Green Awakening- Watch Video

Sister Janet Ryan is a believer in the sanctity of saving energy. She's also at the forefront of a new religious movement... one that believes God wants people to take care of the Earth.

She and her fellow Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary live in a convent that's been retrofitted with a geothermal heat pump and has a gray water recycling pond that filters all bathing and dishwater. It's just one of a growing number of religious institutions across the U.S. that have been LEED certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.



In “God Goes Green,” Lee Patrick Sullivan talks to Sister Janet and others who are preaching the Gospel of environmental stewardship. It's not just a set of beliefs, but an actual book, the “Green Bible,” complete with a chapter by the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic church, Pope Benedict XVI. And he looks at how other, non-Christian, religions, are discovering that being green is next to Godliness.
courtesy of  energynow


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Starbucks Moves Ahead with ‘Green’ Strategy despite Cost

As the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) releases an energy-savings guide to help quick-service restaurants reduce their energy use by 50 percent, Starbucks continues to move ahead with plans to make the restaurant chain’s stores environmentally friendly.

Starbucks is part of a growing trend by retailers to reduce their impact on the environment despite the initial cost premium for their efforts, reports The Washington Post.

About 1,300 retail locations have enrolled in the U.S. Green Buildings Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program through September, compared with 900 for all of last year, and represent about eight percent of all 6,000 buildings that are LEED certified, according to The Washington Post.

Starbucks strategy calls for 50 percent of its energy to come from renewable sources and to achieve LEED certification for all of its “ground-up” sites worldwide. The company is one of several working with USGBC on a new certification program that offers operators the option of pursuing the designation for multiple properties at once, reports The Washington Post.

Starbucks will build or renovate 10 test stores around the world as part of the test program.

Starbucks would not reveal to the newspaper how much the green retrofits cost other than noting “it has been pricey.” However, the restaurant chain expects to achieve a full return on investment for these projects in a few years.

To help restaurants reduce their energy consumption, the DOE and its Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have released a technical report that provides recommendations on how to achieve up to 50 percent energy savings in quick-service restaurants.

The guide, “Technical Support Document: 50% Energy Savings for Quick-Service Restaurants” (PDF), provides a number of energy-efficiency measures that cut energy use in quick-service restaurants by up to 50 percent compared to a baseline standard in less than five years. The 50 percent goal covers the reduction of site energy use in all eight U.S. climate zones.

PNNL used EnergyPlus, an energy simulation program, to determine the energy savings provided by the energy-efficiency measures. The prototype 2,500-sq.-ft. building model was analyzed across all U.S. climate zones, which were divided into 16 representative climate cities.

The report also provides an estimate of the incremental first costs and simple payback years.

Some of the energy-efficiency measures include the following:

–Ultra-efficient cooking appliances that reduced kitchen exhaust air flow

–An optimized HVAC system configuration to better utilize a dedicated outdoor air system and runaround coil loop heat recovery

–Efficient exterior and interior lighting with dimming controls in the dining room

–Enhanced insulation, cool roofs, and high-performance window glazing

The DOE says the 50 percent savings report will provide the foundation for the next series of Advanced Energy Design Guides (AEDGs), which are “how-to” guides that show architects, engineers, and building designers how to achieve above-code energy performance for buildings using existing technologies available today.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) works in collaboration with DOE, the American Institute of Architects, the Illuminating Engineering Society, and the U.S. Green Building Council to develop and publish the free design guides.

The DOE has published guides in several categories for commercial buildings. For example, in September, DOE and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released two technical reports that provide recommendations on how to achieve 50 percent energy savings in new and existing large office buildings and large hospitals.   Courtesy of Environmental Leader


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LEED Roundup – Johnson Controls, Westinghouse, Medline, Frito-Lay, ASH

Here’s the latest roundup of some of the most recent businesses and organizations that have earned the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. These include Johnson Controls, Westinghouse, Medline, Frito-Lay, and the American Society of Hematology (ASH).


Here are highlights for each LEED certification project.


Johnson Controls’ Glendale corporate campus features hundreds of wireless controllers and sensors communicating throughout buildings on the 33-acre site, which feed information to the company’s Metasys building management system. Providing continuous monitoring of energy consumed per square foot, variances can be detected and the systems adjusted automatically or with handheld devices from any location via the Internet, according to the company.

The corporate campus has been awarded LEED Platinum certification and is touted as the largest concentration of LEED Platinum buildings — four — on one site.

The company’s energy use has been reduced by 21 percent, despite the recent doubling of space by adding 160,000 square feet. Greenhouse gas emissions also have been reduced annually by more than 827,000 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent thanks to on-site solar electricity generation. Water use has been reduced by 595,000 gallons annually by collecting and recycling rain water and the addition of low-flow fixtures.

Each employee has desktop control of workspace temperature, lighting, airflow volume, and can introduce white noise to mask sound. The environmental systems turn off in a workspace when an employee is gone for more than 10 minutes, reducing air conditioning and electrical loads, says the company.

Other features include a geothermal heat pump, a 31,115 sq.-ft. ground-mounted solar photovoltaic array, 14,335 sq.-ft. of solar film on the roof, skylights, automatic window shades and rooftop rainwater collection.

Johnson Controls expects to recoup its investment on making the campus energy-efficient within eight years.

In Tennessee, Westinghouse Electric Company’s Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) Service Center office building at its Chattanooga campus has achieved LEED Silver certification. Key environmental features include a storm water management control system (built using local building materials), a building design that allows 90 percent daylight views to all occupants, and the addition of bike racks and changing rooms to accommodate alternate transportation to the work place.

Westinghouse’s new headquarters facility located in Cranberry Township, Pa., is also expected to achieve LEED certified status.

Medline Industries, a manufacturer and distributor of healthcare supplies in the U.S., received LEED silver certification for its 66,000 sq.-ft. service facility in Dubuque, Iowa.
The building features daylight harvesting, energy-efficient lighting, solar-tracking skylights, advanced building insulation materials, tankless hot water heaters and a geothermal heating system.
Medline says the installation of these and other green technologies resulted in an electrical use reduction of 320,565 kWh, which avoids more than 230 metric tons of carbon dioxide.


PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay Beloit, Wis., facility is touted as the state’s first food manufacturing site to be awarded LEED Gold for Existing Buildings. PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay business unit now has five LEED for Existing Buildings Gold-certified manufacturing facilities.       Read Full Article





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Hartford Opens State’s First Gold LEED School

What better place to learn about the environment than a school building dedicated to energy savings, ecological study and green initiatives?

Hartford Public Schools built the first LEED gold certified school in Connecticut for The front entrance to the Mary M. Hooker Environmental Studies Magnet School that opened Aug. 30. The $41-million facility taps into national trends of using ecology to teach basic elementary curriculum, putting students in eco-friendly buildings and creating environments conducive to learning.

The K-8 facility is a place where fish, butterflies and energy savings teach math, science and social studies.

“It makes sense to put that kind of curriculum in a LEED building like that,” said Charles Rothenberger, staff attorney for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment. “Hopefully, this will be a trend with any new school.”


The Hooker elementary school first opened on Sherbrooke Avenue in Hartford in 1952, named after the first female state representative in Connecticut and descendent of Hartford founder Thomas Hooker. Although the school switched to an environmental curriculum several years ago, this is its first year as one of 12 Hartford magnet schools, meant to draw students in for its alternative learning methods.

The reconstruction of the facility toward the LEED green building certification program started in April 2009 and included 70,000 sq. ft. in renovations and a 30,000 sq. ft. addition. The innovative construction needed to achieve the gold certification required Bloomfield general contractor PDS Engineering & Construction, Inc. to grasp new techniques as the facility was stripped down and built up from its basic structure.

“It was a big learning curve for us, but we grabbed it and ran,” said Joe Lucia, PDS project superintendent.

Among the many features are a 60-kilowatt co-generation system to power and heat the building; sensors to adjust lighting intensity based upon the level of natural light; a heating and cooling system set at a constant 74 degrees that can adjust to various temperatures in different areas of the building; a white roof to reflect heat; and waterless urinals. All of the building’s components were made within 500 miles, and 98 percent of the materials demolished during the reconstruction were recycled.
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Penguins Go Green

Fans attending the Pittsburgh Penguins' home opener against the Philadelphia Flyers Oct. 7 will notice that differences between Consol Energy Center and the Civic Arena go beyond the obvious.

Sniff the air; it'll be cleaner, fresher. Look up; sunlight will pour through windows. Check out the faucets and toilets in the restrooms; they'll use less water.

The Pens' new home will be among the most, if not the most, environmentally friendly arenas in the nation, said Jason Carmello, an architect with Populous, the Kansas City, Mo., firm that designed Consol Energy Center.

"We're trying to get to the highest LEED-certified level of any arena in America," Carmello said.

LEED is a green-building certification system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council in Washington. It verifies a structure was designed and built using methods that improve energy savings and water efficiency, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and conserve resources.

"We're hoping for LEED gold, which would be unusual for a building of this size," said Catherine Sheane the sustainable-design manager for Astorino, a Downtown firm that provides architecture, engineering and landscape and interior design services. The center is about 700,000 square feet, she said.

"We hope to hear before the end of August," said Sheane, who has managed the LEED certification process for Consol Energy Center.

To attain the gold standard, the team that designed and built the arena must score at least 39 points on the Washington-based Green Building Certification Institute's scale, Sheane said.

"We submitted documentation for 43 points," she said. "We're hoping that's enough of a cushion."

Items garnering points include diverting waste from landfills; using recycled building materials; using sustainably harvested and processed wood; and using materials that reflect rather than absorb sunlight, to reduce heat absorption.

Contractors diverted 93.7 percent of the arena's waste from landfills, Sheane said.

"We separated what could be recycled and what could not be," said Theresa McCue, a project engineer, who tracked and logged more than 85 percent of the diverted waste. "The fact that we got that high was amazing. It's wonderful."    read full story




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