George and others,
I appreciate the idea that architects have been doing sustainable design for decades, but that does not help that we architects are also doing the opposite, the suburban sprawl, the office buildings, parking lots, condos, etc., that eat up space and resources at an expanding rate.
More importantly, without a way to measure our performance in making green design we can do nothing except praise ourselves for our good instincts. Not very helpful. Doing green building design and construction is actually hard work.
- Who in your firm is checking that the site is not disturbed, the trucks use gravel wash off driveways, the catch basins have sediment filters?
- Who is researching plumbing fixtures that don't just look good and meet EPA water use levels, but use less water and work well?
- Who is checking the light fixtures, not just how they look but the actual watts in each lamp, the number of hours they are turned on, the kilowatts used and the real energy cost savings calculations?
- Who is checking the dew points to make sure the added insulation in the walls doesn't cause condensation in the insulation, or that more moisture-resistant insulation is used?
- Who is fighting for triple pane glass in all of those glass high rises we see in the magazines and on the street, and what about shading devices?
- Who is tracking the steel and concrete supplies coming to the job site with recycled content, and the debris going to recycling?
- Who is specifying the gypboard with recycled materials, and made within 500 miles of the site?
- Who is checking that the duct sealants don't use high VOC and defeat the spec for normal caulking?
- Who checks if the steel primers are applied in the shop instead of on site?
- Who is explaining to the subcontractors that the filters need to be changed?
We did not do this work back in the 1970's and 1980's and it is needed if we are going to make buildings greener.
And the only way we can all get paid to do this is if someone requires it, or the codes, or the local authorities, or peer pressure, or sometimes just the good will and interest of the owners and builders, hallelujah.
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Sherman Aronson AIA
BLT Architects
Philadelphia PA
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