Green Options » building design

Address Climate Change With These Tips

Dawn Killough — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:30:27 +0000

Building Design and Construction recently published a white paper on the effects of green building on climate change. Included in the paper were 22 specific action items that building designers can put into action today to address climate change.

Here are a few of them:

1. Write out your firm’s position and actions on climate change and include this in RFPs and all your marketing information.

2. Quantify and document the emissions that have been mitigated by your company.

3. Use the many resources available on the internet for energy savings and emissions reduction ideas.

A Safari into a Green Roof Jungle

Amiel Blajchman — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:03:04 +0000

Toss this under the headline of innovating and challenging. Green Roof Safaris is a fairly new European company that provides access to North Americans (and Europeans presumably) to tour state of the art green roofs in Germany and Switzerland.

The founders Christine Thüring and Jörg Breuning are green roof professionals who have collaborated in the past on green roof tours in conjunction with the World Green Roof Congress.

Great Air Barriers Equal Energy Savings

Dawn Killough — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:25:43 +0000

In a recent article in Environmental Building News (June 2008), author Tristan Korthals Altes informed us that having a working air barrier on the outside of a building could save as much as 30% off heating and cooling costs. I was quite surprised to find out how much of a difference an air barrier could make. I knew that air leaks in a building were not good, but did not realize that it costs so much in heating and cooling to compensate for them.

What is an air barrier?

An air barrier is any material that prevents outside air from getting in, and inside air from getting out. Possible materials include siding, sheetrock, roof felt, building paper, caulking, doors, and windows. Some of these materials are better than others at blocking the flow of air.

There are times when you may want air flow, so some of the materials are controllable, such as doors and windows. These aren’t a problem, most of the time (unless you forget that they are open). The problem comes from all the gaps and openings that you can’t see. That is where the money is at!