Is Green Building a Movement or a New Core Discipline? By Greg Shank

There have been many moments of visioning, inspiration, and goal-setting during this year's GreenBuild Conference. Behind those public announcements, however, is a fascinating dialogue that is examining the future of green building standards and advocacy. I've spoken with many people this week who feel strongly that green building will eventually become the norm, and we won't need to label it green any longer. There are also many who feel there will always be a need to push the global construction industry towards higher levels of achievement related to environmental impact, health, and social equity.

I find myself solidly in the latter group, arguing that new disciplines are emerging within the global industries that plan, permit, design, construct, operate, and renew our built environment. What are these new disciplines? I certainly don't have all the answers, but here are some possibilities:

1. Visualization and Spatial Modeling – a new crew of professionals is emerging that blends knowledge of architectural design with basic engineering and energy to provide project teams with an integrated picture of the context and performance of the project throughout its lifecycle.

2. Construction Integrators – I would argue that construction management, as a trade, needs to be replaced with construction integration. The old model of employing team members to watch over the handoff of information from architect to contractor does not meet the needs of high performance building projects. The future lies in professionals that can coach the teams all the way through and connect designers and builders at critical intervals.

These ideas just scratch the surface of how green building professionals might evolve into core pieces of every project in the future. Stay tuned for more ideas or share your own!

-Greg

Greg Shank is the Vice President of CTG Energetics

Progressive Products, Policies Championed as Greenbuild 2008 Opens By John Irvine

Greenbuild 2008 opened Tuesday evening in pointed contrast to the financial doom and gloom clogging the media. Close to 30,000 attendees are expected, up from last year’s 22,800. An additional 15,000 participants worldwide will watch via web hook-up. This largest-ever Expo of firms showing green building related wares and skills sends a clear message: tough financial times haven’t deterred the producers of green products and services. Design firms, contractors and consultants are here en masse, alongside exhibitors offering everything from waterless urinals and high efficiency HVAC systems to LED lighting and pervious paving. More than 1,600 firms are exhibiting—a 33% increase over the 2007 conference.

The keynote speech Wednesday morning by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu was an inspiration. Archbishop Tutu thanked the green building movement for helping save the planet, noting that “caring for our earth home is becoming part of the texture of our morality. Not caring is like not caring about egregious human rights violations.” The 1984 Nobel Laureate lavished praise on the green building movement: “You are the cat’s whiskers ... wonderful, fantastic people.” He lauded the US more broadly for electing Barack Obama to the presidency -“He’s an incredible guy” and adding (with feigned jealousy), “He’s not only young but handsome!” In his closing remarks, Archbishop Tutu left the audience with a simple yet profound request: “Please help make this a more caring world.”

Earlier in the morning, Founding Chair and CEO Rick Fedrizzi marked USGBC’s 15th anniversary proceedings with a call for the green building industry to create 2.5 million jobs in five years. These workers would form “the backbone of the new economy” by performing energy audits, weatherizing homes and optimizing the performance of building systems. Rick said this endeavor to bring about cleaner air, lower carbon emissions and a higher quality of life was our “moonshot challenge.” He predicted schools, homes and office buildings would become “mini-utilities” by generating more energy than they consumed. The result would be large, green livable cities - which is where half the Earth’s population resides. Rick’s conclusion: “We are revolutionary green.”

-John

John Irvine is CTG’s Director of Client Services.

Greenbuild 2008 Kicks Off! By John Irvine

With the opening of the expo yesterday at 5:30, this year’s Greenbuild conference is off to a great start!

If you’re attending the conference, please drop by our booth - #1340.

Please feel free to attend sessions presented by CTG directors Chris Pyke and Gail Stranske.

Wednesday, 11/19 12:00-1:00 PM EST – Specialty Update, Room 157B - Engaged Offsets: Environmental Action Meets Social Justice – CTG Director of Energy Services Gail Stranske will address LEED requirements for the Energy & Atmosphere section with respect to buildings that are connected to district networks for heating or cooling. Her session will review new USGBC guidelines and provide professional advice on implementation.

Wednesday, 11/19 4:00-5:30 PM EST – Session GR04, Room 210AB - Engaged Offsets: Environmental Action Meets Social Justice – CTG Director of Climate Change Services Chris Pyke will discuss the emerging concept of “Engaged Offsets,” an alternative to traditional carbon offset programs.

John

John Irvine is CTG’s Director of Client Services

Don’t just offset. Engage with offsets. By Chris Pyke

We’re starting to understand the rules of the road for our transformation to a low carbon future: First, reduce energy demand. Next, use energy efficiently. Seek our clean energy supplies. However, we’re also learning that these steps often leave us short of carbon neutrality. To achieve carbon neutral operations, it is often necessary, at least in the short term, to seek offsite emissions reduction, also known as carbon offsets.

Offsets can be valuable and economically important tools for achieving real emissions reductions. They help address the reality that the costs of squeezing that last 10% of carbon out of a project are often much greater than the costs of eliminating the first 10%. This means that we can stretch our emissions reduction dollars by attacking the “first 10%” from many projects. This kind of thinking leads economists to call offsets “efficient” and, in theory, allows us to reduce the cost of achieving emissions reductions.

However, this kind of thinking also turns emissions reductions into a commodity. Carbon as corn, soy beans, or pork bellies. However, a ton of carbon is not always just a ton. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions often come attached to important co-benefits. For example, they can reduce monthly energy bills for low-income households, reduce traditional criteria air pollutants, and support broader environmental and restoration protection efforts, such as lake acidification.

Used strategically, offsets can be used to reduce emissions and achieve important social and economic objectives, such as increasing housing affordability or improving schools. This is basis for an important new sustainability strategy: engaged offsets. With engaged offsets, emissions reductions are targeted at projects or populations with the goal of reducing greenhouse gases and serving a larger purpose.

CTG recently completed a demonstration project in the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans. CTG designed and implemented an engaged offset program that targeted a low-income community recovering from Hurricane Katrina. CTG worked with Toyota Motor Sales, USA to characterize the carbon footprint of its tradeshow operations. CTG then arranged for a donation from the company to a small non-profit organization called Hope Has a Face. This donation provided funds for solar hot water heaters to be purchased and installed in renovated housing units and a community center. Over the life of the units, the project will offset over 1,200 metric tons of carbon emissions and save residents thousands of dollars in energy bills. This win-win situation reduces impacts on the planet and helps a community that really needs it. The engaged offsets model can be applied anywhere to link entities that desire emissions reductions with those that would benefit from measures to create them.

Learn more at Greenbuild. Listen and join the discussion on Wednesday afternoon (11/19) at session GR04 Engaged Offsets: Environmental Action Meets Social Justice. Or, contact Chris Pyke for more information cpyke@ctgenergetics.com.

Chris

Dr. Chris Pyke is CTG Energetics' Director of Climate Change Services

Welcome to our new blog! By Malcolm Lewis

Greetings from CTG! Thank you for visiting our new blog – we’re very excited to launch this new tool to communicate with you.

One of the challenges of the green building industry is keeping up with all the changes that affect us. From technological advances to new legislation and regulations, the pace and volume of information is intense. CTG strives to share with current and future clients our knowledge and perspectives about what is changing, how it affects strategy, and what opportunities are created. This blog is designed to address these challenges.

The 2008 Greenbuild conference in Boston next week is an excellent example. Between the workshops, speakers, educational sessions and expo it would be impossible for just a couple of people to capture all this information. CTG is sending 24 people to the conference this year so we can cover and collaborate on all topics. Our team will be using this blog to share information on topics ranging from the new LEED 2009 rating systems to sustainable communities to carbon offsetting and more.

Specifically, CTG’s Director of Climate Change Services, Dr. Chris Pyke, is contributing as a panelist this year in a session entitled “Engaged Offsets: Environmental Action Meets Social Justice.” Chris will be discussing how the relatively new concept of “engaged offsets” – an alternative to traditional carbon offset programs - was recently implemented in a program in New Orleans. He'll share how the program resulted in a significant reduction of GHG emissions while providing an incredible amount of social benefits. As a follow up to this session, Chris will share his thoughts on this blog.

Whether you're attending the Greenbuild conference or not, I encourage readers visit this blog often and subscribe to the feed. We'll be covering a wide range of topics from the conference, but in the coming weeks and months content will encompass many different areas. I look forward to future topics such as how the economy factors into a strategy for sustainability, and what effects the new Federal administration and regulations will have on our clients and our industry. I invite you to share any thoughts, questions, or opinions you have by replying to this blog.

More to come – thanks for reading!

Malcolm

Malcolm Lewis is the President of CTG Energetics