Posted By Betsy Kraat
PHILADELPHIA, PA–Following more than a year of work, PECO recently received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Existing Building (EB) silver and gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for five local buildings.
In total, PECO now operates six LEED certified buildings representing nearly half of all LEED-EB certified buildings in Pennsylvania.
“In 2007 we launched a major environmental initiative for our company and our customers. The work at these sites is our demonstration of how important it is to take steps to reduce energy use and how those steps will pay off by reducing energy costs and helping the environment.” (more…)
Lutron Capri
The trove includes the original “dimming device” that launched a lighting-control revolution.
Laura Fisher Kaiser — Interior Design, 5/7/2010 12:00:00 AM
Few inventors can say they revolutionized interior lighting, cut energy consumption, and made people look and feel sexier—all with a single device.
Joel Spira can.
He’s the inventor and developer of the dimmer switch—the iconic gold knob that has graced countless dining room walls since the 1960’s. In a special ceremony on April 29, the chairman and founder of Pennsylvania-based Lutron Electronics donated a trove of materials related to the company’s 50-year history to the electricity collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
Appropriately, the chandeliers were dimmed in a private reception suite of the museum as the 83-year-old Spira officially signed the deed of donation. Spira then recounted how he got his start designing missile control switches during World War II. He turned the guest bedroom of his apartment in New York into a workshop, and by 1961 he’d perfected the dimming prototype. Until then, such devices were clunky and mechanical; Spira’s was electronic, reliable, and could fit inside a wall box. More..
United States Green Building Council
Nicholas Tamarin — Interior Design, 4/30/2010
A new report by the United States Green Building Council and national energy, housing, environmental, and real estate organizations is sounding the alarm on America’s building stock while citing the many ways in which the Obama Administration can step up on the energy efficiency and sustainability of America’s multifamily and commercial buildings.
Entitled “Using Executive Authority to Achieve Greener Buildings: A Guide for Policymakers to Enhance Sustainability and Efficiency in Mulitfamily Housing and Commercial Buildings,” the study concludes that the current presidential administration has the unprecedented ability to use over 30 existing federal programs worth $72 billion to enhance efficiency in commercial buildings and multifamily housing with no new legislation needed. (more…)
- Herman Miller Energy Manager
Energy Manager is a simple device you add to your Herman Miller systems furniture—new or retrofit—to improve its performance by saving electrical energy.
Energy Manager controls two of the four circuits of power in a cluster of workstations. When a person sits down to work, an occupancy sensor detects their presence and turns on the devices in the cluster plugged into those two circuits—task lights, printers, monitors, chargers, etc. When the cluster is unoccupied, the devices automatically turn off. (more…)
Abdon M. Pallasch, The Chicago Sun-Times
Former President Bill Clinton on Thursday exhorted university officials from around the country to do a better job leading the way on making their campus buildings greener.
“For all the good we’re doing, we’re just piddling compared to what we ought to be doing and compared to what we could be doing,” Clinton told 250 college administrators meeting at the Palmer House Hilton.
“Think about it: 6.7 million jobs lost. And all this work out there is laying on the ground, begging to be done with an absolute certain high return. I am anxious to speed this up. For all the good you’re doing, we should be doing three, four, five, 10 times what we’re doing as a country.”
Clinton has become a crusader for environmental renovation as a catalyst for energy conservation and putting people back to work.
If solar panels or green roofs could be seen going up on campus roofs around the country, other builders would follow suit and put people back to work, helping fight unemployment as well as saving energy, Clinton told the receptive audience.
“Every time somebody sees a project on one of your campuses, fixing a building, you are having an impact, even beyond the fight to produce climate change and lower your utility bills,” Clinton said.
- Starbucks Vows LEED Goal for New Stores
The Seattle outfit will also sources materials and employ craftsmen on a localized basis, as well as incorporate reused and recycled elements where possible.
Nicholas Tamarin — Interior Design, 7/14/2009
Slinging joe may sound like a basic concept, but java giant Starbucks is kicking it up a notch for the planning and design of the next round of their ubiquitous stores. Matching the shade of their logo, the Seattle-based company is aiming to achieve LEED certification for all new company-operated stores beginning in 2010, in addition to providing licensed stores and other business partners with design plans and guidance on construction. (more…)
ASHRAE design guide aims to simplify energy efficiency design for K-12 schools
April 2, 2009
Building Design and Construction
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) signed by President Obama on February 17, 2009, provides significant funding and financing opportunities to modernize, renovate, and repair public schools. Under the “State Fiscal Stabilization Fund,” up to $48.3 billion can be allocated to schools. An additional $25 billion in eligible bonds also have been authorized.
To help Building Teams meet energy efficiency design goals, ASHRAE and other building industry organizations have developed the Advanced Energy Design Guide for K-12 School Buildings. The guide provides recommendations for achieving 30% energy savings over the minimum code requirements of ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-1999. Estimates show that a full 16% of schools districts’ controllable costs is spent on energy.
“Beyond energy savings, by implementing the recommendations, schools may benefit from an improved learning environment, reduced operating costs, reduced environmental and climate impacts, and enhanced teaching opportunities on the environment,” ASHRAE President Bill Harrison said.
The recommendations in the guide allow those involved in designing or constructing school buildings to easily achieve advanced levels of energy savings without having to resort to detailed calculations or analysis. All of the energy-saving recommendations for each of the eight U.S. climate zones are summarized in a single table. Additional recommendations point to other opportunities to incorporate greater savings into the design of the building.
More than 14,000 free copies of the Advanced Energy Design Guide for K-12 School Buildings were sent to school systems in the United States last spring. Copies of the guide are available for free download at www.ashrae.org/freeaedg; Print copies may be ordered from the ASHRAE Bookstore at www.ashrae.org.
Details on the stimulus funding for educational facilities can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery.
