2015 November-December

Q&A with Kevin Kampschroer

2015 November-December, local pulse

[vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left" padding_top="50"][vc_column width="1/3"][vc_single_image image="21130" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text] Illustration by Melissa McGill [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="20"][vc_single_image image="21128" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1446143439697{margin-top: 20px !important;}"]Kevin Kampschroer created the framework for which GSA responds to the challenges of greenhouse gas emissions reductions and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s mandate to move GSA’s Federal building inventory toward high-performance green buildings.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text]Q.When did you take over as the GSA Federal Director? I have been the Federal Director for the GSA Office of Federal High Performance Green Buildings since the office’s inception in March, 2008. The Office was created by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Q.What are the sustainability goals of the General Services Administration (GSA)? GSA set goals for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction, building energy efficiency, water efficiency, renewable energy use, percentage of green buildings, and GHG per mile for fleet. We benchmark these goals (and their sub-goals) across the Federal government. For example, one sub-goal is purchasing a certain percentage of alternative-fuel and electric vehicles. Another is conducting energy audits every four years on each of GSA’s larger buildings. Over the last 10 years, GSA reduced the energy intensity of our portfolio by 32 percent, and we’ve set a goal of another 25 percent...

Three-Part Solution

2015 November-December, COMMUNITY

[vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="center"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] Three-Part Solution [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] A food bank, plus a demonstration garden, plus an outdoor classroom equals a recipe for feeding the capital’s hungry. By Kiley Jacques[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_video link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMJnjdK-__w"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1449802533161{margin-top: 14px !important;}"]The flexible, multipurpose studio—an “Urban Food Studio”—will provide the CAFB with an all-season space for gardening, cooking education classes, and workshops.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text]There’s a misconception about hunger in D.C.—one that suggests it’s only the homeless who use food banks. “It’s an expensive city,” notes Susie Westrup, LEED AP BD+C, manager, Paladino and Company as well as Greenbuild 2015 Legacy Project co-chair. “There are [approximately] 700,000 people in D.C. who don’t know where their next meal is coming from.” The fact is many working lower- and middle-class families visit food banks for supplemental groceries to make ends meet. One of those food banks is the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB), with headquarters in Northeast D.C. This year alone, CAFB distributed 42 million pounds of food (the equivalent of 35 million meals) to 540,3002 people living in D.C. and six surrounding communities. Through direct service and a network of more than 500 partner agencies, CAFB feeds the hungry—though its mission goes far...

The Business of Being Green

2015 November-December, green economy, LEED impact

[vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="17498" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="21072" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="10"][vc_column_text] By Alexandra DeLuca [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left" padding_top="25"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] [caption id="attachment_21086" align="alignright" width="550"] Disclosure requirements and energy audits make New York City a first-tier “green” city.[/caption] A look at green building adoption in Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. Whether you get your hot dog from a cart in Manhattan, “drag it through the garden” in Chicago, or order one at Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C., you are stopping for a snack in one of the nation’s green building apexes. “Each of these three cities is an example of a strong sustainable market,” says Dave Pogue, global director of Corporate Responsibility at CBRE, which published its “National Green Building Adoption Index” in June of this year. The index aims to measure the growth of green building certification—either EPA’s ENERGY STAR program or the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED—for the top 30 U.S. commercial markets over the past 9 years. But like their culinary offerings, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. have marked differences in how and why their real estate sectors have adopted sustainability. “Chicago is the most dynamic of the markets,” Pogue says. “It has really...

Line of Thought

2015 November-December, ecosystems, LEED impact

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="16705" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="21027" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text] By Kiley Jacques [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] The Metro Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority of Monrovia, California, adopts sustainable design principles despite the seemingly limited options. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] A maintenance facility that services an entire metro system’s fleet does not readily lend itself to sustainable design, never mind the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. At least that was the thinking at the start of the two-phase Foothill Gold Line light rail project from Pasadena to Montclair—the second phase of which was to include the building of an operations and maintenance facility as part of the Pasadena-to-Azusa segment. However, [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="21030" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="5"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1446132187860{margin-bottom: 20px !important;}"] The Gold Line Operations Campus is an integral part of the 6-station, 11.5-mile Foothill Gold Line light rail project from Pasadena to Azusa, California. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] when key players from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), Parsons architects, and Kiewit Construction came together to look at what could be done, they decided LEED Silver certification was within reach—and then, much like the rail itself, they reached a...

Walk of Life

2015 November-December, COMMUNITY, LEED impact

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="18094" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="20995" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] By Kiley Jacques [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] Eco-conscious real estate developer EYA builds homes for the betterment of all. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="21008" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text]Right: Brian Jackson, at the EYA office in Bethesda, Maryland. Photo by Ryan Smith[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left" padding_bottom="25"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] Washington, D.C.–based EYA, a 23-year-old preeminent real estate development and building firm, brings Washingtonians “life within walking distance.” Twice named “America’s Best Builder,” EYA has succeeded in settling homeowners closer to shopping, dining, and business districts in innovative urban neighborhoods characterized by walkability, thoughtfully planned spaces, and timeless architecture. At its inception, according to senior vice president Brian (A.J.) Jackson, EYA was responding to “an increased demand for opportunities to live closer in and closer to amenities.” They saw an opportunity. “That was not something large national builders were set up to provide.” With a focus on urban infill, EYA’s projects tend to be smaller and more complicated, and typically require significant development efforts, as their sites are often quite challenging. “We believed that through better design we could increase the density and really transform the townhouse product from a price-point product into...

Climate Change Conundrum

2015 November-December, climate change, LEED impact

[vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="17531" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="20974" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="10"][vc_column_text] By Mary Grauerholz [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left" padding_top="25"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] [caption id="attachment_20977" align="alignright" width="600"] In researching her new book, The Sixth Extinction, author Elizabeth Kolbert traveled to the Andes, Africa, and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia to examine the real-time impacts that humans are having on this planet.[/caption] A conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Kolbert on the subject of the health of our planet. The world is in serious crisis. Rising sea levels, destruction of habitat, loss of farmland, and a host of other outcomes of climate change are destroying the earth’s ecology and could destroy its most dangerous interloper, homo sapiens. Elizabeth Kolbert, a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine and author of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, has devoted years of travel, research, and writing to the situation and what we can do to get back on course. Kolbert will bring her message as a Master Series speaker to the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, on Thursday, November 19, in her talk, “The Sixth Extinction.” In a telephone interview from her western Massachusetts home, Kolbert says she will...

Permanence

2015 November-December, LEED ON

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="20965" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/4"][vc_single_image image="20967" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] Rick Fedrizzi CEO and founding chair U.S. Green Building Council [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="3/4"][vc_column_text] [dropcaps type='normal' color='' background_color='' border_color='']I[/dropcaps]n our world, there is very little that is permanent. And as the world around me inevitably changes, I’ve discovered that the single thing that tends to last is the power of an idea. That doesn’t mean an idea is static. Rather, we constantly tinker with the environment in which it sits so that we can nurture it to full flower. And there is no better example of this than all the changes we’re undergoing at USGBC. Across the globe, LEED is booming. We’ve registered and certified 14 billion square feet in more than 150 countries precisely because we’ve kept evolving the rating system to take advantage of the changes in process and products that the green building movement has inspired. And that’s led to changes in the tools we have deployed. Few things were more analog than the three-ring binders that held the documentation of the first LEED projects. Now we have not only a richly functional LEED Online project management platform, but we also have the LEED Dynamic Plaque that...

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