Askthefm’s Weblog

If you are looking among the various websites suggesting ways to create sustainable buildings you might be amazed at the choices that are available.

Now I have found houses made of all kinds of materials, some of which frankly I can’t see a building inspector in California giving the green light to.  Some of the oldest technology is to be found in building a straw house.  I believe the information presented as far as the insulation values and such however I would be worried about the structural integrity over time.  What appears to be a pretty comprehensive site on this subject is here: http://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/strawbale.html. It is interesting to note that the site clearly shows that there are regulatory problems with this tyoe of construction and all of the associations listed are found in places where earthquakes are very rare.

Another technique that has gotten some press is with used tires and packed earth.  This is different from the rammed earth buildings I have posted about earlier. (http://askthefm.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/rammed-earth-buildings-not-for-me-but-maybe-for-you/)  One of the highest profile advocates of this technique is Earthship Biotechture (http://www.earthship.net/).  They are currently building a demonstration project in the Netherland Antillies during the month of July 2008.  This type of building seems like a good fit for this area as it is massive and is often shown built into the side of a hill.  It would probably survive the the severe weather found in the Carribean.

Now if you aren’t quite this adventerous there are plenty of sites to help you build a converntional house with recycled, used or otherwise sustainable materials. SustainableABC.com (http://www.sustainableabc.com/recycled.html) has a California centric directory for these materials.  Another good one is PlanetReuse.com (http://www.planetreuse.com/how_it_works) that looks to work like a Craig’s List type setup for extra, used or available building materials.  It appears to have current listings in most of the 50 states.

Now if you just want to look at some of this houses, this site shows examples of the five more common types of recycled architecture: http://weburbanist.com/2007/10/23/5-kinds-of-creative-recycled-architecture-cans-bottles-and-other-unusual-building-materials/

On the up and coming front I found a recent patent (http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5241795.html)

Abstract

The invention relates to building materials made from paper sludge,
repulped waste paper, or virgin paper pulp, mixed with clay and portland
cement, or animal protein adhesives, or manufactured resins or polymers.
Specifically the invention relates to a building system using this
material in the form of building blocks that are glued together during
assembly and are intended to be used for above grade exterior and interior
walls. A block design which increases the R-value and other building
products made of this material are covered in this invention. The material
of this invention has unusual compression strength properties such that;
when an imposed load limit is reached which begins to compress the
material, the material does not break apart, but rather compresses
slightly and allows considerably more load to be imposed without failure
of the material to hold the superimposed load.

It will be interesting to see what this stuff actually is…..

Lastly here is my canidate for the house built out of the most unsual material, the Agate House.

Frome the waymarking.com website: (http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM14DV)

“It is not so much the shape that makes this building unique, but its on-of-a-kind building material. It is petrified wood! The location is Petrified Forest National Park, where, 225 million years ago, a lot of tall trees were washed into a floodplain, where a mix of silt, mud and volcanic ashes buried the logs. The sediment cut off oxygen and slowed the logs decay. Silica-laden groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood tissues with silica deposits. Eventually the silica crystallized into quartz, and the logs were preserved as petrified wood. Since the quartz rock of the petrified logs was a lot sturdier than all the other building materials (clay and sand stone), petrified wood was an obvious choice.”

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Compact fluorescent bulbs have been on everyone’s short list of an easy way to shave dollars off of their electric bill.  However there is this small problem with them, they contain mercury and known environmental problem.

We have all supposed to have been recycling them and we haven’t.  The levels of mercury in the environment have been slowly increasing and the bulbs are the obvious suspects along with their larger cousins. Also note that coal fired power plants also put forth a significant amount of this substance also. Here is what the EPA is saying about it: http://www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling/

Now there are starting to be lots of options to recycle the smaller bulbs and even a few for the larger tubes.  The first option I would like to bring to your attention made the Building magazine top 100 products list. It is a pre-paid recycling kit from Veolia Environmental Services (http://veoliaes-ts.com/recyclepak).  This is pretty exciting not from an individual perspective but what is possible when you talk about sponsored programs.  Here is an article about one sponsored by the Hawaiian Electric Co. (http://starbulletin.com/2008/03/20/news/story12.html).  This kind of service facilitates the kind of commercial sponsorship that we are all familiar with.

Another company that has the option of pre-paid recycling as well as more traditional equipment and programs is AirCycle: http://www.aircycle.com/#08197452547246975281 This company offers everything from bulk pick ups to the pre-paid programs mentioned earlier.  Especially if you have a large facility where you might have a large amount fo traditional bulbs to recycle, this company’s Bulb Eater product is one you should consider.

Now for some time IKEA, the world’s largest home furnishings retailer has had a take back program to CFL’s in every store. (http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/about_ikea/social_environmental/environment.html).  This si something that Walmart sponsors periodically through out the country and that Home Depot is now starting! (http://www6.homedepot.com/ecooptions/stage/pdf/cfl_recycle.pdf)

Let’s all start recycling before some government agency decides to put a deposit on these bulbs like a soda bottle to encourge our correct behavior.

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I know that there has been a lot of coverage in the news and on various blogs including my own about all of the new and wiz bang new things you can get for your building to make it more energy efficient. However with all of this concentration on the newest and most high tech a lot of buildings aren’t taking care of the basics to save energy and money!

These basic items are truly low hanging fruit not only easy to do but with return on investment times calculated in months if not days in some cases.

First let’s talk about lighting, plain old fluorescent tubes.  It is estimated that and very large percentage of the total electric load of a commercial building is found in the lighting.  If you haven’t changed out those old T-12 light fixtures or at least modified them to use T-8 bulbs with electronic ballasts, do this first and do it now!  The cost to upgrade is around $100 a fixture which can be recovered in as little as 12 months.

Next on the lighting hit parade is parking lot lighting.  These fixtures tend to be big and expensive to run if you are in retail environment.  It is common for these fixtures to be left on all night and for them to be run by a simple time clock.  There are several suggestions I can offer here.

First is to add to the time clock circuit a photocell.  It works like this.  In the circuit the photo cell is inserted between the time clock and the activation relays.  This dynamically adjusts the on and off times of the system to the ever changing sunst and sunrise times.  Estimated cost $200, ROI 30days.

Also you should look at your lighting plan and see if there are lights that can safely be turned off at closing time.  A photometric analysis may be required for a good set of data to make this decision.  However the savings here could be pretty large as sometimes these light may be up to a 1000 watts each.  After you have determined if any can safely be turned off you will have to do some rewiring of the lighting array, perhaps adding another time clock and photocell. Estimated Cost $1000  ROI 3- 6 months.

Now with all the publicity I hope that you have changed out all of those incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents or even LED bulbs.  However if you haven’t get started!

Another often overlooked task that helps with the electric bill is air conditioning and heater maintenance. Changing filters and cleaning condenser fins can net as much a 20% efficiency boost for the system.  Also if it is in your capital budget look into changing out your oldest unit with a new higher SEER rated unit.

Lastly tonight I would suggest considering and old solution that hasn’t gotten much good press lately, window tinting.  At least in California you get no credit under Title 24, our energy efficiency code, but that doesn’t mean that if won’t do you some good.  Window tinting has several advantages including lessening heat load on your building by 1-2%, lengthening the life of the textiles in the office spaces and in earthquake prone areas providing some extra security against flying glass.

I hope that these suggestions help you and if you have any questions specifically about the calculations on the ROI or other related questions please drop me a line at the email address below!

As always I thank you for your time and interest. Please take the time to Digg, Stumble Upon or add to the other social network of your choice to help me spread the word about these issues. Please forward any questions or suggestions to: askthefm@gmail.com

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Buildings Magazine has put out the 100 best products for year issue and among them are some flooring products that look pretty darn good and claim to be made completely from recycled materials.

The first up is Sustainable Flooring’s Strandwood Product (http://www.sustainableflooring.com/?index=strandwoven).  Here is the description from the website:

Our Strandwoven wood line encompasses three main products: Aspen, MSB, and Timber, and can be best described as the re-engineering of densified and compressed wood. Our goal is take weed species, post-industiral scraps, and economically–challenged woods, and use a bit of healthy technology to create unmatched aesthetics and superior products.

From the pictures on the website it looks like a good product and should be very durable as well.

Next up is a a product from FritzTile (http://www.fritztile.com/#9877949936143315923) using recycled glass from various bottles and other post consumer glass content.

Both of these products should qualify for LEED and Greenpoint Rated credits and look beautiful doing so.

Now there are other types of flooring that qualify potentially as sustainable options.  Included here would be cork and bamboo flooring.  Of course our earlier manufacturer Sustainable Flooring also offers both of these options (http://www.sustainableflooring.com/index.php?index=home).

Also I have found a great explainer at BuidlingGreen.com for those interested in how bamboo flooring is made. (http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm?fileName=061005c.xml)

It is also interesting that Treehugger.com gives bamboo flooring a less than superior rating from an overall green perspective.  The full article can be found here: (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/09/bamboo_flooring.php).

Cork flooring on the other hand is seemingly mostly ignored by the green rating sites.  It supposedly has high marks in acoustic dampening and abrasion resistance.  However I imagine that it design differences would be limited and as such would be of limited use except in specific situations.

As always I thank you for your time and interest. Please take the time to Digg, or add to the other social network of your choice to help me spread the word about these issues. Please forward any questions or suggestions to: askthefm@gmail.com

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Now I am in favor of there being more green buildings and the more efficient we can be the better off the planet, our companies and all of us are.  However I am unsure if going to the trouble of acquiring a certification really provides and adequate return on the investment of time and money required.

That brings us to the newly revised LEED-EB or LEED for existing buildings. The original program had many issues, some of which were simply growing pains inherited from conversion of the original LEED new construction program.

Now I have read a couple of articles lately on this subject and they make points about how the consultant and the process will help the facility manager find overlooked opportunities and similar advantages, but I am skeptical.  One fo the articles is here at Building Operating Management magazine: (http://www.facilitiesnet.com/8967bom).

Also you can read all about it at the USBGC site: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=221

Now the other piece I read gets into the important at least for me part the actual additional cost of teh process. This source figures that the total cost of getting a building certified comes to $2.48 per square foot!  I don’t know about you but I would have to have missed a whole lot of efficiency issues to recover that kind of cost even the intermediate term of 5 - 10 years.  You can read his full article here: http://reallifeleed.blogspot.com/2008/05/leed-eb-fees-explained.html and the report for the Leonardo Academy that he references can be found here: http://www.leonardoacademy.org/download/Final%20Report%20on%20the%20Economics%20of%20LEED-EB-2008-4-23.pdf

Finally I think I can sum this post up by saying that I agree with the column by Jeff Crane in Today’s Facility Manager magazine found here: http://www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/tfm_08_04_fmfrequency.php and his basic proposistion is that your CFO isn’t going to pay for the extra cost for certification if he can use that extra money to make the building even more efficient and save even more money!  That is a very hard argument to win and I don’t think I could easily be induced to even try.

As always I thank you for your time and interest. Please take the time to Digg, or add to the other social network of your choice to help me spread the word about these issues. Please forward any questions or suggestions to: askthefm@gmail.com

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We have all heard that the green revolution will change how we live and nothing is more affecting than the materials that make up your home.

There is a movement beginning to begin using bamboo in housing instead of traditional timber products. I know we have been using this renewable resource as flooring and other no structural uses in the US for some time but I am curious whether it can really stand up as building framing.

According the the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) bamboo is a light flexible and resilient material that deserves reconsideration.

From the INBAR website: (http://www.inbar.int/Board.asp?Boardid=67)

Quick Facts

• The world’s population reached 6 billion in 1999 and at the current rate will top 7 billion people soon after 2010.
• At least 600 million urban dwellers in Africa, Asia and Latin America live in “life and health-threatening homes”. At least one billion people do not have access to safe and healthy shelter and the number will increase dramatically with population growth if the appropriate action is not taken (UNEP, nd).
• One billion people live in bamboo houses. In Bangladesh, 73% of the population live in bamboo houses. Bamboo provides pillars, walls, window frames, rafters, room separators, ceilings and roofs.
• It has been calculated in Costa Rica that only 70 ha of bamboo plantation are sufficient to build 1000 bamboo houses per year. If these houses were built with timber, 600 ha of natural forest would be destroyed each year.
• Studies show that processing of bamboo requires only 1/8th the energy for processing of concrete and 1/3rd of that of wood to create a building material of the same capacity. In comparison to steel, bamboo needs only 1/50 of the energy for processing (Roach 1996).
• Due to the lightweight and favorable elastic properties of bamboo, buildings made from it are very good at resisting earthquakes. All 30 houses in the epicenter of a 7.6 magnitude earthquake survived without any damage in Costa Rica.
• Bamboo possesses excellent strength properties, especially tensile strength. Study shows that bamboo is as strong as wood and some species even exceed the strength of Shorea robusta and Tectona grandis (Sattar, 1995).

It is interesting to note that all of the houses made of bamboo near the epicenter of a recent Costa Rican earthquake, measured at a 7.6 magnitude survived intact. The movement is growing with university’s chiming in: http://bambus.rwth-aachen.de/eng/1-building-material.pdf

as well as major architectural firms as well: http://www.deboerarchitects.com/BambooThoughts.html

This site has a good listing of websites covering supply and ordering as well as other information and numerous examples of what has been already done.

While bamboo, at least certain varieties has a better strength to weight ratio than steel I believe that it still has a ways to go before it hits the main stream as a building material of choice for more than a dedicated minority here int eh United States. I understand that worldwide millions of people live in homes constructed from this plant, but the road to approval in the building code for more than a finishes product is long and frustrating. I wish it adherents good luck and hope to hear more in the near future!

As always I thank you for your time and interest. Please take the time to Digg, or add to the other social network of your choice to help me spread the word about these issues. Please forward any questions or suggestions to: askthefm@gmail.com

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We have talked about how your building can use less water, but those options are pretty mainstream. For those of you who are really adventurous another option is to recycle or reuse the gray water generated by the building.

First a little refresher on what we mean by gray water. There are two types of waste water usually generated by a building, be it residential, commercial or industrial, black water and gray water. Gray water is basically wash water or all the waste water except that generated by the use of toilets or garbage disposal equipment. Gray water is generally about 50-60% of the daily waste water generated by an average residence.

Most gray water recycling is aimed at the residential market and at city wide operations such as park land. I know that the seeming majority of parks in my home city of Long Beach California are watered by recycled waste water (gray water). Here is a great site that explains and provides assistance for residential systems and covers the general topic pretty well: http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/index.htm

On a commercial site it is always best to check with your local jurisdiction to understand what code issues need to be addressed for this type of installation. BuildingGreen.com has quite a good selection of case studies and even the LEED advantages spelled out for this type of system.

BuildingGreen.com: http://www.buildinggreen.com/menus/entries.cfm?HeadingID=100

Also here is a link to a manufacturer, BRAC Systems which from the web page appears to have worldwide availability: http://www.bracsystemsbc.com/news.html

I know that I have barely scratched the surface on implementing a system like this and I wish those of you inclined to try the best of luck! Saving water is becoming more important everyday and saving the potable water for us to drink seems like an idea whose time has come.

As always I thank you for your time and interest. Please take the time to Digg, or add to the other social network of your choice to help me spread the word about these issues. Please forward any questions or suggestions to: askthefm@gmail.com

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Those of you trying to design and build under any of the “green” programs have had very few options when it comes to counter tops and other similar horizontal surfaces if you wanted these items to qualify for credits under any of these programs.

Well there is a material made from recycled flake and small shaving aluminum that qualifies for LEED credits and looks pretty good as well. It is called ALKEMI (alchemy) and is made from the aluminum shavings and polyester resin.

This composite material is strong and good looking. In its current form it is only about 35% recycled content by weight, but another version is coming soon that will utilize recycled acrylics and that will render the product 100% post industrial content.

The owner of Renewed Materials talks about his product below:

and their website can be found here: http://renewedmaterials.com/index.html

As always I thank you for your time and interest and I look forward to your comments and questions. Please forward them to askthefm@gmail.com

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I have spoken here at some length about various “green” topics and I realized that there is probably some confusion about what the various terms used by manufacturers, advertisers, the news media and the government actually mean. Let’s try and cover some of this ground…..

The terms we are talking about range from Energy Star to recycled content and to sustainably harvested. It is interesting to note that some terms have real legal definitions and some are just used for green washing a product or service.

In order to really determine if you are choosing a green product it is important to at least consider an analysis of the life cycle of the item in question.

Wikipedia on Life Cycle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_cycle_assessment

Urban Environmental Management: Life Cycle Analysis for Cities

I don’t advocate a detailed analysis for every major purchase, but it certainly helps to be familiar with process so you know what things to look for in the promotional literature.

In the April issue of Buildings Magazine there is a very good, if short article on some of the terms and some of the certifications that exist out there:

Buildings Magazine April 2008: It’s Green - Now find out what that really means

The article covers the terms - Recycled Content, Rapidly Renewable Material, Biodegradable, Low or No VOC’s, and Sustainably Harvested. These terms are especially important if you are thinking of pursuing one of the green building certifications out there as these items are all worth points in the various ranking systems. Unfortunately the article is far from comprehensive as it is really aimed at the commercial sector and those looking at the LEED programs.

There are a whole host of other terms that are often used in articles about this topic and sometimes to help define the terms above.

A fairly comprehensive dictionary of terms can be found here:

Planet Pals New Ecology Dictionary: http://www.planetpals.com/ecodictionary.html

This next site is a listing of all kinds of dictionary and glossary sites covering a large range of topics. However the link below takes you to the ecology section. I encourage you to explore the other areas as well.

http://www.glossarist.com/glossaries/science/earth-sciences/ecology.asp

Also:

Ecology.org’s dictionary section:

http://www.ecology.org/biod/library/glos_index.html

Lastly here is EnviroMedia’s Greewashing Index, a site to rate ads and to educate yourself on what the advertisers are really saying:

http://www.greenwashingindex.com/

As always thank you for your interest and please let me know what you think of the content posted here or let me know if there are specific topics you would like covered. Send all notes to: askthefm@gmail.com

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