Archive for LEED
Welcome back for another edition of green news of the week featuring a few interesting stories impacting the environment across the globe. This weeks’ highlights: Google’s energy impact, Al Gore’s Climate Crisis Reality Project, Empire State Building retrofits earn LEED-Gold certification, Tokelau Pacific islands execute sustainable solutions with solar and coconut renewable energy alternatives, CDP reports on large corporation low carbon progress, and how wind turbines work. Click on the link to read the full article.
The Story Behind Google’s Huge Appetite for Energy. Believe it or not, Google does a lot to offset their significant energy consumption. Gmail is apparently 80 times less carbon-intensive than other email services, because of the efficiencies at Google’s data centers. According to the big picture definition at Google Green: “At Google, we’ve worked hard to minimize the environmental impact of our services. In fact, to provide you with Google products for a month, our servers use less energy per user than leaving a light on for 3 hours. If you add in our renewable energy and offsets, our footprint is zero. And we continue to find new ways to reduce our impact even further.”
Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. “24 Presenters. 24 Time Zones. 13 Languages. 1 Message. 24 Hours of Reality is a worldwide event to broadcast the reality of the climate crisis. It will consist of a new multimedia presentation created by Al Gore and delivered once per hour for 24 hours, representing every time zone around the globe. Each hour people living with the reality of climate change will connect the dots between recent extreme weather events — including floods, droughts and storms — and the manmade pollution that is changing our climate. We will offer a round-the-clock, round-the-globe snapshot of the climate crisis in real time. The deniers may have millions of dollars to spend, but we have a powerful advantage. We have reality.” Starts at 8pm EST on September 14, 2011 and continuing for 24 hours – you can watch it online here.
Empire State Building’s Green Transformation Earns LEED-Gold. Built 80 years ago, the legendary Empire State Building has implemented a green retrofit and refurbishing earning them LEED-Gold certification on Tuesday from the U.S. Green Building council. They expect to reduce energy costs by $4.4 million annually and cut carbon emissions by 105,000 metric tons over the next 15 years.
Pacific Islands to be Powered 100% by Coconuts, Sun. The tiny South Pacific islands of Tokelau are scheduled to become 100% sustainably powered with renewable energy. 93% of the island’s energy requirements will be derived from solar powered installations and the balance will come from something they have in abundance, coconut oil from coconuts. Experts estimate that 600 meters of solar panels in combination with a few hundred coconuts will supply sufficient clean energy to power the island.
CDP Global 500 Report 2011. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) endeavoured to collect information from the Global 500 companies, requesting that they measure and report what climate change means for their business. With the mission of ‘accelerating low carbon growth’, the results are revealing with over 74% of the Global 500 committing to emission reduction targets.
What is a Wind Turbine and How Does it Work? This article does a great job of explaining wind turbines and how they work. The kinetic power of the wind provides a clean, renewable energy alternative to fossil fuels.
Check in next week for more green news stories from around the world.
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Dockside Green Living Nirvana in BC
Posted by: | CommentsWelcome to beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, home of Dockside Green, a LEED Platinum certified neighbourhood development with so much green building going on that there’s a lot to explore. Offering sustainable solutions for residential and commercial inhabitants alike, Dockside takes green living to the next level. “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) is a green building rating system that reflects the highest level of sustainability-focused certification a development can receive.” With only a handful of LEED® Platinum buildings in the world, Dockside Green is sustainable development at its finest.
So, what is Dockside Green all about? “Dockside Green is a visionary community dedicated to changing the development paradigm. Through innovations in the use of land, water, waste, air, energy, technology and design, Dockside is able to incorporate the principles of New Urbanism — protecting and enhancing the local community and its ecosystems.” Offering amenities including a fitness facility, a public small boat launch, car-sharing, waterfront pedestrian walkways, pedestrian lookout pier and kayak launch, a landscaped creek and pond system through the middle of the site, Galloping Goose Trail, extensive tree planting, shoreline enhancement and restoration, and a creek running through the site. And it doesn’t stop there, each residence was luxuriously designed by award-winning Busby Perkins + Will architects and takes full advantage of all the natural light and stunning views.
Here are some highlights of the ‘green’ features at Dockside Green that helped them earn their LEED Platinum ND certification:
Water conservation. Potable water consumption is 65% less than traditional developments by installing high performance water fixtures and appliances such as water-efficient dishwashers, washing machines, dual flush toilets, faucets and showers that save water without sacrificing style and comfort.
Alternative transportation. They offer greener transport with a car share program, upgraded bike trails and bike racks in each building, and easy access to public transit.
Organic Waste Collection. Making garbage disposals unnecessary and saving the water and energy required to operate them, there are recycling rooms for organic waste which is collected by a local organization.
Construction waste. 90% of their construction waste is diverted from landfills and either recylced or reused.
Biomass Heat Generation. When it comes to building energy, Dockside Green will be the first greenhouse neutral development. By deploying an “on-site centralized heat plant that would use waste wood fuel to produce a clean gas that converts to heat for on-site heating and domestic hot water needs.”
Onsite stormwater and sewage treatment. Stormwater is treated through green roofs and flows through a string of intertwined naturalized creeks and waterways to achieve LEED® requirements while giving it a natural urban oasis feel. 100% of its sewage is treated on-site and uses the treated water for flushing toilets, landscape irrigation and water features.
Energy Conservation. Dockside green is designed to use 45 to 55% less energy than the Canadian Model National Energy Code, saving residents money while reducing harmful, greenhouse gas emissions.
Dockside Green Community Masterplan
Healthy Spaces. Breathe the fresh air. “Dockside Green buildings provide 100% fresh air through either a central or individual heat recovery ventilators. We use low or no volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) paints, sealants and adhesives and we avoid the use of ureaformaldehyde composite wood products.”
Materials and Resources. Dockside is committed to using materials that are durable and eco-friendly, including bamboo flooring and cabinets, low emissions carpets and salvaged wood products.
All in all, Dockside Green is a green building/sustainable development masterpiece that would make me proud to be a resident. It’s a green living paradise.
Tags: car share program, car-sharing, conserve water, Dockside, Dockside Green, ecosystems, energy efficiency, GHG, green building development, Green Living, greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gases, greenhouse neutral, greenhouse neutral development, landfills, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, LEED, LEED-certified, low emissions, New Urbanism, Platinum LEED, Platinum LEED certified, Recycling, reduce landfill waste, sustainability, sustainable development, Sustainable Living, Sustainable Solution, sustainable solutions, waste reduction, water conservationGreen Gazette (Issue 41) Plastiki update, Las Vegas LEED & an eco-mountain hut
Posted by: | CommentsHello again and welcome back to the blog. I’ve been primarily posting about other topics recently but I wanted to get back to the green gazette, it allows me and therefore you to read about a wider variety of news stories about eco-inventions, innovations and ideas.
I noted that an older story was attracting some interest and that we wrote it a few months before the idea became a reality. You may be interested to know that the Plastiki expedition is finally on the high seas. Plastiki is the name of a project based on eco-research about the oceans that will be taking place on a vessel constructed from approximately 12,500 plastic 2 liter bottles. The idea has been 4 years in the planning so we were excited to learn that the ship is now three days into their voyage. To demonstrate how green this experiment is, you can keep current on the progress of the mission via their blog – the laptops are powered via exercise bikes on board. You can learn all about the mission via their
The Palazzo, Las Vegas
main site, especially interesting is their command center which allows you to track the progress of the boat. So far they’ve traveled 179 nautical miles in 3 days to the Southwest.
I’ve always seen Las Vegas as ground zero when it comes to energy wastage and the last place I’d expect to find eco-concerns being on the radar. Staying high above the strip and gazing out at the neon makes you wonder if electricity grows on trees such is the visual excess of the gambling mecca. As a result this story came as quite a welcome surprise, as I learned that a group that owns The Venetian, The Sands Expo Centre and The Palazzo have started an eco initiative called Eco 360. Impressively the Palazzo earned full LEED certification in 2008, the program would result in sufficient energy saving to power 6,500 homes if the targets laid out are reached.
I’ve never climbed to 9,000 feet when visiting Switzerland (I was quite happy down in the valleys) but if I ever did I now know where it would be
On top of the alps, the mountain crystal
very tempting to stay. The new eco-friendly Monte Rosa Hut, at 2810 metres, is now open to guests who want to stay at the top of the Alps. The remarkable structure is being labeled ‘the mountain hut of the future’ but it sounds like far more than a hut to me. The building encompasses 5 floors with 18 guest rooms and up to 120 beds. It sounds essentially to be an eco-hostel with the requisite washrooms and showers that you would expect. The unique building has been nicknamed ‘Bergkristall’ (mountain crystal) as the entire structure resembles a large glass crystal and better still the structure is more than 90 percent energy self-sufficient. The building, replaces an old hut located nearby and was designed to use solar technology for most of its energy and heat requirements. The Monte Rosa hut resides in the shadow of the Matterhorn, the most famed peak in the Swiss Alps.
More news from the Green Gazette soon.
Tags: eco awareness, eco expedition boat, energy conservation, las vegas, LEED, LEED certification, monte rosa hut, planet forward, Plastike Expedition, Plastiki, solar heating, solar power, the green gazette, The Palazzo, The Sands Expo Centre, The Venetian, ‘Bergkristall
