Green Building Blog - Jetson Green

Smart Tech Helps NY Times Building Cut Lighting Costs Dramatically!

Last summer, it was the ceramic rod curtain wall.  Now, it's the lighting system.  Various green aspects of the New York Times Building continue to make high profile news and it's only been a year since the modern building opened.  Here's the deal: The Times Company installed Lutron's Quantum solution, a total light management system that includes daylight, occupant, target set point, time clock, and emergency lighting controls.  Although the building was originally designed to use approximately 1.28 watts per sf of lighting power, with the Lutron technology, it's actually using only 0.38 watts per sf of lighting power -- a 70% reduction in lighting use.  That means, based on New York City electric rates, they're saving ~$315,500 and preventing the emission of 1,250 metric tons of CO2 annually.  These are some serious numbers.  Here's where they recognized the most in terms of lighting energy savings:

Green Trailer Maxes Out Sustainability

This is the McCownGordon Construction Green Trailer.  Pretty nice, right?!  It was designed to use a fraction of the energy typically used by jobsite trailers and still provides a modern user experience on the inside.  The interesting thing about this trailer is that it was designed using Autodesk Revit to get everything just right: the panels were placed at the best angle to capture energy and clear overpasses, the composting toilet was modeled to show exterior vents, and the interior was modeled to perfect the wood patterns and overall design.  Plus, according to Brad Hardin, BIM Director for the company, this jobsite trailer is positive energy!

Six Prefabricated Passive House, Zero Energy Designs

Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects have designed six new passive house designs for presentation at the Stockholm Housing Fair occurring October 9-12, 2008.  Presented in collaboration with Emrahus, these prefabricated, zero energy designs present a compelling concept for what is possible with good design and conscious materials.  Passive houses, using the definition of KKA on their website, "are extremely well-insulated buildings that are largely heated by the energy already present in the building."  Passive homes attempt to rely as little as possible on extra mechanical systems -- they conserve first and foremost.  Scroll through these six passive home designs and leave a vote for your fave:

Chipotle Green Restaurant Uses On-site Wind Power

How good would a chicken (or veggie, if that's your style) burrito bowl taste, knowing that it's been cooked by the power of on-site green energy?  I haven't tried one yet, but I can only imagine ... Chipotle Mexican Grill will be opening a green restaurant in Gurnee, Illinois, which restaurant features a prominent six-kilowatt wind turbine.  Although mostly a symbol for the company's efforts to create more environmentally friendly store designs, the turbine will generate ~10% of the store's power.  The Gurnee Chipotle will have some of the following green features:

REI Round Rock Second Gen Green Store To Use 48% Less Energy

Mounting on the green building success of their previous stores, including the green Boulder REI we wrote about previously, REI today opens the doors to its second generation of green prototype store in Round Rock, Texas.  The Texas store is projected to consume 48% less energy than a typical store and generate a portion of its power from a solar panel installation, building integrated photovoltaics, and a solar hot water system.  After that, Round Rock will rely on Solatubes to displace a portion of articifial lighting and the purchase of green power generated from biomass digesters. 

White Paper: Nutrition Labels as Universal Home Labels

We're very much intrigued by the white paper released yesterday by Michelle Kaufmann Companies.  Officially entitled "Nutrition Labels for Homes: A Way for Homebuyers to Make More Ecological, Economical Decisions," the white paper presents the case for a universal label for homes.  Note that last sentence, though.  This isn't a label for just green homes, it's a label for all homes.  It's a universal label to educate people on a home's sustainability (or unsustainability) profile.  Every home gets a label -- you can imagine the power this gives buyers and green home sellers. 

Eco-friendly Modular Home Built in 60 Days, Uses 50 Percent Less Energy

Country Living Magazine's October issue highlights an eco-friendly, modular home constructed in just 60 days by New World Home.  The home's design is traditional and used a 19th century home as a model.  The highly energy efficient home uses 50% less energy than the average home and their modular process allows them to use less wood in the building process. 

BrightBuilt Barn Going Net-Zero, Super-Efficient & LEED Platinum

I'm starting think that maybe, just maybe, the modern farmhouse could be a gateway to contemporary for many of you.  What do you think, pretty clean design, right?  The BrightBuilt Barn was designed by Kaplan Thompson Architects, factory built in components by Bensonwood (mentioned by Josh Stack in comments recently), and is being built by Gibson Design/Build as we speak.  It was designed to be net-zero and super green -- the home will participate in the Living Building Challenge and, in all likelihood, qualify for LEED Platinum certification.  Geez!  So what's in store for this 700 sf studio home:

Zero Energy Buildings Database Launched

As with all terms environmental, the devil is in the definition and the lawyers have been hard at work with so called zero energy buildings.  A net ZEB, by definition, produces as much energy as it uses over the course of a year.  To get to that point, buildings owners make their buildings as efficient as possible and then use, in the typical case, on-site renewable energy to get into zero energy territory.  But there are other variations, including net zero site energy, net zero source energy, net zero energy costs, net zero energy emissions, and near zero energy, all of which have been kindly defined by the DOE.  The DOE, as assisted by Building Green, has also launched a Zero Energy Buildings Database, with the following four buildings.

Aviator Energy Efficient Live/Work Units Planned for Steamboat Springs

I just received an email about an interesting project on the cusp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado called Aviator.  Aviator is a mixed-use, multifamily and storage units facility that's targeting LEED Gold certification.  Seeking superior energy efficiency for the project, Olson Development retained EcoSteel to provide the structure.  EcoSteel calculates that their company could contribute ~18 points towards overall certification of Aviator based upon energy efficiency (10), heat island effect reduction (1), and recycled, reused, and regional materials use (7).