazarus describes the website as containing “the most reliable information about sustainable materials and products, news, and strategies.” buildinggreen.com

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Product Spotlight Elkay’s ezH2O Bottle Filling Stations Elkay redresses the traditional drinking fountain with its ecofriendly filling stations

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ELKAY

By Vincent Caruso and Amanda Koellner

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UP FRONT

IN CONVERSATION with Mary Ann Lazarus Continued from p. 13

and part of the firm’s responsibility. At that point, I was working across the firm to drive sharing of best practices so I was already in a firmwide role, and I asked to move into the leadership role with a focus on sustainability because that was my passion and my background.

PART 2 HAPPY AT HOK

FACING PAGE True to its name, the ezH2O makes water bottle retrieval of humanity’s most vital resource easier than ever before.

The public drinking fountain is a particularly linear and straightforward machine. It’s designed to carry out one specific task and deliver one specific resource. They are practically as ubiquitous as they are necessary, and the notion of expanding upon or modulating their use seems to have never been worth considering—until Elkay noticed a void that needed filling. We spoke with the company’s own Ellen Sajdak, product manager, bottle filling stations, to learn more. gb&d: Public drinking fountains are practically as old as most of the institutions that deploy them. What inspired the development of this product, and why do you think it took so long for the demand to build for such a seemingly obvious convenience?

Sajdak: Drinking fountains are required by plumbing code in all commercial and public buildings with few exceptions. And in areas where drinking fountains are required, they must have two heights to meet both the adult and child heights to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Elkay began production of Pressure Coolers back in 1969 and has grown by introducing new styles and designs of the simple drinking fountain since then.

As it relates to the bottle filling stations, the team began working on that concept in 2008 and it was launched in the market in 2010. The team saw the concept as a possibility after watching people interact with our products and a need that was missing in the market place. Bottle Filling Stations provide an easier and more convenient way to interact with a drinking fountain when trying to fill a bottle or container. gb&d: At first, it might seem to some that filling up bottles of water rather gb&d

than just snatching a sip in passing would demand more electricity and more water consumption. What are the specific ways in which the Elkay ezH2O is a net gain for sustainability?

Sajdak: Actually, sipping water from the bubbler on a drinking fountain allows for the water to run down the drain as well as going into your mouth. By using a bottle filling station, the laminar flow on our units allows for the water to go directly into your bottle, thereby capturing all the water that is being dispensed. With regards to the electricity and energy usage by the units, it’s fairly minimal compared to other items in the facility. Our testing shows that running a cooler and bottle filler, on average, uses $44 annually. The bottle filling stations allow for reusable bottles to be filled quickly and easily, allowing the end user to avoid purchasing a disposable plastic bottle. Our new platform of bottle filling stations has an option to power down the refrigeration on the units while continuing to dispense water. This allows for facilities to power down the chilling option on the units on the weekends or times when the building is not being used to save even more energy with the units. gb&d: College students and faculty members are among the most conscious and proactive when it comes to protecting the environment. Have you noticed an extraordinary receptiveness from college campuses in terms of the ezH2O? Where else has the product seen an enthusiastic welcome? Has it run into difficulty or skepticism from a particular industry?

Sajdak: Regarding receptiveness from college campuses, yes, we have seen a tremendous acceptance from that community. They have been some of the early adopters and in addition, those end users also have a great willingness to provide us feedback on the units. We have also seen a wide acceptance from a variety of other industries – airports, corporate campuses,

gb&d: Looking back at your time at HOK, what are some of your proudest accomplishments?

Lazarus: Oh, so many! We were the first firm to have 100 LEED certified projects.

We really promoted LEED accreditation, and lots of people at HOK were very early in becoming LEED accredited professionals. It is required of anybody in the design field. And a lot of the designers were exposed to sustainable ideas and values and learned how their daily work can have an important impact. I feel that that was one of the strongest influences I had.

“I was already in a leadership role, though I volunteered to move into this leadership role with a focus on sustainability because that was my passion and my background. ” We also did a lot of breakthrough thinking with Biomimicry 3.8. I’m really proud of the relationship we established with them; we announced a unique alliance in 2008 to explore how we can use the lessons learned from nature in solving the critical problems of our age and coming up with different ways of building and designing that can be much more consistent with the way natural systems work—really looking to nature for inspiration. So that led to some really interesting work at the building scale, and at the planning scale. Solutions for new towns and cities used natural systems as a source of inspiration, for both design ideas and how to measure and set goals around nature. gb&d: Do you feel that enough firms or built environment professionals are looking to biomimicry and incorporating it as much as they should?

Lazarus: Let’s be real blunt. There’s never The conversation continues on p. 20

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Cloud based.

Our latest and greatest bottle filling stations* save more time, more energy and more footsteps with an optional central operating system. More details on the next page and at elkay.com/ezH2O. 18 september–october 2015 gbdmagazine.com

PHOTOS:

* Versus previous ezH2O models. Š2015 Elkay Manufacturing Company

Earth friendly.

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Sends system diagnostics wirelessly right to your computer via our new interface* Uses electronic sensors for filter status communication, change notification and auto reset Can operate from a central location to set temperature and on/off times* Power down refrigeration system to save energy Optional video displays for customized messaging outdoor parks & stadiums just to name a few! Some facilities have been hesitant to provide bottle filling stations to consumers because they were concerned about disrupting sales of bottled water but we have heard feedback to the contrary on that issue. Some sites have actually seen an increase in their bottled water sales after the installation of the bottle filling stations.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ELKAY

gb&d: We were reading about your New Mexico State University case study, wherein the campus encouraged students to fill their own bottles, which truly became a success after students rallied for the ezH2O. Prior to that, frustrations with using conventional fountains to fill water bottles predominately concerned ergonomic discomfort.

How important of factors do you think ergonomics, convenience, and comfort are when trying to steer the public down a sustainable path?

Sajdak: I would say that there are additional issues that stemmed from using conventional fountains to fill a water bottle; spilling water on the floor and all over the user is a frustrating thing to the user, in terms of wasting water and the mess created. Certainly a bottle filling station allows for easier use and filling of a bottle versus a standard bubbler on a

Order at elkay.com/ezH2O

Meet Ellen Sajdak, Elkay products manager. By instituting bottle filling stations, a new dimension is added to interaction with drinking fountains.

drinking fountain. Elkay does everything we can to make a sustainable product just as convenient and easy to install, easy to use, easy to interact with as a more traditional stand-alone drinking fountain type product. gb&d: It’s significant that an aheadof-the-curve enterprise like Elkay is an American-owned company. We know that a handful of European countries share a commitment to environmental sustainability. How has the product fared as a global export?

Sajdak: The Bottle Filling Stations have been well received internationally as well as domestically. We have seen many regions and countries understand the value the units can add to a public facility as well as the end consumer. The units have been installed in a number of highly visible locations domestically, including Harvard University and O’Hare International Airport. Internationally, even beyond Europe, we have units installed at the Hong Kong International Airport and the National Stadium Bird’s Nest in China, as well as the Centennial Park in Australia. gb&d

©2015 Elkay Manufacturing Company * Optional feature

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september–october 2015 INFORMATION

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IN CONVERSATION with Mary Ann Lazarus Continued from p. 17

enough people really integrating sustainability into their projects and achieving at the 2030 goals, which is really critical.

That’s not to say that people aren’t doing great things; they are, and I’m really excited about that. But “satisfied” is not the word of the day at all—“urgent” would be the word of the day. Biomimicry is still very underutilized. It’s hard to understand how to draw inspiration and apply it in a way that actually functions, but the ideas that have been tested have proven to be valid, and there should be a lot more of that going on than there has been.

Green Space The Rooftop at Facebook West Campus The tech company redefines the boundaries of rooftop gardens

By Kristofer Lenz

PART 3 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE gb&d: You just wrapped two years as AIA’s resident fellow for sustainability and design for health. How was that experience, and how did it come to be?

gb&d: And what has come out of these two years?

Lazarus: In the first six months of that assignment, I worked with an advisory group to come up with a set of recommendations for the board of directors around direction for AIA in sustainability. It was enormous fun to have the opportunity to really research and talk to leading thinkers in different professions. I interviewed the last 12 AIA firms of the year on their future priorities and client needs . Out of that, we produced a report and recommendations that went to the board in 2013 called the Sustainability Leadership Opportunity Scam (SLOS). Out of all that research, discussion, synthesis, The conversation continues on p. 23

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When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg decided to expand the company’s presence in Menlo Park, California, he knew he’d have to make a statement. All eyes are already trained on the social media giant and any move, especially one as dramatic as building a massive new campus, would be subject to searching criticism from the worlds of business, technology, and design. For a grand space, Zuckerberg and his people needed an architect whose international renown would be even grander.

Known for bold, utterly distinctive structures, like the Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao, Spain) or closer to Facebook’s home, The Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles, USA), Canadian-born architect Frank Gehry is perhaps the most famous in the world. Upon hearing of Facebook’s intent to build a new space, Gehry reportedly reached out to the company with a proposal. According to a statement from Zuckerberg, Gehry was initially rejected, thinking he would “be very expensive and that would send the wrong signal about our culture.”

Ultimately, Gehry Partners LLP won the bidding process and when Zuckerberg visited Gehry’s Los Angeles studio he was utterly charmed by the open, warehouse-like workspace. Despite the decades separating Gehry and Zuckerberg, the two titans of their industries enjoyed respective bonhomie over the benefits of simple, functional design. Before long Gehry and his team were at work designing a massive new work space for 2,800 Facebook employees.

THIS SPREAD Confident that American Hydrotech’s proprietary waterproofing system kept the building watertight, Gehry’s studio and CMG Landscape Architecture had nearly free rein to shape the rooftop landscape as they pleased.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF AMERICAN HYDROTECH

Lazarus: It was a tremendous experience for me. I brought 30+ years at a global design firm and all building types, all scales, working behind the scenes with project leaders. But it didn’t matter what your discipline was, it was about integrated design solutions. But with AIA, it was like turning the matrix the other way. I was looking specifically at architects and wondering, “What’s the architect’s role?” and “How do we take advantage of that specific skill set for these greater goals?”

The AIA resident fellow opportunity came through some volunteer work I had been doing with AIA National. They came to me and asked if I could help in prioritizing sustainability strategies as part of the AIA’s Repositioning initiative..

I feel it was a great experience—I hope for AIA, it certainly has been for me.

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UP FRONT

When the Facebook West Campus (“MPK20”) opened this spring, the building’s low-slung profile shocked many with its raw aesthetic and open floorplan intended to reflect and enable Facebook’s origin as a haven for hackers and progressive engineering. As Zuckerberg wrote to introduce the space: “(it is) a single room that fits thousands of people. There are lots of small spaces where people can work together, and it’s easy for people to move around and collaborate with anyone here … The building itself is pretty simple and isn’t fancy. That’s on purpose. We want our space to feel like a work in progress.”

From a distance, the building unassumingly blends into the landscape, but on closer examination, that relationship to the natural environment is as bold and innovative as one would expect from a Zuckerberg/Gehry collaboration.

Atop MPK20 is perhaps the largest rooftop garden ever conceived. Designed in collaboration with CMG Landscape Architecture, the “garden” takes inspiration not from the intimate oases dotting the modern cityscape, but instead from the massive “rails to trails” urban park projects like the High Line in New York, or Chicago’s 606.

Unfolding across nine acres of space, the rooftop garden is home to more than 400 trees, a half-mile long walking track, various work and gathering spaces, and a coffee bar.

There is even a sloped grandstand for concerts and other large events. All selected vegetation is appropriate for the California climate and is expected to serve as a sanctuary for local and migratory birds. The word “garden” feels insufficient to capture the grandeur. Facebook has constructed a “rooftop habitat.”

The benefits the space provides extend far beyond the well-being of Facebook’s employees, who are encouraged to hold meetings and other work events in the green space.

The diverse landscape also provides many environmental and cost-saving advantages, including added insulation and heat absorption that reduces the urban heat island effect. Additionally, the green roof will assist in water management, saving and re-using rainwater in drought-plagued California while also lessening the building’s impact on the local stormwater system. With the green roof working in concert with the building’s sophisticated energy systems and the use of sustainable building materials, MPK20 receiving LEED Gold Certification from the US Green Building Council.

With such ambitious plans come certain risks. One gb&d

of the biggest dangers was that even a small leak in the rooftop garden’s base could have a catastrophic effect on the building. That’s why the architectural and engineering teams brought in Chicago-based American Hydrotech to provide materials and act as a strategic resource.

Confident that American Hydrotech’s proprietary waterproofing system kept the building watertight, Gehry’s studio and CMG Landscape Architecture had nearly free rein to shape the rooftop landscape as they pleased. According to Rick Kile of American Hydrotech, the scope of the rooftop garden is an innovation in itself: “To see a large lawn, walking paths, paver patio areas, large trees, sloped plantings in a park is one thing; to see it realized at 40 feet in the air on top of a Frank Gehry building is another.”

The rooftop garden is more than a playground for Facebook employees; it is a feature that actively improves the lives of the community as a whole. With MPK20, Facebook has made a global statement about the company’s values and vision for the future. Kile adds, “We are seeing a new generation of companies place a priority on quality of work life. Sustainability is and will continue to be extremely important as we move forward as a society, and businesses with a green roof are not only able to reap the technical benefits, but are making an outwardly statement to their community and beyond that they are committed to sustainability.” gb&d september–october 2015

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UP FRONT

Notebook 2015 Sustainable Cities Index

by ARCADIS A look at the requisite traits cities must adopt to paint the town green and compete with sustainable urban contenders

By Vincent Caruso

ARCADIS is a leading global natural and built asset design and consultancy firm that built its reputation primarily on environmental engineering. On a recent venture, the firm exercised its singularly cultivated expertise concerning eco-friendly urban cityscapes to produce the 2015 Sustainability City Index. Essentially, by calculating a combination of variables shared between the three key brackets of social, environmental, and economic factors, ARCADIS generated a landmark list highlighting the 50 most exemplarily sustainable cities in the world. Here’s a peek at number one, as well as gb&d’s home base of Chicago, which slid in at number 19.

THE TOP 10 1. Frankfurt 2. London 3. Copenhagen 4. Amsterdam 5. Rotterdam 6. Berlin 7. Seoul 8. Hong Kong 9. Madrid 10. Singapore

FRANKFURT This historic metropolis has long displayed a variety of eco-conscious practices that many western cities are just finally warming to. Foremost among Frankfurt’s sustainable merits is its ultra-dense transit system; though it’s widely known that the population of Frankfurt is in a perpetual state of boom, it combats this surplus by boasting 3 kilometers of transport infrastructure per square kilometer.

To boot, Frankfurt also ranks among the greenest cities in the sense that it is among the most rich in trees.

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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ARCADIS

CHICAGO The Windy City has been on the environmental upswing in recent years with credit due to ambitious policy goals and diplomatic cooperation between the city, the business sector, and citizens alike.

Chicagoans can attest to the fact that the city is overwhelmingly bicycle-friendly, but a fact lesser known is that it is also home to the highest number of LEED-certified buildings of any metropolis in the world.

Additionally noteworthy is the Retrofit Chicago initiative, a program designed to retrofit both public and commercial buildings with energy efficient upgrades. gb&d gbdmagazine.com

UP FRONT

Defined Design Hutton Hotel

by Vincent Caruso and Amanda Koellner

Continued from p. 20

and strategy sessions, we came up with the primary focuses for AIA. gb&d: Are you now focusing on consulting and teaching?

Lazarus: That’s primarily it. I’m focusing on a couple of areas I’m particularly passionate about. I’m blessed by the fact that I’ve had this amazing career at HOK, and recently with AIA. I’m teaching at Washington University as an adjunct faculty. I’m working in an area called “Healthy Urban Ecosystems” with a few colleagues. It explores the intersection between human and natural systems and how at the urban/suburban scale those relationships can bring mutual value.

It’s trying to understand where humans can help benefit natural systems and fully understand how natural systems benefit humans. The exciting thing about this effort is it is architects working with scientists. So it’s forcing rigor and science into design thinking. It’s led to several courses that we’re going to continue this school year.

Also, I’ve been consulting and doing some other work focusing on resilient design.

Just around the corner from Nashville’s famous music row sits the Hutton Hotel, an upscale lodging for the eco-conscious traveler, complete with electric car charging stations and a state-of-the-art temperature control system that preconditions air so as to set the temperature in a way that simultaneously maximizes comfort and efficiency. With renewable flooring and a heat absorption roofing system overhead, your stay will be marked by sustainable amenities whether you’re aware of them or not. gb&d Curtail cur·tail \(ˌ)kər-ˈtāl\ (verb) To reduce or limit.The Hutton throws the plastic out with the bathwater by offering dispensed soaps, shampoos, and conditioners in place of wasteful individualized squeeze containers. Moreover, the hotel employs a water system that includes a water reclamation plant to further narrow the potentiality of waste, even in the areas you can’t see or reach.

gb&d: How do you feel about the 2030 challenge in terms of the weight that it holds? How successful do you think it will be?

At the Hutton Hotel, human comfort and environmental responsibility are harmonious bedfellows.

Automation au·to·ma·tion \ˌȯ-tə-ˈmā-shən\ (noun) The technique of making an apparatus, a process, or a system operated automatically. When you’re busy enjoying your vacation and letting all your troubles drift away, it can be hard to remain practical-minded. That’s why, in the case of the Hutton Hotel, your suite makes the eco-conscious decisions for you.

Hotel rooms at the Hutton come equipped with card readers that disable room lighting when it detects you’ve left, and identical mechanical LED lighting systems are installed throughout hotel premises to reduce consumption in a similar fashion.

IN CONVERSATION with Mary Ann Lazarus

Request re·quest \ri-ˈkwest\ (verb) An act of politely or formally asking for something. As we’ve documented, the Hutton Hotel’s commitment to the most rigorous of environmental practices is evident throughout the very fabric of the building. You too, however, are also in control.

Their towel and linen reuse program means that such items are only collected and washed at your behest. Newspaper distribution is also allocated on-request so as to further minimize waste.

Lazarus: The AIA 2030 commitment is an initiative to bring tools and resources to the architectural profession to help them implement the 2030 goals of emissions reduction in the design of new buildings.

The commitment has been very powerful in raising awareness in those firms that have signed on. The overall energy index number in the US has gone down in the past decade even though building stock has gone up, so the results in the US are really positive.

Being part of the AIA 2030 Commitment has been enormously beneficial to HOK. It really has forced the firm to rethink its process, identify targets at the beginning of the process, and include early and iterative energy modeling throughout the design.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF HUTTON HOTEL

gb&d: Do you have any predictions about what the next big thing in building automation will be?

Lazarus: I am part of something called the Buildings of the Future initiative being led by the Department of Energy looking at what the key attributes should be for buildings 100 years from now. As a result, I’ve The conversation continues on p. 127

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UP FRONT

UP FRONT

eco-friendly

sustainable

Event Preview

10th Annual North American Passive House Conference

E: ryan@rjstegorainc.com T: 612-889-8277 F: 612-605-1970 RJ STEGORA INC. 4960 120th Street West Apple Valley, MN 55124

(631)367-8626 ajmarchitect.com greenengineeringprojects@gmail.com

(516)318-9768

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To the engaged and eco-curious public, there’s a slight DETAILS misconception about Passive What 10th Annual North American Passive House House’s relative standing as a Conference tried-and-true building stanWhen September 9-13 dard in North America and othWhere Chicago erwise non-European stomping Web naphc2015.phius.org grounds. First, it is understood among the Passive House cognoscenti that, while Europe surely pioneered the methodology at its vanguard, Passive sessions will cover “technical House principles were being aspects of design and construcchampioned, and polished, in tion,” such as software modelthe United States and Canada ing and ventilation strategies. as early as the 1970s. Moreover, On the material and techthe annual North American nological end, the sessions will Passive House Conference is be transparent and interactive. convening this year on what “We always have a robust exhibwill be its decade-long mark. it hall where leading providers Such longevity is a testa- of high-performance building ment to the conference’s suc- components show off their tercess and thus also the architec- rific products,” says Knezovich. tural authority of Passive House This runs the gambit of the as an ideal building standard. home constitution, including One reason why Passive House “windows, doors, mechanical is uniquely efficient, says Mike systems, air sealing systems,” Knezovich, is its compatibility, and beyond. On the educational rather than competition, with end, the breakout sessions will other certification systems. be formal and didactic, “with Knezovich, director of market- an emphasis this year on the ing and outreach at Passive fast growing multifamily secHouse Institute United States, tor” with case studies illustratexplains that Passive Design ing the specifics of the design can serve as the foundation for process. The conference will “Net Zero, Living Building Chal- take place at the Hyatt Regenlenge, and LEED,” among oth- cy Chicago, snug in its lively ers. And, “through case studies downtown district, though Pasand panel discussions,” these sive House’s guiding fundamenideas will be elucidated and tals are universal. Knezovich’s explored throughout the two- bottom line: “Passive House day core sessions of the confer- make sense. Right now. In every ence, while the pre-conference climate.”gb&d gbdmagazine.com

PHOTO: ROB HAWTHORNE, CPHC®

By Vincent Caruso

GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN

Up Front Typology Features Spaces Special Section Punch List

gb&d

PASSIVE HOUSES

28 A Home Close To Home

Seeking an upgrade in comfort and efficiency, a Minneapolis family scoots over one address to start fresh

30 Taken by Storm

One home destroyed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy sees reincarnation in the form of a Passive House

32 Reduce, Reuse, Rehau

The polymer solutions company uses the right window to guide the country’s largest passive building toward affordable sustainability

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TYPOLOGY PASSIVE HOUSE

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PHOTO: REACH/ANKROM MOISAN ARCHITECTS

In recent years, the field of sustainable architecture in North America has rendered the Passive House methodology its favorite European import. Emanating from Sweden and Germany, the Passive House building standard is something of a composite approach to designing green. While it has conceived regulations of its own, it also incorporates working principles of other reliable systems. This has, in turn, positioned it as a compliment to other green building designation programs, and it’s won the hearts of architects and homeowners for imbuing comfort and affordability with equal significance as energy performance. In this section we share some of the most exemplary contenders in the Passive arena.

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TYPOLOGY

The Passive House model places equal value on comfort and affordability as it does energy performance.

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Seeking an upgrade in terms of comfort and efficiency, a Minneapolis family scoots over one address to start fresh

By Vincent Caruso

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the market value of their existing home, it was more advantageous to build new than to retrofit,” explains Tim Eian, founder of architectural firm TE Studio. Eian also was a founding board member of the Passive House Alliance, US, an area of rare expertise in North America, that the couple grew interested in harnessing. “I think they just liked the quality and comfort aspect of it, and they also want to tread lightly in terms of environmental footprint,” Eian surmises, all qualities of which TE Studio is preeminent in begetting.

The standards and prerequisites touted

by Passive House aren’t as widely known, though they’re well defined—insulation and building envelope being among the primary focuses. “The basic gist of it is that there’s an air tightness standard that we have to meet and a heating, as well as a total, overall energy consumption limit per square foot of house,” outlines Ryan

THIS SPREAD The Nordeast Nest treads heavy on comfort while treading lightly on its carbon footprint.

Stegora, proprietor of RJ Stegora, Inc. and construction contractor on the Nordeast Nest. Also pertinent to Passive House certification is solar heat gain, an obstacle given the unnavigable shading drawn from the neighboring home. Solar hindrances notwithstanding, however, the Nordeast Nest is an exemplary Passive House prizewinner, performing in the top percentile of energy efficiency.

Among the more recent accolades that the project has attracted, the home has earned a “5-Star Plus” energy rating score.

And, in addition, it has been noted that, in terms of comfort and energy consumption, the Nordeast Nest “outperforms the gbdmagazine.com

PHOTOS: COREY GAFFER

For over a decade, Julie and Tarek Alkatout have resided comfortably in the “Nordeast” community of Minneapolis, Minnesota. While seeking to remodel and retrofit their abode to better accommodate their family of five, the benefits of “amazing neighbors, houses with character, mature trees, unique restaurants,” as well as convenient proximity to both Minneapolis’ and St. Paul’s bustling downtown districts, gave the family little reason to leave. Initially considering the possibility of a retrofit venture, a different opportunity befell the Nordeast Nest in an unlikely place—the house next door.

Though dilapidated beyond repair and resting uninhabited for an untold number of years, the prospect of exploiting the adjacent home seemed increasingly attractive to the Alkatouts after calculating their options. “Looking at the residual value of that structure, the cost of the retrofit, and

previous home by a huge margin.” Much of this enhancement can be attributed to the strict insulation and rigid air tightness, as is characteristic of Passive House efforts, however Eian and Stegora agree that the windows are the home’s most powerfully alluring feature. Imported from Germany, the windows are triple-pane tilt-and-turn units with insulated frames. “It’s hard to describe in words how much better they look and feel, and how comfort is increased through a unit like that,” Eian boasts. The high-gain windows are but one factor in the success of Eian and Stegora’s collaborative pursuits. “Following details with diligence and quality control throughout the entire project were the biggest factors,” says Stegora. “We’re both very dedicated to putting together an extremely well built home. Both of us have a passion for what we do and that shows in our work.” gb&d gb&d

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TYPOLOGY PASSIVE HOUSE

One home destroyed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy sees reincarnation in the form of a certified Passive House

By Vincent Caruso

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THIS PAGE Building from scratch, Musso and Shah-Giannaris adhered to the Passive House methodology to replace a home taken by the grip of Hurricane Sandy.

discuss the clients’ basic family needs, the initial design of the Bergman Passive House was produced in the form of a hand sketch drawn out meticulously by Musso on an airplane. This primordial draft laid the foundation for an intricate network of stringently eco-conscious mechanizations, as well as the capacity to expertly leap through ancillary Passive House regulatory hurdles. But these hurdles were anything but insurmountable. Such leaps proved simply to be a matter of “doing the right detailing and choosing the right materials, talking to PHIUS (Passive House Institute US) in terms of what we can do and what we can’t do,” Musso says. The team’s initial

PHOTO & RENDERING: AJM ARCHITECT

In 2012, our nation was made a disquieting acquaintance with a formidable category 3 storm that would scar the public’s psyche and upend the lives of Americans across 24 states. Among the upwards of 15,000 people who lost their homes in the wake of Hurricane Sandy were clients of Passive House consultant Nina Shah-Giannaris and architect and Passive House consultant Anthony J. Musso—clients who had lost their home to the seize of a fire. Musso’s involvement with the project came at the bidding of Shah-Giannaris, Green Engineering Projects president and owner, who knows the clients personally and was first approached by them with interest in rebuilding as a decidedly energy efficient and sustainable home. It was then that Shah-Giannaris upped the ante and suggested pursuing the Passive House standard, to which the clients responded with eager approval.

Following the inaugural meeting to

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TYPOLOGY

ABOVE The Bergman Passive House basks in its surroundings, enjoying a south view of the channels that lead to the Great South Bay.

plan, for instance—to seal the elevated floor with watertight membrane—was thwarted in favor of an open vapor system to drain in total the moisture from the floor system, thereby producing optimal insulation and vapor seal.

The virtue of team cooperation is one that Musso and Shah-Giannaris are quick to credit with the success of the passive house project, and its merits are demonstrated in far more than just a well-insulated floor.

“Also,” adds Musso, “when we were looking at domestic hot water, we were initially going to go with a tankless electric heater,” a popular and reliable enough system, but one that was shyly short of complying with Passive House requirements. The stonewall led the two to commit instead to an electric heat pump system, which is about three times more efficient than the tankless electric heater.

Getting as much out of natural resources was also a priority. “Everything is climate gb&d

dependent,” philosophizes Shah-Giannaris, this aphorism too serving as a useful general work credo. Musso, illustrating the fruits of this motto, recounts, “we had a very good south exposure, so we were able to position the house to get the optimum solar gain.” Geography also played a central role to the clients early on, expressing a desire to capture as much of their immediate environment as possible. “They are one block from the channels that lead to the Great South Bay,” Musso highlights, and the clients were rightfully interested in enjoying a south view of the water. By adding roof balconies accessible from the master bedroom, the team was able to afford their clients just that. It’s a high degree of luxury, and one that can only be achieved by way of a high degree of efficiency—so much so that the home was projected to exceed code standards by 80%.

By project completion, the Bergman Passive House exceeded code by a monumental 91% achieving a HERS score of 9. gb&d september–october 2015

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TYPOLOGY PASSIVE HOUSE

The polymer solutions company uses the right window to guide the country’s largest passive building toward affordable sustainability

By Emily Torem

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PHOTOS: REACH/ANKROM MOISAN ARCHITECTS

TYPOLOGY

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TYPOLOGY PASSIVE HOUSE

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THIS PAGE Orchards at Orenco’s GENEO thermoplus window provides the strength of fiberglass and the flexibility of uPVC.

of defense against overuse of HVAC systems as external temperatures fluctuate. With that in mind, Gilbert met with Dylan Lamar of Green Hammer, a Portland-based design/build company that specializes in Passive House, to help inform the decisionmaking process on windows and doors.

Ankrom Moisan Architects, who spearheaded the project, didn’t want all fiberglass, because it lacked the ability to be welded at all corners of the sash and frame necessary to provide true longevity for tenants as alternating colder and warmer spells caused building components to naturally expand and contract. The perfect solution was found when Gilbert proposed the GENEO window, which provided the time-tested strength of fiberglass combined with the weather-fighting flexibility of uPVC, which has the benefit of the fully fusion-welded corners on sashes & frames as opposed to mechanically joined corners in pure fiberglass windows (which creates leakage over time).

GENEO features a tilt-turn design, which Gilbert says was difficult to find in

PHOTOS: REACH/ANKROM MOISAN ARCHITECTS

When designing the windows for Portland’s Orchards at Orenco, the country’s largest Passive House multifamily complex, Ray Gilbert, account manager at window and door solutions providers REHAU (along with the company’s fabrication partner, EuroLine Windows) knew he needed something extraordinarily efficient. REACH, the affordable housing non-profit behind this ambitious project, wanted the Orchards to fill the gap in the city’s growing market for affordable housing. A simultaneous goal was to demonstrate that sustainable designs don’t have to be priced prohibitively; rather, energy-saving measures can work in tandem to create affordable living for tenants long-term—not just when they sign their lease.

Gilbert sought a material that would provide superior insulation against both heat and cold. “The typical North American window, a double hung horizontal slider, loses air at a rate of .15-.30 cubic feet per minute,” Gilbert says—a recipe for skyrocketing utility bills. The Orchards also sit adjacent to a Light Rail Line, frequented daily by locals in Suburban Portland, so sound insulation was essential, too.

“Passive House is very concerned about air leakage,” Gilbert adds. Keeping the building’s envelope well insulated and sealed against that leakage is the best line

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TYPOLOGY

North America, but luckily was provided

by REHAU fabricator EuroLine Windows in nearby British Columbia—less than 350 miles away from the Orchards project. Tiltturn, a common window variety in Europe, allows for a full 360-degree seal around the perimeter of the window, preventing ambient air from escaping and requiring HVAC systems to work overtime to keep homes at a comfortable temperature. GENEO can also be triple or quadruple glazed, trapping columns of air between panes to provide extra warmth in the winter and preventing extra heat from entering the interior in the summer.

The placement of GENEO further helped in passively heating and cooling the units at the Orchards. Their placement on Southern-facing facades helps them accumulate heat from the sun during the winter, while overhangs and balconies help provide shade in the summer to protect buildings from excessive direct sun.

As for the noise factor, Gilbert explains why GENEO was able to achieve a massive 43-decibel reduction. “GENEO has multiple locking points around the window, [allowing] it to seal 360 degrees around the frame,” he says.

GENEO tilt-turn windows helped the Orchards at Orenco not only adhere to, but exceed the requirements for US Passive House, enabling seamless savings for lower

income tenants. “With Passive House, you can achieve up to a 90% reduction in energy bills versus conventional construction,” Gilbert says, citing a case study conducted on Orchards. The Orchards at Orenco is a supporting example of the concept that environmental sustainability goes hand in hand with financial sustainability across a variety of income levels. gb&d

ABOVE Screens at The Orchards at Orenco show the complex’s monthly building energy budget and usage, encouraging tenants to “think green.”

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Visit our website www.coppertreeanalytics.com or call us: 1.855.575.5943.

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september–october 2015

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WHEN IT COMES TO ENERGY EFFICIENCY, THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL. FEATURES ROADMAP TO POSITIVE ENERGY

SHEATHING & TAPE

WITH ZIP SYSTEM® SHEATHING AND TAPE, INSTALLATION EASE MEETS ENERGY EFFICIENCY. Moisture-resistant sheathing panels with a built-in weather barrier are simply taped at the seams for an easy two-step solution that decreases unwanted air leakage into and out of building envelopes. Protect your insulation R-value and reduce heating and cooling costs.1 Specify ZIP System® sheathing and tape. Now green on the outside can reflect green savings on the inside.

Learn more at ZIPSystem.com/energyefficiency

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© 2015 Huber Engineered Woods LLC. 1. Based on a 2-story, 3,200 sq./ft. home on slab foundation with gas heat and central air; and average utility prices. ZIP System, the accompanying ZIP System logo and design are trademarks of Huber Engineered Woods LLC. Huber is a registered trademark of J.M. Huber Corporation. Huber Engineered Woods products may be covered by various patents. See ZIPSystem.com/ patents for details. HUB 8230 REV 7/15 gbdmagazine.com

GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN

Up Front Typology Features Spaces Special Section Punch List

gb&d

THE ROADMAP TO POSITIVE ENERGY

38 Finding Gold in the Details

Chemistry is key as Valspar, the global paint and coatings manufacturer, works out solutions to energy efficiency at a molecular level

50 The R&D Superhighway

Bayer MaterialScience re-launches as Covestro, placing people and planet at the top of its innovation agenda

62 Wood Questions, Curious Answers

How Huber Engineered Woods LLC found smarter ways of making sustainable, high-performance buildings more achievable—and more cost-effective

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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF VALSPAR

FEATURES ROADMAP TO POSITIVE ENERGY

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gbdmagazine.com

FEATURES

FINDING GOLD IN THE DETAILS Chemistry is key as Valspar, the global paint and coatings manufacturer, works out solutions to energy efficiency at a molecular level

By Brian Barth

On a rural road outside of Sacramento, drivers often glide to a halt on the shoulder in an attempt to comprehend the home of Ilhan and Kamer Eser. Like an iridescent reptile basking in the California sun, the skin of the house reflects an earthy rainbow of color that seems to change from one vantage point to another. Sometimes motorists drive back and forth in front of it for several minutes, their heads hanging out the window with jaws dropped to the ground. It may seem like a mirage in the brown and dusty hills, but the effect is the result of Valspar’s mica-based Kameleon coating, which the Eser’s chose for their metal clad home. gb&d

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FEATURES ROADMAP TO POSITIVE ENERGY

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talked about sustainability and net zero—I didn’t believe in those things,” says Eser, a mechanical engineer who has been in the construction trade for 35 years. “But once I moved to California, and became part of Kingspan Group, I evolved and eventually came to the point where I decided to build my own net zero house.”

Eser is the CEO of the Morin Corporation, a manufacturer of roll-formed metal wall and roof panels, which became part of the Kingspan Group in 2008. Kingspan, a global leader in manufacturing insulated roof and wall panels, “is all about sustainability and energy efficiency,” says Eser. “It is a big part of their mandate.” Valspar provides the coatings for nearly every Kingspan product, a long-standing relationship which combines two key players in the building industry that are equally committed to the goal of net positive structures: Valspar’s reflective coatings on Kingspan’s insulated panels is a one-two punch for driving down heating and cooling costs.

“Valspar is like an old friend, so it’s no surprise that I used them for my house,” says

ABOVE Valspar’s mica-based Kameleon coating produced an effect that makes the skin of the house reflect an earthy rainbow of color that seems to change from one vantage point to another.

FACING PAGE The colors brighten and darken with the rising and setting of the sun each day in a fitting ode to a home that is in tune with the natural world.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF VALSPAR

As a result of the mica embedded in it, the Dusty Rose Kameleon coating chosen by the Eser’s changes from green to yellow to silver to bronze to dark brown, depending on the time of the day and the angle from which you’re looking. The colors brighten and darken with the rising and setting of the sun each day in a fitting ode to a home that is deeply in tune with the natural world. Valspar also made the paint that is applied to the home’s metal roof— the Surrey Beige color from their Fluropon line—a 70% PVDF (Polyvinylidene Fluoride) resin-based coating with phenomenal durability properties as well as solar reflectivity, which aids in the home’s energy efficiency.

Though the exterior is stunning, the people driving by have no idea about another stunning aspect of the house: it is a net zero structure. With more than 200 years in the paint and coatings business, Valspar has an impressive portfolio of products to meet the needs of environmentally conscious clients, such as the Eser’s.

“Ten or fifteen years ago I was one of those pinheads that laughed when people

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FEATURES

Eser, “but what is surprising is the choice of Kameleon coating. It was a gutsy move as we were getting some skepticism from friends and neighbors about having a metal house, let alone a house that changes color.

But choosing the coating was much more than the color, it was due in part to the technology that they’ve developed recently.”

THIS IS WHAT SUSTAINABILITY LOOKS LIKE The Eser’s net zero home has an 18 kilowatt solar array on the roof provided by Kingspan’s energy group and a geothermal heating and cooling system supplied by Hydron Module that features an 800-footlong loop, 10 feet under the ground. This system eliminates the need for a furnace or HVAC by using the stable temperatures underneath the ground. No fossil fuels are burned in the house and the grid-intertied photovoltaic system produces about twice as much power as the family consumes. An automated MechoSystems solar shade system supplied by Allweather Aluminum is installed on the ample 2-inch thick double panels come into play. The Eser’s chose the paned glazing with U value as low as 0.30 — Surrey Beige color because it has a high sowhenever the sun hits the glass, the shades lar reflective value —known in the industry automatically roll down. To perfect the in- as the solar reflective index (SRI) rating— terior climate, a custom high-velocity blow- among Valspar coating products. Tradiing system was installed to eliminate hot tional dark-colored roofing materials can and cool spots that result from stagnant reach 185 degrees in summer, transferring air. Instead of the standard three or four an enormous heat load to the house, but vents per room, the Eser’s have about 25 highly reflective roofing surfaces can knock blowers in each room that are positioned 50 to 60 degrees off the temperature, which for optimal homogeneous air distribution, can mean up to a 40% reduction in energy making the home comfortable 365 days a use. The science behind this is complex, but the bottom line is that highly reflecyear, using only the geothermal system.

“It’s all married,” Eser says. “You can’t tive paint is the first line of defense against have one of these components without heat absorption for a net zero house. the other and expect to achieve a net zero The second line of defense has to do house. Our mission statement at Kingspan with the material the coating is applied is ‘envelope first for energy efficiency.’ This to and how quickly it’s able to release the house is the house of the future and even- heat that it absorbs, a property geo-engitually, all the new houses will be built with neers refer to as thermal emissivity. Metal, as it turns out, has excellent thermal emisthe same technology.”

In California’s Central Valley where 100- sivity—in other words, it cools off quickly. plus degree days are common in the sum- “When the sun goes down, a metal panel mer, keeping the hot air out was a key to will cool down much more quickly to the the design and the part where Valspar’s ambient temperature than an asphalt shincoatings and Kingspan’s insulated metal gle,” says Channing Beaudry, the technical gb&d

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FEATURES ROADMAP TO POSITIVE ENERGY

VALSPAR’S COMMITMENT The quest for positive energy in the built environment is complicated, to say the least.

It takes committed citizens and pro-active politicians, but it ultimately takes visionary businesses to deliver the goods. Large companies like Valspar have a crucial role to play—with such a deep reach within the coatings industry, its initiatives reverberate far beyond its own corporate walls. Jeff Alexander, vice president of sales in the coil and extrusion division says Valspar’s intentions in this regard are crystal clear: “our goal is to be the industry leader when it comes to sustainability, not just in North America but on a global basis.”

It might sound like a bold statement for a company that exclusively makes paint and coatings, but because Valspar’s products are found on a staggering percentage manager of Valspar’s coil and extrusion di- of interior and exterior surfaces throughvision. Beaudry compares traditional roof- out the world—from residential roofs and ing to a ceramic coffee mug: “it is designed appliances to heavy machinery and high to hold the heat in, so hours and hours af- rises—their choices matter. ter the sun goes down, your air conditioner is still running to cool down the attic.”

The third line of defense on the Eser’s home is the insulation, much of which is integrated with the metal roof and wall panels. The 6-inch roof panels have an R-value of 42, almost twice the level required

by California’s strict energy efficiency laws, which is R-24. The 4-inch insulated panels used for the siding have an R-value of 36.

There are additional layers of insulation on the interior of the walls and roof, which Eser estimates bump up the R-values to 40 and 50, respectively.

Eser and his wife are empty-nesters now that their three girls have grown up and gone off to college. They’re at that place in their lives where they can afford to follow a dream. They designed the house together without the help of an architect and Eser acted as the general contractor, which was a new experience for him even after decades in the building industry. The One of Valspar’s most notable innovafamily composts all of their kitchen scraps tions has been the development of coatings and recycles them into compost for use in that maintain excellent solar reflectivity their vegetable garden. All the wastewater ratings in a wide range of colors. Most defrom the home is cleaned by an engineered signers understand the basic concept that septic system that converts waste to water light colors reflect heat better than dark suitable for irrigation. Just one small bag colors, but the reality is that not every of trash leaves their house for the landfill client wants a light-colored roof. Always each month; everything else is recycled. looking to marry sustainability with the Other features of the home include it being marketplace, the company set out to test designed as a “smart house” meaning that and select pigments in a range of colors all of the utilities are controlled by a smart with excellent solar reflectivity rating. The phone, and LED technology is used for the results have been extremely exciting for the lighting throughout the estate, which uti- metal roofing industry. lizes only a fraction of energy compared to “Virtually any color can be formulated conventional lighting. with these solar reflective pigments with Their lifestyle may sound extreme to any of our technologies,” Alexander says. In some, but Eser sees his efforts at net zero other words, there is not a separate line of living as a gift. “I’ve had a good life,” he solar reflective coatings—all Valspar prodsays. “I felt like I wanted to pay back to the ucts for roofing applications are now availearth in one form or another.” able with their proprietary formulation

LEFT Jeff Alexander, vice president of sales in Valspar’s coil and extrusion division, says that the company’s goal is to “be the industry leader when it comes to sustainability ... on a global basis.”

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VALSPAR ESTIMATES THAT THE NATIONWIDE IMPLEMENTATION OF COOL ROOFS COULD REALIZE AN ANNUAL SAVINGS OF $1 BILLION.

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ABOVE When it comes to cool roofing, Valspar may only supply the coating, but the company is making an outsized effort to move the industry forward.

LEFT Solar reflective coatings are one way, among many, that Valspar is addressing energy efficiency.

for solar reflectivity. Alexander says “there are minimum reflectivity levels set forth

by Energy Star, and we’re able to hit those minimums with almost any color.”

Solar reflective coatings are one way Valspar is addressing energy efficiency, but that is by no means the only way in which the company is addressing human and environmental health. Historically, the paint and coatings industry has relied on a range of substances that are not environmentally friendly to create durable, high performance finishes, but that era is quickly endgb&d

ing. Valspar formulates numerous low- and no-VOC products, and has recently developed a number of BPA-free and hexavalent chromium-free materials, in addition to a line of finishes based on bio-renewable and recycled materials.

A number of years ago, Greg Hayes, Valspar’s technical director for R&D, was curious about the possibilities of using vegetable oil as an alternative to petroleum-based ingredients in some of Valspar’s products.

He knew of the success of the bio-diesel industry and wondered if the paint and coatings industry could make use of the same waste product. “Oils used by the food processing industry go into a waste stream that eventually finds its way to the cattle and pet food industries,” Hayes says. “We decided to tap into that waste stream and september–october 2015

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Valspar makes its coatings highly reflective in the infrared spectrum, so the light is reflected back into the atmosphere and will not be absorbed into the building structure.

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THE SCIENCE OF SOLAR REFLECTIVE PIGMENTS When the sun’s rays beat down on a sprawling metropolis, there is more going on than meets the eye—quite literally, says Channing Beaudry, the technical manager of Valspar’s coil and extrusion division. First of all, only 43% of solar energy is visible light, the wavelengths that allow people to see during the daytime.

5% is in the UV spectrum, which is what causes sunburns. Beaudry is concerned with the other 52%—infrared light—the part that warms our skin, but can make a city unbearable on a hot summer day.

“When we design solar reflective coatings, what we’re trying to do is change the way the pigments interact with light, particularly infrared light, which is what builds heat,” Beaudry says.

To do this, Valspar looks at two related approaches. The first is to make their coatings highly reflective in the infrared spectrum, so the light is reflected back into the atmosphere and will not be absorbed into the building structure. This is easy with light-colored pigments, but the reflective ratings go down with darker colors.

The second approach is to use coating that is actually transparent to infrared rays, so the light will go through the product and hit the metal beneath it—“the metal is quite reflective so it bounces back,” says Beaudry. Designing pigments that allow infrared rays to pass through is what allows Valspar to achieve darker colors that still result in a high reflectivity rating.

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FACING PAGE Coil coating—where the paint is rolled onto the metal in a factory setting rather than sprayed on—is a pretty energy efficient technique to begin with and has a very low VOC component.

find a way to make polymers for coatings.”

It took about three years to go from concept to commercial reality, but Valspar now has a number of patents based around used waste oil, as well as virgin vegetable oil. It’s primarily used as a backer for the paint that is applied to the giant coils of sheet metal that are turned into roof panels.

Even the way that Valspar coating is applied to the metal used for wall and roofing panels has been enhanced for better environmental performance. Coil coating— where the paint is rolled onto the metal in a factory setting rather than sprayed on—is a pretty energy efficient technique to begin with and has a very low VOC component. Alexander says that they’ve also developed a technology that allows coatings to be cured at a lower temperature. “That means less heat is required in the applicator’s ovens, which leads to lower energy use.”

In the coil coating process for metal paneling, the VOC gases that are released actually go back into the system and, using a device called a thermal oxidizer, become fuel for the curing process. “It’s like an incinerator,” Alexander says.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF VALSPAR

THE BUSINESS CASE “It’s all driven by the heat island effect,” Rick Afton, Valspar’s global technical director for coil and extrusion who has been with the company for 38 years, on the company’s emphasis on cool roofing products.

He’s referring to the widely documented phenomenon in which cities—where rooftops, asphalt, and other hard surfaces dominate over trees and vegetation—are substantially warmer than the surrounding countryside. In some instances, the urban heat island effect has increased local temperatures up to 12 degrees above the norm. It makes city life less ‘livable’ and it makes air conditioners work that much harder, compounding the stress that urban areas place on the global ecosystem.

“There’s been a lot of research done by government labs to demonstrate the energb&d

“OUR GOAL IS TO BE THE INDUSTRY LEADER WHEN IT COMES TO SUSTAINABILITY, NOT JUST IN NORTH AMERICA BUT ON A GLOBAL BASIS.” Jeff Alexander

gy savings achieved with reflective metal roofing,” Afton says. Valspar used to offer its reflective coating as an option to clients that requested it, but over the last eight years it’s become the norm because of the financial benefits and tax credits available for end users. “There is a great business case that comes with technology that heats when it’s supposed to and cools when it’s supposed to,” says Afton.

The statistics around roofing materials, energy efficiency, and economics are staggering. For starters, at least 20% of the land surface of most urban areas is covered by roofing, according to the EPA’s Urban Heat Island Pilot Project. In Chicago, for example, the roof cover is 25% of the land area—that’s a lot of real estate to work with. Traditional roofing materials absorb 85 to 95% of the sun’s heat energy, meaning that there is a lot of potential for improvement. In contrast, the “coolest” roofing materials, such as those on Eser’s net zero house – metal paneling clad with Valspar’s SR Fluropon 70% PVDF coating, which combine a highly reflective surface with a fast-cooling metal substrate, absorb less than 30% of solar heat energy and achieve a thermal emittance of up to 90%.

Potential energy savings average $20 to $30 per year per 1,000 square feet of roof space, though in hot climates like southern California, the savings can be twice as high. In all, Valspar estimates that the nationwide implementation of cool roofs could realize an annual savings of $1 billion.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PARTNERSHIPS When it comes to cool roofing, Valspar may only supply the coating, but the company is making an outsized effort to move the industry forward. This means spearheading research efforts and collaborating across the spectrum of industry participants, from manufacturers like Kingspan to government agencies like Energy Star to third parties like the USGBC and the september–october 2015

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ABOVE Valspar worked on Camp Courageous, a camp for kids and adults with disabilities.

LEFT Valspar used to offer its reflective coating as an option to clients that requested it, but over the last eight years, it’s become the norm because of the financial benefits and tax credits available for end users.

Business success in an emerging field like cool roofing rests on collaboration with multiple stakeholders, but it is also fueled by healthy competition. Lawmakers continuously raise the bar for the energy efficiency of buildings, while more and more clients expect coatings to be free of hazardous materials, yet capable of the same performance as past formulations, if not better. Every new version of LEED and the Living Building Challenge, an advanced sustainability certification program, offers a new level of transparency to aspire to. There is tremendous pressure in the industry to innovate. Indeed, it is the only way to remain competitive.

With their hands-on approach to research and coalition building, Valspar excels at commercializing new and better products, but Afton says the mandate for sustainability is also great for business. “It all comes back to the business case—the fact that these things are popping up means that there is a tremendous demand to achieve human health and environmental goals. It’s a nonstop opportunity for innovation.” gb&d

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF VALSPAR

International Living Future Institute (ILFI).

“We’re actively present on the leading technical committees that provide guidance for test methods and best practices for cool roofing products,” Hayes says.

In other words, “we put our money where our mouth is,” Alexander echoes.

Valspar maintains several testing facilities around the world, but also works with the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC), the Oak Ridges National Laboratory in Tennessee, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. “We make sure we always have answers when they ask questions,” says Marlene Garrow, the leader of the company’s testing unit for the coil and extrusion division. “We like to stay involved to ensure we remain at the forefront of developing innovative coating technologies.”

With all the new paint and coating products in the Valspar pipeline, Garrow says there is an urgency at the moment to know how well the products will age. For example, Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) standards include a requirement for the reflectivity rating after 3 years exposure, based on the fact that poor quality paint can degrade quickly in the elements and lose the properties it was designed for.

CRRC and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab designed an accelerated aging test to speed up the process and Valspar was able to test its coatings by using panels supplied by a customer. “Nobody wants to wait three years to get the results so we are thankful for the efforts put forth by the CRRC and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and making tests like these available to our team,” Garrow says.

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THE CASE FOR METAL Metal has long been seen as a utilitarian siding for industrial applications, but it is gaining traction for residential exteriors thanks to the work of Valspar and its industry partners such as the Kingspan Group and intrepid homeowners like Ilhan and Kamer Eser. Eser’s net zero home features metal roofing and metal siding, both of which were given a warm, contemporary look with Valspar’s Fluropon coatings and are inspiring other home builders to follow suit. Even the framing of the home is metal. There are good reasons for expanding the use of metal in residential construction, in terms of the environment and the bottom line.

“Metal as a building material is inherently environmentally friendly,” says Beaudry, the technical manager of Valspar’s coil and extrusion division. “It is the most recycled building material in the world.”

High recycled content is a big part of what drew Eser to metal as the basis for his net zero home, as well as its thermal emissivity, or its ability to shed heat. A metal home cools down very quickly once the sun goes down, compared to a home that features exterior building materials such as vinyl siding and an asphalt roof. Homes utilizing metal building materials within the exterior design such as wall panels and roof panels last much longer than homes using more traditional

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building materials, for instance, wood, stucco, brick, and asphalt. When it is time to rebuild, there is peace of mind in knowing the majority of the home will end up at a recycling facility rather than a landfill. In the US, 80% of metal is recycled.

“People talk about wood being bio-renewable, but you can’t really recycle wood,” says Beaudry, certainly not into a high-end product. “With metal, you can drink out of an aluminum can and two years from now that can might be a wing on an airplane.”

Greg Hayes, Valspar’s technical director for R&D, points out another, often overlooked virtue of metal as a roofing material: its damage resistance compared to traditional shingle roofing.

“For example, if you live in a coastal area, metal roofing has shown itself to be more resilient to high winds and hurricane damage, as well as hail….so you find a preference for it in those climates.” This translates to lower insurance costs, which, when added to the savings on energy bills and from not having to replace the roof as often, make a compelling economic proposition.

Plus, metal roofs coated with a reflective paint, like Valspar’s industry leading solar reflective coatings, earn a credit toward LEED certification in the heat island category. If the metal with a high recycled content is used, a second credit is earned.

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Bayer MaterialScience re-launches as Covestro, placing people and planet at the top of its innovation agenda

By Brian Barth

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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF COVESTRO, LLC

The Energy Innovation Center (EIC) is on track for LEED Platinum.

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he Greater Pittsburgh region is in the midst of a renaissance. The demise of heavy manufacturing and associated unemployment of a few decades past are being replaced by the job growth, younger demographics, and urban revitalization of a resurgent economy led by energy, healthcare, education, building, and construction. The region is a fixture on “most livable” lists. The city center and surrounding neighborhoods are blossoming with chic new housing, restaurants, and nightlife.

The region’s business, governmental, and university sectors are leading its emergence as a center for technology and urban innovation. The Hill District neighborhood on the edge of downtown is now home to the Energy Innovation Center, a place where clean energy solutions are incubated and the green collar job skills of the future are cultivated. Fittingly, the 6.5 acre site was formerly known as the Connelly Trade School, a Great Depression-era workforce development facility where people learned basic trades, such as carpentry, plumbing and automotive mechanics. Today, students at the Energy Innovation Center (EIC) learn the skills of a low-energy future, from installing alternative energy systems to operating advanced HVAC equipment.

The first phase of a massive renovation of the historic structures on the site was completed in 2014 and is on-track for LEED Platinum. Bill Miller, the vice president and COO of Pittsburgh Gateways, the non-profit that owns and operates the EIC, says the idea was to rebuild the new Connelly Trade School as a “training tool in and of itself.” For example, he says, “our mechanical rooms and electrical closets are designed to be training rooms. It took tremendous coordination between all the designers and contractors to make sure that those were done in a way where the students would be safe and could learn something important.”

Covestro—formerly Bayer Material-

T

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ABOVE The Energy Innovation Center is a place where clean energy solutions are incubated and the green collar job skills of the future are cultivated.

RIGHT At the EIC, Modern LED light fixtures with Covestro’s polycarbonate lenses illuminate the interior.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF COVESTRO, LLC

Science, an independent subsidiary of the Bayer Group (known around the world as the creator of Aspirin)—has been one of the key industry partners helping to move the EIC forward. Pittsburgh is the long-time home for the North American headquarters of Bayer MaterialScience, so the company is deeply invested in cultivating the local workforce. It is also an opportunity for Covestro to showcase how its products fit into the puzzle of energy-efficient and environmentally-responsible construction techniques. Covestro’s products are featured throughout every nook and cranny of the new building: from the insulation products in the walls and ceilings to the coatings on the floor, each played a role in transforming the 85-year old school into a showcase for the sustainable building practices of the future.

“It’s an iconic building for Pittsburgh, but I’m thirty-seven years old and the perception is that the building has been dormant for most of my life” says Tim Thiel, Covestro’s industrial marketing manager for building and construction, who grew up in the region. Achieving LEED Platinum status on the project was an epic challenge compared to a Class A office space being built from the ground up today. “We’re talking about a massive, uninsulated, 1930s brick building,” says Thiel. “The hallways are enormous because they actually used to drive vehicles throughout the building.”

Those hallways/roadways are now covered with decorative concrete coatings based on raw materials from Covestro. Overhead, the exposed piping and ductwork

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are color-coded and labeled for educational purposes.

Modern LED light fixtures with Covestro’s polycarbonate lenses illuminate the interior, while some of the more idiosyncratic elements of the original structure have been given a new purpose—the old indoor swimming pool, for example, is now an ice storage system for the air chillers. “They create the ice in the off hours when power is cheaper and then store it there to be used during peak energy hours,” says Thiel.

“We got involved [with the EIC] because of the products and services we were able to provide to make energy efficiency happen in that structure,” he adds. “It’s really in our wheelhouse and it connects to everything that we stand for at Covestro.”

The Energy-Conserving Power of Polyurethane In the first year after the EIC retrofit was completed, the annual expenditure for gas at the Connelly Trade School site took a nose dive from $450,000 to an estimated $145,000. As a historic structure, there was no possibility to re-orient the building for maximum solar gain or open up the interior to daylighting. Instead, the savings resulted primarily from one simple solution: insulation. Any first year architecture student can tell you that the thicker the insulation, the greater thermal resistance a building envelope will have. What is less commonly known, however, is that of all common insulation materials, polyurethane insulation provides the maximum insulation value per gb&d

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OVER THE COURSE OF ITS LIFESPAN POLYURETHANE INSULATION SAVES 70 TIMES MORE ENERGY THAN WAS USED TO PRODUCE IT gbdmagazine.com

RIGHT Besides insulation value, designers will be comforted to know that Covestro’s polyurethane insulation has very low VOC content and is made without ozone depleting CFCs.

inch—a characteristic that proved vitally important in the EIC retrofit.

“Insulation is a major focus for us when it comes to sustainability,” says Jim Lambach, Covestro’s building and construction market manager. In its liquid form as a paint, adhesive or sealant, polyurethane is a household name around the world, but Covestro polyurethane is also used in three different insulation products based on the solid, foam-like form of the substance. Polyiso Board panels made with Covestro raw materials, which have an R-value of 30 at only 6 inches thick, were used to insulate the roof at EIC. The walls were insulated with Covestro’s EcoBay spray foam insulation, which has an R-value of 6.9 per inch.

Besides insulation value, designers will be comforted to know that Covestro’s polyurethane insulation has very low VOC content and is made without ozone depleting CFCs. Bayer MaterialScience is the inventor of polyurethane and was recently a principal author for the industry-wide EPD (environmental product declaration) for the substance. Another astonishing and underreported fact about polyurethane insulation is this: over the course of the lifespan of the building, it saves 70 times more energy than was used to produce it. There are very few products you can say that about.

But at EIC there was another, very practical reason spray foam insulation was chosen for the walls. Because of the Connelly Trade School’s status as an historic landmark, there were severe limitations to how the building could be altered during the renovation process, “especially aesthetically,” says Miller. “To get the R-value that we specified on our energy modeling we needed a 6-inch wall. We got a lot of pushback from the historic preservation folks, but with the Bayer spray foam product we were able to do it in half the thickness, so we reached a compromise and were able to move forward.”

Technical Depth and Market Breadth “I can sum up our mission in two words: innovation and sustainability,” says Jerry MacCleary, Covestro’s president for North American operations. Since inventing polyurethanes and polycarbonates decades ago, Bayer MaterialScience has been driven by innovation, delivering new technologies and solutions that help make a positive impact on people’s lives every day. Over the years the company’s businesses— and name—have changed, incorporating more and more of an emphasis on sustainability. That evolugb&d

tion continues and has recently crystallized with a new name and organizational structure. Bayer MaterialScience has redefined itself in a new light as an independent company—Covestro—as of September 1st, 2015.

The brand new company has a “bold new direction,” says MacCleary. “Our goal is to create material solutions that push the boundaries of what is possible, all the while keeping an eye toward sustainability.” The company’s name is derived from a combination of words that reflect its new identity. The letters C and O represent commitment to collaboration, while VEST signifies the company’s investment in state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. The final letters, STRO, demonstrate the company’s strengths in innovation, markets and talent.

According to MacCleary, these values and goals have been developed through input from employees around the globe and are much more than words.

They represent an evolution in the way the organization approaches material development, its customers and the planet. “At Covestro, we place the utmost importance on sustainability, innovation, and responsibility—all with a strong customer focus.

Our ongoing emphasis on innovation is crucial to advancing the industry overall, enabling our customers to achieve their visions, and continuing our development,” explains MacCleary. “By holding our company to the highest standards of sustainability, we are not only safeguarding the future of our planet but also positioning our customers for future business success.” september–october 2015

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The hallways of the Energy Innovation Center are covered with decorative concrete coatings based on raw materials from Covestro.

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COMING SOON DREAM PRODUCTION— FOSSIL FREE FUEL FOR COVESTRO PRODUCTS An elusive technology that Covestro scientists have spent forty years perfecting will make its commercial debut in the next year. Rather than using petroleum as a source material for polyurethane products, it is now possible to use carbon dioxide. Like petroleum, carbon dioxide is a carbon-based compound, but past efforts to convert it into a more usable form had floundered. Recently, however, a zinc-based catalyst did the trick and the company is now incorporating it into its formulas for a variety of raw materials to create foam and plastic products.

Beginning in 2016, the first consumer goods based on the raw materials made with the new technology will begin rolling off the assembly line.

These will include items such as car seats and mattresses, but the idea is to eventually expand into building products. Thus far, the technology allows for a 20% reduction of the petroleum used in the formulation of these products, but the discovery of a viable catalyst is seen as the crucial breakthrough that may one day enable 100% fossil-free polyurethane. The process has been dubbed ‘Dream Production’. gb&d

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The new logo for Covestro, which helps designers create functional, attractive, and sustainable buildings.

Breadth of Applications

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and specifiers. These low-emission, energy efficient customizable coatings contribute to improved enviAlthough the company’s name has changed, Covestro is ronment quality. They also supply the polyurethane built on a strong foundation of decades of proven ma- raw materials for adhesive and sealant technologies terials, technology and process expertise. These assets that include low-VOC options for buildings. These polyput the company in a position to retain its standing as urethane-based products are highly durable for long a leading provider of advanced material solutions for term use as sealants around doors and windows or diverse industries, including automotive, personal care, as adhesives for securing roofing membranes or roof medical, industrial, electronics, furniture and building insulation. and construction. “We have been and will continue With its proven track record in the building and to be a leader in high-tech polymers,” says MacCleary. construction industry and wide range of material “Now, as an independent company, we simply get to do solutions, Covestro helps designers create functional, it faster, more effectively and with greater flexibility.” attractive, and sustainable buildings. “By leveraging Currently, buildings are responsible for about 30% our strong foundation in the market,” says MacCleary, of global greenhouse gas emissions and 40% of global “Covestro will continue its objective to build a brighter energy use. Covestro’s decades of experience in the future.” building and construction market put the company in a position to blaze the way toward a net zero and, Investing in the Bottom of the Pyramid ultimately, a net positive future. In addition to its polyurethane insulation products, Covestro offers creative, Richard Northcote, Covestro’s head of communicacutting-edge materials and technologies that can help tions, public affairs, and sustainability, says there has to address sustainability challenges across the full been a profound shift in the impetus for corporations to adopt sustainability practices over the course of his breadth of the building and construction market.

Building façades, roofs, windows, and doors can all career. “15 or 20 years ago all the pressure was comutilize Covestro’s material solutions. Its polycarbonate ing from government,” he says, “and most industries sheeting lends nearly unbreakable strength to sky- really retaliated and tried to get them to change the lights, roofs, facades, canopies, and windows. It enables way they were thinking.” More recently, says Northcote, effective daylighting, while its durability and formabil- demand for reduced emissions and energy consumpity offer protection without sacrificing design. Covestro tion has risen to a full-throttle choir from the throats also has a large portfolio of polycarbonate materials of consumers, who have their spending power behind designed for lighting applications, including several them. “That’s the best way to get an industry to change. developed specifically for LEDs. Lighting designers can When the market demands something other than what choose from LED-grade materials offering properties you’re giving them, it gives you a very strong business such as high reflectivity, low viscosity, heat stability, case.”

Bayer MaterialScience has sought to reduce the enflame-retardancy and uniform light diffusion. These are available in both transparent forms and diffusion ergy required internally for its manufacturing facilities colors. all along, but now that it has shifted gears as CovesThe list goes on. Covestro has high-performance win- tro, Northcote says the full scope of its research and dow stiffeners formed from polyurethane composites development capacity is aligned with a sustainability that are a more energy-efficient alternative to alumi- mandate. With an army of 1,400 scientists and some num. Its polyurethane raw materials also make their 400 R&D projects in the pipeline, Covestro is poised way into high-strength, lightweight and abrasion-re- to commercialize the technologies of positive energy sistant doors. Covestro’s coating, adhesive, and sealant buildings in a way that few other corporations are. In technologies are found in high performance coatings fact, the company has sponsored the construction of for roofs, walls and floors, adhesives for wood floors several net zero and positive energy buildings over the and roofing, and sealants for windows and doors. years, including its Indian headquarters outside New The company also provides an impressive selection of Delhi, which is regarded as one of the most energy industrial raw materials that go into concrete floor efficient buildings in the world. coatings that are available in nonsolvent, water-borne, “Sustainability and innovation fit very close togethsolvent-borne, one-component and two-component er,” says Northcote. “Every single project in the R&D formulations, providing more choice to architects pipeline is tested on sustainability grounds—it must gbdmagazine.com

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I CAN HAVE CONVERSATIONS WITH ANYBODY AT ANY LEVEL IN THIS ORGANIZATION, AND THEY RE ALL SWITCHED ON TO SUSTAINABILITY —WHETHER I M TALKING TO THE GUYS THAT WORK IN THE PLANTS, THE SECRETARIES IN THE OFFICES, OR TO THE EXECUTIVES THEMSELVES RICHARD NORTHCOTE ABOVE Covestro’s decades of experience put the company in a position to blaze the way toward a net zero and, ultimately, a net positive future.

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have less impact on the environment than whatever it is replacing….sustainability sits at the heart of our strategy.”

So while Covestro is in the business of manufacturing chemicals, its leverage in the business world comes with the immense volume of influence it has on how its technology is applied. The average consumer may not realize it, but Bayer materials are everywhere around them, from the clothing they wear to the bed they sleep on to the walls of their house. “There are major brands all over the world that have come out with very strong sustainability conditions,” says Northcote, “and these are our customers. We are responding to their desire and we’re passing that back down the chain—we are demanding from our suppliers that we

get more sustainable products and that they become more efficient in their manufacturing processes.”

What this means is that it’s not just high-end homes, Class A office buildings and iconic public buildings that will be built to LEED or equivalent standards in the future, it’s every single structure in the world. It means that energy efficient design will not be ‘different,’ it will be the norm. Such dramatic transformation will not happen overnight, but it’s an opportunity that awaits the coming generation. Young consumers are demanding these changes and young workers are making them happen. By banking on the validity of these assumptions, Northcote says, as a new company, Covestro has adopted the strategy of investing in sustainable business models at the “bottom of the pyramid.” september–october 2015

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DID YOU KNOW BAYER BUILDS NET ZERO

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TOP Covestro also has a large portfolio of polycarbonate materials designed for lighting applications, including several developed specifically for LEDs. FACING PAGE Covestro’s polycarbonate sheeting lends nearly unbreakable strength to skylights, roofs, facades, canopies, and windows.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF COVESTRO, LLC

For most folks, Bayer is synonymous with pain relief—after all, the German company was the inventor of Aspirin.

But its material science division, now an independent company known as Covestro, has been involved in deep green design for quite some time. It has built a number of net zero buildings around the world, from a kindergarten in Monheim, Germany to an office building in Qingdao, China, an initiative on which Covestro plans to expand.

The granddaddy of them all, however, is one constructed for the company headquarters in India, which generates more energy than it uses.

Located in Greater Noida, a municipality just outside of New Delhi, it was an impressive feat considering that the climate varies from 120 degree temperatures in summer to below freezing in winter. The building draws all of its electrical power from a photovoltaic array and uses 70% less energy than comparable office buildings in the region. Numerous Covestro materials were used, including polyurethane insulation which has a greater R-value for its thickness than any other commonly available insulation. When the facility opened in 2011, it scored 64 of 69 possible points on the LEED checklist, making the highest-rated LEED Platinum building in the world at that time.

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Covestro is notable for not having a separate sustainability department. “We’ve deliberately kept away from that,” says Northcote. “We have a few people that work centrally on the inclusive business idea of taking these technologies to the base of the pyramid, but I can have conversations with anybody at any level in this organization and they’re all switched on to sustainability—whether I’m talking to the guys that work in the plants, the secretaries in the offices or to the executives themselves.”

He believes that this company culture will make Covestro very appealing to prospective employees in the millennial set. “People coming out of universities today have a view about what society should be doing about the environment and what they want to do to make the world a brighter place,” says Northcote. “So the way we are positioning ourselves is actually very valuable in the recruitment arena.”

The Global Connection Pittsburgh is far from being the only community in which Bayer MaterialScience has invested. Northcote is based in Germany and often travels to different parts of the world to check in on projects where the company is testing out new technologies that are in various stages of commercialization. He was a number that the company has engaged in and it’s recently in the Philippines for the groundbreaking part of how Covestro is feeding sustainability into the of a Covestro-led initiative to build new typhoon-re- ‘bottom of the pyramid.’ By commercializing products sistant housing in Tacloban, the area devastated by that are affordable and practical in the context of the Typhoon Haiyan less than two years ago, which left at developing world, it intends to help ensure a profitable business model as these countries expand economicalleast a half-million families homeless. In partnership with Habitat for Humanity, the company is helping ly and consumer demand for ‘sustainable’ goods beto build 5,000 houses, which Northcote says is the gins to grow. And, by building sustainability into the largest round of new construction to take place since fabric of the economy, the hope is that the remaining the storm thus far. In total, some 30,000 homes are developing countries of the world will not end up consuming energy in the way that first world nations have. planned after the initial pilot project.

In order to resist future typhoons, the new homes “The developed world is benefiting from all these prodhave been designed to resist 155 mile-per-hour winds ucts that we’ve created,” says Northcote. “But one of the using a ‘foam cement’ technology from Covestro and biggest problems we have is that the developing world its customer PU Profile, which combines the structural is actually contributing more to climate change than strength of concrete directly with the insulation value we are as they try to catch up. Energy efficient housing of polyurethane. Economic viability was a key design is very important to counter that trend.”

There is no doubt that the coming decade will criterion, as well. The houses can be built in five days by a crew of “one qualified builder and nine community bring many more examples of net zero and positive members,” says Northcote. “The cost of these is far less energy buildings. It’s a movement to which Covestro than any other low-cost solution that the Philippine already contributes. But by seeding that philosophy in government is working on.” So far, one of the prototype everything it does, and throughout every corner of its houses in the Philippines has weathered six typhoons global reach, it’s possible that a generation from now with no damage. the majority of the built environment will resemble The housing project in the Philippines is just one of that vision. gb&d gb&d

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PHOTO: COURTESY OF HUBER ENGINEERED WOODS LLC

WOOD QUESTIONS, CURIOUS ANSWERS

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Can wood and tape change the world? The people betting on wood frame construction to achieve Passive House standards seem to think so. When the developers of ZIP System sheathing, tape, and insulation-backed R-sheathing asked builders questions, they found smarter ways of making sustainable, high-performance buildings more achievable—and more cost-effective.

By Russ Klettke

Not too long ago, there were not any structures in the US built to Passive House standards and certification. But the number of buildings now certified by the Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) is close to 100, with at least 40 more in cue in the pre-certification phase and at least another 100 under construction.

It’s a far cry from the tens of thousands of PHs found in Europe, in part due to how the original concept, “Passivehaus,” was developed more than a dozen years ago in Germany. But what America has that is less present on much of the European continent is a wildly varied climate. We have a soggy and cold Maine, a hot and humid Florida, four-seasons Midwestern states, and dry and hot conditions in the American Southwest.

Where the bulk of energy waste and expenditures occur in winter for many areas, the real costs in Phoenix are almost entirely related to searing summer heat.

For an American Passive House in different climates, certain features such as window overhangs, minimized windows on the south and west exposures, and the relative efficiency ratings of furnaces and chillers vary by region. There is no single, replicable PH type in the US. But one factor is consistently demanded to achieve ultimate energy efficiencies in all North American climates. That is the tightness of the building envelope. If

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you want to keep the cool summertime conditioned air in, there cannot be leaky holes around door and window frames. If you want to keep out winter’s chill, thermal bridging at studs must be managed.

All of which is driving the development of new building products. This includes ZIP System sheathing and tape, manufactured by Huber Engineered Woods LLC of Charlotte, North Carolina.

The maker of engineered wood products introduced the product for roof and wall applications in 2007. Designed to deliver a unique combination of ease-of-installation, moisture resistance, and air leakage protection, the system is made up of an engineered wood sheathing panel with a built-in weather-resistant barrier that eliminates the need for housewrap in wall applications; a roofing version of the product includes a felt underlayment. The all-in-one panel is taped at the seams with an advanced acrylic adhesive to create a rigid air barrier to help reduce air leakage and ultimately contributes to energy efficiency in the home. When compared to the installation of traditional oriented strand board (OSB) sheathing and housewrap, it can reduce installation steps and because the weather barrier is built-in, it eliminates risk of water getting trapped and causing rework delays. ZIP System sheathing and tape also carries a 30-year warranty.

ZIP System sheathing and tape can be used on any new wood frame construction where the building owners hope for high-energy performance. It’s not just for architects and builders hoping for a Passive House, LEED, or other green building certifications. But it can achieve both, and the experiences of a builder and an architect in Rhode Island show us why.

The project, a single-family residence in Wakefield, Rhode Island, is likely the first to achieve this designation in the state (it’s in the final certification stage as of press time). The 1,657-square-foot home was a first for builder Stephen DeMetrick, who planned for years to take his firm, DeMetrick Housewrights, into gbdmagazine.com

PHOTO: COURTESY OF HUBER ENGINEERED WOODS LLC

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the environment-forward world of Passive Houses. “I had been interested in high performance homes, studying it for at least 15 years,” the Georgetown University graduate noted. So DeMetrick took an intensive, week-long class from PHIUS, given at the Rhode Island School of Design, which prepared him for the exam that led to his certification as a Passive House builder. But this certification didn’t automatically bring such projects to his Wakefield firm’s door.

“I tried to sell it to clients but few showed interest,” he says. There was little awareness of what Passive Houses were

“Passive House is analogous to a bodybuilder for the person who just wants to get in shape. We can show what is possible with a Passive House, so other builders and designers say, ‘why not get to 75% of that?’ We have the ability to do this, to make homes that are healthy and comfortable and durable, so why shouldn’t we do it?” Steve Baczek

and what they could accomplish, even with the brutal Nor’easters and other winter weather conditions in New England.

But the opportunity arrived in 2014 when DeMetrick was one of the numerous builders interviewed by the eventual homeowner, who was determined to have the ultimate high performance dwelling.

A PH can use 10% (or less) of the amount of energy a traditional home of the same size in the same climate zone might use.

But the real goal is a net-zero and even net-positive energy home, the latter being when energy generated by the home, typically with photovoltaic solar collectors,

Steve Baczek of Steve Baczek Architect, pictured here, worked with builder Stephen DeMetrick on this high-performance home.

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fossil fuel consumption by a meaningful, game-changing amount.”

But what about cost? Does the Passive Home require the owner to shell out so much it is only accessible by the well-to-do?

“The cost of Passive House building has been a touchy subject,” notes Baczek. “But while the first ones we built five years ago cost around 12 to 14% more, today I’m telling clients it’s more like 10%, and usually it comes in less than that. The more we do of it, the more we learn and get better at it. Sixteen-inch walls are no longer necessary because we see that 12 inches will do.”

Materials developers like Huber Engineered Woods LLC help bring that along. In 2012, ZIP System R-sheathing was launched to deliver all the moisture and air-tight sealing benefits of ZIP System sheathing and tape, but with an added attached layer of continuous foam insulation. The multi-functional ZIP System R-Sheathing system helps eliminate thermal bridging, the loss of energy when heat conducts through places such as stud walls, nails and fasteners, while providing structural durability, moisture resistance, and air leakage protection.

Further, the water-resistant barrier built onto the engineered wood panel, protects the insulation layer from water migration into and through the R-3 and R-6 rated panels. This protects the R-value of the wall assembly.

Labor costs, very importantly, can be reduced as well. One study conducted by the company, showed that simply installing ZIP System sheathing—and taping the panels instead of installing housewrap and tape onsite—on a 6,000-square-foot house required 17 fewer hours of labor and was completed in 46% less time.

DeMetrick says that instructing his subcontractors on using ZIP System sheathing and tape also went quickly.

“There’s a mental investment required,” he says. “But while some PH materials can be complex, the only real difference was the tape application, using a J-roller

LEFT Kurt Koch, vice president of product engineering and innovation at Huber Engineered Woods LLC.

instead of their hands. Our first Passive House was remarkably easy.”

There are critics but most are mistaken, says Baczek. They suggest these tight envelopes might be too tight, preventing a healthy exchange of fresh air into the house. Those fears are unfounded. “The only problem is when houses are under-ventilated,” Baczek notes. “The design of the ventilation system must coordinate with the duty of the size and shape of the house.”

Which brings up Baczek’s favorite topic, that of the total-systems approach to this kind of design and construction.

“Passive House has created a holistic sense that we can’t look at things like windows and building mechanicals alone. We have to consider the ventilation strategy, and work collaboratively with PH consultants and contractors and subcontractors. It aligns us as a team. Subcontractors can be a wealth of knowledge,” he adds. “They come up with solutions.” That wholeteam, whole-house approach probably has something to do with how Baczek was formerly an electrician, then a builder, before becoming an architect.

Baczek has another custom home project that was built in Redding, Massachusetts, where the owners’ 4,000-square-foot house had only $200/month gas bills in the brutal winter of 2014 about a third of what the family had previously been paying in their previous, smaller home.

“This house was only 2% more expensive, with about $4,000 in incremental costs, because of the enhanced features,” which included ZIP System R-sheathing and tape, says the architect. “The return on investment was achieved in 20 months.” Which is pretty good, considering the several hundred years that Yankee home might exist. gbdmagazine.com

PHOTO: COURTESY OF HUBER ENGINEERED WOODS LLC

is actually greater than what that home requires. The PH home must be tightly sealed and wrapped in insulation, in addition to having high-performance windows (think triple-paned) and doors, employs heat-recovery ventilation, and minimal space conditioning systems. PH structures exploit sun energy as needed and block it when it is unwanted.

DeMetrick was appropriately picked for the job, even though up until that point he had not actually built one. But then again, neither had the other builders considered for the job. The project architect, Steve Baczek of Steve Baczek Architect in Reading, Massachusetts, did have experience with Passive House construction and had just as much passion for the idea as builder DeMetrick. He’s also familiar with the unfamiliarity in certain regions that DeMetrick bemoans.

“Passive House is creating a conversation,” he offers hopefully, explaining that even if a client or builder isn’t familiar with the designation, they are learning to build tighter and to higher energy performance standards.

“Passive House is analogous to a bodybuilder for the person who just wants to get in shape,” he says. “We can show what is possible with a Passive House, so other builders and designers say, ‘why not get to 75% of that?’ We have the ability to do this, to make homes that are healthy and comfortable and durable, so why shouldn’t we do it? Passive House is the understandable line in the sand.”

We trust Baczek’s metaphorical bodybuilder doesn’t kick sand in the face of the 98-pound weakling houses, those built to leaky, 20th century codes. But it could.

Traditionally built residences of all types consume 40% of the total fossil fuel energy in the US, and those historic homes in New England probably contribute a disproportionate share of that. Baczek’s oldest remodel project was a home first built in 1690. “If all the homes in America were retrofit to tighter energy standards, achieving even just half of what a Passive House can do, it would cut America’s

FEATURES

Builders Know Best–Be Sure to Ask What They Are Thinking The experiences of architect Steve Baczek and builder Stephen DeMetrick in building the first Passive Houses of Rhode Island and elsewhere in New England were about innovation, leadership, and investment. Both see the future, but the vast majority of their client base isn’t there yet.

Part of the problem is regional in nature, which has perplexed the Passive House Institute US organization. Europe had it relatively easy with a fairly consistent set of climatic conditions across the continent, particularly in Germany where the standard has flourished. But your PH in Texas won’t be your father’s PH in Vermont. Standard adaptation is what PHIUS needed across the board.

To be clear, air-tightness is one of the three pillars of an American (as well as European) Passive House, the other two are source energy and space conditioning.

Which to national manufacturers such as Huber Engineered Woods, is critically important—creating region-specific products can be costly in manufacturing and distribution.

But you can’t argue with weather. This is something that Kurt Koch, vice president of product engineering and innovation, confronts daily. One of the areas ungb&d

der his tutelage is codes and regulation, which are by their nature very local for good reason. Koch’s responsibilities also include responding to market demand.

Which he emphatically says requires a listening, “curious” culture.

“We hire people in sales and other functions who have an inherent curiosity about how buildings are constructed and how the building process might be improved,” he says. “Many companies hire sales people whose job is to sell the current portfolio. We want people who seek to understand the builder’s needs. They need to take a solutions approach, not just push products. They can’t be afraid to ask questions. They should think holistically about assembling related products of a complete solution.” Such assemblages could include recommending a high performance window that can complement ZIP System sheathing and tape in forming a tighter envelope.

Several product innovations came from that builder-architect dialog. Known as the ZIP System portfolio of products, they include ZIP System sheathing with built-in weather-resistant barrier, ZIP System R-sheathing with attached insulation, and a radiant barrier roof panel.

“Their feedback told us that installing housewrap over sheathing was a real hassle,” Koch says. “Often it would rip off on windy days. It was very hard to flash around irregular-shaped penetrations and sharp corners.” These two insights were catalysts behind the built-in weather-resistant barrier on ZIP System sheathing and the taped seams.

The newest product launched this year at the International Builders’ Show (IBS) in January also addressed achieving air-tight seals around windows and penetrations.. The new game changer? ZIP System stretch tape—a unique acrylic tape designed to stretch in all directions and seal out moisture and air from hard-to flash areas like curved windows, penetrations, and sills with a single, easy-to-apply piece.

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Durability in systems, at all price points BELOW In 2012, ZIP System R-sheathing was launched to deliver all the moisture and air-tight sealing benefits of ZIP System sheathing and tape, but with an added attached layer of continuous foam insulation.

PHOTO: DEMETRICK HOUSEWRIGHTS

trials that ZIP System sheathing and tape saves time over conventional OSB sheathing and housewrap, in no small measure due to the fact the weather-resistant barrier overlay is fused to the engineered wood substrate during the manufacturing process. Only the taping at joints needs to be done on site.

These taped seams help achieve increasingly stringent air leakage code requirements, as established by the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).

Measuring air exchanges through blower door testing has become mandatory for all states that have adopted the 2012 IECC. The ZIP system products are so effective at meeting these that architect Steve Baczek and builder Stephen DeMetrick tested the Rhode Island house before exterior cladding was installed—and were able to confirm the air-tight ZIP System sheathing and tape had a significant effect on reducing air exchanges.

Sustainability is a term that is sometimes overused or misapplied, vaguely alluding to climate change and environmental responsibility. But what probably moves the needle, and is more likely to accomplish those more global goals, is when green-oriented materials and methodologies work on a very practical level for building owners and occupants.

One could further argue the philosophy of sustainability, for some, was and is defined solely by achieving green points in building construction to achieve certifications such as the USGBC’s LEED ratings.

In other words, the goal was focused on the first few years following construction or renovation. Often, sustainability largely skewed to upper price-point programs.

But according to Huber Engineered Woods’ Kurt Koch, it might serve longer-term purposes to take a “systems-solutions” approach, which includes consideration for how multiple building components contribute to building envelope and structural performance over time. If energy savings can extend to 30, 40, or 50 years into the future, why shouldn’t that be a benefit to all kinds of homes—including those made of wood?

Koch cites the multiple challenges in

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ZIP System stretch tape easily stretches to fit sills, curves, and corners with a single piece without having to piece tape segments together.

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PASSIVE HOUSE BY THE NUMBERS: The rough amount of buildings now certified

by PHIUS The amount of projects in cue in the precertification process with PHIUS The number of buildings under construction that will likely be certified by PHIUS

PHOTO: COURTESY OF HUBER ENGINEERED WOODS LLC

Passive Houses can use 10%, or less, of the amount of energy a traditional home of the same size in the same climate zone might use

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THIS SPREAD ZIP System sheathing requires no energy or water during the use stage, and require no maintenance, repair, replacement, or refurbishment after.

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“We hire people in sales and other functions who have an inherent curiosity about how buildings are constructed and how the building process might be improved.” Kurt Koch, vice president of product engineering and innovation at Huber Engineered Woods

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smartest of the three little pigs, choosing bricks instead of sticks to resist the huff and puff of a big bad storm. And it may seem that masonry construction would withstand heavy winds better than wood frame. But reality trumps the intuitive (so much for fairy tales). For example, in storm-prone Florida, building codes require both masonry and frame homes to be able to tolerate up to 120 mph winds (i.e., a category 3 hurricane).

Wood construction can also lead to substantial cost savings. On the West Coast, where sustainable forests are plentiful, a fair degree of interest is evolving in building larger frame structures. The embodied energy of lumber is far less than that of concrete and steel, helping achieve that environmental goal. What makes it even more attractive is how an architect in Newport Beach, California (Newman Garrison + Partners) has a patent-pending method of building called New Block, which is a design that substitutes wood-frame construction for concrete podium or wrap designs that depend on concrete and steel. The architect and builder managed in 2013 to fit a 70-unit apartment building onto a 2.2-acre plot in Buena Park, California at a cost of $135 per square foot. This is significant relative to the $165 to $250 per-square-foot cost of a comparable concrete and steel structure.

It’s a strong business case for sustainable construction. And wood is at the heart of it.

That house on Long Island is in the pricey Hamptons. By contrast, the Buena Park, California structure is subsidized housing. It appears as if sustainable buildings made with 21st century engineered wood materials, which could include ZIP System sheathing and tape and AdvanTech subfloors, might work financially in both types of applications, as well as everything else in between.

It seems that sustainability—by way of a systems approach, focused on long-term durability—can be achievable on a broad scale. That’s what curiosity can do. gb&d

PHOTO: COURTESY OF HUBER ENGINEERED WOODS LLC

building wood-framed structures that go beyond responsibly sourced wood. “There are many influences and demands on how buildings are assembled,” he says.

“Energy codes are certainly part of that as they become more stringent. Also, green initiatives and ratings systems such as Passive House, Home Energy Ratings (HERS) and LEED have point systems that our products can help achieve. We also have to think about mitigating risks related to disaster events like earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires.”

This has led to some region-specific solutions. “In Gulf Coast areas, measures like sealed roof decks are easily achieved with ZIP System sheathing and tape,” he says. “These are helping homes meet FORTIFIED Home guidelines to increase homes’ resiliency—or ability to be quickly re-occupied—following hurricanes or tornadoes.” FORTIFIED Home is an evaluation standard established by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, designed to guide new build and existing homes projects through techniques that create resilience against natural hazards. Qualifying structures typically receive reduced insurance premiums.

There is no lack of interest in reducing such costs and preventing storm damage in the first place. On the East Coast, there continues to be extensive rebuilding in the wake of 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. In Southampton, New York, on a site overlooking the Shinnecock Bay on the Atlantic side of Long Island, a homeowner rebuilt her cottage to LEED certification standards due to the town’s tax credits being offered for green construction. This is a homeowner who is, understandably, wary of water.

Her builder convinced her to use two Huber Engineered Woods products: AdvanTech subfloors, which remain stable (no warping or curling) even when exposed to extreme weather, and ZIP System sheathing and tape for walls and the roof.

It would seem that this homeowner might instead go the route of the

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HUBER sustainability ON-DECK ZIP System Sheathing and Tape manufacturing processes are greater than 99% landfill free. Just 2% of waste is produced, with most of it being recycled.

Huber Engineered Woods utilizes four manufacturing plants located in Commerce, Georgia; Broken Bow, Oklahoma; Crystal Hill, Virginia; and Easton, Maine, reducing the distance materials travel to and from the plants.

ZIP System R-6 Sheathing requires just 10-16 months of service to make up for its global warming impacts, thanks to its builtin continuous foam insulation.

Huber Engineered Woods strives to use local wood, with most trees coming from within 150 miles of manufacturing locations.

ZIP System sheathing requires no energy or water during the use stage, and require no maintenance, repair, replacement, or refurbishment during their service lives.

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Sustainability, now available on-the-go.

now you can read gb&d on-the-go with our new app. available for both iOS and android.

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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN

Up Front Typology Features Spaces Special Section Punch List

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76 A Sundrenched Oasis Amid an Asphalt Desert

How The Gores Group Headquarters puts California’s greatest natural resource to work

80 Where Past and Present Reside Together

Explore the New England residence that seamlessly blends the elements of architecture, nature, and home

84 Child’s Play

An urban daycare draws inspiration from the natural world

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A Sundrenched Oasis Amid an Asphalt Desert How The Gores Group Headquarters puts California’s greatest natural resource to work

By Kristofer Lenz

On the corner of historic Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California, a gentle glow emits from the headquarters of The Gores Group, a global, private equity firm. Like ripples across still water, the building exudes a sense of calm as light plays between curving glass panels wrapped in an embrace around the exterior. Designed by Belzberg Architects, The Gores Group Headquarters is a masterful example of architectural balance and function.

Unmoving but kinetic, striking but calming, this innovative re-imagining of an existing office building structure makes a bold statement about the future of sustainable architecture and green building practices in Los Angeles.

As Hagy Belzberg, founder of Belzberg Architects, told The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles: “If architects do not address the environmental situation, we are basically missing the greatest opportunity we have.” This ethos of mindful sustainability manifests throughout Belzberg Architects’ structural design and conception for The Gores Group HQ. Careful attention to detail can be felt as one moves around the space, following natural ebbs and flows of energy and human intuition. The result is an optimal work environment for the company’s employees that also, through clever engineering, lessens the structure’s environmental footprint.

A complete re-design, The Gores Group Headquarters dazzles the eye with its visual play with California’s most abundant natural resource: sunshine. This energy and beauty is present throughout the build-

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PHOTOS: BRUCE DAMONTE

SPACES

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PROJECT Location Beverly Hills, CA Client The Gores Group Size 120,000 ft² Completion 2014 Program Commercial, Office Space Awards 2015 Los Angeles Business Council: Award of Excellence; 2013 The American Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies; 2015 A+Awards Architizer Low Rise Commercial Office, Jury Winner.; 2015 City of Beverly Hills Architectural Award- category Innovation, Office; 2015 Illuminating Engineering Society Award of Merit Cost Witheld

TEAM Architect Belzberg Architects MEP ARC Engineering Landscaping Consultants design studio ma Interior Design Joan Behnke & Associates General Contractors Silverline Construction; Tatum Construction Lighting Consultant ARC Light Design Contract Glazier Custom Glass Specialists Glass Fabricators California Glass Bending Glass Manufacturer Pulp Studio

SUPPLIERS Lighting LightStyle Automated Systems Inc. Flooring CG Custom Tile and Marble Stone Stoneland USA Wood Spectrum Oak

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SPACES

LEFT The custom glass exterior is not only a visual delight, but is also woven into the sustainable energy systems of the building, providing superior energy transfer and acoustic cushioning.

PHOTOS: BRUCE DAMONTE

THIS PAGE A complete re-design, The Gores Group Headquarters dazzles the eye with its visual play with California’s most abundant natural resource: sunshine.

ing. The most immediate and striking use is enjoyed via the suffusion of sunlight across the seemingly kinetic exterior. By interrogating the idea of re-skinning an existing building, Belzberg Architects combined the concept of a double-layer curtain wall with a progressive use of new material forms. The exterior wall is composed of elements of stone, perforated metal and custom slumped glass that are united into a single visual field. Dancing between opacity and translucence, sunlight travels in and around the flowing curves of glass, teasing with distorted geometric patterns built into the interior wall. The overall effect makes the sprawling 120,000+-square-foot office space appear as delicate as a cloud. Within, a central atrium was carved out of the existing structure to allow natural sunlight to flood the interior. The result is the sense of permeable boundaries where light, air, and employees can pass freely between workspaces. The custom glass exterior is not only a visual delight, but is also woven into the sustainable energy systems of the building, providing superior energy transfer and acoustic cushioning.

A sculptural staircase pours seamlessly out of the ceiling and offers easy access throughout the building. The soft curves of the stair, lit by LED lights, and its cerused-ash slats provide a comforting, earthen tone. The interior was co-designed by Joan Behnke & Associates. The unity of form between exterior architectural structures and interior details lends an ethereal quality to the workspace.

Out on a busy city street, the rejuvenating blessings of sunlight can seem a curse to the exposed. Belzberg and his team sought to optimize the healthful benefits of the sun, while also creating an area of peace and respite by designing an expansive rooftop deck atop The Gores Group HQ. Josh Rezac, landscape architect for design studio ma, was engaged to create a unique rooftop garden experience for the space. Spread across two large spaces connected by a bridge, Rezac sought to match the “sculptural and contemporary gb&d

character of the building.” He selected a variety of non-mainstream plants that created a varied sense of color and texture while also being drought resistant to the California climate. The clever use of cherry trees also provides added shade and solitude for visitors, and the roof terrace is further protected and beautified by a laser cut canopy that casts elaborate shapes in shadow across the space.

The sweeping rooftop landscape offers The Gores Group employees, clients, and visitors a refreshing escape from the traditional office world. Belzberg Architects and design studio ma optimized

different spaces that can accommodate everything from company parties, individuals in search of solitary reflection, or even executive meetings.

At the center of The Gores Group Headquarters, planted securely in the atrium and bathed in regular sunlight, grows a 70 year-old olive tree. An important symbol to the company, it also represents the spirit of the building: The Gores Group Headquarters is a beacon of sustainable building practices, where the traditions of old have deep roots, but there is always space to continue growing into the future. gb&d

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PHOTO: COLIN MILLER

Where Past gbdmagazine.com

SPACES

and Present Reside Together Explore the New England residence that seamlessly blends the elements of architecture, nature, and home

By Kristofer Lenz

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on sustainable building practices. In addition, the area has a deep socio-political history that demanded attention and respect. River Residence was built in three phases: the first is represented by the traditional Georgian colonial-style home built in the early 19th century. The second phase involved a ground-floor addition built in the early 1980s. For the third and final phase, Joeb Moore & Partners LLC were tasked with building an addition that made a distinct and modern statement, while also tying the structure’s disparate visual languages into a cohesive whole.

“There is a productive tension between tradition and innovation. And that threshold is one we are always trying to navigate,” said Moore. An academic by training and vocation, Moore brings that interrogatory spirit into his design practice. From within, Moore imbued the transitional spaces, hallways, and stairways, with a cadence that acts as a palate cleanser, preparing the visitor for the

ABOVE This redesign had to contend with the extremes of New England’s brutal winters and sweltering summers.

BELOW The architect was tasked with building an addition to the home that made a distinct and modern statement.

PHOTOS: COLIN MILLER

There is a tendency to resort to reductive binaries when engaging architectural work: i.e. inside/outside, old/ new, presence/absence, and light/dark. For architect Joeb Moore, principal of Joeb Moore & Partners LLC, this view is myopic to the point of being misrepresentational. All experience of constructed space occurs on a spectrum. In his architectural practice, Moore seeks to not only dissolve such illusory boundaries, but also to demonstrate the systematic interconnectivity of the home. Each room communes in both spirit and function with every other part of the house. And the house itself is in deep ecological interaction with its surroundings. Moore’s ideas about the holistic nature of architecture took tangible form with River Residence, a home nestled deep in the New England countryside. Moore and his team created a residential space that offers comfort while challenging expectations; utilizes the foundations of the past while also making a statement about a sustainable future; and merges with its environment in a way that is both subtle, and strikingly beautiful.

“The home is a contested symbol,” Moore says, “It represents human frailty and the need for shelter, while also making a statement about how and why we dominate a landscape.” When redesigning River Residence, Moore and his team had to contend with the extremes of New England’s brutal winters and sweltering summers, while also maintaining a focus

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PROJECT Location Washington Depot, CT Client Private owner Size 4,040 ft² Completion 2013 Program Private Residence Cost Witheld

TEAM Architect Joeb Moore & Partners LLC Landscape Architect Dirk Sabin Landscape Design Builder & General Contractor Berkshire Wilton Partners LLC Interior Design Nest Decor, Inc. Structural Engineer DiBlasi Associates, P.C. Mechanical Engineer Encon Heating & Air Conditioning Project Framer & Trim Carpenter KSP Construction LLC

SUPPLIERS Hardware Katonah Architectural Hardware Glass Fabricator K-Man Glass Corp

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room that follows. In this way the whole building hums with a certain rhythm, leaving surprising details to be found in every corner.

Moore’s team was also focused on adaptive re-use: “We dove into the history of the structures in an effort to attain cultural stability and resilience, as much as ecological balance.” After initial investigations, the team determined that the original foundation and framing were suitable. With respect to the traditions of the region, the team removed the walls on the ground floor to organize a Great Room focused on wood-burning fireplaces that would have similarly attracted their historical forebears.

In respect to the site’s idyllic landscape, Moore chose to engage the residence with its surroundings. The team built a berm that covers the first floor and helps the home literally blend into the landscape. The home’s most distinct exterior feature is the wooden lattice wall extending from the original home. Inspired by the history of demarcating walls in the region, the lattice-work invokes both the natural beauty of the surrounding forest, while also helping support the environmental status of the building. Combined with the berm, the lattice provides natural shade from the sun and operates as a windbreak and insulation during winter months. With deft subtlety, the reimagined front of the home performs Joeb Moore’s belief that design and aesthetics are inseparable and that one necessarily

ABOVE The team on this project created a wooden lattice wall extending from the original home that evokes the natural beauty of the surrounding forest.

informs the other.

The dedication to green building practices can be traced throughout River Residence. Other features include: high-efficiency geothermal HVAC system, permeable paving, sub-slab drainage system, insulated ducts, LED lights and more.

Today, the home with centuries old roots, nears the modern ideal of net zero energy usage.

In choosing a building partner, Moore looked to Berkshire Wilton Partners LLC, as the company possesses a similar adventurous and collaborative spirit. Berkshire Wilton then, in turn, sub-contracted KSP Construction to handle the framing and carpentry on the project, resulting in a true team effort.

Moore presents contemporary architecture as a holistic effort requiring input, insight and collaboration between a wide range of experts. In his design practice, he presides over a “roundtable” of experts that includes structural engineers, climate scientists, ecologists and many others. But first and foremost, there must be collaboration and respect shared between the home’s owner, architect, and builder. With River Residence, Joeb Moore and his team transformed a home and an ecology. gb&d september–october 2015

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S PAC E S L E A R N

PHOTOS: HEDRICH BLESSING PHOTOGRAPHY

The green roof covers half the building, and its folded design makes it visible from Jackson Park and the neighboring high-rise.

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SPACES

CHILD’S

An urban daycare draws inspiration from the natural world

By Margaret Poe

A 90-ton boulder greets visitors at the UChicago Child Development Center– Stony Island, an urban oasis in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

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ABOVE Bark House siding is constantly drawing attention, Kearns says, noting that people “always want to come up and touch it.”

LEFT The center’s outdoor spaces, can accommodate all 124 children at the same time.

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SPACES

PROJECT Location Chicago, Illinois Client University of Chicago Size 13,300 ft² Completion September 2013 Program UChicago Child Development Center - Stony Island Certification LEED Gold Awards American Institute of Architects’ 2014 Committee on Architecture for Education Design Excellence Award; U.S. Green Building Council – Illinois Chapter’s 2015 Green Building Innovation Cost $7 million

TEAM

PHOTOS: HEDRICH BLESSING PHOTOGRAPHY

Architect of Record Wheeler Kearns Architects General Contractor Leopardo Companies Structural Engineer Thornton Tomasetti Civil, MEP & FP Engineer Primera Engineers Landscape Architect MIG Acoustical Consultant Threshold Acoustics

It’s not every day you come across a 90-ton boulder in the middle of Chicago. Or any size boulder outside a daycare, for that matter. But that’s exactly how you’re greeted at the UChicago Child Development Center–Stony Island, an urban oasis in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood, a stone’s throw from Lake Michigan and across the street from the Frederick Olmsted-designed Jackson Park, site of the Columbian Exposition of 1893.

The 13,300-square-foot building is z-shaped, emphasizing access to the outdoors while offering ample natural light for staff and children alike. It was a long time coming for the faculty of the University of Chicago and its medical school, who for years had hoped for such a facility on campus.

Drawing inspiration from Jackson Park, the design integrated nature from the very gb&d

first plans, according to Larry Kearns, principal of Wheeler Kearns Architects. The Chicago-based firm knew it was competing against architects from across the world, all of whom were seeking to, as Kearns explains it, “design a daycare for the children of future Nobel laureates.” He wanted something more timeless, more meaningful than the “knee-jerk primary colors” that tend to dominate these kinds of projects.

The facility, which serves 124 children up to five years old, offers the chance to interact first-hand with the world.

Beyond the boulders, one of the most eye-catching examples of this philosophy is the poplar bark siding used both on the exterior and inside the center. Crafted by North Carolina-based Highland Craftsmen, the Bark House siding is constantly drawing attention, Kearns says, noting that people “always want to come up and touch it.”

ABOVE For the siding, the architects collaborated with Highland Craftsmen to design a fire-resistant shingle, backed by fiber cement board.

That’s something Chris McCurry, Highland Craftsmen co-founder, hears a lot. “‘Touch is perhaps the most important stand-alone characteristic about the product,” she says.

“People want to touch it all the time—and are touched by it.”

The siding isn’t just innovative in appearance. City codes wouldn’t typically permit wooden siding on an industrial building, Kearns notes. But the architects collaborated with Highland Craftsmen to design a fire-resistant shingle, backed by fiber cement board, which offers a rustic apseptember–october 2015

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High quality construction, competitive pr icing & g u a ra n t e e d wo rk m a n s h i p.

“This project centers around children. How best to nurture a child than with real things they can touch, feel the texture, the depth, the honesty of the raw material?”

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pearance while creating a non-combustible exterior barrier. Just above those shingles is the green roof, which covers half the building’s footprint. Wheeler Kearns created a folded design, allowing the greenery to be viewed from Jackson Park and the neighboring high-rise Vista Homes—a welcome change from most green roofs, which go unseen except for those passing by in a plane.

And when it rains, the water falling onto that roof is purposely spilled into splash tanks, which divert the stormwater.

It becomes like a fountain, Kearns explains, demonstrating a natural phenomenon to the city kids playing inside the center. The architects far exceeded the city’s minimum requirements for stormwater storage by installing pervious pavement. It’s a smart solution in a city built on flatland swamp, which has long faced struggles with its combination sewers.

Another feature far exceeding code minimums, Kearns points out, is the size of the play courts. The outdoor spaces, in fact, can accommodate all 124 children at the same time. From the slide embedded in the ground to the chimes—half of which play a Western scale and the other half, a pentatonic scale—all the features are designed to facilitate learning. “All these elements in the play area [encourage] the interrogation of the natural world, from the child’s point of view,” he says. gb&d

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PHOTOS: HEDRICH BLESSING PHOTOGRAPHY

T: (203) 448-7199

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Glare is the enemy

of comfort and performance Your glare-free design intent will not be achieved if the shade fabric openness factor is 2% higher than specified.* Typical industry tolerances today can range over 2% from the specified openness factor.

Lutron has introduced THEIA™ — a new fabric specification requiring the tightest tolerances in the industry (± 0.75% openess factor) with over 60 fabrics to precisely manage glare.

Shade fabric weave openess

1%

3%

5%

Industry standard 3% ± 2% variation

2.25% 3% 3.75% THEIA fabric 3% ± 0.75% variation

Visit www.performanceshadingadvisor.com to find the THEIA fabric that achieves your design goals. * Based on 2014 Purdue University study. For more information visit the Lutron Performance Shading Advisor.

©2015 Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. | P/N 306-0080 REV A

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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN

Up Front Typology Features Spaces Special Section Punch List

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BUILDING AUTOMATION

92 There’s Nothing Wrong with a Dimmer Idea

A look at how Lutron fosters a culture of innovation, meeting the changing 21st Century needs for occupant wellbeing, energy cost control, and environmental responsibility

104 The Post-Occupancy Problem

Delta Controls and CopperTree Analytics seek to improve building performance over time, reversing the energy drain of existing buildings

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There’s Nothing Wrong

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With a Dimmer Idea gbdmagazine.com

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They say the arts inspire us, and that could well be the genesis of global lighting behemoth Lutron Electronics.

But who knew a mid-20th century inventor could be so prescient about present day needs to conserve energy while optimizing workplace conditions?

PHOTO: COURTESY OF LUTRON ELECTRONICS

By Russ Klettke

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The story of Lutron Electronics begins with founder and chief innovator, Joel Spira, looking for a way to dim the lights in the New York City apartment he shared with his wife Ruth. His inspiration may have come from nearby as dimmed lights were mostly found in Broadway theaters, where reducing lumens signaled the show was about to begin. That was in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Spira successfully replaced an old technology (large, clunky rheostats) with something smaller and newer, a type of transistor called a thyristor.

Spira’s thyristor transistors ultimately transformed homes, restaurants, shops, schools, and most other indoor settings. In addition to enabling a new kind of elegance and functionality, the devices reduced energy use—way before a time when conservation became cool.

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With this game-changing product, the Spiras founded Lutron Electronics, which today is a key player in the lighting controls industry. From its Coopersburg, Pennsylvania headquarters, northwest of Philadelphia, the company manages offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. The privately-held firm has expanded to 11,000 products that include controls, sensors, whole building systems, shading items, fluorescent ballasts, and LED drivers, as well as the technical support services to go with them.

But true to the original inspiration of the Spiras, most of those products accomplish two important objectives: the human benefits of lighting control and energy efficiency. The company estimates that its installed products in the US alone shave off electricity usage by 10 billion kWh, worth up to $1

billion in utility cost savings to customers.

Of note, a lot of what constitutes lighting controls today is more than just dialing artificial light up and down. With a greater emphasis on human comfort and workplace productivity, the control of natural daylight—sunshine—plays a very important role in the company’s product line. Here we look at the interplay of natural and artificial light, and how tools for managing both can be applied to structures old and new. This is about a company that fosters a culture of innovation, meeting the changing 21st century needs for occupant wellbeing, energy cost control, and environmental responsibility. So much is possible with evolving technologies.

In other words, it’s a brighter day for homes, shops, and workplaces. But only as bright as we want it to be. gbdmagazine.com

PHOTO: DOUG SCOTT

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Prior to a renovation of LMN’s 14,400-square-foot office, many of the architecture firm’s spectacular views were blocked by window shades.

Light Just Right for LMN Architects The office of LMN Architects, in the distinctly International Style Norton Building in downtown Seattle, take in a 360-degree view of some of the world’s most scenic urban vistas. To the west is Elliott Bay leading to the Pacific Ocean and to the east are the Cascade mountain ranges.

Architects and building owners everywhere like to boast about the views from their buildings. It’s part of the attraction of being in tall buildings; very often, the higher the floor, the higher the rent for that very reason. And yet, prior to a renovation of LMN’s 14,400-square-foot office on the fourth and fifth floors of this 17-story circa-1959 structure, a lot of those spectacular views were blocked. By window shades.

“Very standard vertical blinds were in gb&d

place before the renovation,” says Wendy Pautz, a partner in the firm and an architect known for her sophisticated knowledge of technical resolution and an ability to integrate that with conceptual design. The floor-to-ceiling windows, quite common in post-War construction, afforded much light, sometimes too much light, and sometimes-wanted, sometimes-unwanted solar gain. “They were manually operated, closed as needed, and often not opened later in the day.”

Designers and others, after all, work at screens where glare is unwelcome. So when the sun shone the most—generally welcome in Seattle’s rainy climate—the LMN staff weren’t able to take in Mount Rainier or their view of Elliot Bay beyond those window blinds.

The firm surveyed employees prior to the

renovation and found that, indeed, better access to views and daylight were a high priority. Architects are aware that natural daylight is a known contributing factor to a sense of wellbeing and to productivity.

Further, simply having something to look at farther away helps reduce computer eyestrain. At the right time, in the right place, and in the right amounts, light is useful and important.

LMN ended up employing a system in the renovation that meets these needs and then some (more on that below). But the firm first engaged its own research and development group, LMN Tech Studio, in light studies to explore alternative solutions. Their objective was to discover what would be optimal.

“Tech Studio brings together computer scientists and architects to develop new september–october 2015

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as well as they wished. The goal was to make the most of those awesome views while making better use of daylighting, optimize lighting quality throughout the office, and reduce energy consumption.

The first solution that they explored in detail was a “light shelf,” louvered panels that could tilt up and down according to the positioning of the sun and, they hoped, allow optimal useful daylight illumination, or UDI, into the workspaces without energy-wasting solar gain. A digital test was followed by a physical mockup of the light shelf, assembled by the Tech Studio. It was activated by a light sensor, to block sun as

needed. The test showed the system had a positive effect at removing glare and providing desired levels of shade at the perimeter of the floor.

But the light shelf fell short of expectation in other respects. It fully blocked views in the sunniest periods, and the movement of those shelves, responding to sunlight/cloudy variability, was distracting. Undaunted, Pautz and the Tech Studio team took what they learned and leaned on Lutron Electronics to offer an alternative solution.

Part of the solution was already in place.

“Daylight modeling helped us determine

PHOTO: DOUG SCOTT; PRODUCT SHOT: COURTESY OF LUTRON ELECTRONICS

design technology tools and improve implementation of existing tools. The studio supports specific projects and conducts independent research,” says Pautz. “A key aspect of what they were working on early in the process was energy and daylight modeling. Green can be intuitive, but using our own technologies, we can do a relative, early analysis of our ideas.”

The LMN Tech Studio uses building performance simulation, parametric modeling, digital fabrication, and human-computer interaction to serve the needs of clients, and, in this case themselves. What they found was their first idea didn’t work

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that moving workstations inward from windows by six feet would reduce the impact of solar glare at the building perimeter,” says Pautz. With that much established, a multi-component Lutron solution was developed to meet LMN’s objectives. They configured Hyperion Solar-Adaptive shades on the east, south, and west windows; a Radio Window Sensor, which triggers the shades to drop or rise depending on sunshine levels; and the Quantum Vue Facility Management Software, which adjusts artificial lighting in response to daylight and which enables monitoring, control, and optimization of the system as needed. While the

system is designed to be completely automated, it can be temporarily overridden by any office occupant as needed.

Importantly for this location, the shade fabric is a screen that allows occupants to still see through to the outside. The architects also treat different areas differently, giving some areas more light (e.g., open worktables where teams build architectural models) while areas such as circulation space receive less light.

Two years on from completion of the renovation, the firm has reduced its use of electricity for lighting by 56%. Additionally, an employee survey found that workers

Lutron used a Radio Window Sensor, which triggers shades to drop or rise depending on sunshine levels, to help with LMN Architects’ lighting problems.

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were pleased with the system overall. “This contributes to employee productivity,” says Pautz, adding, “in some ways the whole system is completely invisible. When you feel the sun, the shades drop. You’re more in sync with solar cycles.”

LMN does a great deal of work in designing sustainable spaces. Their approach to their office renovation is the same as their approach to their building projects. This includes four LEED Platinum projects, including the Vancouver Convention Centre West and Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry, and many more with green certifications.

Does the Lutron suite of lighting products offer opportunities for tenants of the thousands of International Style buildings around the globe? “Not just International Style,” says Pautz. “Any building with a lot of glazing can benefit. In any workplace environment, there is a need for connectivity to daylight.”

Lighting the Way: Experimentation Leads to Excellence Just as LMN Architects allowed their inhouse Tech Studio to experiment with different ideas before finding a workable solution, so too is the nature of things at Lutron. Ed Blair, general manager of Lutron’s window system business, says they want people to know that failure can be a key part of the learning process.

“We set up a work environment with a business model that allows us to go down roads with dead ends,” Blair says. “There is implicit waste in the creation process. But I view early failure as tuition to a greater education.”

Blair credits company founder Joel Spira, who passed away in April 2015, for establishing that kind of ethos. Spira repeatedly said he was driven to save energy and help people. Blair says that this is not a company trying to simply maximize profitability.

“That can be stifling to innovation,” he says.

So is this a companywide, structured process? “It’s less about that and more a

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mindset,” Blair says. Developing products that fit the increasingly complex needs of offices—healthy daylighting, not too much glare, and artificial lighting controlled to maximum efficiency and productivity—depends on a lot of integration and collaboration. Inside the company, he says that means that engineering, marketing, and sales people meet to discuss needs and ways to meet them. “Sourcing secondary information is good, but where it comes to integration of data points, it’s better to touch and taste it yourself to keep connected to the marketplace.”

But the company also looks outside for inspiration, for good reason. Lighting is connected to just about everything—building energy systems, building codes, as well as occupant health and productivity. Lutron maintains alliance relationships with other companies such as Honeywell, Siemens, and Trane. Several research universities and institutions also work with the company, including Purdue University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Pennsylvania State University, Carnegie Mellon Institute, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

From a trade association standpoint, the alphabet soup of organizations (ASHRAE, IES, NEMA and others) that write and influence

building codes and otherwise set standards for product performance and safety are integrated into Lutron’s product development process. Also, just staying close to customers and their needs, including those of architects, keeps the company forward thinking and rooted in the real business of improving buildings.

That includes staying on top of developments in the broad area of smart grids.

“These are many different things,” Blair notes, commenting on how much of the goal is to respond in real time to fluctuating energy prices and availability. “Energy aggregators are evolving. The challenge of the grid is it is not a steady-state entity. We plan to be at the forefront of smart grid technology as best we can because lighting changes can be as close to instant as possible.”

One such tool for doing that is Lutron’s IntelliDemand Load Shed, which enables facility managers to reduce lighting output in a system. This reduces energy costs while alleviating demand on utilities; utility customers are incentivized to do this through demand-response programs to help prevent brownouts during peak periods (think hot summer days). Homeowners too can tap into Lutron’s residential smart grid solugbdmagazine.com

PHOTO: DOUG SCOTT

“We set up a work environment with a business model that allows us to go down roads with dead ends, There is implicit waste in the creation process. But I view early failure as tuition to a greater education.” - Ed Blair

PHOTO: COURTESY OF LUTRON ELECTRONICS

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tions for many of the same reasons. The RadioRA 2 is a wireless light control system that can respond to communications from a utility’s smart meter to intuitively adjust lights, shades, audio-visual devices, and temperature settings (individual rooms and whole houses). With price-responsive controls, either through preset preferences or a manual override, lights, shades, and various appliances can be monitored and controlled remotely—including when utility companies inform the homeowner of dramatic price swings.

Where Blair touts the accepted risks of experimentation and discovery, he recounts the evolution of window shades and artificial lighting relative to the complicated nature of glass, light, and solar heat. “We worked with Purdue University on the hypothesis that automated shades would have a beneficial impact on HVAC loads,” he says.

“Note that sunlight casts 1,000 watts of energy per square meter. As it passes through glass, about 40% of that energy hits fabric.

But that same glass effectively traps most of the heat inside. So what we learned was that window shades only reduce heat absorption by about 10%. We kept our eyes open to new data in this discovery process, which told us the better benefit of shades gb&d

is in controlling light.”

That said, shading devices of all kinds have traditionally been and largely remain in the realm of aesthetic decor, not performance tools. But with Lutron’s ongoing research—and interest in the window shade business it acquired 15 years ago—shading materials and operations have advanced considerably. “To us, glass and fabric are a coupled system,” he notes. “The calculations are complicated, but we just launched a performance shading program which is a tool for architects. It takes a location and orientation of a window then runs up to 300 fabrics through a simulation lasting about ten seconds. It returns a palette of products that meet the performance needs.”

Could high-performance glass accomplish the same thing as shades? Blair says self-shading glass exists, but it’s very expensive and slow to respond to changes in light.

Which is not to say this company, which holistically considers solar and electric light in the same place, doesn’t consider that a future possibility.

The future is what they think about all the time. “Technology changes every month,” Blair says. “A big challenge is for architects to keep pace with the changes.”

ABOVE SAP headquarters include rainwater collection systems for landscape irrigation and toilet flushing, as well as green rooftops for better rainwater absorption.

FACING PAGE Two years on from completion of the renovation, LMN Architects has reduced its use of electricity for lighting by 56%.

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AWeber Communications is designed to allow daylight to penetrate deep into the open-office layout.

Total light management systems, like Lutron Quantum solutions, allow wireless management and adjustment of lights and shades from anywhere using the Quantum Vue app from any smart device.

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PHOTO: HALKIN-MASON PHOTGRAPHY; PRODUCT SHOT: COURTESY OF LUTRON ELECTRONICS

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Interior spaces can take advantage of natural light, and electric lighting automatically responds by adjusting light levels to supplement, rather than supplant, available daylight.

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THIS PAGE At the Ben Franklin Tech Ventures research facility, daylight is managed with shades that automatically raise and lower in response to the position of the sun.

FACING PAGE Brent Protzman, energy and analytics manager for Lutron.

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PHOTO: HALKIN-MASON PHOTGRAPHY

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“Everything has to be of mutual beneFit. In the process, we gain relationships. For the customer what matters is the overall operation.” - Brent Protzman Meanwhile, Lutron’s customer-facing people gently challenge the paradigm of who makes the decisions. “Shades still get bought in Division 12,” he says, referencing the fact that interior designers focused on furnishings aren’t necessarily integrated with building performance needs. As buildings become more technical, he suggests that part of the company’s task is to communicate product performance values across different channels.

Which might involve some failure, at least at first. But the lessons learned will not be wasted.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF LUTRON ELECTRONICS

Better Monitoring, Better Efficiencies Brent Protzman, energy and analytics manager for Lutron, thinks anyone looking to make a significant impact on energy could spend less time on new, LEED Platinum buildings and instead focus on what’s already been built. “There are so many old buildings out there that are not going away,” he observes.

Not that bringing 20+ year-old buildings up to 21st century standards is easy, but there is some pretty low hanging fruit out there. The chillers, lighting, and air

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infiltration technologies of today can yield double-digit reductions in energy and cost, all while improving human comfort.

The advantage of current products and systems comes with electronic monitoring and controls, enabling much waste to be reduced. “Most big old buildings have just one big electric bill,” says Protzman, alluding instead to the breakdown by location and usage type that Lutron monitoring technologies provide to building managers and tenants. This helps them to make rational decisions. “Quantum Vue Facility Management Software gives you actionable information.” In other words, this is smart data.

Spending time with customers and alliance-partners (companies, universities and code organizations), as Ed Blair mentions, is what Protzman does. In a dog-eatdog world, it might seem risky to share so much information that has to do with innovative products, but Protzman says that isn’t often a problem. “Everything has to be of mutual benefit,” he says. “In the process, we gain relationships. For the customer what matters is the overall operation.”

And with so much knowledge from different perspectives gathered in one place,

the seeds of innovation are essentially fertilized. As is awareness of the need: lighting consumes 37% of the $26 billion spent on electricity and refrigeration systems every year in North America (this varies by region, with greater energy use by cooling systems in warmer climates).

“Most people are unaware of that,” Protzman says. “When we break down that info most people say they want to do it better.

This is why energy monitoring interfaces are so important.”

But in the final analysis, Protzman indicates that a more sophisticated understanding of how light is used, where, and to what effect is what matters as much as energy efficiency.

“The mix of natural and artificial light is fundamental to workplaces,” he says.

“It has to be the right quality of light, including right amount and contrast, and it must represent the right visual hierarchy [what is most important in the field of view]. Light is important to visual tasks, finding our way, and highlighting architectural features.”

All of which suggests that what Joel Spira set out to do more than 50 years ago is still happening today, just with better tools and data and an appreciation for light, regardless of its source. gb&d september–october 2015

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DELTA CONTROLS AND COPPERTREE ANALYTICS SEEK TO IMPROVE BUILDING PERFORMANCE OVER TIME, REVERSING THE ENERGY DRAIN OF EXISTING BUILDINGS

BY BRIAN BARTH

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The expression “the devil is in the details” would make an apt motto for the often-overlooked profession of building managers. As buildings become increasingly complex and the mandate to reduce energy use permeates into every corner of the built environment, the need for advanced building management systems is accelerating. Designing buildings in an energy efficient manner is no longer the ultimate goal, but a starting point. Now is the time to perfect the art and science of operating buildings in an energy efficient manner over the course of their entire lifespan. There are big dividends to be had, both for the environment and the bottom line.

Delta Controls, one of the largest independently owned manufacturers of building automation equipment, has been a trusted ally of building managers around the world for more than 30 years. Several years ago, Delta received a call from the facilities manager of the Coquitlam, British Columbia School District, who was looking for help troubleshooting some of the mechanical systems for a multi-use facility housing an elementary school, daycare center, offices, and gymnasium. The newly completed LEED Gold facility was not living up to its design. Occupants were complaining of some rooms being too hot, while others were too cold. Even though the building was designed to meet stringent energy standards, gas and electricity consumption per square foot had been above the national average since day one.

“Our vision is of occupants going into buildings and buildings serving their needs, whether it’s access or lighting or comfort or security,” says Chris Kwong, Delta’s director of engineering—and it should do that with the least amount of waste possible. The trouble is that buildings change as they are used, unless the building team carefully monitors the building settings, and because they can be complex systems this isn’t always easy to do.”

At the Coquitlam School District’s new facility, the facilities manager was getting frustrated. Heat pumps and boilers were cycling on when they weren’t supposed to,

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the main air-handling unit was running almost non-stop, and the heat recovery unit wasn’t doing its job. Everything had been installed correctly, but the system program wasn’t performing. Technicians from Delta’s sister company, ESC Automation, revised the operational sequence of the HVAC equipment, fine-tuned the settings for occupancy-based system responses, and installed their enteliWEB monitoring system and Earthright Dashboard to make it easier for the building manager to keep track of the energy performance moving forward. The results were immediate and dramatic: energy consumption dropped 20%, and natural gas consumption dropped 28% within the first month.

“ESC Automation’s energy review enabled us to lower all aspects of utility consumption almost immediately,” says Matt Foley, facilities manager for the Coquitlam School District. “Even more importantly, we reduced our greenhouse gas emissions and provided superior comfort control in the classroom environment.”

COPPERTREE AND THE COPPER CUBE Delta Controls emerged onto the market at the confluence of the oil crisis of the late ‘70s and the advent of the first cost-effective microprocessors to come out of the hi-tech field. Building owners were looking to improve energy efficiency, and technology was providing the answers. In a way, not much has changed in 2015, except the imperative to reduce energy consumption is even greater, as is the technological capacity to meet the challenge. In 2012, Delta launched CopperTree Analytics to take the efficiency game to the next level.

CopperTree’s flagship product is Kaizen, cloud-based software that monitors building performance over time and empowers building managers with the information they need to improve and maintain efficiency. CopperTree technicians can get building data in a variety of ways, but they’ve also designed a device—the CopperCube—that integrates the data “and pulls it up to the cloud,” says Kevin Binnie, CopperTree’s di-

“OUR VISION IS OF OCCUPANTS GOING INTO BUILDINGS AND BUILDINGS SERVING THEIR NEEDS, WHETHER IT’S ACCESS OR LIGHTING OR COMFORT OR SECURITY,” SAYS CHRIS KWONG, DELTA’S DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING. “AS AN OCCUPANT ENTERS A BUILDING, THE BUILDING SHOULD KNOW THAT THEY ENTERED AND ENABLE THE THINGS THE OCCUPANT NEEDS— AND IT SHOULD DO THAT WITH THE LEAST AMOUNT OF WASTE POSSIBLE.“

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PHOTO: COURTESY OF DELTA CONTROLS

ABOVE ESC Automation’s energy review enabled this school to lower all aspects of utility costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

rector of product management. “And when it’s in the cloud we do deep analytics on it.”

In other words, Kaizen and the CopperCube are a way to use big data to save big on energy consumption—with an interface that’s as easy for building managers to operate as an iPhone.

Binnie says that “architects may not directly utilize our products, but it should be of some comfort for them to know that the vision and the design that they have for a building and the ‘greenness’ of that building, if you will, will be sustained through the life of the building.” gb&d

NO GREENWASHING HERE “One thing I hate,” says John Nicholls, the executive vice president of Delta, “is those brochures that use words like green or sustainability or leadership or innovation or any other of those clichés. You could put any company at the top of the brochure and it would read exactly the same.” In Nicholls’ view, the question is not how you sell clients on energy efficiency and Earth stewardship—there is ample demand for that—but on “how you differentiate yourself from what everybody else is doing.”

For Delta, sustainability is not a bandwagon, but a natural extension of the corporate culture they’ve promulgated since their founding. In a broad sense, Nicholls says Delta culture is based on a foundation of philanthropy. “Culturally, as an organization for 30 years, Delta has been the Ben & Jerry’s of the controls industry,” he says. “Yes, we’ve worked to reduce our footprint as an september–october 2015

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ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION AT THE COQUITLAM SCHOOL DISTRICT DROPPED 20% AND NATURAL GAS CONSUMPTION DROPPED 28% WITHIN THE FIRST MONTH AFTER THE BUILDING AUTOMATION SYSTEM WAS FINE-TUNED BY DELTA CONTROLS

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ABOVE At this school, energy consumption dropped 20%, and natural gas consumption dropped 28% within the first month of ESC Automation’s work.

niche. Every architect, building owner and citizen has a small role to play in that and Delta Controls, as a building management company, is not interested in blowing their role out of proportion to reality. Delta Controls make building automation systems that reduce energy use, plain and simple.

Their only goal is do it better and better all the time, which is why they launched CopperTree—building automation technology is getting so complex as more systems are integrated that there is a pressing need for advanced analytics to inform the decision-making process.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF DELTA CONTROLS

organization and we’ve removed harmful chemicals from our plastics. But it’s also about working in the community here in Vancouver; it’s about the two-story gym to make sure employees are healthy. All those things come from a philanthropic cultural aspect at Delta which extends all the way to the algorithms we put in the controllers.”

It’s not that Delta isn’t concerned with advancing the technology of energy efficiency—that’s the premise on which they were founded—but they are even more concerned with the level of service that they can offer to clients who seek those technologies.

There is a big difference between gloating about saving the world in broad-based PR campaigns and putting your head down to the do the work of reducing greenhouse gas emissions within your specific industry

BIG, BUT NIMBLE If lack of pretense is what defines Delta’s culture, a small business approach to cusgbdmagazine.com

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THE LESS SEXY SIDE OF SUSTAINABILITY tomer service is what defines their relationship with clients. They have a unique niche as the largest privately held company in the building management industry. Nicholls says there are a handful of “big boys” above them in terms of scale, but they all follow a corporate model for customer service: “they just put the tools out there and then let everyone sort out what they’re going to do with them. We build the tools, but everything is customizable so we can plug in the specifics whether it’s for an indoor pool in Moscow or an office block in California.”

Small companies certainly offer that level of customer service, but they don’t offer the global reach of a company the size of Delta who has 300 distributors in 86 countries on six continents. Delta walks the fine line of being “global, yet approachable,” says Nicholls, a strategy that is deliberately crafted by company leadership. “The other day one of our clients said to me: ‘can you imagine me going to Siemens and asking, will you change the way our alarm systems work or will you set up this new algorithm for me?’ I like that because it’s not just buzzwords, it’s something tangible that differentiates our approach.”

THE POWER OF PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS As a start-up within the larger company, CopperTree epitomizes the big-but-nimble balancing act at Delta. The applications for Kaizen are as diverse as the problems encountered by building managers. It can track more than 300 scenarios, but because it’s not just software, but a service, CopperTree technicians can create custom monitoring protocols for any building that uses Kaizen.

“You pay in part for real people that sit on the other end of the phone and help you develop the analytics,” Binnie says.

Besides the “fault detection and diagnostic tools” that CopperTree is known for, their Kaizen product also has predictive modelling capabilities built in with the Logic Builder platform. As an example of the precision that Kaizen is capable of, Binnie tells the story of the The Offices, a 10-story gb&d

The opening of a glistening new LEED Platinum building makes a great news story, but the point of the design is to save energy and other resources on an on-going basis, right?

“It’s a well-known fact that buildings degrade in their performance over time,” says Kevin Binnie, CopperTree’s director of product management. A LEED building that’s designed to meet certain energy consumption standards may work just fine when the building is first occupied, but as people move in and out, tenants complain that they’re hot or cold, changes are made to the automation system, equipment gets replaced—all these things have an impact on the performance of that building.”

If high tech LEED buildings degrade in their energy efficiency over time, think about how a building that was never designed for energy efficiency must fare. 75% of the energy consumed in the United States is consumed by buildings and 70% of buildings in North America were built in the ‘90s or earlier, before serious efforts to curtail greenhouse gases were underway. Binnie says that, on average, 30% of energy use in buildings is wasted on redundant activities or other inefficiencies—“that’s a huge opportunity.”

In response to the white elephant in the industry that is existing buildings, energy management systems have become quite common in recent years, but so far they’ve mainly been used to simply meter and track energy consumption. In contrast, CopperTree’s Kaizen software provides a fault detection and diagnostic system which not only tracks energy use, but analyzes huge volumes of data to pinpoint energy leakages. Now it’s possible to conclude exactly why energy use is creeping up without spending hundreds of man hours figuring it out. “Buildings are complicated and large so it’s difficult for individuals to go around and verify every last thing that the building is doing. That’s where Kaizen comes in—with fault detection diagnostics you have the ability to understand where the opportunities to improve efficiency are.” september–october 2015

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class-A tower that is part of the Four Seasons Hotel complex in Miami. The building automation provider, South Florida Controls, was undertaking a retrofit and wanted to change the pumps on the air chiller from full speed pumps to variable speed pumps, but first needed to convince the building owner on the ROI—one of those on-going decisions that building owners and operators make every year that determines the long term performance of a building.

Using Logic Builder, CopperTree helped South Florida Controls create an energy consumption model using the performance characteristics of the variable speed pumps.

The program forecast $5,000 in utility savings every month by changing the pumps—a number that would quickly pay off the capital investment. Importantly, Kaizen doesn’t just spit out information like that in an unintelligible spread sheet, it does it with a crystal clear graphic image. “If you see a graphic that says here’s how much energy you’re consuming today, but if you change out that equipment here’s how much energy you’re going to be consuming tomorrow—and those are a green line and a red line on a graph—it’s easy to follow, you get it right away,” says Binnie.

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BY THE NUMBERS 64% THE PERCENTAGE OF REDUCTION IN ELECTRICAL CONSUMPTION PER MONTH AT THE OFFICES

$5,000 THE MONTHLY SAVINGS IN ENERGY COSTS AT THE OFFICES AS A RESULT OF COPPERTREE ANALYTICS

$60,000 THE REALIZED ELECTRICAL SAVINGS THE OFFICES IS ON TRACK TO HIT IN 2015

1% PHOTO: CC BY 3.0 BY MARC AVERETTE

THE SAVINGS PREDICTED BY COPPERTREE SOLUTIONS WERE WITHIN 1% OF THE ACTUAL SAVINGS REALIZED FOR THE OFFICES

THIS SPREAD While Four Seasons guests stay cool in the pool, employees of The Office stay comfortable while working thanks to new variable speed pumps.

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Needless to say, the owner was convinced.

The project was financed and implemented and the results were tracked by Kaizen from day one. “The day that they installed the new pumps, we saw that energy consumption changed almost exactly as it was anticipated. They’re saving about $4,997 a month—not to make it too precise or anything,” says Binnie with a smile.

Needless to say, the owner was convinced.

The project was financed and implemented and the results were tracked by Kaizen from day one. “The day that they installed the new pumps, we saw that energy consumption changed almost exactly as it was anticipated. They’re saving about $4,997 a month—not to make it too precise or anything,” says Binnie with a smile.

FINDING THOSE HIDDEN ENERGY DRAINS CopperTree’s Kaizen can plug into any building, whether it’s using Delta Controls or another system, and start collecting data. It adapts to office towers, academic campuses, hospitals, multi-family housing, and any other environment ABOVE Kaizen adapts to any where building automation systems are other environment where building in use. The list of success stories is long automation systems are in use. and diverse, but the commonality in each is a hidden energy drain that was going undetected until Kaizen pinpointed it: quantities of data and suggest a few aca recreation center that was running tionable responses that will give the most its swimming pool and hot tub heaters bang for the buck.

24/7, even though the facility closed at Kwong says that the current emphasis 8 p.m. each day; a hospital where the on flexible work spaces that encourage snow melting system for their helipad employee mobility at work has made enwas on manual mode, leaving it running ergy efficient building automation much through the summer and racking up an more complex. Rather than set a program $18,000 energy bill; a school district that and let it run, he says Delta Controls is cut winter energy consumption by 50% af- “getting more and more into occupant ter CopperTree fine-tuned the scheduling detection. There are a lot of efficiencies of their air source heat pumps to avoid that can be improved by monitoring how using them during periods peak demand people move throughout a building. The charges from the utility provider. goal is make buildings smarter.”

These are some of the simpler scenariBinnie sees it as a win-win. “We like os where Delta and CopperTree solutions the fact that it helps building owners save have come into play, but the beauty of money, but we love the fact that it’s doing Kaizen is its ability to synthesize huge a better job for the world.” gb&d

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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF DELTA CONTROLS

THE GOLDEN STANDARD Kaizen software comes with a benchmarking tool called the Golden Standard. The idea, say Binnie, is to take a snapshot of building performance when everything is running smoothly and efficiently, “like a LEED or Living Building Challenge building on day one. Then you check and see if it is performing that way the next day and the next day and the next day.”

The Golden Standard incorporates all the settings of the building automation systems that have been programmed to keep the building performing optimally and makes sure they don’t get changed.

This helps to prevent building performance from degrading, but it also encourages actions that actually improve performance gb&d

ABOVE CopperTree’s Kaizen can plug into any building, whether it’s using Delta Controls or another system.

over the initial baseline. By making it easy to see the results of installing new equipment or putting an initiative in place to change occupant behavior in a way that causes energy use to go down, the Golden Standard incentivizes positive change.

“For example,” says Binnie, “If your schedule is from eight in the morning until five at night and there’s a system that’s running from five in the morning until midnight, that’s a problem. But if a tech goes in and reprograms it to meet the schedule, the Golden Standard dashboard will report the change.

It’s a positive change so the system will promote that as the new Golden Standard…this way you’re continually raising the bar in the building and keeping it from slipping back.” september–october 2015

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Find Comfort On Both Sides Of The Window

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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN

Up Front Typology Features Spaces Special Section Punch List

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116 Company Profile

Kohl’s

120 Sustainable Solution

MacroAir’s AirVolution-D

124 Material World

Unilock Eco-Optiloc

127 On the Spot

Mary Ann Lazarus

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Company Profile Kohl’s

By Vincent Caruso

Kohl’s recently announced its Greatness Agenda, a three year strategic plan to be the most engaging retailer in America.

As part of its new path forward, the company declared its purpose: “to inspire and empower families to lead fulfilled lives.” It is clear to anyone who has visited a Kohl’s store or shopped Kohls.com that they have a working formula for living up to their stated purpose. What is perhaps less plain to the eye of the casual shopper is that a key component to such success is the integration of sustainability practices in the way they do their business. Here, we caught up with Rebecca Sherman, director of sustainability and development, to get the details. gb&d: Kohl’s was one of the 2015 Energy Star Award winners. What was it about the Kohl’s brand that invited this recognition?

What green initiatives in particular were highlighted?

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Sherman: Kohl’s Department Stores has been a long-term supporter of EPA’s Energy Star program since 1998 and has been named Partner of the Year or Partner of the Year—Sustained Excellence annually since 2010. The impact of our partnership is measurable. To date, there are more than 970 Energy Star-certified Kohl’s locations—more than 80% of all Kohl’s stores nationwide. A major accomplishment for Kohl’s that contributed to this year’s award was achieving a 4.3% annual energy use reduction. In addition, 122 Kohl’s stores received Energy Star certification in 2014 alone. We’re proud to have the highest percentage of Energy Star-certified stores among US retailers.

ABOVE Kohl’s recycled 146,000 tons of waste in 2014, reducing the total amount added to local community landfills.

gb&d: What kind of impact has Kohl’s various efforts had on its customers and their communities. What sort of responses and/ or results have you seen? gbdmagazine.com

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970+ The number of Energy Starcertified Kohl’s locations, to date. 122 of which received certification in 2014 alone.

146,000 BELOW Thousands of Kohl’s associates volunteered across the country at youth-serving nonprofit organizations by participating in environmentally based activities as part of Kohl’s sixth annual National Go Green event.

160 The number of solar arrays Kohl’s has activated, making them one of the largest hosts of solar electricity in North America.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF KOHL’S

Sherman: Kohl’s Associates in Action (AiA) volunteer program fosters a culture of volunteerism across the country and encourages associates to contribute their time and talents to local youth-serving nonprofit organizations. Earlier this year, as part of the AiA program, thousands of Kohl’s associates volunteered their time across the country at youth-serving nonprofit organizations by participating in environmentally based activities as part of Kohl’s sixth annual National Go Green event.

Kohl’s recycling accomplishments also directly impact the communities we serve.

In 2014, we achieved an 86% recycling rate across our operations, surpassing our 2015 goal of 85%. Kohl’s recycled 146,000 tons of waste in 2014, reducing the total amount added to local community landfills.

Perhaps most noticeable to custom-

The amount (in tons) of waste Kohl’s recycled in 2014, reducing the total amount added to local community landfills.

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Our PlAce

IN The

Sun

Feel the power. We now have more than 160 solar locations, making Kohl’s one of the largest hosts of solar electricity in North America. We think we’ve got a pretty bright (and sustainable) future ahead of us. For more information about Kohl’s sustainability initiatives, visit KohlsGreen.com.

1160 60 over 160 solar locations

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For more information, visit KohlsGreen.com

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ers, Kohl’s provides free electric vehicle charging at select locations and several corporate offices to help customers and associates reduce their footprint.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF KOHL’S

gb&d: What does Kohl’s do to manage energy in terms of things like heating and cooling and lighting?

Sherman: Kohl’s maintains several key partnerships with organizations including Energy Star and the US Department of Energy’s Better Building Challenge to further enhance the efficiency of our stores, facilities, and corporate offices. Kohl’s facilities are equipped with a centrally monitored energy management system. All lighting, temperature, and ventilation are remotely controlled at each facility to optimize energy efficiency and ensure occupant comfort.

Kohl’s store associates can concentrate on the retail aspects of the business and assisting our customers rather than worrying about the lighting and temperature of the stores.

The rooftops of many of Kohl’s buildings provide a perfect setting for solar panels.

We are one of the largest hosts of solar electricity in North America, with more gb&d

than 160 solar arrays, five of which were activated in 2014. Each of our solar installations generates more than 50 megawatts of onsite green power, enough to offset 20 to 50% of a store’s energy use.

ABOVE Kohl’s is one of the largest hosts of solar electricity in North America, with more than 160 solar arrays, five of which were activated in 2014.

gb&d: Electric vehicles are still a relatively inaccessible endeavor in the realm of green energy. What inspired Kohl’s to get involved with electric vehicle programs? Do you see this facet of the industry growing in the near future?

performing general ongoing maintenance for all Kohl’s locations?

Sherman: Notably, Kohl’s is one of just a few retailers that offer electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to customers and associates free of charge. We currently have more than 150 EV charging stations across more than 75 stores and four of our corporate facilities. In 2014, we joined the US Department of Energy’s Charging Challenge, which encourages U.S. employers to commit to providing EV charging stations for their workforce. gb&d: In terms of building and design, what sort of practices do Kohl’s and third party teams employ to achieve optimal sustainability, as well as practices employed in

Sherman: More than 460 of our buildings are certified under the US Green Building Council’s LEED rating system, nearly 40% of all facilities. Features of Kohl’s LEED stores include use of more than 20% recycled and 20% regionally sourced (by cost) building materials, use of a cool white Energy Star-rated roof and water-efficient landscaping and plumbing fixtures, among many other attributes.

Kohl’s also utilizes recommissioning to evaluate existing locations for upgrades to improve sustainability. Recommissioning gives us an opportunity to ensure energy-using equipment is in good operating condition and address any discrepancies through maintenance and replacement. The result is lower costs over time and greater energy efficiency. In 2015, Kohl’s will recommission more than 100 locations. gb&d september–october 2015

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Sustainable Solution MacroAir’s AirVolution-D A look inside the company’s latest: the AirVolution-D premium fan line, which is the first of its kind

By Vincent Caruso

MacroAir isn’t merely a company that alternative. By employing transverse torque produces, they’re a company that invents technologies, MacroAir has devised a “DC and innovates. As a machine with such a brushless motor” that is three times smallseemingly limited and straightforwardly er in size while five times more powerful in fixed purpose, it’s almost easy to under- performing its functional purpose. stand why so little experimenting has been In addition to significantly reducing done with the tried-and-true fundamentals moving parts such as copper and magnets of commercial fans. Despite this, MacroAir –eliminating upkeep and maintenance costs, remains ahead of the curve as they have one other reason why AirVolution-D’s signaconsistently demonstrated themselves to ture DC brushless motor is a superior rival be. It’s almost unsurprising that they have to the traditional standard AC induction risen from the laboratory with a near rein- motor is that it remains energy efficient vention of the proverbial wheel. As a result, at all speeds. Conversely, “AC induction the latest from the MacroAir force is the motors drop off and become incredibly in“gearless” AirVolution-D premium fan line . efficient at anything other than full speed,” MacroAir was the first on the scene explains Eddie Boyd, MacroAir CEO and with the High Volume Low Speed (HVLS) president. And though the AirVolution-D fan, and they’ve beaten their competitors line operates advantageously at all speeds, to the punch yet again with the energy ef- the general need for the fan to be running ficient AirVolution-D fan line by subverting at full speed is in fact minimized. The Enthe fundamentals. While the gearbox has vironmental Protection Agency has even long been the principle vital organ of the recently given the product their stamp industrial HVLS fan, the MacroAir team of approval, inheriting the energy-saving has this time around omitted that ingre- benefits of the AirVolution-D’s optimal temdient entirely in favor of a more efficient perature control capabilities. “We needed

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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF MACROAIR

THIS SPREAD MacroAir’s latest is the “gearless” AirVolution-D premium fan line, designed in favor of efficiency.

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THE REAL BEAUTY IS HOW MUCH IT SAVES.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF MACROAIR

IT’S NOT ONLY A MARVEL OF ENGINEERING, IT’S A WONDER OF ECONOMICS. JUST ONE AIRVOLUTION-D FAN CREATES THE SAME COOLING EFFECT AS 20 SMALL CEILING FANS AT A FRACTION OF THE ENERGY COSTS. SO YOU CAN COOL A 20,000 SQ. FT BUILDING FOR JUST PENNIES A DAY. MACROAIRFANS.COM/SAVING

© 2015 MacroAir Technologies, Inc. 1995 - 2015 All Rights Reserved

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a solution to prevent major temperature meter) model, and even at that manages swings that we had in one of our work spac- to eliminate the shrill noise that is all too es. The area was always about 4-10 degrees familiar to the gearbox-based fans powered hotter in the summer and 6-12 degrees by three phase induction AC motors. “It’s colder during winter than the adjacent pleasant,” Boyd remarks, “Nobody wants to work areas,” says Michael Geeting, facili- hear a whining gearbox up there.” This also ties engineer at the EPA’s National Vehicle opens up the door for greater marketabiland Fuel Emissions Laboratory. “Since in- ity, Boyd explains, as it fulfills the obvious stalling the AirVolution-D, comfort levels needs of a plethora of institutions. “The in the work area for our employees has good thing about it, is that it also -opens improved their morale, and now our HVAC up potential opportunities—churches, auunits do not have to run as long to main- ditoriums, restaurants, theaters—so we’ve tain a consistent temperature in the area.” created a huge market with the fact that it He also notes that workspace temperature doesn’t make any noise at all.” is now stabilized within 2-3 degrees of the Temperature control is achieved by way surrounding areas during the seasons. of the de-stratifying process aided by the The AirVolution-D line is groundbreaking fans ability to help regulate a consistent in that it moves air more effectively while temperature from the floor to the ceiling. controlling both temperature, noise, and Usually, as Boyd explains, when heating a speed. Though the general sleek and simple building during the cold winter months, design of the fan might seem at first glance “You can see a 20 to 30 degree split in temto defy its engineering triumph, the AirVo- perature between the floor and the ceiling lution-D stunningly generates more than in a building that has heaters.” Thus, withtwo horsepower in its largest (170 newton out fans, this demands potentially heating gb&d

ABOVE The AirVolution-D line is groundbreaking in that it moves air more effectively while controlling both temperature, noise, and speed.

the building 20 to 30 more degrees to compensate. The de-stratification in effect conforms all space to the same temperature, which can result in substantial savings on energy costs.

While the AirVolution-D currently enjoys status as being the first of its kind, Eddie Boyd sees it as a needed revision to the industry template to be adopted universally over time. But that doesn’t mean MacroAir won’t continue to outshine their competitors. They are, after all, fundamentally different at their very core. “We’ve been able to do this because we’re constantly looking for ways to improve,” Boyd remarks. “That’s just the way we are.” gb&d september–october 2015

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Material World Unilock Eco-Optiloc

The environmentally friendly permeable pavers provide a police station with the perfect solution

By Rebecca Pogson

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When it came to the site design, the goals of the Aurora Police Headquarters in Aurora, Illinois were threefold: public safety, sustainability, and creativity. Because the project was attempting to meet LEED Gold certification, the need to obtain LEED points was also a major factor. For the parking lot of the headquarters, landscape architecture firm Schoppe Design Associates chose Unilock Eco-Optiloc permeable pavers as an environmentally friendly solution for drainage. “The major considerations when it came to pavement selection were that it needed to let rainwater pass through it while maintaining the structural integrity of the pavement,” says Schoppe Design Associates principal Mike Schoppe. “It

THIS SPREAD The pavers prevents shifting due to vehicles breaking and turning, increasing the structural performance and reducing maintenance costs.

also needed to be light in color in order to reflect as much light as possible.”

The Eco-Optiloc pavers are manufactured with a high-reflective value custom finish and an interlocking L-shape design that can easily handle heavier municipal vehicles, like police vehicles. A cobble-patterned surface allows rainwater to infiltrate and drain via a gently sloped subgrade to a bioswale and sedimentation basin at the south end of the property. gbdmagazine.com

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF UNILOCK

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“Permeable paving is an efficient solution for stormwater runoff because it can reduce flooding, increase water infiltration, recharge groundwater, and improve water quality,” says Mike Anderson of Unilock. Not only is the use of permeable pavers a recommended Best Management Practice under the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program requirements, but it is also a recommended construction practice under Low Impact Development and Leadership in Energy and Environment Design guidelines.

Able to withstand heavy loads, the specially designed L-shaped concrete pavers feature large spacer bars that create gaps or enlarged joints between the units, allowing for surface infiltration. Aggregate material within the joint filters rainwater flowing into the base.

According to Anderson, the shape of the pavers prevents shifting or twisting due to vehicles breaking and turning, which increases the structural performance and reduces annual maintenance costs.

“L-shaped pavers can also be mechanically installed, significantly reducing the initial installation cost when compared to manual installation,” Anderson says.

Utilizing tri-axis engineering first introduced to North America by Unilock, the pavers satisfy requirements for structural integrity, safety, cost, environmental impact, maintenance, and field-proven performance, and they also provide skid resistance and durability.

The pavers are also a flexible system, so their surface area can move slightly without jeopardizing the structural integrity.

“At the grand opening when buckets of water were dumped onto the Eco-Optiloc pavement and it immediately disappeared to the applause of the crowd, we knew that we had made the right pavement choice,” Schoppe says. gb&d gb&d

Permeable paving can reduce flooding, increase water infiltration, recharge groundwater, and improve water quality.

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Here at Delta Controls we have nearly 30 years’ experience in providing our customers with the right building control solutions.

Whatever their requirements, the customer is always at the forefront of our technology and innovation.

That’s why we’re still growing every year, with partners and projects in over 70 countries.

Get the solution you need from a partner you can trust.

Call now 1-604-574-9444 or visit our website at www.deltacontrols.com

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PUNCH LIST

On the Spot Mary Ann Lazarus

Mary Ann Lazarus, the subject of this issue’s In Conversation interview, answers our questionnaire and touches on everything from climate change to transportation to wisdom from The Rolling Stones.

Focus on opportunity and responsibility.

YOUR PERSONAL DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABILITY

Design that lasts in harmony with nature.

WHAT YOU’D PITCH TO PRESIDENT OBAMA IF YOU HAD 30 SECONDS

Don’t hold back! Keep pushing on every front, especially on climate change.

ONE TECHNOLOGY ON THE HORIZON THAT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

You can’t always get what you want (as Mick Jagger says). Keep asking questions and don’t lose faith.

TOPIC IF YOU WERE ASKED TO GIVE A TED TALK

CASUALTY OF THE CUTTING-ROOM FLOOR YOU’D RESURRECT

We need to get ready!: Climate adaptation for the built environment.

THE NEXT BIG IDEA WILL COME FROM

Nature: understanding how natural systems solve problems.

BUILDING YOU WOULD SAVE IF THE WORLD WAS GOING TO END

The Pantheon in Rome—an inspirational space that has withstood the ages (and dynamite!).

A CENTURY FROM NOW, HUMANITY WILL

Be carbon neutral, hopefully.

FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION

My bike.

WASTEFUL HABIT YOU’RE TRYING TO KICK

Eating almonds.

MOST MEMORABLE HOMETOWN HAUNT

I’m from Urbana, IL where we had an original McDonald’s where we could watch them peeling and cutting potatoes for French fries and scooping ice cream for milkshakes (I’m showing my age).

GREATEST PROFESSIONAL PET PEEVE

Over use of the term “sustainable.”

A CURRENT EVENT WE SHOULD FOLLOW MORE CLOSELY

PHOTO: COURTESY OF HOK

I’m crazy about the Pope and his latest encyclical—let’s keep watching its impact.

ENVIRONMENTAL COME-TO-JESUS MOMENT

Hurricane Katrina.

MOST COMPELLING ARGUMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

So that there’ll be a livable future state for human and natural systems 100 years from now.

gb&d

Continued from p. 23

WAY TO MAKE THE ENVIRONMENT A NONPARTISAN ISSUE

WHAT YOU’D TELL THE GREEN MOVEMENT IF IT WAS YOUR CHILD

Cheap, building-scaled energy storage systems.

IN CONVERSATION with Mary Ann Lazarus

The term “global warming.” We seem to be afraid to say it.

CURRENT PROJECT YOU’RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT

The Healthy Urban Ecosystem Initiative at Washington University in St. Louis.

BUILDING TREND YOU HOPE WILL NEVER GO OUT OF FASHION

Biophilia.

PERSON WHO HAS MOST INFLUENCED YOUR PHILOSOPHY

Janine Benyus, founder of Biomimicry 3.8.

MOST USEFUL INDUSTRY EVENT

Greenbuild and LivingFuture—each inspiring in their own way.

EXPLAIN “GREEN” TO A KINDERGARTNER

Green is like a tree: growing from the ground and returning to the ground, and cleaning the air in between.

MOST COMMON GREEN MYTH

Clean Coal.

ONE QUESTION INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS SHOULD ALWAYS BE ASKING THEMSELVES

How will this building adapt to future net zero or net positive mandates?

PUBLICATION YOU HOPE WILL NEVER DIE

BuildingGreen.

THE THOUGHT OR IDEA THAT CENTERS YOU

It might sounds trite but my husband, fellow architect Dan Jay and our three children, David, Laura, and Michael.

been exposed to some interesting new technology. There are devices that can monitor an individual’s health and productivity and adjust things accordingly—the kind of technology that can customize spaces in real time. That kind of thing impacts energy savings and health and wellness. Understanding the way that your personal phone and other devices can control systems is fascinating. I think that’s where things are headed in conjunction with the rapidly changing sophisticated control systems now. gb&d: What’s the biggest piece of advice you could offer young architects entering the field now?

“We are at a critical juncture on this planet, and architects are designing solutions that have a long-term impact so we have to be wise about what we’re doing.”

Lazarus: The obvious is to follow your interests. If you are doing things that you really care about, it will take you someplace exciting, and I think that’s been true in my career.

I never would have planned when I started at HOK that I’d be doing what I’m doing now, but I was given amazing opportunities at that firm and followed where they led. There is something to just letting your interests be your guide, and I’m continuing to do that. The other thing is to recognize architects play an important role right now. We are at a critical juncture on this planet, and architects are designing solutions that have a long-term impact so we have to be wise about what we’re doing. To the young professionals, this is your chance because it’s time for a real change and you’re prepared for it in a different way than I ever was when I was at school. It’s serious, but also exciting at the same time. gb&d

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gb&d Exchange Your go-to resource guide for incorporating sustainable practices into your business.

INTERESTED? Contact Krystle Blume at krystle@gbdmagazine.com

CHARLIE TRUJILLO:

T: 801-908-5859

F: 801-972-9074

E: CHARLIE@CMTLABORATORIES.COM

2796 SOUTH REDWOOD ROAD WEST VALLEY, UTAH 84119

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At IdeaPaint we believe big thinking should have no boundaries.

Our dry erase paint transforms any flat surface into a collaborative work tool. for inspiration visit ideapaint.com

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PUNCH LIST

BACnet International: Continually Raising Building Standards

Leading the World in Building Protocol Standard: BACnet plays a significant role in building automation projects worldwide. In 2015, the open communication protocol for BACnet celebrated its 20th anniversary of being ANSI standard. This follows the 10th anniversary in 2014 of BACnet being published as DIN EN ISO standard. Today, there are thousands of product models and millions of devices speaking BACnet.

Improving Interoperability: BACnet International is an industry association that facilitates the successful use of the BACnet protocol in building automation and control systems through interoperability testing, educational programs and promotional activities.

Achieving the Mark of Distinction: The BACnet Testing Labs (BTL) Mark provides users with assurance that a product has passed the industry standard BACnet conformance tests conducted by a recognized, independent testing organization. The BTL Mark is a mark of distinction, achieved by more than 600 products, that many building owners and control system designers look for as a must-have in order to be eligible for a project.

} Discover More Today: www.bacnetinternational.org gb&d

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Directory & Index

ADVERTISERS

A AJM Architect, 24 ajmarchitect.com 631.367.8626 American Hydrotech, 89 hydrotechusa.com 800.877.6125 B BACnet International, 129 bacnetinternational.org 770.971.6003 Bark House, 88 barkhouse.com 828.765.9010 BOMA, 131 boma.org 202.408.2662 C Cityscape Global, 8 cityscapeglobal.com +44 (0) 207 017 5000

Covestro covestro.com 412.413.2000 CMT Engineering, 128 cmtlaboratories.com 801.908.5859 D Delta Controls, 35, 126 deltacontrols.com 604.574.9444 E Elkay, 18 elkay.com 630.574.8484 G Greenbuild, 14 greenbuildexpo.com 866.606.7765 H Huber Engineered Woods, 36 huber.com 706.336.3148 I IFMA, 2 ifma.org 713.623.4362 K Kohl’s Department Stores, 118 kohls.com 855.564.5705 KSP Construction, 88 Kspconstruction.com 203.770.8033

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L Lutron Electronics, Inc., 90 lutron.com 610.282.3800 M MacroAir, 123 macroairfans.com 866.668.3247 R Rehau Construction LLC, 114 rehau.com 703.777.5255 RJ Stegora, 24 rjstegorainc.com 612.889.8277 S SCA Tork, 3 sca-tork.com +46 31 746 00 00 V Valspar, 132 valspar.com 612.851.7636 Verge, 4 greenbiz.com 510.550.8285 W Wasco Windows, 126 wascowindows.com 414.4361.9900

PEOPLE & COMPANIES

# 2015 Sustainability City Index, 22 A AdvanTech, 72 Afton, Rick, 47 AIA National, 20 AirVolution-D, 120 Alexander, Jeff, 42 Alkatout, Julie and Tarek, 28 Allweather Aluminum, 41 American Hydrotech, 21 American Institute of Architects, 13 Anderson, Mike, 125 Ankrom Moisan Architects, 34 ARCADIS, 22 Aurora Police Headquarters, 124 B Baczek, Steve, 66 Bayer Group, 52 Bayer MaterialScience, 52 Beaudry, Channing, 41 Belzberg Architects, 76 Belzberg, Hagy, 76 Bergman Passive House, 30 Berkshire Wilton Partners LLC, 83 Better Building Challenge, 123 Binnie, Kevin, 106 Biomimicry 3.8, 17

Biomimicry Guild, 13 Blair, Ed, 98 Boyd, Eddie, 120 C Centennial Park, 19 Channing Beaudry, 41 CMG Landscape Architecture, 21 Connelly Trade School, 52 Cool Roof Rating Council, 48 Copper Cube, 106 CopperTree Analytics, 106 Coquitlam, British Columbia School District, 106 Covestro, 52 D Delta Controls, 106 DeMetrick Housewrights, 64 DeMetrick, Stephen, 64 design studio ma, 79 E Earthright Dashboard, 106 Eian, Tim, 28 Elkay, 17 Energy Innovation Center, 52 Energy Star, 46 enteliWEB, 110 US Environmental Protection Agency, 120 US Environmental Protection Agency National Vehicle & Fuel Emissions Laboratory, 123 US Environmental Protection Agency National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, 125 US Environmental Protection Agency Urban Heat Island Pilot Project, 47 ESC Automation, 106 EuroLine Windows, 34 F Facebook, 20 Facebook West Campus, 21 Fluropon, 40 Foley, Matt, 107 FORTIFIED Home, 72 Four Seasons Hotel, 110 G Garrow, Marlene, 48 Geeting, Michael, 123 Gehry, Frank, 20 Gehry Partners LLP, 20 Gilbert, Ray, 34 Golden Standard, 113 The Gores Group, 76 Green Engineering Projects, 30 Green Hammer, 34 H Habitat for Humanity, 61 Harvard University, 19 Hayes, Greg, 43 Highland Craftsmen, 87 HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design, 13 Honeywell, 98

Hong Kong International Airport, 19 Huber Engineered Woods LLC, 64 Hutton Hotel, 22 Hydron Module, 41 Hyperion, 97 I Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, 72 IntelliDemand Load Shed, 98 International Builders’ Show (IBS), 67 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), 68 International Living Future Institute, 48 J Joan Behnke & Associates, 79 Joeb Moore & Partners LLC, 82 K Kaizen, 106 Kameleon, 39 Kearns, Larry, 87 Kile, Rick, 21 Kingspan Group, 40 Knezovich, Mike, 24 Koch, Kurt, 67 Kohl’s, 120 Kohl’s Associates in Action (AiA), 121 KSP Construction, 83 Kwong, Chris, 106 L Lamar, Dylan, 34 Lambach, Jim, 55 Lazarus, Mary Ann, 13 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 48 LEED, 24 LEED Gold, 21 LEED Platinum, 52 Living Building Challenge, 24 Lutron Electronics, 94 LMN Architects, 95 LMN Tech Studio, 95 Logic Builder, 109 M MacroAir, 120 MacClearly, Jerry, 55 McCurry, Chris, 87 MechoSystems, 41 Miller, Bill, 52 Moore, Joeb, 82 Morin Corporation, 40 MPK20, 20 Museum of Contemporary Art

Los Angeles, 76 Musso, Anthony J., 30 N National Stadium Bird’s Nest, 19 Net Zero, 24 New Mexico State University, 19 Nicholls, John, 107 Nordeast Nest, 28 Northcote, Richard, 58 O Oak Ridges National Laboratory, 48 The Offices, 114 O’Hare International Airport, 19 Orchards at Orenco, 34 P Passive House, 26 Passive House Alliance, US, 28 Passive House Institute United States, 24 Pautz, Wendy, 95 Pittsburgh Gateways, 52 Polyiso Board, 55 Protzman, Brent, 103 Q Quantum Vue Facility Management Software, 97 R Radio RA2, 99 Radio Window Sensor, 97 REACH, 34 REHAU, 34 Retrofit Chicago, 22 Rezac, Josh, 79 RJ Stegora, Inc., 28 Rhode Island School of Design, 65 S Sajdak, Ellen, 17 Schoppe Design Associates, 124 Schoppe, Mike, 124 Seattle Museum of History and Industry, 98 Shah-Giannaris, Nina, 30 Sherman, Rebecca, 116 Siemens, 98 South Florida Controls, 110 Spira, Joel, 94 Stegora, Ryan, 28 Steve Baczek Architect, 66 Sustainability Leadership Opportunity Scam (SLOS), 20 T TE Studio, 28 Thiel, Tim, 52 The Offices, 109 Trane, 98 U UChicago Child Development Center–Stony Island, 87 Unilock, 125 Unilock Eco-Optiloc, 124 Urban Heat Island Pilot Project, 46 US Department of Energy Better Building Challenge, 119 US Department of Energy Charging Challenge, 119 US Green Building Council, 21 V Valspar, 39 Vancouver Convention Centre West, 98 W Washington University, 13 Wheeler Kearns Architects, 87 Z ZIP System, 64 Zuckerberg, Mark, 20

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