Green Options

Honey bees are disappearing. The story has been in the news on and off since 2006, but for one reason or another, most people have paid little attention. And the situation is significantly dire.

The AIA is offering a great resource: 50 building design strategies to reduce fossil fuel use and move towards carbon neutrality.

Here we are officially at the start of what promises to be a year of taking steps towards the sustainable lifestyle that will positively impact us over the long term. What better time than now to think about how you can plan your green building efforts over the course of this year.

As always, the writers of Green Building Elements are here to guide you with all of the wonderful green resources that we here about everyday.

If you have not already [...]

The American Institute of Architects has launched a series of short videos designed to educate their clients on the principals of green building and how architects can help them achieve their goals.

The AIA and dwell Magazine have announced the winners for their “How Green Are You?” contest. (For background on the contest, see “The AIA and Dwell Magazine Team Up to Spread the Word about Sustainability,”  published on Green Building Elements last April.)

The contest recognized affordable home designs that achieve sustainability in creative ways.  Juror Robert M. Rogers, FAIA, of Roger Marvel Architects states in a press release on the AIA website, “We were especially intrigued with projects that executed beautiful design ideas and were inherently green by concept. From small ideas for the kitchen, to a way of life, the winners embodied these principles.”

Kansas City MO architect Bob Berkebile is one of the key figures in establishing the importance of green building in this country.  Berkebile was instrumental in the founding of both the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) as well as the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment (COTE).

Those once-radical ideas have started to go mainstream. In 1993, Berkebile helped create a new group that wasn’t confined to architects: the U.S. Green

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Last week, in writing about this year’s AIA Committe on the Environment’s COTE Top Ten winners, representing the best “examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment,” I asked “Are COTE Winners Too Much of the Same?” While I am certain I’m not alone in that viewpoint, I’ve come across some other perspectives on that question.

One of the jurors from the panel that selected this year’s COTE Top Ten wrote about her experience and some of the things that she saw in the jury. And the question of great architecture versus green architecture was also raised in the AIA weekly newsletter this past week as well. The COTE Top Ten showcases some very attractive buildings with some serious green building credentials (LEED Gold and Platinum buildings and a building that claims “carbon neutral opearations”, to name a few). But the larger question seems to be how much green building and good building design are, or can be, connected.

The winners of this year’s AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Green Buildings were announced this week, and there certainly are some very attractive buildings among the lot. Some of these buildings are certified, or in the process of becoming certified, to high LEED standards, in addition to their COTE Top Ten recognition.

But while I’m excited by some of the design presented in this year’s lineup, there are some troubling aspects of the roster as a whole that struck me almost immediately.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has ambitious goals for reducing carbon emissions related to the built environment: it hopes to make all buildings carbon neutral by 2030, and aims for a 50% fossil fuel reduction by 2010. But to accomplish what is, in effect, a complete overhaul of the way the construction industry operates, the AIA must make sure that its message is heard by people outside its own membership. Toward that end, the group announced its “Walk the Walk: Architects Leading the Sustainable Evolution” campaign On January 15th of this year.

Architecture Week was first established one year ago as part of the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the American Institute of Architects.  This year, for the second Architecture Week, there are three big programs the organization is promoting.  But sustainability gets only a passing mention in one of them, and seems not to be part of the focus anywhere in the program.

While the AIA has another program it also began last year titled “Walk the Walk” that offers a good number of resources on sustainability both for architectural clients and the general public, as well as for architects and other building professionals, the topic is not highlighted in the Architecture Week program in any significant way.