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GREENINQ |
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Green Planning Design & Technology for the Built Environment |
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PRESS RELEASES
An Elk Grove Man Runs Hot And Cold
Craig Hoellwarth has known two types of talk in his life: straight talk and the embroidered variety. And he's spent most of his professional life championing the former and challenging the latter. It's a skill that will come in handy as he ventures down the road of a growing sector: renewable energy.
Hoellwarth served appointments to state and national positions on various energy-related commissions, including his work developing the first Title 24 Non-Residential Performance standards for the California Energy Commission and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District's Energy Advantage Program. These introduced him to a world where straight talk about energy conservation sometimes gets blown into hyperbole.
"I was asked to craft a report about the amount of energy our proposals would save," he says. "The savings estimates of these proposals were so exaggerated that I wrote a poem to illustrate this fact, saying that we would save more energy than the sun makes. Needless to say, I was never asked to write another report."
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Increasing City Buildings' Energy Efficiency: As energy costs rise and widespread concern about climate change increases, cities can limit their greenhouse gas emissions and save money by reducing energy use in municipal buildings and investing in energy efficiency. This article explores questions city officials should ask about energy use and efficiency so they can make informed decisions about city buildings.
1. Why is energy efficiency in city buildings important?
The simple reasons are cost savings, energy and resource conservation, and the increasing public support for protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, leading by example sends an important message to your community and may stimulate "green" economic development.
2. What policies should guide Energy decision-making?
Be sure to include a life-cycle cost analysis, which is a financial evaluation of alternative building design strategies that considers significant costs of construction and operation over the economic life of the facility. The analysis should include the:
· Capital (or initial) costs;
· Annual operating and maintenance expense expressed as a cost-benefit ratio;
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Taking the "LEED"
Presentation to the AIA Inland California chapter which serves the public, the Profession and its members
throughout Riverside and San Bernardino Counties with programs and services to advance the art of architecture and enhance the quality of our environment.
Over the past couple of years, another acronym has crept into our vocabulary. LEED. Perhaps the introduction paragraph from the Green Building
Council's Web site sums it up best: "The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEEDtm) Green Building Rating System represents the U.S. Green Building Council's effort to provide a national standard for what constitutes a "green building." Through its use as a design guideline and third-party certification tool, it aims to improve occupant well-being, environmental performance and economic returns of buildings using established and innovative practices, standards and technologies.
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Schools Going Solar
The Sacramento [California, U.S.A.] Municipal Utility District (SMUD), arguably the world’s leading solar In keeping with the scale of SMUD’s solar endeavors, the school system is a whopper. While the typical PV system being installed on school rooftops averages between one and four kilowatts in output (enough to power a handful of classrooms), SMUD’s installation on the Kit Carson Elementary School in Sacramento produces 27.7 kilowatts of electricity.
It also employs a cutting-edge PV product: a roofing shingle (or “slate”) made by Atlantis Energy, says Craig Hoellwarth, principal at Quest Consulting and a project designer.
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