Green Revolution Sweeping the Construction Industry

[marmar]

Published on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 by McClatchy Newspapers
Green Revolution Sweeping the US Construction Industry
by Frank Greve

AURORA, Colorado - Rows of little plastic domes dot the roof of the new Wal-Mart Supercenter here, looking like a marching band of "Star Wars" R2-D2s.

Inside each dome, a trio of computer-aimed mirrors tracks the sun and bounces its light down a reflective shaft and through a milky white lens, illuminating the stockroom below.


The reading table lights are backdropped by the white "cool roof" at the West Valley Branch of the San Jose Public Library in California. The library recently became the first building to meet San Jose's new ordinance requiring all new city buildings over 10,000 feet to meet a nationally certified "green building" standard for energy use, water use, indoor air quality, recycled materials and other features. (Rick E. Martin/San Jose Mercury News)
The skylight idea is centuries old. But the mirrors, the lenses and dozens of other energy- and environment-saving innovations are new, and they're showing up not just at Wal-Mart but at other companies, schools and public agencies.

In addition to the Wal-Mart's legion of skylights, for example, the store's foundation is made of ground-up chunks of runway recycled from Denver's old Stapleton International Airport. Porous paving in its parking lot soaks up and filters polluted storm-water runoff. Huge north-facing windows provide most of the store's interior light. Used motor oil from the tire and lube shop helps heat the store, as does old vegetable oil from the deli.

According to Don Moseley, senior Wal-Mart engineer for environmental innovation, these and other efforts "are good for the environment and good for our business."

That's the mantra of the so-called green building movement that's sweeping the nation. Among the adherents are financial institutions such as Citigroup, PNC and Bank of America; automakers such as Toyota, General Motors, Ford and Honda; and such retailers as Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, Chipotle and Patagonia.

The next two new Major League Baseball parks, in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., are poised to go green. So is the biggest privately financed development under way in the United States: MGM Mirage's $7 billion Las Vegas City Center, due in 2009.

Future federal buildings will be green, too. The General Services Administration, the nation's biggest landlord, announced last spring that it was applying stringent green-building standards to its $12 billion construction portfolio of courthouses, post offices, border stations and other buildings.

States also are cracking down. Washington state began requiring in April 2005 that all state-funded construction projects larger than 5,000 square feet, including school district buildings, be built green. Many other states - including California, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan and Nevada - have followed suit. So have nearly 60 cities and counties nationwide.

Scores of colleges and universities - including Emory, Pennsylvania State, the University of Florida, the University of South Carolina and the University of California-Merced - also have taken the pledge. Harvard University alone has 12 green buildings.

Scads of students at architecture and interior design schools share the green zeal. "It's hugely, hugely, unbelievably popular," said Sylvie Sugg, 21, an interior design student at the Art Institute of Colorado in Denver. "Green is so big now that people shouldn't go into design if they don't like it."

The job market for grads with green credentials varies widely from city to city, reflecting the trend's ongoing spread from West to East. In general, green grads do well, according to Kira Gould, the incoming chair of the American Institute of Architects' environment committee. "I see a lot of firms looking for expertise in green buildings at all levels," she said. ........

The complete article is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1212-03.htm