Think outside the sink

When combating high utilities bills and attempting to reduce carbon footprints, home and business owners tend to focus on electrical consumption. Traditionally the greatest power hog, electricity is quietly being usurped by the high energy demand of collecting, processing and transporting water. Water bills increase on average by 10% each year but there is much that can be done to reduce their assault on your paycheck.

Water use

The average American uses 380 liters of water every day to the average Canadian’s 325 liters. If that seems like a lot, it is! Even more so when you realize that the average African uses 10 liters of water a day and has to walk 6km to get it. In 2000, the US spent $105 per person on water treatment. For a small US city of 300,000, this would mean a $31,500,000 annual price tag (about $40,320,000 today). The US spends a total of $3.5 billion each year to operate its water treatment facilities, a cost that is passed on to the consumer. As the lack of clean drinking water becomes a more pressing issue, and the cost of processing water increases, home and business owners must do more to improve their water consumption and lower their utility bills.
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If the unseasonably hot weather and terribly destructive storms weren’t enough to convince you that climate change is happening, then a recent study by Mercer should sway even the most stalwart naysayers. The study estimates that inclement weather will have a negative effect on buildings, transportation and the construction industries to the tune of $8 trillion by 2030. Now an organization called Architecture 2030 is issuing a challenge it hopes will encourage the building industry to help prevent the worst effects of global warming.

The Challenger

Architecture Challenge 2030 was founded in 2003 by visionary, Ed Mazria. Mazria was not only seminal in recognizing the potential for global warming to really ruin your day, but also brought to the attention of administrators the fact that buildings were contributing half of annual GHG emissions and needed to be regulated. There is a tipping point for global warming reformation and we are set to reach its limits in 2030. Although increasingly stringent legislature has done much to curb building GHG emissions, the process is too slow to reach target levels.
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Smart glass windows can think for themselves

Architects and designers often struggle with glass. They understand the benefits of allowing natural light into a building such as improved happiness, reduced absenteeism, increased productivity and lower employee turnover, not to mention the aesthetic appeal that large windows bring. However, these large glass spaces leach heat in winter and allow the summer sun to toast unwary occupants. Often, designers are forced to choose between their design and the sustainability goals of the building. With smart windows, designers don’t have to choose between form and function; they can have them both.
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Are you pondering an energy efficient retrofit? The answer is (usually) yes!

If you are living or working in an older building that’s as leaky as a sieve, you may be tempted to tear the whole thing down and start over again. If you are tempted; resist! Although providing a blanket solution for reducing energy consumption and the environmental impact of buildings is very much like giving a definitive answer to the question; ‘how long is a piece of string’, a new study shows that retrofitting existing structures has less of an environmental impact than rebuilding.
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Natural ventilation methods that reduce costs and energy consumption

‘Warm air rises and cold air rushes in to take its place’ was a mantra I learned as early as elementary school. And it’s true that left to its own devices, hot air does rise. But it can also sink, move horizontally or even do a perpendicular shimmy. This warm air mambo is caused when differences in indoor and outdoor air pressure affect air in surprising ways. This phenomenon, known as the stack effect, is being used to great effect in green construction to naturally ventilate green buildings.
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The construction methods of old, where every artisan conducted their work in isolation, are a thing of the past. The linear approach to building prevents participants from sharing common design goals and objectives. Working in isolation means that key players may not be aware of the effect their elements have on the rest of the structure and they cannot streamline efficiency or share building resources.

As the functionality of buildings become more integrated and harmonious in order to be more efficient, so construction has evolved to follow suit. Integrated design is a process where all the participants in a build will plan, design and work together from conception to completion; working in sync to construct a building where all design elements work together to be more efficient in energy, resources and construction time.
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