Building Code for Sustainable Concrete Construction Emphasize ‘Functional Resilience’

Building requirements developed by PCA, IBHS stress durability as well as energy efficiency and other green building requirements

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A sustainable building with a higher degree of durability can decrease the amount of materials going to landfills and use of community resources when disasters occur

September 20, 2010

Each year in the United States, more than $35 billion in direct property loss is caused by natural disasters. Yet, while states and municipalities are seeking to adopt ordinances that require “green” or “sustainable” construction, they are overlooking disaster-resistance construction.

To allow local governments to adopt green building codes that address high performance as well as conventional sustainable features, the Portland Cement Association (PCA) and the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) have developed High Performance Building Requirements for Sustainability 2.0. The criteria are written in mandatory language that amends and appends the International Code Council International Building Code (IBC).

The document includes the concepts in most other sustainability or green standards like energy, water and material resource conservation, and indoor air quality while enhancing disaster resistance and setting more stringent durability requirements.

“Using these requirements will give forward-thinking communities not just more efficient buildings, but more sustainable communities that have the ability to resist and recover from disasters when they occur,” said Wanda D. Edwards, PE, IBHS director of building code development.

PCA and IBHS have aligned the provisions with the concepts of both the Whole Building Design Guide (wbdg.org) and High Performance Building Council. Enacting and enforcing these provisions provides the basis for designers and owners to obtain certification as a US Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction (LEED-NC).

The criteria are organized by chapter and section consistent with the IBC format and is intentionally limited to issues typically within the purview of the building code and zoning and land use officials. There are no requirements for sole source certification or fees that increase the initial project design cost.

“A sustainable building with a higher degree of durability can decrease the amount of materials going to landfills and use of community resources when disasters occur,” Steve Szoke, PCA director of codes and standards, said. “After Hurricane Katrina, more than 44 million cubic yards of building materials and contents were disposed of in landfills. The PCA/IHBS ordinance provides mandatory requirements for increased resistance to natural disasters with the goal of reducing the number of destroyed buildings and protecting property, and saving human life.”

About the IBHS
IBHS is an independent, nonprofit, scientific and educational organization supported by the property insurance industry. The organization works to reduce the social and economic effects of natural disasters and other risks to residential and commercial property by conducting research and advocating improved construction, maintenance and preparation practices.

About PCA
Based in Skokie, Ill., the Portland Cement Association represents cement companies in the United States and Canada. It conducts market development, engineering, research, education, and public affairs programs. More information on PCA programs is available at www.cement.org.

Return On Investment in LEED® with Sustainable Designs and Green Buildings

Stanley Chow, AIA, PP, LEED AP BD+C

Our diversity allows us to innovate with the different facets of sustainability, architecture, engineering, and construction to deliver integrative environments that will be healthy for people and environmentally sustainable for future generations.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) September 20, 2010

Stanley Chow, AIA, PP, LEED AP BD+C, former Director of LEED® Resource Development at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), announces the launch of CHOW & Company, LLC. The Washington DC-based consulting firm provides professional services in environmental sustainability, LEED implementation, green architecture, construction management, sustainable land-use development, and retail design. CHOW & Company works closely with developers, architects, engineers, planners, and constructors to manage integrated project delivery teams.

With a background deeply rooted in real estate development, Chow recognized the one thing that would make a difference to building owners, real estate developers, tenants, and financial lenders was proving the Return On Investment for green initiatives and LEED certifications.

CHOW & Company is focused on finding the green benefits at every stage of the design, development, and construction process and delivering clients with real ROI opportunities through leading edge integrative and strategic greening.

Chow says “Our diversity allows us to innovate with the different facets of sustainability, architecture, engineering, and construction to deliver integrative environments that will be healthy for people and environmentally sustainable for future generations. As buildings account for a major portion of the energy, resources, and materials depletion on this planet, we can help minimize the environmental damage and reduce carbon footprints, while ensuring the appropriate ROI.” Chow explains that “the investment portion of the ROI is analyzed and presented in financial and environmental terms so clients can be better informed to make critical decisions.”

Chow is a Registered Architect, Professional Planner, and LEED AP BD+C with almost 30 years of diverse experience in sustainability, architecture, construction, and real estate development. While at USGBC, Chow led a specialized team of LEED Accredited Professionals in the development, improvement and maintenance of LEED tools and resources.

Chow was also Vice President of Development at a major real estate investment and development firm in Washington DC, Vice President of Construction at an international retail/entertainment development company based in Baltimore, MD and Director of Development at a McLean, VA development firm.

Chow has managed mixed-use development projects with construction values upwards of $1.2 billion. He is a recognized specialist in retail design, store planning and construction and has held senior leadership positions with national retailers Toys R Us, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Party City, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Best Buy.

CHOW & Company is an active member firm of the U.S. Green Building Council, the American Institute of Architects, and the International Council of Shopping Centers. Learn more at CHOWandCompany.com or contact Marcia Karasek at 202.618.0080.

Johnson Controls Awarded LEED Platinum Certification for Sustainability Improvements at Corporate Campus

Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) has been awarded LEED® Platinum certification -- the highest such recognition -- by the U.S. Green Building Council, for its efforts to make its Glendale corporate campus a model of energy efficiency and sustainability. This represents the largest concentration of LEED Platinum buildings -- four -- on one site ever awarded.

Hundreds of wireless controllers and sensors communicating throughout buildings on the 33-acre site feed information to the company's Metasys® building management system which provides continuous monitoring of energy consumed per square foot. Variances can be detected and the systems adjusted automatically or with hand-held devices from any location via the Internet. Numerous other Johnson Controls energy efficiency technologies are in use as well.

"As a company that's been in the energy efficiency business for 125 years, we believe it was important to set an example and demonstrate the benefits of incorporating the latest green technologies, including many of our own,  into a multi-building campus setting," said Stephen A. Roell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson Controls. "We're delighted that the U.S. Green Building Council has recognized our efforts with its highest award of LEED Platinum certification. Hopefully, it will encourage others to improve the energy efficiency and sustainability of their properties, be it for one building or several."

The company's energy usage has been reduced by 21 percent, despite the recent doubling of space by adding 160,000 square feet.  Greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced, annually, by more than 827,000 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent due to the on-site solar electricity generation.   Water usage has been reduced by 595,000 gallons annually by collecting and recycling rain water and the addition of low-flow fixtures.

Each employee has desktop control of workspace temperature, lighting, airflow volume, and can introduce white noise to mask sound. The environmental systems turn off in a workspace when an employee is gone for more than 10 minutes, reducing air conditioning and electrical loads.

"We have made significant strides in improving the working environment for our employees at the Corporate and Power Solutions headquarters," said Roell. "Not only are our employees more comfortable, but our engagement scores have improved as well. We believe that the working environment is a major contributing factor to employee engagement."

"Since its pioneering LEED Silver certification of the Brengel Technology Center in 2001, Johnson Controls has demonstrated unparalleled green building leadership," said Rick Fedrizzi, President and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council. "The Johnson Controls corporate campus takes this commitment to a new level and sets an example for other organizations considering the implementation of sustainability initiatives in their facilities."

"As a USGBC member, Johnson Controls has been instrumental from very early on in helping develop the LEED rating system," said Rob Watson, Chairman, CEO & Chief Scientist of the EcoTech International Group.  "I'm very impressed with the project's Platinum achievement, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the broad range of sustainable technologies and practices the company used that can be implemented by its customers worldwide.  Their commitment to ongoing performance measurement, verification and optimization will ensure that the campus will continue to perform at an optimal level for many years to come."

The company expects to recoup its spend on making the campus energy-efficient within eight years, using the savings realized. The project is attracting wide-spread attention with more than 6,000 interested visitors from around the world who have toured the campus over the last few years.

Additional energy efficiency features at the Johnson Controls Corporate headquarters include:

• A geo-thermal heat pump--linked to 272 wells, each 300 feet deep--uses moderate subsurface  temperatures and mass to improve the efficiency of heating and cooling.
• 31,115 square-foot ground-mounted solar photovoltaic array and 14,335 square-foot of solar film on the roof produces electricity and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Solar thermal water heating technology is in place as well.
• Skylights and increased window area reduce use of energy for lighting.
• Window shades adjust automatically to the path of the sun.
• Lighting controls include ballasts that are intelligent, addressable and controllable for reducing artificial lighting and harvesting natural daylight.
• 3-acre parking lot resurfaced with permeable paving blocks allowing rainwater and snowmelt to be collected and retained on-site.
• Rooftop rain water collection, filtering and storage for use in flushing water closets and urinals.

For a video, photos and additional details about the sustainability efforts on Johnson Controls corporate campus visit http://johnsoncontrols.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=112&cat=127

About Johnson Controls

Johnson Controls is a global diversified technology and industrial leader serving customers in over 150 countries. Our 130,000 employees create quality products, services and solutions to optimize energy and operational efficiencies of buildings; lead-acid automotive batteries and advanced batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles; and interior systems for automobiles. Our commitment to sustainability dates back to our roots in 1885, with the invention of the first electric room thermostat. Through our growth strategies and by increasing market share we are committed to delivering value to shareholders and making our customers successful. To learn more, visit www.johnsoncontrols.com.

About U.S. Green Building Council

The USGBC community is transforming the way we build, design and operate our buildings for healthier places that save precious resources for people to live, work, learn and play in.  UGSBC is helping create buildings and communities that regenerate and sustain the health and vitality of all life within a generation.  Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Council is the driving force of the green building industry, which is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product by 2013. USGBC leads a diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials, concerned citizens, teachers and students.  The USGBC community comprises 80 local chapters, 17,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 150,000 individuals who have earned LEED Professional Credentials.  Visit www.usgbc.org for more information.

SOURCE Johnson Controls, Inc.

Growth in Green Building Use Expected to Drive Use of BIM Tools

The growth of the green building market will drive adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) software, according to a new SmartMarket Report, Green BIM: How Building Information Modeling is Contributing to Green Design and Construction, released today by McGraw-Hill Construction, part of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP). Produced in collaboration with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA), Autodesk, and 13 other prominent industry organizations, the report provides new insights on the convergence of two important construction industry trends: green building and BIM, known simply as "Green BIM."

"Green building is already transforming design and construction in the United States, and BIM has the  potential to increase innovation—and design and construction efficiency," said Harvey Bernstein, vice president, global thought leadership and business development, McGraw-Hill Construction. "Therefore, the intersection of BIM tool use with sustainability goals is a powerful practice that can be truly transformative in increasing industry productivity."

The industry agrees that they are just beginning to tap the full potential of BIM to achieve their green objectives. Only 17% of Green BIM practitioners are currently realizing more than 50% of BIM's potential for their green goals, but a sharp increase in Green BIM use is expected in the near future.

"The report reveals the share of activity where BIM is being applied to help achieve sustainability goals, showing the fact that this is still a nascent emerging trend," Bernstein added. "However, the future outlook is dramatic: 78% of the survey respondents who aren't currently using BIM on green building projects expect to do so within just three years. That's a significant increase."

The report captures perspectives on the future of Green BIM from a wide range of experts, as well as case studies that demonstrate Green BIM's contributions to achieving sustainable outcomes. According to the report, as green building becomes a larger share of construction, the benefits provided by BIM will also be more widely recognized, and the use of BIM as a whole will increase.

"Green and BIM have been the two most dynamic trends in our industry," said Steve Jones, who leads McGraw-Hill Construction's BIM initiatives. "Although they have been growing independently, it was inevitable that they would converge because the analysis and simulation capabilities of modeling are such a natural fit with the objectives of green building. This report establishes a baseline for the state of that evolution and points the way towards further exciting developments."

Robert T. Armistead, president of MCAA, agrees, "MCAA and our foundation, the Mechanical Contracting Education & Research Foundation, have been working extremely hard over the past five years to provide our members with the highest levels of green and BIM education possible. Until recently, these efforts have been proceeding on separate tracks, but this [Green BIM] study validates what we've seen—or at least suspected—that these two mega-trends are coalescing. Green construction, like everything else in our society, is now highly information-rich and dependent, and that makes it ripe for modeling."

BIM offers an efficient way to create and leverage digital models for the design, construction and operation of projects, and it is revolutionizing the way firms communicate, solve problems and achieve better outcomes. Current users who practice Green BIM also report intensive use of BIM. Nearly half (49%) of Green BIM practitioners use BIM on over 50% of their projects, compared to approximately one quarter (28%) of non-Green BIM companies. Green BIM practitioners are also more intensive users of the software since they both create and analyze models more frequently than non-Green BIM companies.

"Autodesk BIM solutions enable our customers to use the rich, intelligent information from the design model to conduct whole-building energy analysis by accessing local weather data to simulate performance and visualize appearance, all from right within the design palette," said Rick Rundell, senior director of AEC Simulation Products, Autodesk. "This leads to better-informed decision-making, much earlier in the design process. As the McGraw-Hill Construction Green BIM research shows, more and more projects are being completed with BIM to meet goals for sustainability, and we continue to deliver solutions that help put sustainable design decision-making in the hands of architects, engineers and contractors to support industry demands for greater visibility and predictability."

According to prior McGraw-Hill Construction studies, energy efficiency is the most often cited green building benefit, yielding significant cost-savings over a building's full lifecycle, and Green BIM is no exception. The study expects strong growth for energy performance simulation tools in particular: 95% of firms practicing BIM for green projects will do energy performance simulations within two years, compared with 73% now; and 79% of firms using BIM (but not focused on green projects) will conduct the simulations, compared to 21% currently. Energy efficiency is also an important tenet of the USGBC's LEED certification, a sought-after distinction for many green builders.

"At the core of every successful LEED project is a project team that practices integrated design," said Brendan Owens, vice president of LEED Technical Development, USGBC. "BIM provides an essential tool that supports integrated design, and to that end, will be extremely helpful in advancing this important concept. The ability to integrate BIM with LEED Online will move that idea faster and further."

Data presented in the report are drawn from a McGraw-Hill Construction survey of design firms, contractors and other major construction industry players in the U.S. who already use BIM. The report aims to determine how often, when and why they are using BIM on green projects, and provides a portrait of firms that are already Green BIM practitioners in contrast to typical BIM users, as well as insights into how they use BIM to achieve their green goals and what they anticipate the future to hold.

To download the free report, visit http://construction.com/market_research/FreeReport/GreenBIM/.

Premier association partners include U.S. Green Building Council and the Mechanical Contractors Association of America. The premier corporate partner is Autodesk. Corporate contributors include Balfour Beatty, Chicago Faucets, Graphisoft, Johnson Controls, and Parsons Brinckerhoff. The association partners are the American Institute of Architects, the Associated General Contractors of America, Construction Owners Association of America, Design-Build Institute of America, National Association of Women in Construction, National Electrical Contractors Association, National Institute of Building Sciences, and buildingSMART alliance.

About McGraw-Hill Construction:

McGraw-Hill Construction connects people, projects and products across the construction industry. For more than a century, it has remained North America's leading provider of project and product information, plans and specifications, and industry news, trends and forecasts. McGraw-Hill Construction serves more than one million customers in the $5.6 trillion global construction industry through Dodge, Sweets, Architectural Record, Engineering News-Record, GreenSource, and 10 regional publications. To learn more, visit www.construction.com or follow @mhconstruction on Twitter.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies:

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) is a global information and education company providing knowledge, insights and analysis in the financial, education and business information sectors through leading brands including Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, Platts, and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2009 were $5.95 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.

Nine Challenges of Alternative Energy

In his just-released report, "Nine Challenges of Alternative Energy" Lawrence Berkeley staff scientist David Fridley assesses the obvious yet too often overlooked obstacles to the widespread deployment of alternative energies around the world. The report can be downloaded here. According to Fridley, these nine challenges are:

Scalability and Timing

Commercialization

Substitutability

Material Requirements

Intermittency

Energy Density

Water

The Law of Receding Horizons

Energy Returned on Energy Invested

USGBC Celebrates Five Years of Green Building, Economic & Educational Progress in New Orleans

(Make It Right activist and actor Brad Pitt, left, and USGBC President, Rick Fedrizzi, right) presented a LEED Platinum plaque to Make It Right homeowner Deidre Taylo and her children, during a Clinton Global Initiative event in Sept. 2009 (Photo: Business Wire)

Five years after the devastating hurricanes that ravaged New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast, many organizations have stepped in to help rebuild the city, placing emphasis on resilience, sustainability and economic prosperity. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the driving force of the green building industry in America, has also made rebuilding New Orleans green a key priority. Through USGBC’s LEED green building certification program, hundreds of homes, schools and commercial buildings are being rebuilt to be high-performance, resource-efficient, durable and healthier places for the people of New Orleans who occupy them. Below is a report of USGBC’s efforts since 2005.

USGBC’s Notable Accomplishments:


USGBC embedded an expert in the Recovery School District to work with all schools on rebuilding green.

All public schools built to minimum LEED Silver Certification.

Green movie studio in the Lower Garden District will be LEED Silver.

Make It Right has built the largest community of LEED Platinum homes in the world.

Salvation Army’s EnviRenew is building and repairing 250 homes in five New Orleans neighborhoods to be green and energy efficient.

USGBC and EnviRenew’s Natural Talent Design Competition will build four LEED Platinum homes in the Broadmoor neighborhood.

Preservation Resource Center (PRC) and the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED) will be opening a new LEED Platinum community center/headquarters in the Holy Cross neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward.

Working with USGBC, several groups in the city are training workers to rebuild the city better and greener: LA Greencorps, Good Work Network, Electrician’s Union, Delgado Community College, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice

USGBC in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast

Since the devastating hurricanes and subsequent floods that ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region in 2005, USGBC has been on the ground there, developing strategies for rebuilding even as the flood waters began receding. At its 2005 Greenbuild Conference in Atlanta, just weeks after the hurricanes came through, USGBC convened 160 participants, including many New Orleans residents, USGBC chapter members and other leading experts in planning, environmental engineering and architecture, in a planning charrette.

The outcome was the New Orleans Principles, a roadmap and specific action plans for the re-planning and rebuilding efforts, with the intent of enhancing environmental, social, and economic outcomes. To ensure the principles became actions, USGBC created the position of “New Orleans Green Building Coordinator” to facilitate and execute the strategy on the ground. For more than two years, Anisa Baldwin Metzger has been on the ground, working with the Recovery School District and has become a nationally recognized leader in translating green building strategies into real world results. USGBC’s Louisiana Chapter has been a driving force for keeping sustainability at the forefront of rebuilding efforts.

The New Orleans Principles

1. Respect the rights of all citizens of New Orleans.

2. Restore natural protections of the greater New Orleans region.

3. Implement an inclusive planning process.

4. Value diversity in New Orleans.

5. Protect the city of New Orleans.

6. Embrace smart redevelopment.

7. Honor the past; build for the future.

8. Provide for passive survivability.

9. Foster locally owned, sustainable businesses.

10. Focus on the long term.

The Road to Educational Recovery

Chief among the action plans was a strong commitment to ensuring the schools are not only rebuilt, but are built to LEED Silver– so that every child within the school system could attend classes in safe, structurally sound and resilient facilities that enhanced the goals of learning. Before Hurricane Katrina:

There were 439 buildings on 127 active public school campuses, serving 63,000 students.

Virtually all of that space was substandard - parents chose where to send their children based on how “less bad” the bathrooms were.

Then Katrina hit, and more than 80-percent of those buildings had more than 25-percent damage. With children to educate immediately, the first initiative off the drawing board was Quick Start, a community process that had the goal of building one new school in each of the five city council districts in New Orleans.

Quick Start Schools: Langston Hughes Elementary, Wilson Elementary, Lake Area High School, Landry High School and Fannie C. Williams.

Each school is LEED Silver and will reduce energy use by 30-percent.

The first of those schools opened in August, 2009, with double-digit increases in test scores just in the past school year.

When phase one of the master plan is completed in 2013, there will be 17 new and 13 renovated LEED schools.

“Make It Right” with Affordable, Durable, Sustainable Homes

The Red Cross estimates Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed more than 350,000 homes.

An additional 146,000 had major damage.

Overall, 850,791 housing units were damaged or destroyed.

The number of homes destroyed equals about 17-percent of annual home construction.

Among the many organizations that stepped forward, Make It Right has taken on the challenge of providing New Orleans residents with quality, affordable homes. Make It Right devoted itself to the rebuilding and restoration of the debilitated communities in ways that honor the past, but build in the advancements and practices that define today’s green buildings – energy efficiency, water efficiency, improved indoor air quality, more daylight.

USGBC worked closely with Make It Right providing sustainable design expertise in the building of:

50 Platinum LEED homes built in the Lower Ninth Ward that now house 179 people with 100 more LEED Platinum homes underway.

It’s the largest community of LEED Platinum homes in the world.

Designed to be high-performing and energy efficient.

Make It Right LEED homes are built to use only 1/3 of the energy that would be used by a comparable new home.

They are more sustainable than the homes they are replacing by a factor of 10.

Additionally, Salvation Army’s EnviRenew Initiative is building 125 new homes and renovating 125 existing homes over the next three years in five New Orleans neighborhoods. The campaign revolves around the idea that financially vulnerable individuals and families are especially in need of the benefits that green building practices provide. Healthy indoor air quality, lower utility bills, and high quality construction are vitally important for moderate and low income populations in their quest for economically prosperous lifestyles.

EnviRenew is collaborating with USGBC’s 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition, which will be held Friday, August 27, 2010 in New Orleans. Four student and emerging professional design team finalists will be chosen from more than 360 submitted designs of 800-square-foot, affordable homes designed to LEED Platinum guidelines. The winning designs will be built in the Broadmoor neighborhood. Once the ADA (American Disabilities Act) compliant homes have been built and the homeowners have taken residence, the homes will enter the measurement and verification phase. The design team of the home with the best energy, water, waste and other performance metrics will be deemed the final winner and will receive their prize at the 2011 Greenbuild Conference. For more details about the Natural Talent Design Competition, visit: www.usgbc.org/designcompetition

Community-Based Environmental Sustainability

Rebuilding a disaster-stricken region not only requires the construction of new facilities, but also the maintenance of the historical preservation and integrity of existing ones. The Preservation Resource Center (PRC) of New Orleans is transforming a house of architectural and historical significance to the Lower Ninth Ward into a community center using many of the structure’s original building materials. The Holy Cross Community Center will stand as the neighborhood’s “headquarters” and is expected to be certified LEED Platinum. USGBC has also supported the Lower Ninth Ward through Historic Green, an organization that is helping to rebuild the Holy Cross neighborhood as the nation’s first zero carbon community.

USGBC’s experience in New Orleans has informed the disaster recovery assistance that its 17,000 members and 80 chapters have undertaken in response to the natural disasters that have occurred since Katrina. With tragedies such as the devastating tornadoes in Greensburg, Kansas in 2007, the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the recent oil spill in the Gulf Coast, the imperative to make all buildings sustainable, durable and resource efficient is critical – not solely in disaster-stricken areas, but everywhere.

U.S. Green Building Council

The USGBC community is transforming the way we build, design and operate our buildings and communities, leading to healthier, more resource-efficient places where people can live, work, learn and play. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Council is the driving force of the green building industry, which is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product by 2013. USGBC leads a diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials, concerned citizens, teachers and students. The USGBC community comprises 80 local chapters, 17,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 150,000 individuals who have earned LEED Professional Credentials. Visit www.usgbc.org for more information.

PNC Bank Adds Seven LEED(TM)-Certified Green Buildings; Raises Total to 8

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has certified seven more Green Branch(R) locations of PNC Bank based on environmentally friendly construction and design, boosting its total to 84 LEED(TM)-certified green buildings.

In 2002 PNC became the first major U.S. bank to design and build environmentally friendly LEED-certified bank branches in the United States and has more newly constructed certified green buildings than any company on Earth.

PNC (NYSE: PNC) is the only bank permitted to use the term Green Branch(R) based on the registered trademark granted by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The trademark is affirmation of PNC's leadership and commitment to green business practices.

"We have continued to evolve our innovative approach to eco-friendly business practices and we have momentum with 30 additional locations awaiting certification by the USGBC," said Gary Saulson, PNC's director of corporate real estate.

The bank's prototype Green Branch(R) features include:

- Materials: more than 50 percent of the branch is locally manufactured or made from recycled or green materials.

- Energy & Water Efficiency: energy usage is reduced 35 percent or more compared to a traditional branch; water usage is reduced by 4,000 gallons a year and window walls are three times more efficient than code.

- Pollution Control: construction waste is recycled or salvaged and the cooling system is designed to protect the ozone.

The newly certified Green Branch(R) locations are in three states. All 84 (81 for new construction and three for interiors) certified locations can be found via www.pnc.com/green.

Pennsylvania Newtown - Newtown II, 2500 South Eagle Road Yardley - Octagon Center, 91 Oxford Valley Road Bethlehem - Plaza on Eighth, 1481 Eighth Ave.

Virginia Fredericksburg - Celebrate Virginia South, 1001 Gordon W. Shelton Blvd. Woodbridge - Potomac Town Center, 14910 Diamond View Way Centreville - Sully Station, 5321 Westfields Blvd.

New Jersey East Windsor - East Windsor, 440 Route 130

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (www.pnc.com) is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services organizations providing retail and business banking; residential mortgage banking; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management. Follow @PNCNews on Twitter for breaking news, updates and announcements from PNC.

Six Projects to Convert Captured CO2 Emissions from Industrial Sources into Useful Products

$106 Million Recovery Act Investment will Reduce CO2 Emissions and Mitigate Climate Change

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today the selections of six projects that aim to find ways of converting captured carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial sources into useful products such as fuel, plastics, cement, and fertilizers. Funded with $106 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -matched with $156 million in private cost-share -today's selections demonstrate the potential opportunity to use CO2 as an inexpensive raw material that can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions while producing useful by-products that Americans can use.

"These innovative projects convert carbon pollution from a climate threat to an economic resource," said Secretary Chu. "This is part of our broad commitment to unleash the American innovation machine and build the thriving, clean energy economy of the future."

Converting captured CO2 into products such as chemicals, carbonates, plastics, fuels, building materials, and other commodities is an important aspect of carbon capture and storage technology. Converting CO2 into other useful forms can help reduce carbon emissions in areas where long-term storage of CO2 is not practical. It is anticipated that large volumes of CO2 will be available as fossil fuel-based power plants and other CO2-emitting industries are equipped with CO2 emissions control technologies to comply with regulatory requirements.

The projects announced today were initially selected for a first phase funding in October 2009 as part of a $1.4 billion effort to capture CO2 from industrial sources for storage or beneficial use. Over the succeeding months, the project teams have performed experiments on innovative concepts and produced preliminary designs for pilot plants to study the feasibility of capturing and using CO2 exhausted from industrial processes. The selected projects now enter a second phase in which researchers design, construct, and operate their innovations at pilot-scale and evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of applying them commercially.

The projects selected to demonstrate the beneficial use of CO2 include:

Alcoa, Inc. (Alcoa Center, Pa.)-Alcoa's pilot-scale process will demonstrate the high efficiency conversion of flue gas CO2 into soluble bicarbonate and carbonate using an in-duct scrubber system featuring an enzyme catalyst. The bicarbonate/carbonate scrubber blow down can be sequestered as solid mineral carbonates after reacting with alkaline clay, a by-product of aluminum refining. The carbonate product can be utilized as construction fill material, soil amendments, and green fertilizer. Alcoa will demonstrate and optimize the process at their Point Comfort, Texas aluminum refining plant. (DOE Share: $11,999,359)

Novomer Inc. (Ithaca, N.Y.)-Teaming with Albemarle Corporation and the Eastman Kodak Co., Novomer will develop a process for converting waste CO2 into a number of polycarbonate products (plastics) for use in the packaging industry. Novomer's novel catalyst technology enables CO2 to react with petrochemical epoxides to create a family of thermoplastic polymers that are up to 50 percent by weight CO2. The project has the potential to convert CO2 from an industrial waste stream into a lasting material that can be used in the manufacture of bottles, films, laminates, coatings on food and beverage cans, and in other wood and metal surface applications. Novomer has secured site commitments in Rochester, NY, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Orangeburg, SC and Ithaca, NY where Phase 2 work will be performed. (DOE Share: $18,417,989)

Touchstone Research Laboratory Ltd. (Triadelphia, W. Va.)-This project will pilot-test an open-pond algae production technology that can capture at least 60 percent of flue gas CO2 from an industrial coal-fired source to produce biofuel and other high value co-products. A novel phase change material incorporated in Touchstone's technology will cover the algae pond surface to regulate daily temperature, reduce evaporation, and control the infiltration of invasive species. Lipids extracted from harvested algae will be converted to a bio-fuel, and an anaerobic digestion process will be developed and tested for converting residual biomass into methane. The host site for the pilot project is Cedar Lane Farms in Wooster, Ohio. (DOE Share: $6,239,542)

Phycal, LLC (Highland Heights, Ohio)-Phycal will complete development of an integrated system designed to produce liquid biocrude fuel from microalgae cultivated with captured CO2. The algal biocrude can be blended with other fuels for power generation or processed into a variety of renewable drop-in replacement fuels such as jet fuel and biodiesel. Phycal will design, build, and operate a CO2-to-algae-to-biofuels facility at a nominal thirty acre site in Central O'ahu (near Wahiawa and Kapolei), Hawaii. Hawaii Electric Company will qualify the biocrude for boiler use, and Tesoro will supply CO2 and evaluate fuel products. (DOE Share: $24,243,509)

Skyonic Corporation (Austin, Texas)-Skyonic Corporation will continue the development of SkyMine® mineralization technology-a potential replacement for existing scrubber technology. The SkyMine process transforms CO2 into solid carbonate and/or bicarbonate materials while also removing sulfur oxides, nitrogen dioxide, mercury and other heavy metals from flue gas streams of industrial processes. Solid carbonates are ideal for long-term, safe aboveground storage without pipelines, subterranean injection, or concern about CO2 re-release to the atmosphere. The project team plans to process CO2-laden flue gas from a Capital Aggregates, Ltd. cement manufacturing plant in San Antonio, Texas. (DOE Share: $25,000,000)

Calera Corporation (Los Gatos, Calif.)-Calera Corporation is developing a process that directly mineralizes CO2 in flue gas to carbonates that can be converted into useful construction materials. An existing CO2 absorption facility for the project is operational at Moss Landing, Calif., for capture and mineralization. The project team will complete the detailed design, construction, and operation of a building material production system that at smaller scales has produced carbonate-containing aggregates suitable as construction fill or partial feedstock for use at cement production facilities. The building material production system will ultimately be integrated with the absorption facility to demonstrate viable process operation at a significant scale. (DOE Share: $19,895,553)

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iGreenBuild’s Top 10 Premier Green Buildings

Thanks to everyone who submitted nominations for our inaugural iGreenBuild Top 10 Premier Green Buildings Contest. While every nominee deserves recognition for their innovative use of sustainable materials, their commitment to energy efficiency and preservation of natural resources, and in many cases their focus on building with a purpose, these 10 stand out. Here are our picks for the Top 10 Premier Green Buildings. Each twitter nominator will receive a copy of the book Leading With Marketing, by Brian Gallagher and Kimberly Kayler. Over the next month, we will profile each of these buildings, so check back often for details and insight into each of these exciting projects and some of the people behind them:

1. The Frontier Project- Rancho Cucamonga, CA
2. TC Williams High School- Alexandria, VA
3. Elgin Academy- Elgin, IL
4. Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) office at Saint Anne’s Court; Dallas, TX
5. The King Pavilion@ ISU College of Design- Ames, IA
6. Genzyme Corporation- Cambridge, MA
7. Battery-Powered House- West Lancaster, CA
8. Refract House- Santa Clara, CA
9. Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Energy Lab- Kamuela, HI
10. Jacob Burns Film Center’s Media Arts Lab- Westchester County, NY

We hope you enjoy the list, and we know you’ll enjoy getting to know these buildings. We’d love your comments on the list (even if you disagree!) and keep sending cool projects our way. You can follow us Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

AIA Introduces Tool to Help Architecture Firms Track Predicted Energy Use in Building Projects

As part of the voluntary 2030 commitment program where architecture firms and other entities in the built environment pledge to develop multi-year action plans and implement steps that can advance the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) goal of carbon neutral buildings by the year 2030, the AIA has unveiled a new tool that generates a report on predicted energy use and project modeling.

“This tool is a valuable resource for architecture firms and will be used on their entire portfolio, not just for projects seeking green building certification,” said AIA President, George H. Miller, FAIA. “The tool was specifically developed to be simple to use and to be used by firms of all sizes on a variety of building types, large and small.”

The Excel-based reporting tool will only require the user to enter project use type (from a drop down menu), gross square footage, (GSF), yes/no questions: Is project Interior only? Is project modeled? and predicted energy use intensity (PEUI).

Based on that information, for modeled projects the tool will automatically calculate the national average site EUI for that project type and the project’s percent reduction from the national average EUI toward meeting the firm’s 2030 goal for the current year (currently 60%). For non-modeled projects, users will enter in the design standard or code and similarly the sheet will calculate the project’s contribution toward the firm’s 2030 commitment.

The excel tool will generate three easy to decipher graphs that aggregate the individually listed active projects within the Excel sheet. These three graphs represent the report that firms will forward to the AIA. The three charts will show a snapshot of the firm portfolio including: the percentage of GSF of active projects meeting the current reduction goal, the percentage of GSF being modeled and percentage of GSF for which the firm will gather actual energy performance.

Firms are asked to track all active design projects for the reporting year, not just ones that are seeking green building certification and the reports developed through the tool are meant to provide a year-to-year look of a firm’s work. Firms of all sizes and building type expertise will use the same tool and report in the same manner.

The tool can be used for any type of building project and was developed through a collaboration between members of the AIA Committee on the Environment, the AIA Large Firm Roundtable, AIA Chicago Chapter Working Group and numerous individuals from AIA member firms.