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Green Building/b>
by Anicka Quin

Organization develops guidelines for taking green buildings to the next level. ASHRAE president says organizations need to work together for sustainability to be realized.

Terry Townsend has the presence of a southern preacher as he stands before the BC chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) at a lunch meeting. “We are on duty, and responsible for achieving a sustainable future,” he says to the crowd of engineers. He’s here to bolster ASHRAE’s plans to achieve that green future: a new GreenGuide, and a
Sustainability Roadmap.

There’s tenable excitement in the air, thanks in no small part to Townsend himself. True, sustainability and green buildings are buzz words in construction and building design these days, part of a larger movement that sees more individuals—and politicians—concerned about the state of our environment. But as president of ASHRAE and the spokesperson for their Engineering for Sustainability initiative, Townsend is here to drum up excitement for his organization’s plans, and his enthusiasm is infectious.

He points out that scientists keep narrowing their predictions on how much time is left until we hit the tipping point—that is, the point in our development when we can’t reverse the environmental damage caused. What once was 100 years from now became 50—and now, according to NASA scientists, a mere 15 years. Those numbers are a rallying cry for the group. “We decided to go where no other group has dared to go, and indeed we are the only group that can do it,” states Townsend.

Townsend is referring to ASHRAE’s history in negotiating and working with several trade and industry organizations, such as architects, green building councils and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. ASHRAE was founded in 1984, and is now an international organization of over 55,000 with a present-day mandate of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education.

The goals of the Sustainability Roadmap are lofty. ASHRAE is one of five organizations partnered with the Clinton Climate Initiative, focusing on reducing the carbon outputs of the world’s four largest cities, so their goals need to be big—and achievable, too. The end result will see the development of guidelines for trades, developers, engineers and architects to develop buildings with a net-zero energy output: a building that supplies to the grid an annual output of electricity that is equal to the amount of power purchased from the grid.

The stats ASHRAE provides in its Sustainability Roadmap plans are startling: buildings consume 37 percent of the total energy and 68 percent of the electricity in the US. The GreenGuide, a part of this Roadmap (ordered through their website, <ashrae.org>), is designed to help teach designers how to participate effectively on design teams charged with producing green buildings. “This is a design guide for mechanical engineers who are interested in advancing integrated, high performance/green concepts and applications on building design projects,” says Malcolm Lewis, one of the members of the technical committee on building environmental impacts and sustainability that wrote the book.

Locally, ASHRAE has joined forces with the Canada Green Building Council. A memorandum that sees the two developing and maintaining technical standards and guidelines, communications and marketing, and research and education of members and the building industry. Thomas Mueller, president of the Canada Green Building Council, noted in a release that, “The work we do together in Canada will benefit not only our respective memberships but anyone interested in engaging better building practices.”

According to Townsend, ASHRAE is committing to sharing their research and guidelines with other industry organizations, but more importantly, they’ll be looking to the same organizations to come on board with the sustainability plan. “What we’re talking about is going to be an integrative design concept. This is what we have to have to achieve a net zero energy use facility in the future. We need to work together—you cannot take just building segments by themselves.”

ASHRAE’s website will be ground zero for nurturing those relationships. The group will be holding public comment sessions about their plans, the dates of which will be posted on ASHRAE’s site.

With the plan comes annual targets. In 2008, they’ll develop ratings systems to certify building operational performance for sustainability; 2009 will see them publishing guides for building owners that emphasize the benefi ts of decision making based on life-cycle-cost analysis.

Of course, there are benefi ts to ASHRAE’s members that are more than altruistic. True, there is a commitment to environmental sustainability in the future, but as Townsend said during his discussion, “For a long time, members were a necessary evil needed [for developers] to get a permit,” he said. “Now we’re going to be a help, a benefi t, and become integral to the process as we develop certifi cation
programs.”

These certifi cation programs will see the development of Engineering For Sustainability professionals—individuals that will be trained in the building performance metrics and standards necessary to build structures with sustainability at the forefront. “This is much more than just the LEED A.P.,” explains Townsend, referring to the accredited professionals that consult on LEED-rated buildings. “We’ll have that as a core, but this is tier 2 and tier 3 type levels of training.” There’s a potential for the certifi cation to develop into an Engineering for Sustainability university-level, applicationsbased masters program.

“The LEED rating system has helped increase awareness and interest in green buildings, and engineers are encouraged to apply it to the projects they work on,” Lewis says. “The GreenGuide will assist the design and development team in striving for a level of accountability as to the effectiveness
of their efforts to produce a building that is truly green.” While the overarching theme of Townsend’s talk was the importance and critical nature of the work that ASHRAE and others would be doing in the future, it’s evident that the work has become more than just a job for him. His closing notes were nothing less than a rallying cry to those in the audience, more reminiscent of a motivational speaker rather than an engineer from Tennessee. “Let’s take this personally,” he said to everyone. “And let’s don’t be satisfied until you and I make a difference.”

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