Alternative Energy Bulletin

Green Building

Green building is the practice of:

1. increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their locations use energy, water and materials, as well as,
2. reducing the impact of buildings on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal of buildings. [1]

Background 

The energy crises of the 1970's spawned research into green building, with the development of new glazing technologies and solar designs, as well as the development of natural cooling, ventilation and daylight systems.  Many private sector and government funded demonstration projects were built at this time and in the decades that followed.

Yet even today, with increased funding and advances in green building design, the building sector still accounts for almost half the energy consumed in the United States.  Worldwide, the building and construction industry consumes more fossil fuels and natural resources than any other human activity. [2]

The 2030 Challenge

Global warming concerns have sparked a green building renaissance.  Former Vice President Al Gore says that "...new architecture and design techniques are creating dramatic new opportunities for huge savings in energy use and global warming pollution.  As an example of their potential, the American Institute of Architecture and the National Conference of Mayors have endorsed the 2030 Challenge asking the global architecture and building community to immediately transform building design to require that all new buildings and developments be designed to use one half the fossil fuel energy they would typically consume for each building type, and that all new buildings be carbon neutral by 2030, using zero fossil fuels to operate."

Among American cities, Chicago has taken the lead in these efforts. Chicago, boasts one of the world's only municipal buildings given a platinum rating for its green design and operations by the organization Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

[Chicago] first drew real attention to its greening efforts, when it planted a lush garden on the rooftop of City Hall.  The city has planted or negotiated the construction of over 2 million square feet of rooftop gardens, more than all other U.S. cities combined." [3]

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley [got the green roof idea] from a trip to Germany in the late 1990s.  Chicago's 12-story City Hall got a new, green roof in 2000.  The benefits arrived quickly - just like the crickets and grasshoppers.  The temperature on the City Hall roof is as much as 70 degrees lower than the mercury reading on the black tar roof of the adjacent Cook County Building, Merritt said.  

Six years after the City Hall roof went on, Chicago has 250 green roofs either completed or under way on public and private buildings, including schools, libraries and fire stations. Some 2.5 million square feet of rooftops are green." [4]

The city's efforts are drawing attention. Green Bay Mayor James Schmitt, who launched his Greener Green Bay campaign during his recent State of the City speech, is sold and makes no apologies for trying to copy Chicago.  "We're a blue-collar, paper-making, NFL football town," he says.  "We're very young in this, and we're going to use Chicago as a model." [5]

References:

1. Green Building, Wikipedia 
2. Case Studies, Architecture2030.org 
3. The Greening of Chicago, Eric Ferkenhoff, Time magazine, 12 May, 2006
4. On the roof, nature takes root, Michael Cass, Tennessean.com, 27 November, 2006 
5. The Greening of Chicago, Eric Ferkenhoff, Time magazine, 12 May, 2006

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