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Archive for the Sustainability Category
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Category Archives: Sustainability
Storefront Garden Installed At The Urban Design Studio
Urban Design Studio Window Garden (Courtesy UDS)
A new storefront display has been installed at the Urban Design Studio that brings native Kentucky plants indoors. The new garden features a variety of native plants growing in a large bed and on a vertical wall garden. The display is part of a rebranding effort underway at the Urban Design Studio meant to emphasize sustainability as the core of its mission.
PrintFirst Official Pecha Kucha Night Planned At Bernheim Forest
The first official Pecha Kucha Night Louisville is planned for Saturday, August 28 at Bernheim Arboretum. A partnership including the Urban Design Studio, the Central Kentucky Chapter of the AIA, Bernheim Aboretum, and the 21c Museum brought Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-chak-cha; or just watch the video after the jump) to Louisville and is hosting the inaugural event with 14 presentations.
This is really exciting news that Louisville is finally on the PKN circuit and I encourage everyone to go listen to some great speakers this Saturday.
Local Solar Company Lauded For Historic District Solar Roof
Thin-film solar blends with with a historic district (Courtesy RegenEn)
Local solar company RegenEn Solar got some good press from Solar Today magazine, the official publication of the American Solar Energy Society, for their thin-film solar roof installation last November in Louisville. A 1930s-era house on the edge of a historic district in the Highlands installed a thin-film solar system on top of a standing seam metal roof to create a nearly invisible solar roof.
After tax credits, the new metal roof and PV system cost about $23,000, but could pay for itself in ten years thanks to energy savings and by selling power back to the utility. Electric bills for the 2,800 square foot house end up around $16 per month.
The neighborhood has been supportive of the new roof and many don’t know at first glance that it’s a solar roof at all. Integrating the solar system into the metal roof ends up being great camouflage. Check out the full article at Solar Today.
What If The Gulf Oil Spill Was In Louisville?
Gulf Oil Spill compared to Louisville (via Google & Rademacher)
The massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has grown large enough to affect everyone, including Louisville, but how big is it exactly? There have been a lot of comparisons of the spill’s size, but 2,500 square miles is still a pretty abstract concept.
Up above is the oil spill as seen on May 6 overlayed on the Louisville region. You can see county lines lightly on the map and it’s apparent that the spill covers a huge part of the Louisville region stretching as far away as Cincinnati.
This disaster, of course, compels us to evaluate the role of oil in our lives and everything it affects from highways and driving to energy to petroleum-based products. Thoughts?
You can generate your own maps at Paul Rademacher’s spill utility. Hat tip Yglesias.
Shutting Off Your Car Engine Saves Money, Cleans Air
The University of Louisville brings us this blurb about the benefits of turning off your car engine instead of idling or waiting for a train. Important information given Louisville’s propensity for Ozone Alert Days.
“Stuck waiting for the train to pass or construction crews at Warnock?
“Don’t leave your car idling while you wait. Save yourself some money and gas while saving us all from unnecessary pollution. Shut off the engine – and take a deep breath. The amount of fuel consumed to restart a car is the equivalent of idling 20 to 60 seconds. Idling longer than this is a waste, and an idling engine produces more emissions than a moving car.”
It’s pretty amazing how it takes less than a minute to realize the benefits of shutting off the car engine. It’s good for your wallet, for the environment, and for the community. Also, check out this video from Calgary, Canada comparing car idling to public urination.
Louisville Making Gains In Green Building
Louisville ranks 25 on Energy Star list (Table courtesy Energy Star program)
Louisville appears to be making gains in the number of green buildings throughout the city. Energy Star, a program promoting energy efficiency, just released its 2009 list of cities with the most Energy Star buildings and Louisville made the cut.
The city narrowly made it onto the top-25 list this year behind a 3-way tie for 24th place (but, hey, we were missing completely from last year’s list). I imagine there’s probably a 20-way tie for 26th place, so we’ll see if Louisville can hold on.
The list only counts buildings with an Energy Star label, which locally include the Aegon Tower, the Old Jail building, and several JCPS structures. Los Angeles takes the top spot with 293 Energy Star listed buildings, well above Louisville’s 35 structures.
Commercial buildings carrying the Energy Star label perform in the top 25 percent of similar buildings nationally. Eligible building types include schools, hospitals, office buildings, and retail stores.
The ranking chart indicates that Louisville’s Energy Star buildings saved $1.8 million and prevented emissions equivalent to 2,700 homes.
View the full list here (Warning: PDF) or search the EPA database of all Energy Star buildings.
Sustainable City Series To Cover Green Universities
Sustainable City Series (Courtesy Urban Design Studio)
The thirteenth Sustainable City Series event sponsored by the Urban Design Studio will take place on Tuesday, March 16 at 6:00pm at the Glassworks on West Market Street. This time, the Series will discuss the role universities play in regional sustainability initiatives. Representatives from the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky will be part of the panel. Here’s a bit of info from the Urban Design Studio:
“Universities play a key role in the promotion and implementation of sustainable practices in our communities. Not only do universities contribute to regional sustainability through fundamental research and an existing knowledge base, but also through education and training, community involvement and outreach, and the institutions’ own development of space, energy policy and environmental programming.
“Our guest speakers will be:
“Justin Mog serves as the University of Louisville’s assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives. He is the first to hold this position at UofL and has been working with the university’s Sustainability Council since August 2009 to integrate sustainability into everything the university does – from operations and facilities to administration and finances to education and research. Justin holds environmental studies degrees from Oberlin College (B.S.) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (M.S., Ph.D.) and recently completed three years of service in the Peace Corps promoting sustainable development in Paraguay.
“Larry Owsley has served as the University of Louisville’s vice president for business affairs since 1983. He has graduate degrees from the University of Virginia and the University of California, Berkeley in public administration and public policy analysis respectively. His undergraduate degree is in history from Centre College of Kentucky.
“Brent Fryrear is the Director of the Partnership for a Green City – a collaboration of Louisville Metro Government, Jefferson County Public Schools and the University of Louisville – working together to address climate change and “green” institutional practices within the organizations themselves as well as working to achieve real results that will have long-term positive impacts on the health, education, and well-being of our citizens. Brent has been in the environmental arena for almost 25 years in industry, emergency response, consulting, government and higher education. He has a Masters degree in Higher Education Administration and Organizational Development and a Bachelors in Biology, both from UofL.
“Shane Tedder was recently hired by the University of Kentucky to serve as their first Sustainability Coordinator and reports to the Vice President for Facilities Management. Prior to this appointment, Shane worked for 6 years as the recycling and sustainability coordinator for the Office of Residence Life at UK. During this time he created the Wildcat Wheels Bicycle Library (www.wildcatwheelsorg) and Earthdays in the Bluegrass (www.edbg.org).”
The event is free but seating is limited and the Urban Design Studio requests attendees to RSVP on their web site. As usual, coffee will be provided by Heine Brothers and Ramsi’s Cafe will have snacks. These events always fill up quickly, so I recommend reserving your spot as soon as possible.
Research Building A Green Model For The University of Louisville
Clinical & Translational Research Building (Photo courtesy UL)
While the Clinical & Translational Research Building has been open for about four months, the University of Louisville just announced that the high profile structure on Muhammad Ali Boulevard and Hancock Street has received LEED Gold certification for sustainable architecture.
The University originally hoped to secure LEED Silver for the 288,000 square foot, $143.1 million facility, but was bumped up up to the second highest level (behind Platinum) after achieving 41 LEED credits (of 39 required for Gold) ranging from use of natural light and ventilation, energy efficient lights, a reflective white roof, and on-site showers and bike racks.
The structure was designed by lead architects Arrasmith, Judd, Rapp, Chovan, Inc. of Louisville and design and lab consultants SmithGroup of Detroit. Architect Arne Judd, principal and LEED AP with Arrasmith, says the CTR is the first LEED certified research building in Kentucky and is the largest new construction Gold certified research building in the country. It’s one of only 33 LEED certified research buildings in the United States.
One of the most unique sustainable features of the building is its reuse of water condensate from air handling units. All of those drops of water created by air conditioning add up in a building this large and a system has been installed to capture the extra water and use it for irrigation of landscaping areas. (Check out some other sustainable credits in the building over here.)
News of the Gold certification level is certainly welcome and represents U of L’s stated commitment to green architecture. There are only two other Gold certified projects in Louisville (the CMTA Building and the GBBN Offices) and Judd says the CTR is the first LEED certified building at the University, but U of L is currently pursuing certification of additional new projects.
Nearby, the Dental School addition and renovation, the Biosafety Lab at ShelbuHurst, and the Duthie Center for Engineering are all seeking certification. The U of L web site also says a new parking garage adjacent to the CTR is also implementing green concepts although LEED does not apply to parking garages.
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