Business Record - Iowa Biz

ReWall making an impact

Rob Smith is a principal at Architects Smith Metzger

Last February I blogged about an upstart company in Des Moines making 4’x8’ panels from recycled cartons. The ReWall Company of Des Moines has been making great strides since then.

The company uses a proven technology to turn beverage cartons into construction building panels. The panels can be natural where you can see all the words and colors of the cartons or white for ceiling tiles.

The newest product is Naked Board+ which can replace the Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) used in high abuse areas such as industrial buildings or commercial kitchens at half the cost.

Sales are steadily increasing and the company is expanding its production to meet the demand. Hubbell is using the product at the Rocket Transfer Lofts in the closets. Nelson Construction is also using the panel in the in Fleming Building renovation.

A distributorship has been established in Philadelphia and in Iowa the DNR is specifying and using ReWall in multiple projects.  David Phillips, CEO of ReWall, says “Philadelphia has many subsidized housing projects with a focus on using recycled products. Our wall panel meets all the LEED requirements. Since waste is regional the goal is to eventually have seven manufacturing locations spread across the country.”

The company recently received the 2013 Iowa Environmental Impact award for the small business category. Other honors are the Innovation Award from the Iowa Recycling Association and the Governor’s Environmental Award. Phillips adds “Awards are a validation of our recycling efforts. Sales are a validation of the product.”

ReWall is becoming another Iowa success story!

-Rob Smith

Green when green wasn't cool

Rob Smith is a principal at Architects Smith Metzger

I bought a house built in 1981 and have learned first-hand what sustainability is all about. The house was built by a builder for himself. He probably did not think he was being green, but he was. Several items have amazed me as I update a few things.

The one that blew me away was the lighting. The house is full of brass track heads and brass eyeball fixtures. The track and track heads are made by Juno Lighting, which is still in business. Juno has decided to not make their system obsolete with new models so I can get a white track head that works perfectly on my 32-year-old track.  Now THAT is being green. How many manufacturers have updated and left people out in the cold just to update?

Updating the recessed cans was a similar story, and again Juno came to the rescue. It takes me about 10 minutes to unscrew the existing inner workings, screw in a LED fixture and I have much more light than before.

I bought the LED fixture at Lowes for $35 and it is rated for 35,000 hours. I figure if the half bath fixture is on for four hours a week (I doubt it would be that high) I won’t need to change the lamp for 168 years!!! So now I am passing it on.

What do I take away from this? I am going to think about the brand next time I buy something. Do they have staying power?

If you have a similar story, let me know at rsmith@smithmetzger.com.

-Rob Smith

What can you share?

Rob Smith is a principal at Architects Smith Metzger

My last blog encouraged readers to add to the list of stuff we could share with our neighbors or friends rather than consuming more and more stuff. Does every house on a street need an extension ladder? 

Sharing is a very sustainable action. The side effect is neighbors getting to know each other and maybe even working together. All in the spirit of sustainability! Does it get any better than that?

Added to the list from last blog, the list grows to 20 items. I checked my stash and I can admit to owning seven of the twenty items. Probably half get used once a year.

• Extension ladder
• Wheelbarrow
• Chain saw
• Pruning saw (I always wanted one of those)
• Sidewalk edger
• Lawn aerators
• Bike racks for the car that get used a few times a year
• Home kitchen products like the dreaded ice cream maker that takes up space
• Air nail gun
• Carpet cleaner

And from last blog

• Rototiller (better yet, just rent one or hire it done)
• Pressure washer
• Air compressor
• Floor buffer
• Reciprocating saw
• Belt sander
• Wallpaper steamer
• Fertilizer spreader
• Post hole digger

The challenge is still out there to see if we can come up with a list of 100 things!  Contact me at rsmith@smithmetzger.com

-Rob Smith

Trading and sharing

Every spring I think I should go and buy the rototiller I have always wanted. The rear tine model would be great! I could do the garden once a year and then store my $750 behemoth in the garage. But what if, instead, I bought one with four neighbors who also used a rototiller once a year? 

Sharing and trading isn’t my first thought on purchases but what a sustainable action! Years ago I bought a snow blower with my neighbor, but quickly learned we both wanted to use it the moment the snow stopped. A rototiller we could work around.

Makes you think of the stuff we consume that could be traded or shared. It might even make you buy the best so it would last longer. I could share

• Rototiller (better yet just rent one or hire it done)
• Pressure washer
• Air compressor
• Floor buffer
• Reciprocating saw
• Belt sander
• Wallpaper steamer
• Fertilizer spreader
• Post hole digger

What could you share that you own or have thought about buying?  I challenge you to let me know… let’s see if we can come up with a list of 100 things!  Contact me at rsmith@smithmetzger.com

Need vs. want

CBS Sunday Morning ran a commentary a few weeks ago about three key things for your financial success. Suze Orman talked about needs versus wants. In our financial world, a need is something you can’t do without, such as a place to live. A want is a 4,000 square foot house we may not be able to afford.

It made me think about sustainability. Is consumerism one of the issues at the heart of sustainability? Does the stuff we don’t need and just want affect our carbon footprint?  More importantly, can the sustainable movement offset the increased consumerism as other countries join in the affluence the west has enjoyed?

Victor Lebow, a US economist and retail analyst in 1955, wrote: “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever-increasing rate.”

The American economy has operated that way since 1955.  You hear it every day.  CONSUMER SPENDING DOWN EQUALS ECONOMY BAD!! Yet all predictions show that a growing world population with an increased consumption is not sustainable.

How do you balance these issues in your life? Do you think about whether it is a need or a want?  Let me know your thoughts about this important issue on sustainability.

-Rob Smith

The Sustainability Index

Two of the largest retailers in the world, IKEA and Walmart, are independently developing a rating for the sustainability of their products. Walmart plans on sharing the product rating while IKEA will not.

Products will be rated on quality, recyclable content, and energy efficient production to mention a few key criteria. Walmart should roll out the rating soon so look for it at your favorite store.

Sounds to me like the greenwashing which has hit many other markets. Companies provide information to customers in an effort to sway a purchase such as putting a picture of a forest on a bottle of harsh cleaning solution for the home. 

When I think of both IKEA and Walmart I do not think of long lasting and sustainable anyway. The tension lamp I bought at IKEA lasted about four months before it kept crashing to my desk with a thud. What if it had a high sustainability index because it was made at a plant utilizing renewable energy and was 75% recycled content? Unfortunately, it was made so poorly it didn’t work so I threw it away.

I think if we just use our intuition we could determine a sustainable index. Does it look like it will do the job for a long time? Does it exemplify quality or does it look like you could break it? Maybe just keeping something out of the landfill is the most sustainable thing one can do!

In the meantime, look for the sustainability index at your local Walmart. Let me know what you think!

-Rob Smith 

A more sustainable house

My wife and I are looking for our last home of our life. We have been through many homes lately and run into the same basic planning issues which make me want to remodel the house. That is not very sustainable, filling several dumpsters.   

Here are four basic planning issues that might make the next homeowner think about remodeling and being less sustainable.

Wide open entry. My first house was a little bungalow with a 6’x6’ entry hall which worked very nicely. House after house has double front doors for looks but open directly into the living room. Your friends come over and the whole room gets cold. 

View into the master bedroom. Ten feet from the front door are double doors looking directly into the master bedroom. Sometimes the doors are even on an angle so you get a direct view of the bed.  

Hidden lower level stair. Basements are no longer dark and dismal spaces but spaces to entertain. On two houses I have looked at the drastic measure of moving the stair because you had to walk through too much of the house to get your guests downstairs. 

Ignore the sun. The sun warms your house in the winter and provides important daylight all year long. I have seen many south elevations of the house with one lonely bathroom window or a master bedroom that could have a south window but got west instead.

I guess I will be patient and wait for the south facing house with a private master bedroom and the stair near a shielded entry. Let me know if you think it is out there!

-Rob Smith

Demise of another Lustron house

Over the weekend, I heard the trucks and equipment of DeCarlo Demolition tearing down a historic Lustron house on Tonawanda Drive just west of the Salisbury House. I should have tied myself to the house as the bulldozers approached! The Lustron is an endangered species of early sustainable design. In fact, I would say it is much more sustainable than most homes made today.

Lustron was arguably a very green solution to home building for returning GI’s after WWII. Lustron homes were manufactured by a company in Chicago from 1948-1950 before going bankrupt. The Lustron Preservation says 2,680 homes were sold for about $10,000 each and after 60 years about 1,500 homes still exist. Of the remaining stock there are 152 Lustron homes in Iowa and many Lustron homes in Des Moines less the one on Tonawanda Drive. Look for one on Chamberlain near Roosevelt High School.

What made the homes sustainable?  Porcelain steel panels for the roof, exterior, and interior walls. And in eight timeless exterior colors, including pink! It is the same material which makes up the interior of most ovens or cookware. No maintenance for 60 years is incredible. No painting of the interior so no off gassing or ongoing cost to repaint. The ceilings were metal perforated panels for even heat and no ductwork. Kitchen cabinets made of metal so you could wash them off easily.

What was their demise? Lustron Preservation says to some degree it was building inspectors and construction unions wary of new technology. Lustron homes were even banned in the very city of the manufacturer. 

Hopefully the green movement does not encounter the same issues today!

-Rob Smith

Reduce your energy to heat and cool

My last blog reviewed how to reduce your office electrical consumption since office buildings consume nearly 20% of the electrical consumption in the USA. About 25% of the energy is for space heating and cooling. How can you reduce your energy for heating and cooling?

1. Install a programmable thermostat. At our office the temp is set to 62 on the weekends during winter and 85 during the summer. That way the furnace or air conditioner barely runs on the weekends. Just make sure you program the system to meet your desired temperature before people get to the office.
2. Before you head out on a long car trip you get your car serviced. Do the same for your system before the heat of summer or cold of winter hits. You should get it serviced at least twice a year. If you do, chances are it won’t go down on the hottest day of the year and lower the office productivity to zero because everyone went home. Just think what that costs!
3. Keep the sun out during the summer. Provide internal window treatments like vertical or horizontal blinds, or better yet don’t let the sunlight get through the glass. Many companies make attractive exterior sun shades which can be attached to the building.

-Rob Smith

Five ways to reduce your office electrical consumption

Office buildings consume nearly 20% of the electrical consumption in the USA. About 50% of all the energy consumed by office buildings is for lighting (25%), space heating (13%), and space cooling (11%). Certainly energy usage for our businesses affects our bottom line. How can that change?

Faryal Dotani of MODUS, a mechanical and electrical engineering company in Des Moines, offers five ways to reduce your electrical usage at the office.

Provide occupancy sensors which turn off the lighting when no one is present. In new buildings this is almost standard practice but can also be retrofitted to existing buildings.

Use LED fixtures and lamps. An LED lamp uses less wattage and provides more light. The lamp can also last nearly seven to eight years compared to two to three years for a fluorescent lamp.

Add windows or skylights to harvest the sunlight and reduce your lighting by as much as 50%. Most of the time the lights are off at MODUS.

Install photovoltaic panels and generate electricity. Faryal completed the design for the Franklin library where all the lighting during the daytime is generated by roof top panels. Although paybacks range from 15-40 years depending on the system, she says every year less expensive and better systems are on the market.

Provide demand based HVAC controls similar to occupancy sensors for lighting which turns on and off motors and fans for the heating and cooling system.

-Rob Smith

NEW YEAR’S SUSTAINABLE RESOLUTION

The people and businesses of the USA produce 220 million tons of garbage per year.  That’s 82,000 football fields piled six feet high.  Closer to home would be to cover every square foot of Polk County’s 592 square miles with 15 inches of garbage. 

New Year brings New Year’s sustainable resolutions.

1. Never, ever, ever, discard computers into the trash.  Did I say never?  They are not biodegradable but more importantly they contain mercury.  It gets into the water system and ends up in the fish we eat.  Instead contact Computers With Causes and give new life to your computer.  When our office computers do not have enough horsepower for new software, they still have enough for many other uses.
2. Reduce your garbage to the landfill.  Our office of 11 fills a 96 gallon recycle container about each week.  We are going to monitor how many garbage bags of trash still go to the dumpster and try to cut that in half by recycling more.
3. Reuse paper you printed. Just for fun I started to keep a pile of paper which I printed and no longer needed.  I would use the back side for notes, draft letters, my to-do lists, etc.  The paper was reused before it was recycled and I did not use new paper. Don’t be surprised if you get a note from me on the back of a cost estimate.

Don't lose your sustainability sanity to Santa

Oh the hustle and bustle of the holidays. The month of December is when we sometimes surrender our sustainability sanity to Santa. Here’s my TOP FIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BE MORE SUSTAINABLE DURING THE HOLIDAYS!!

1. Re-gift a gift. Maybe someone on your list would love the gift you got two years ago which is just sitting on your shelf. I have a set of screw drivers I don’t need so someone else gets them.
2. Plan your trips to the stores to reduce gasoline consumption. Better yet, shop on-line at your favorite store and have them ship it to your home.
3. Why not wrap in your newspaper? Even if you put the wrapping paper in the recycle bin much ends up in the landfill. Too much tape, high concentration of ink, and very little fiber make it a poor paper to recycle. I am going to use the holiday promos from my Sunday paper!
4. How about company Christmas cards?  I’ve gotten cards from some companies for 20 years and never done business with them nor have they ever contacted me. Instead, have a holiday lunch with your best clients and stop sending cards to people you are not in contact with. No one will do business with you because they got a card.
5. Buy gifts made locally. You can pick them up at numerous church bazaars, downtown holiday market, or non-chain stores. I found some great soaps made in Iowa in the East Village.

One last idea: What if Santa stopped going to each house?  Think of the gas he would save …. but wait, he uses reindeer!  NEVER MIND.

Plug Load = Bad!

Homes are using less and less electricity for conventional purposes such as heating, cooling, and water heating due to better insulation and appliance efficiencies. However, the plug load is increasing greatly; those TV’s, DVR’s, chargers, and small transformers or anything with the little green light. Some estimates say vampire power accounts for 40% of home power.

If 40% seems like a lot, think of those nice spring days when most of the lights are off and the furnace is not running. All those devices are still sucking electricity. You just cannot see it! 

MODLET to the rescue. The device plugs into any outlet and controls whatever you plug into the modlet. The great thing about the device is, through a local WIFI, information is sent to your computer where you can monitor the electrical consumption at any modlet. You can even program each device to cut off the flow of electricity to your energy-stealing appliances. Chances are you won’t be turning your TV on at 3 a.m., so why not cut the power from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m.?

At $55, each you may think the cost sounds pretty crazy. I did some analysis on what it could do for my house. My 2,700 square foot house used 8,400 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, costing $850. If we are average, then 40% of the cost ($340) was for all those things that are always using electricity.  I could buy 5 Modlets for my TV’s (3), computer and printer (1), and charger location (1) at the cost of $275.

After one year I would recoup my investment and save money from then on.

Reuse a Shoe

In 1990 Nike wondered what the company could do to be more sustainable. An obvious solution was to keep athletic shoes out of landfills since they may never decompose. Voila, the Reuse-A-Shoe program, was started.

About 1.5 million pairs are recycled at Nike recycling centers each year. Since its beginning nearly 28 million pairs have been recycled into other products rather than going to the landfill.

The only drop off center in Iowa is the Nike Factory Store at the outlet mall in Williamsburg. The store manager says they get about 200 pairs a month placed in the drop off bin. You can also mail shoes directly to a Nike recycling center.

The shoes are separated into three parts. The hard outer sole is ground up and used in sport court tiles, track surfaces, and even new shoes. The midsole or the cushion part is used for outdoor basketball and tennis courts. Finally, the shoe’s upper fabric is used in the cushioning pads under floors made of rubber or wood. Nike even came up with a new product called Nike Grind which is synthetic sport flooring.

Maybe the day will come when no new shoes will be made with virgin materials; instead all our athletic shoes will be in a never ending loop of use and rebirth.

-Rob Smith

Toilets are a funny thing

It was 1991 when Kevin Nealon and Victoria Jackson debuted the “Love Toilet” on Saturday Night Live. I laughed and was amused at the riduculousness of such an idea. Funny how comedy can be a precursor to the future. 

Twenty years later Caroma from Australia makes a toilet with a sink on top of the tank. The simple idea uses waste water while washing your hands to help fill the tank for the next flush. After flushing, the toilet directs cold water to the faucet to wash yours hands. No faucet to mess with!

The toilet also features a dual flush system. Notice the buttons on either side of the faucet for “number one” or “number two”. The great thing about the toilet compared to other low flow toilets is a larger outlet that is touted to have less blockages than other toilets.

So this is a great idea to recycle water right at the fixture, but I laugh when I think of people using it sort of like the “Love Toilet”. I can visualize straddling the toilet after use to wash my hands and feeling yucky. What if I am not done washing my hands when the water goes off? Do I flush again? On the other hand it does limit my water use like those automatic faucets at the airport.

Or how about your three year old standing on the lid because they cannot yet reach the sink?  Let me know if this new sustainable design toilet works for you or if you think of Kevin and Victoria.

~Rob Smith, AIA, LEED AP rsmith@smithmetzger.com

Metal shavings to countertops

It seems not a month goes buy and the recycle industry comes up with another stunning and interesting countertop material. Renewed Materials makes a sheet full of waste aluminum flakes. Flakes are the result of making aluminum bars and other shapes into machine parts, windows, or anything else made of aluminum.

Founder Demir Hamami says “What makes Renewed Materials different from other companies is the initial quest to make a recycled product. Other companies make recycled products as a result of figuring out what to do with a waste stream from the manufacture of a core product or how to add recycled content to a core product.”

The aluminum flakes are encapsulated in polyester or acrylic resins and used for tabletops, and countertops. Make sure when you shop for a countertop you know about the basic differences of polyester and acrylic.

Polyester resin makes for a hard surface but is not very transparent and cannot be melted for future reuse (thermoset). Acrylic resin is very transparent. They make eyeglasses of acrylic; it provides great visual depth and can be melted (thermo plastic) for future use, but is a much softer material.

Demir also shared important insight on the general public’s take on recycling. Demir commented “The focus seems to be on post-consumer waste recycling. What I see are huge opportunities in recycling pre-consumer waste from the manufacturing process. That is where much waste resides.”

-Rob Smith

Residential wind energy a lot of hot air?

All those large wind turbines along the highway make you want to run out and install a turbine in your backyard. But wait a darn minute because it may just make no sense or cents.

Over the last two months my home averaged 1,000 kwh of electricity. Can I generate all my electrical needs on site? The large ones along the highway generate 800 kilowatts an hour on average and would have to rotate for only 20 minutes a month, but my neighbors would complain and I would too at a cost of $2.5 million.

The large turbines generate electricity that goes into the grid where a home turbine generates electricity and continually recharges batteries. The electicity you would use then comes from the batteries.

The installed cost of the typical system can be $4,000 to $5,000 per kilowatt of generating capacity including a battery system.

I found several systems on the Internet in the 5kw range. In Iowa the average wind capacity factor is 33% which means whatever the rating of the system you only on average get 33%. So that 5kw turbine would generate on average 5kw times 720 hours per month times 33% equals about 1,200 kw.  That would theoretically handle my electrical needs but at a cost of $20,000 to $25,000.

I can buy electricity from MidAmerican Energy at about 9 cents a KWH. My electric bill last month was $100.  At that rate, which is during the summer peak load, the investment would take 20-25 years to pay for itself.  My suggestion instead is to conserve energy or do other measures like insulation or new windows.

Iowa is more than a breath of fresh air

I am sure as you travel across Iowa you have noticed the horizon dotted with wind turbines. More than 25 wind farms can be found mostly in the north and west portions of the state. One of the most noticable is near Adair along Interstate 80.

Iowa led the nation with nearly 26% of the electricity generated in the state by wind power. The state currently has about 2,900 turbines with a total capacity of 4400 mega watts when the wind is blowing everywhere in the state.  Experts say the wind power capacity of the state is 570,000 megawatts or approximately 130 times the current capacity. Obviously with adequate funds all of Iowa’s demand could be delivered by wind energy.

The turning of the blades rotate a shaft, which creates electrical current through an electrical generator. The electricity is transformed into a higher voltage and put directly into the grid through high power lines. That is why wind farms have to be close to high power lines.

MidAmerican Energy owns and operates almost half of the 4,400 MW capacity in the state and is able to generate an amazing one-third of its electrical generation by wind power.  In fact, of all the utility-based companies, they have the greatest wind energy capacity in the country. Tina Potthoff, spokesperson for MidAmerican says “Wind energy is a cost-effective means to increase generation capacity when compared to nuclear, coal, or oil power plants. The Wind Production Tax Credit helps also.”

Look for more info to come on how you can install a system for your home.

Electrifying fabric

The United Airlines terminal always gets my attention when I fly into the Denver Airport. The majestic white canvas stretched over a steel frame echoing the snow capped peaks beyond. What if within the fabric was imbedded a solar film powering all the lights in the terminal? That is exactly what PowerFilm Inc. of Ames has in mind.

Mike Coon, VP of Building Integrated Products, says “PowerFilm is collaborating with a world leader in architectural fabrics to make the skin of a building produce electrical power.”

The electricity created could have a direct connection such as an entrance canopy powering the lights at the entry. An indirect connection to energy consumption would be to connect the film to the grid and just know you are reducing the amount of fossil fuel needed to generate electricity.

Experts say the average amount of full sun one can expect in Iowa is four hours per day. As Mike Coon explains, “One could expect five watts per square foot of active material at a full sun rating when the fabric is optimally oriented to the south.” Now let’s put that information in perspective. 

The offices of Architects Smith Metzger has a roof area of about 4,000 square feet. If fabric were stretched over the roof on the average day we could expect 80 kilowatt hours (4,000sf X 5 watts/sf X 4 hours /1000 watts per kilowatt). Over a month, about 2,400 kilowatt hours would be produced or about 25% of the electrical consumption in June.

If you want to learn more look them up at the Iowa State Fair on Expo Hill near the MidAmerican Energy wind generator.

Can you guess the number one complaint about buildings?

Think about your experiences within buildings from your office to the movie theater. What is your number one gripe? Do you agree with our number one?

If you answer "the temperature is too cold or too warm," you are in line with our experience. IFMA (International Facility Management Association) completed a survey and found thermal comfort issues even outweighed “high noise levels, limited space, and unpleasant odors”. More than half of those office workers who complain modify the conditions by bringing in their own fans, heaters, or even wearing gloves.

Seems like the most common way to deal with the complaints is for staff to check out the mechanical setttings, inform people things have been checked, and visit them later to see how they are doing. The funny thing is half the time no changes were ever made to the system, but people felt better thinking changes were made.

Jeff Buscher, Design/Construction Manager at Meredith, confirms the number one complaint. Jeff says “Heating and cooling is why people usually contact us. People sense temperature differently since they vary so much in age and body types. Distribution is also an issue since ceiling diffusers are spaced apart. If you are sitting directly under a diffuser your conditions are different than the person sitting ten feet away.” Jeff also added “Sometimes after a complaint, we find the mechanical system is clearly not working right.”

What I have learned is, if you don’t let those in charge of your environment know you are uncomfortable, you will continue to be uncomfortable.

Ventilation is costly

Old mechanical systems provided minimal fresh outside air for the occupants of buildings. The sick building syndrome of the 70’s was caused to a great degree from not enough fresh air to flush out all the toxins. Nowadays, one of the key ingredients for a sustainable building design is providing adequate ventilation.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), which recommends standards for mechanical systems, uses the number of people in a room and the size of the room to determine the ventilation rate.  For example, a 150-square foot office requires about 15-20 cubic feet of fresh air per minute. That’s a lot of fresh air.

Jared Bartell, a mechanical engineer at MODUS in Des Moines, says ventilation accounts for about 30% of the cost of heating and cooling a building. One of the reasons is during the summer the fresh air has to be dehumidified and during the winter heated.

The typical mechanical system provides fresh air to a space all day long even if it is unoccupied. If your building has areas such as conference rooms or other spaces not used all the time, you might think about investing in a CO2 sensor. The sensors measure the CO2 rate of the outside to the rate inside the room. When a higher level is sensed in the room the ventilation system kicks on. Therefore, you might have a situation where ventilation in a large room is not needed for days, resulting in quite an energy savings.

See other blogs featuring sustainable design at IowaBiz sustainable design and construction.

-Rob Smith

Check it at the curb

 

via Google Images

The recycle industry starts with the stuff in the recycle container you put at the curb. Past blogs on products from glass countertops to plastic lumber rely on a stream of waste that starts with you.  

 

Robert Pickens, Vice President of the Midwest Region of Greenstar Recycling says “only 3%-5% of all the material put in recycle containers in the Des Moines area ends up in the landfill. Material is sorted by both machines and by hand into cardboard, newspaper, magazines, glass bottles, seven types of plastic, tin, and aluminum.”

 

via Google Images

Greenstar then provides the raw material to processors who in turn prepare the material for the end user, such as a company that needs polyethylene pellets to make park benches.  Most of our local stuff goes to processors in the United States and Mexico. Some might even end up in China.

 

 

via Google Imges

The chemical makeup of some plastic makes the process pretty toxic to revert back to a raw material. As a result, Pickens says “Manufacturers are shifting their packaging so containers can be more readily returned to a raw material for reuse.” Wow, that means a ketchup bottle that used to end up in the landfill may cost a bit more at the grocery store but the bottle becomes a mayonaise bottle in a second life.

 

Pickens says we can we do three things so as much as possible gets recycled.

• Rinse out your bottles. Even a recycler does not want dirty product.
• No plastic bags from the grocery store. They just clog up the machinery.
• No weird stuff like holiday lights or broken dishware.

-Rob Smith

Some people are cool and some are hot!

Do you notice how many people go to a movie and carry a jacket or pull-over even when it's in the 90’s outside? Or people at a convention wearing sweaters in the summer? I am one of those people. Went to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and began the trip to hypothermia when I sat in my chair. Don’t companies understand everything engineers do to make systems energy efficient goes out the window when the system is not operated correctly?

It is estimated that, during the cooling season, a decrease in the setting of a thermostat by one degree adds one percent to your energy bill. Or a five degree decrease adds five percent. Engineers work hard to get a 40% savings in energy usage and the thermostat setting can give 5% right back. What gives?

Steve Alvine of Alvine Engineering shared some insight into the thermal comfort of people. He was updating a HVAC system in an office building and found two people sitting next to each other, one wrapped in a blanket and the other with a fan. “It comes down to making people comfortable and we are all different.” he says.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), which recommends standards for mechanical systems, is based on making 80% of the occupants of a building comfortable. Basically, people are so different that a mechanical system is hard pressed to make everyone comfortable.

So why do places like movie theaters and convention centers keep it so cold? Perhaps places have learned people can put on more layers to be comfortable, but it is not acceptable to take off layers to keep cool. It's all about minimizing complaints.

So much for saving energy.

Insulate yourself from the world

Next time you think about sustainable design, start with the insulation in your house. Insulation is what keeps the interior of buildings and homes from feeling the effects of the outside temperature. In an Iowa winter for example, the temperature inside a home will naturally decrease because of the effects of a lower outside temperature. When the inside temperature decreases, the thermostat senses the decrease and sends a message to the furnace systems to heat air and then push it through metal ducts to make people feel comfortable.

The greater the amount of insulation, the less the inside is effected by the outside temperature. In fact, Superinsulation is defined as at least an R-Value of 40 in the walls and an R-value of 60 in the roof. R-Value is a measurement of the resistance to heat flow of insulation. The higher the number, the better the insulation resists heat flow.

The Iowa Building Code requires residential construction have at least an R 20 for walls and R 38 for roofs. As compared to superinsulated construction, what gets built (since the code usually becomes the standard) has a much lower R value.

To meet the Iowa Code, the walls require a 6” fiberglas batt which has an R value of 19. Other parts of the wall get the overall R above 20. A 12” fiberglas batt has an R value of 38 for the roof or attic. Super insulated homes use foam insulation for walls because of the higher efficiency per inch as compared with batt insulation. Spray foam insulation is nearly 3 times more efficient per inch so in the same space a fiberglas batt provides R19, spray foam provides R44.

Remember, the closer you get to super insulated standards, the less energy it will take to keep your house comfortable.

See other blogs featuring sustainable construction.

Recycled glass countertops

NOTE: This is the fourth blog in a series featuring Iowa companies who are making an impact in sustainable construction.

Dubuque-based Green Field Products has been making sheets used for countertops, tabletops, fireplace surrounds or anywhere you would think of using granite. The sheet is made of post consumer waste glass and concrete.

"How the product came into being is a most interesting story," said owner Tim Greenfield.

An architect was visiting another company Tim owns, Dubuque Glass Company, and asked what they did with the cool glass colored chips in a bin destined for a landfill. Several years later and countless hours of experimentation later, Greenfield Stone was born.

Most of the glass comes from the waste of cutting glass from Dubuque Glass Company. One company’s waste became another company’s supply stream. Mixed in are accent colors like the blue vodka bottle or bottles used at local breweries. However, the biggest seller is one called White Ash which uses different colors of gray glass.

The mix of cement, water, and crushed glass is prepared in a 5 by 10 foot by 1 ¼ inch deep bed and allowed to harden. The sheet is then ground smooth and polished to a gloss finish. The strength of the material is 14,000 pounds per square inch as compared to 4,000 pounds per square inch for typical concrete.

Tim says, “It is like baking a cake, sometimes the cake is perfect and sometimes it falls in the oven.”

The product is shipped all over the US and costs about $100 per square foot installed. That’s more than granite at $75 per square foot, but instead of taking something from the earth you keep bad stuff from going in!!!

If you want to see the product in Des Moines you can find it at Renaissance Marble and Granite in Urbandale.

See the other blogs featuring Iowa companies at IowaBiz sustainable design and construction.

- Rob Smith

*Images via Google images.

Plastic lumber and more

This is the third blog in a series featuring Iowa companies who are making an impact in sustainable construction.  

The Plastic Recycling of Iowa Falls has been making recycled products from post consumer waste and post industrial waste for the last 25 years. Their major products are tables, benches, car stops for parking lots, and lumber. 

The company uses high density polyethylene such as milk jugs and low density polyethylene such as grocery bags as the raw material.  PVC or PET (pop bottles) recycled waste is not found in their products. Sue Waters, VP of sales and marketing, says it takes 7 one-gallon milk jugs to make one pound of recycled product.  Therefore it takes 770 milk jugs to make a 110 pound park bench.  In fact the company makes over five million pounds of product in the course of one year….that’s 35 million milk jugs!

According to Sue, finding an adequate stream of material is one of the main issues the company faces.  In the old days she says “companies would give away their waste but now we compete with China for our raw product.  China sends so many containers to the USA and wants them to return not empty.  As a result they are competing with us to buy recycled plastic.”

The lumber is great as pallet material but not as good as a structural beam.  The product expands in the sunlight or heat and my sag some.  When I asked how the 4x4 would work as a fence post she said “it would last for a long time but it tracks the sun and would bend towards the east in the morning and towards the west in the evening. 

You can support the Iowa based company by travelling to Iowa Falls and buying a bench for your garden that will last a lifetime.  As an Iowan they will give you 40% off to boot.

See the other blogs featuring Iowa companies at IowaBiz sustainable design and construction

- Rob Smith

BUYER BEWARE

Recently I was asked on a project to provide a list of all interior materials and the location where the product was made.  Sounds easy, but as I went off to do my job I found it was not.

The concern comes from LEED credits available for using a product where the raw materials and manufacturer is within 500 miles of the construction site.  The goal is to encourage buying brick from the next state rather than have it shipped across the country.  If everyone purchased materials this way then collectively less gas etc. would be used. 

But what about all the lesser materials like floor tile, ceilings, countertop materials like Corian, sinks, faucets, and all sorts of other products.  Wouldn’t it be more sustainable if these products were at least made in the USA?  A web research into various products came up empty handed.  Time and time again there were pages and pages of product information but none on where the various products within one company were made.  Several instances stick in my mind.

One was an obvious American company like Formica with only corporate address info and nothing on plant locations or where anything was made.  Did they have a plant in China?  Another example was a company with a name like “American Products Inc.”  At least I could assume I found a company making goods in the USA but upon further investigation it was a subsidiary of a company from Germany; an obvious ploy in sustainable product marketing to get consumers to buy foreign products.

The only way I could get to the bottom was to call the factory representative or the company itself.  Even then most did not know where their stuff was made.

Buyers beware for sure!!

- Rob Smith

Buttons to corn cobs

This is a second blog in a series featuring Iowa companies who are making an impact in sustainable construction.

The McKee Company of Muscatine was founded in 1895 and at one time was the largest manufacturer of pearl buttons in the world. Their buttons were found on men’s dress shirts made for JCPenney, Van Heusen, Arrow, and Land’s End. When most clothing lines left the states and went to China the need for buttons was drastically reduced. 

The company still makes buttons but has used button making technology and transitioned to sustainable building products. Years ago, the company looked for more sustainable ways of making buttons and turned to a biomass resin instead of petroleum based. Buttons are made by pouring the resin into a spinning drum making a thin sheet which is peeled off the inside of the drum. The sheet hardens and is made into buttons. Corn cobs are used to polish the buttons after they are punched and tooled into the desired shape.

Jay McKee, fourth generation owner, says one day they experimented by adding corn cob material to the resin and voila, the Green Line of sustainable products was born. The 22 percent bio content panel can be used for many uses such as shower enclosures, bathroom walls, countertops, and decorative cabinet panels.  Other options include wood chips, lemon grass, and fibers. The material has also been successfully used at restroom renovations at the University of Iowa Quadrangle dormitories.

The button making process allows many custom panels to be manufactured because small quantities can be easily made rather than setting up for thousands of square feet of material.

Check out my last blog on ReWall at IowaBiz sustainable design and construction

Panels made from milk cartons

The citizens of the USA dispose of 250 million tons of trash each year or about 4.6 pounds per day.  Luckily about 30% of trash is recycled. The waxy cartons used for milk and juice account for about two million tons of trash and typically go straight to the landfill.

The Rewall Company of Des Moines is using a European process to turn the cartons into construction building panels. The boards can be left natural where you see all the words and colors of the cartons (naked board) or a paper coating (essential board) is applied to both sides.  Either product can be painted. You could panel your basement or go ultra-modern and make an accent wall in your living room.

The product is made from post-consumer and post-industrial waste content found within 500 miles of Des Moines. Rewall is working with Metro Waste to obtain post-consumer product from the Des Moines area. 

The 8 foot by 4 foot panel is virtually inert and water resistant. I personally soaked a piece of naked board in water for a week and the panel barely changed.  Anywhere you have used plywood or oriented strand board this 100% recycled product can be used.  Examples are under countertops, paneling, tile backer board, floor sheathing, and roof sheathing.

The product can be purchased at the Habitat Restore in Des Moines or Kinzler Companies in Ames.  You can buy 1/2” x 4’ x 8’ naked panels for $26.00 or 1/2” x 4’ x 3’ essential board for $5.75.  Tanner Kinzler of Kinzler Companies says he is always looking to replace existing products with others which perform better, cost less, and are greener.  He is excited about Rewall.

So next time you throw a milk carton in your recycle bin, you may see it next in your kitchen remodeling.

To see a related Business Record story, click here.

- Rob Smith

Images via aedairy.com and Google images respectively.

Not so big house

While shopping at Barnes and Noble for the holiday, I stumbled on a book I have been meaning to buy for years - Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka. Originally published in 1998, it tackles head on the premise that bigger is not always better when it comes to homes.  As a result, the house is more sustainable because much less materials are used to build perhaps 30% to 50% less home.  Ongoing energy costs are also greatly reduced.

I can speak to this firsthand as my wife and I look for our next home.  Many houses have lots of space with no detail or character to make a house a home.  So much space the exterior became mostly vinyl or metal siding.  Compare that to the entry of a home from the Not So Big House which is rich in detail.  Can’t you see yourself sitting on the porch for hours?  The same concept from years ago is found in areas of Des Moines such as Beaverdale where small brick homes are still in demand.  Many feature built-ins and craftsman detail throughout. 

Consider if homes were more appropriately sized, the amount of wood and concrete that would be conserved.  Imagine the amount of resources saved if houses were just 10% smaller? With nearly 7 million homes built per year at an average size of 3,000 square feet, a 10% savings would save 2.1 billion square feet of home construction. That’s a lot of carpet and space which did not require heating or cooling.

So next time you or someone you know thinks about a new home, pick up a copy of Not So Big House and think about being more sustainable from the get go!

Building going geothermal

More and more new commercial buildings are going geothermal as a viable means to reduce energy costs.  The 40,000 square foot Central Iowa Shelter & Services building, currently under construction south of downtown Des Moines, features a geothermal system.  The mechanical engineer for the project, Alan Langley of Alvine Engineering, says “the trend in Iowa is more buildings are using geothermal systems, in fact about 80% of the schools we design use geothermal systems. Offices and healthcare are good candidates also.”

Alan also adds “the trend started in Iowa when the utility companies started to provide hefty rebates for energy conserving systems like geothermal”.  Basically, the utilities pay companies to lower their energy usage rather than bring on a new power plant costing millions of dollars.

A commercial system costs $16-$20 per square foot so the cost for a geothermal system for a 10,000 square foot building would be $160,000 to $200,000. The payback is typically 5 to 7 years and from day-one heating and cooling costs should be reduced by 35%-45%.

A geothermal system takes advantage of the earth’s constant temperature.  The diagram shows the earth’s temperature near the surface in Iowa to be about 52 degrees.  Therefore, the temperature of water when circulated through a closed system of vertical or horizontal loops nears a constant 52 degrees.  The loop is tapped into by mechanical equipment which either transfers heat to the loop during the summer or takes heat from the loop during the winter.

An amazing result of the loop is the potential transfer of energy within a building during the winter.  The interior zones of a large office building many times require year-round cooling while the perimeter usually requires heating.  Mechanical equipment removes heat from the interior zone and transfers the heat to the loop.  Mechanical equipment at the exterior zone reverses the process and removes the heat from the loop providing heat where it is needed. Now that is being Green!!!

What direction should a home's windows face?

I have always enjoyed a daylight filled room and the warmth of the sun in the winter.  One of the first things people ask for when I am designing their dream home is lots of windows.  I translate that to mean “give me south facing windows so I can be warmed by the sun as I have my coffee and watch the snow fall.”

Yet it amazes me, when I see the McMansions in the suburbs of America, how few pay any attention to the direction of the sun.  The shadow cast on this behemoth suggests the large blank wall could face south.  What a shame!  The owners are robbed of one of the easiest sustainable design principles; passive solar energy by just letting the sun shine in and heat the space during the winter.   This is an example of using a stock plan with no attention to the orientation of the house. 

The best orientation for a house is with windows to the south since it is easiest to shade glass during the summer and let it shine in during the winter.  The next best is east so you get light in the morning and not the beastly sun in the summer afternoons.  Since the back of the house typically has the most windows, that means 75% of homes do not have the best orientation and 50% are a disaster (since homes have an equal chance of facing any one of the four directions).

Finally, I was looking to move to the country and was amazed time after time how a new home was built on 10 acres and still faced the street.  Certainly with that much land one could have oriented the house to take advantage of the sun.  I saw many huge windowless walls facing south…must have been the walk-in closet.

Next home, think about the benefits of the sun on your pocket book and state of mind!

- Rob Smith

Demountable wall systems mounting a comeback!

In the 60's and 70's, many big corporations like GE, Principal, and US West installed miles of demountable walls rather than building walls out of metal studs and gypsum board. I worked with a system used at the US West building in Des Moines. It matched the typical demountable wall system….beige with a vertical joint every 4 feet and doors where you needed them. To jazz it up you could provide a side light next to the door. Yippee!!!

Problem was they were just plain ugly. The walls were not used much after the 80’s because workers' expectations of the work environment increased.

Along comes the green movement and demountable walls are being considered again. The difference this time is they look cool and can adapt to almost any style. The walls no longer have the look of 4 foot wide monolithic panels. Systems come in a wide array of wood, metal, glass, and painted finishes. You can even get sliding doors to your office. Surfaces can also be equipped with white boards so you can write on the walls.

The demountable wall is more expensive than building walls from scratch but you can take them apart and reconfigure. While a typical painted 8 foot office partition costs $60 per foot and a demountable wall costs close to $75 per foot, it’s still worth it even if you just move them once. A new layout can also be done quicker with the demountable walls and makes less of a mess. That’s very sustainable.

Companies like Dirtt and Teknion are leading the way with innovative design. Ken Kahrs of Koch Brothers in Des Moines sells Teknion and says the demand for demountable walls continues to rise. Ken also says 50% of the cost can be written off and the remainder depreciated over 7 years rather than 30 years for a stud wall.

So, when it comes to sustainable design and construction consider demountable walls.

Workstations are dropping their panels

Panel systems to provide some privacy and acoustics for the office worker came about in the late sixties by companies like Westinghouse and Hermann Miller.  You’ve seen the typical six foot tall monolithic panel in many movies as an endless sea of gray where one could easily get lost.  Sometimes one color was used throughout…like turquoise!!

 

For years, I encouraged using lower panels so you could see others and not be penned in, but everyone seemed to want no interaction with others.  Then along comes sustainable design and LEED where your design gets points for providing daylight and views for most office workers.  With a wave of the sustainable wand, shorter panels are now being used. 

 

Two credits within the Indoor Environmental Quality of LEED deal with daylight and views to the outside.   Daylight requirements have several approaches, but basically the credit is achieved when all occupied spaces have a level of at least 25 foot candles in 75% of the space.  If daylight provides 25 foot candles to 90% of the space, 2 credits are achieved.  Obviously tall furniture panels block daylight from penetrating the space and providing the required foot candles.

 

Views requirements are the main driver of shorter furniture panels.  One credit is achieved when 90% of all occupants in a space have a direct line of sight to the outdoors between 30 and 90 inches above the floor.  Furniture panels can use glass to meet this requirement if a taller panel is needed.

 

What does this mean for office workers?  They are more connected to the outdoors and natural cycles.  In the old days of tall cubes everywhere, you could actually lose touch with the time of day or whether it was raining so you could run outside and close your car windows.

 

Access to natural daylight maintains our circadian rhythms.  I have never heard my clients say they have too many windows.  On the contrary, I have ripped holes in many walls to provide light into what was a cave.

 

- Rob Smith

An Interface with Carpet

The early 1980’s is when I met my first carpet tile.  Now nearly every job I do is carpet tile.   People replace carpet tile not because it wears out but because it “uglies” out!  The stuff won’t die.  I even know of a university dining hall where they cleaned the carpet tile by running it through the commercial dishwasher.  YIKES!!

The manufacture of carpet is not very sustainable since it is made of nylon which is made from petroleum.  In addition, the backing of carpet tile is also petroleum based.  It took a visionary and founder of Interface carpet, Ray Anderson, to question the long term sustainability of carpet tile.  After reading The Ecology of Commerce, Ray transformed his business from a linear model where carpet is made, used, and goes to the landfill, to a circular model.  The carpet goes from manufacture, used, and back to manufacture without any petroleum needed.

This sustainable paradigm required innovation.  There were no machines to take old carpet tile and separate the yarn from the backing so Interface built machines.  Nylon manufacturers partnered and figured out how to take harvested yarn and turn it into liquid nylon and spin new yarn.  As a result of this kind of thinking, last year over 350 million pounds of post-consumer carpet was diverted from the landfills and over 80% was recycled.  

Now recycling centers are sprouting up to get the recycled product back to manufacturers.  Many times the cost of recycling is cheaper than landfill fees.  In fact, companies like Interface are working with municipalities to increase landfill fees for carpet to ensure the circular model does not run out of product.

What’s in the future?  Already Interface uses no virgin raw materials in the manufacture of the carpet tile backing.  Their 2020 goal is to use no virgin raw materials in any part of the entire carpet tile, just recycled or bio based material.

Sustainable design is really about changing our paradigms and asking pretty simple questions.  Ray Anderson asked if there was another way for his business to make a product and not contribute to depleting a virgin material like petroleum.  He found a way and Interface is now the leading carpet company in the world.

What does VOC mean to you?

I remember long ago when I was refinishing woodwork and would get dizzy. I did not know I was feeling the effect of a high amount of VOC's in the air. The varnish was comprised of Volatile Organic Compounds (usually carbon) and VOC’s were released into the air as varnish dried.

Today an important part of the green movement and LEED certification uses low VOC paints. Federal regulations cap the VOC content in paint at 250 grams per liter for flat finishes and 380 grams per liter for all other finishes.  LEED requires flat finish paints at 50g/l and others at 150g/l. Paint meeting these requirements is often referred to as “Green Seal Certified” paint.  You can also beat LEED requirements with zero VOC paint (really not zero but anything under 5 g/l).  Then there are “true zero VOC” paints to differentiate from zero VOC paints.  Confused yet?

The catch is, the base white color can be “green seal certified”, zero VOC, or true zero VOC but as soon as you add a colorant the VOC’s could go through the roof.  Be careful when you pay extra for zero VOC that you are getting what you paid for.  Zero VOC paints cost more because others use a less expensive petroleum base.

I called my friend Gordon Sterk, owner of Johnston Ace Hardware, who sells Benjamin Moore paints to get the scoop and found Natura by Benjamin Moore is a true zero VOC including the colorant.  The paint costs $69 per gallon and is available in an infinite number of colors.  Benjamin Moore also has several “Green Seal Certified” paints that cost between $39 and $59 per gallon.  Home Depot has a similar paint called FreshAire Choice but only comes in 65 colors and costs about $40 per gallon.

- Rob Smith

More than gardening books on the shelf

A company has come up with a shelving system which hangs planters on the wall to bring live plants into your office or home. The breathe wall exchanges air with the surroundings and filters the air. The plants more or less inhale bad air and exhale good air.

A nice idea since when I go into a home or office without one green Indoor plant I get this sterile creepy feeling. And while plastic plants sometimes fool you, I am talking about live plants which grow and you have to water. 

Studies show sixwise.com indoor plants can improve indoor air quality by removing 87% of air toxins in 24 hours. Recommendations are to provide 15-18 good sized (that’s 6-8 inch pots) in the average 1,800 square foot house to help with air quality.  My keen mathematical mind comes up with a plant per 100 square feet so each room should have one or two plants. That’s a lot of plants!!

One researcher recommended to a company to have every employee within 45 feet of a plant. A much lesser density than one per 100 square foot but apparently still beneficial to the morale of workers. Another facet of plants is it just makes people happy and feeling good.

Palms and ferns are one of the best plants because they are used to relative low light levels at the bottom of the rain forest so they can grow in most places.  The plants also help stabilize the humidity in spaces which is good to fight colds and keep your nasal membranes feeling good in the winter.

- Rob Smith

White is the new green in roofs

In 2009, Al Gore and Mayor Michael Bloomberg pushed for the painting of one million square feet of roofs in New York City and launched "NYC Cool Roofs." The plan was to reduce energy costs and give college students a job.  It at least got people thinking about the color of their roof.

A white roof performs better in two areas over the typical dark colored roof. It reduces the surface temperature and cools the surroundings.

A white surface reflects sunlight before it can be absorbed and transformed into heat energy. In the process the surface temperature is reduced by as much as 30 degrees. The lower surface temperature reduces air conditioning and saves anywhere from 5-40% in electrical savings.

Seems the big factor is how much insulation is on the roof. The thicker the insulation the less impact surface temperature makes on the interior temperatures of the building. So if you have hardly any insulation on your roof you could paint it white and save some cash but if you have 5-6 inches of insulation you probably won’t notice a difference.

The other attribute of a white roof is it reduces the amount of heat re-radiated back to the surroundings. The phenomenon known as the heat island effect is best seen in cities like Phoenix where is does not cool down during the evening like the surrounding countryside.  So much heat energy has been absorbed by all the dark surfaces that it continues to heat the air even after the sun goes down. Some areas of the country can experience 10 degrees difference but probably not in Iowa.

I don’t think the time will come when the Iowa roofscape looks like those cities from Indiana Jones movies with the minarets and desert in the background. The cities with all white roofs are most likely never white from snow. But I wonder how long it will be before white roofs are a permanent part of landscape in Iowa. 

- Rob Smith

Ah, the "good old days" of indoor air quality

Image via Wikipedia

I must admit, in the past, our projects sometimes put our clients through hell! I think back to the remodeling projects where business carried on for my client amidst sanding drywall, gluing carpet to the floor, lacquering wood cabinets, and painting with oil based enamels! 

The peculiar thing was people rarely complained or made an issue of the terrible working conditions. I clearly remember a different occasion when someone finally said enough is enough, and was headed home because they had a headache from the fumes. If the guy painting is wearing a gas mask it has got to be bad. Not very sustainable!

Then in the early 80’s along came sick building syndrome. Scientific research and studies showed how toxic and polluted our indoor environments had become. People really were sick from the indoor environment. All the chemicals did have an effect on people.

Some changes happened over night and some took decades. Among the positive changes:

• Cabinets and doors were finished offsite in the shop within a special paint booth. No longer did our clients have to work within 10 feet of someone varnishing a door.
• Paints used were mostly latex and oil based paints were used sparingly.
• A machine was invented to sand and vacuum drywall dust. Not only were the air conditions better but cleanup was easier.
• Materials without formaldehyde were manufactured and products with formaldehyde disappeared from the market.

Sustainable practices now typically include special ventilation systems used during construction. Another option is to flush out the building before people occupy the building by bringing in 100% outdoor air.

Sometimes when it comes to sustainable design we think about the building but isn’t the real purpose to sustain life? When people got involved and spoke up about their indoor environment, positive changes resulted!

- Rob Smith

There's light at the end of the tunnel

Every once and a while a new product comes along and my immediate response is “WAY COOL!” While many manufacturers of “green” products have done little other than repackage their old product, Solatube International broke into the North America market in 1991 with a truly remarkable product to bring natural daylight into the inner parts of buildings. 

I have used skylights in the past to bring natural daylight into buildings. Skylights flood interior spaces with daylight and therefore reduce the need for using light fixtures. That’s a good green thing!! The tendency is to use skylights to light lobbies and atriums but not work spaces because of non-consistent light levels and glare. 

I was asked once to help a bank with a skylight issue in the boardroom. The skylight was over the end of the boardroom table and the sunlight was so intense no one would sit under the skylight. Of course, as the sun moved across the sky, the direct sunlight would move down the line from one chair to the next, causing people to constantly play musical chairs.

Tubular "daylighting" devices funnel daylight through a tube and get the light to where it is needed. The amazing thing is now natural sunlight can be directed to work areas not on the top floor of a building but deep within the bowels of the building. The inside of the tubes are specular so daylight can be reflected up to 50 feet with several 90 degree bends.  That’s amazing!

The Solatube system is also manufactured to provide a more consistent light level throughout the day. During the morning when the sun is low in the sky the refractors gather all the light available and send it down the tube. When the sun is high in the sky some of the light is reflected so not all the daylight available is sent down the tube. That way the interior senses a more uniform illumination consistency than a typical skylight.  One device can remove the need for lights in a conference room.

Look for solatubes at the new Central Iowa Shelter & Services building, currently under construction. Three of the Solatube devices will be used to bring natural daylight into interior corridors and reduce utility costs forever.