Monday, June 3, 2013
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Class Presentation by Sandy Bauman, MS, MPA, Sustainability Coordinator, UNT Health Science Center
The final Presentation to our class was made by Sandy Bauman, the Sustainability Coordinator at UNT Health Science Center. She is a one person team, in charge of all the sustainability initiatives at the school. Since this is the first time the school has had someone in charge of sustainability, she has been free to build the strategic framework of the position.
Sandy started her education with bachelors in Wildlife and Fishery science, but later added two masters degrees as her interests narrowed to the sustainability field. Now she gets to work on a med-school campus that is embracing sustainability, and focus on her passion!
Since taking the position, she has had successfully completely several awareness campaign that have had incredible attendance by students and faculty. She ran a zero-waste event, where they gave away reusable cutlery, and used compostable plates, paper and bags. Then they composted all the waste from the event. She also ran a very successful Earth-day, with nearly a third of the students and staff at the school in attendance.
Earth-day electronics recycling project. Over 5000 lbs of electronics were recycled.
Winner of the Earth-day recycled/ re-purposed photo contest!
A new Bike Share program launched April 22nd this year.
If your interested in learning more about the UNT Health Science Center, I recommend liking them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sustainableUNTHSC
Plantation Homes -Energy Efficient Residential Community, tour with Chad Giese
Our class went to visit a "green home" builder, Plantation Homes. They are visiting a green community on the north side of Fort Worth, and all their home communities in the DFW area are "Ecosmart" homes that uses LEED for Homes certification. I have discussed LEED in other posts, but to get more information on LEED for Homes click here: http://www.usgbc.org/leed/rating-systems/homes
Chad Giese gave us a tour of a model home and took us to a home construction site to show us some of the features that make these homes "Ecosmart." They have extra inspections throughout the build process (outside of the standard inspections) that ensure the home is eco-friendly. In fact, they put so much effort into the process that they can guarantee an energy rating, and electricity costs for heating and cooling the home (it doesn't count if you leave you TV on 24/7!).
They Follow Energy Star 3.0 guidelines (2012), which take things into account such as maximum square footage per bedroom -the first bedroom allows up to 1000 sq ft, and each additional bedroom can add an additional 600 sq ft.
The home installs a radiant barrier, uses concrete siding rather than wood, vinyl windows that do not conduct heat and cold like aluminum windows, Low-E glass and argon filled double pane windows, among many other energy-saving strategies to meed the stringent LEED for Homes guidelines.
Here is a link to Plantation Home's Ecosmart webpage: http://www.plantationhomes.com/dallas-ft-worth/ecosmart
Here are some pics from the Model Home:
Chad Giese gave us a tour of a model home and took us to a home construction site to show us some of the features that make these homes "Ecosmart." They have extra inspections throughout the build process (outside of the standard inspections) that ensure the home is eco-friendly. In fact, they put so much effort into the process that they can guarantee an energy rating, and electricity costs for heating and cooling the home (it doesn't count if you leave you TV on 24/7!).
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The home installs a radiant barrier, uses concrete siding rather than wood, vinyl windows that do not conduct heat and cold like aluminum windows, Low-E glass and argon filled double pane windows, among many other energy-saving strategies to meed the stringent LEED for Homes guidelines.
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| This chart explains that the average HERS index score for their homes is 67, giving them LEED for Homes certification. In the year 2000 the average HERS score was around 100 for a typical new home. |
Partners for Sacred Places, Presentation by Suzanne Yowell
Suzanne Yowell, the Director of the Texas Partners for Sacred Places gave a presentation to our class about the work her organization is doing.
The basic idea behind Partners for Sacred Places is that often, churches need to be resourceful to be self sustaining. Churches have large amounts of space that are not used during the week, and church leaders often aren't aware that that "real estate" is valuable and can help the church be self sufficient.
A great example is the First Christian Church of Fort Worth. They have a large, beautiful building in downtown Fort Worth. They also have a shrinking and aging congregation, and were having a hard time. They decided at one point to demolish a portion of their building that was a drain on resources and turned it into a parking lot, keeping only 4 spaces for staff.
Partners for Sacred Places worked with the church to convert a second floor into a charitable eye clinic. The worked with the church trustees on the plan for nearly 6 years to accomplish this, but now the eye clinic (which operates on charitable donations and charges little to nothing for it's services) is a leading teaching institution for Ophthalmologists-in-training.
Suzanne works with churches in all areas of Texas, from small, struggling congregations to large, robust ones.
To see more of the good work Partners for Sacred Places is doing visit their website:
http://www.sacredplaces.org/who-we-are/regional-offices/texas-regional-office/
The basic idea behind Partners for Sacred Places is that often, churches need to be resourceful to be self sustaining. Churches have large amounts of space that are not used during the week, and church leaders often aren't aware that that "real estate" is valuable and can help the church be self sufficient.
A great example is the First Christian Church of Fort Worth. They have a large, beautiful building in downtown Fort Worth. They also have a shrinking and aging congregation, and were having a hard time. They decided at one point to demolish a portion of their building that was a drain on resources and turned it into a parking lot, keeping only 4 spaces for staff.
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| First Christian Church, Fort Worth |
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| The second floor |
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| remodeling in progress |
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| The ribbon cutting! |
Suzanne works with churches in all areas of Texas, from small, struggling congregations to large, robust ones.
To see more of the good work Partners for Sacred Places is doing visit their website:
http://www.sacredplaces.org/who-we-are/regional-offices/texas-regional-office/
Tour: Trinity River Vision Authority
Our Class visited the Trinity River Vision Authority in Fort Worth today to learn about the long term project that is underway to develop areas around the Trinity River in Fort Worth. Shanna Kate, the Planning and Development Director for TRVA gave an outstanding presentation on the changes being made to the Trinity Uptown / Central City area of town, now being called "Panther Island"
This multiparty collaboration began several years ago, but broke ground in 2011. The ten year plan will lay the infrastructure for a new mixed use neighborhood that will have retail, residential and recreation with the idea that people can live, work and play all without leaving the neighborhood.
The central feature of the development will be a 1.5 mile long bypass to the river, creating an "island" where much of the new development will take place.
Here is model of the site when completed: The river along the left side of the center island will be constructed when the bridges are complete.
When the project is complete, private partners can com in and build along the river, internal lake and central canals. This project will generate an estimated 16,000 jobs, 10,000 new housing units, and raise the tax base from a current $129M to over $1.3B. The Fort Worth ISD will see increased revenue from a current $16.1M to $467M.
Because the Trinity River has been surrounded by wide and high levies to control flooding, development around the river has been impossible in the past. The engineers are designing ways to do this in this project. To make sure the design worked, engineers built a 1:40 scale model the size of a football field. This allows them to test hydrodynamics through the river channel and around the new bridges. The cost of the model was $1.4 million but is estimated to save $10 to $15 million dollars over time. Here is a video documentary about the model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uL7F1QkEVdA
Already, a great deal of economic activity has already taken place, including a new drive-in movie theater, a wake park, and the Panther Island Pavilion, an outdoor stage on the river (the only one of it's kind).
Here are some other pics of the project plan:
http://pantherislandpavilion.com/
http://www.cowtownwakepark.com/
This multiparty collaboration began several years ago, but broke ground in 2011. The ten year plan will lay the infrastructure for a new mixed use neighborhood that will have retail, residential and recreation with the idea that people can live, work and play all without leaving the neighborhood.
The central feature of the development will be a 1.5 mile long bypass to the river, creating an "island" where much of the new development will take place.
Here is model of the site when completed: The river along the left side of the center island will be constructed when the bridges are complete.
When the project is complete, private partners can com in and build along the river, internal lake and central canals. This project will generate an estimated 16,000 jobs, 10,000 new housing units, and raise the tax base from a current $129M to over $1.3B. The Fort Worth ISD will see increased revenue from a current $16.1M to $467M.
Because the Trinity River has been surrounded by wide and high levies to control flooding, development around the river has been impossible in the past. The engineers are designing ways to do this in this project. To make sure the design worked, engineers built a 1:40 scale model the size of a football field. This allows them to test hydrodynamics through the river channel and around the new bridges. The cost of the model was $1.4 million but is estimated to save $10 to $15 million dollars over time. Here is a video documentary about the model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uL7F1QkEVdA
Already, a great deal of economic activity has already taken place, including a new drive-in movie theater, a wake park, and the Panther Island Pavilion, an outdoor stage on the river (the only one of it's kind).
Here are some other pics of the project plan:
http://pantherislandpavilion.com/
http://www.cowtownwakepark.com/
Parking Vault, Ltd. A Presentation by John Mauro
Next, John Mauro came to our class with a new idea (new to us, at least) in parking. Parking Vault is an automated parking concept fairly new to the U.S.
Inside the Parking Vault, after the customer locks and exits the vehicle, they will access a vending machine to pay for parking with a credit or debit card. Then a machine dubbed "The Mule" will extend a flat assembly under the vehicle and extends rollers that lift the vehicle by the tires off the ground 1/16th of an inch and then slides the vehicle to the interior of the parking vault. It then moves left, right up or down to move the vehicle to an empty parking spot. When the customer return to pick up the vehicle, the mule retrieves the vehicle and returns it to the vending bay front side out, so the customer can drive forward out of the parking facility.
This is an example of sustainability, because the footprint of a Parking Vault compared to tradition flat parking is significantly smaller. Compared to a traditional parking garage, the space needed for a parking vault is only about 60%.
One mule can move about 2 vehicles per minute, so a typical parking vault with more 2 mules can move about 4 cars per minute. It can be scaled to handle large parking needs by putting two parking vaults side by side, and as long as necessary. The larger projects can remain efficient by adding as many mules as needed.
While I couldn't find a video specific to Parking Vault, I'm posting a link to a video of Volkswagen's car park facility in Germany:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JguJpX7bS6k
Inside the Parking Vault, after the customer locks and exits the vehicle, they will access a vending machine to pay for parking with a credit or debit card. Then a machine dubbed "The Mule" will extend a flat assembly under the vehicle and extends rollers that lift the vehicle by the tires off the ground 1/16th of an inch and then slides the vehicle to the interior of the parking vault. It then moves left, right up or down to move the vehicle to an empty parking spot. When the customer return to pick up the vehicle, the mule retrieves the vehicle and returns it to the vending bay front side out, so the customer can drive forward out of the parking facility.
This is an example of sustainability, because the footprint of a Parking Vault compared to tradition flat parking is significantly smaller. Compared to a traditional parking garage, the space needed for a parking vault is only about 60%.
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| Foot print o Parking Vault compared to traditional parking |
One mule can move about 2 vehicles per minute, so a typical parking vault with more 2 mules can move about 4 cars per minute. It can be scaled to handle large parking needs by putting two parking vaults side by side, and as long as necessary. The larger projects can remain efficient by adding as many mules as needed.
While I couldn't find a video specific to Parking Vault, I'm posting a link to a video of Volkswagen's car park facility in Germany:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JguJpX7bS6k
Ferrier Homes Presentation. President Don Ferrier
Don Ferrier, President of Ferrier, builds energy efficient homes. He is a third generation home builder who build his first energy efficient home in 1982 and hasn't looked back. He came to our class to show us how homes can be built or remodeled to be highly energy efficient. They also build and remodel commercial buildings to meet strict energy efficient standards.
Don said he gets three types of customers.
First are baby boomers, who are looking to build their "last" home. He said they may have more money to spend, but are, or will soon be living on retirement income and want to make their monthly dollars stretch as far as possible, so they look to energy efficiency to keep monthly expenses as low as possible.
Second, he sees younger couples and families who want to build a highly efficient home because they are looking for smart design, and want to be green to be socially responsible.
Third, he get's customers who want to be completely self sufficient. These are survivalists, often termed, "Preppers" because they are preparing for hard times, or even the Apocalypse.
He then spoke about three projects his company has completed. First is a cabin. The customer wanted to be "off grid." They designed the cabin to be as highly energy efficient as possible, and installed a windmill on a poll to provide for the electrical needs of the cabin.
Next he spoke about a remodel he did for his daughter. She had been living in another home Don built that was very energy efficient and wanted to transport another home. Here are the results of that remodel:
The third project was a commercial building for a small energy company. Here are some of the stats of that remodel (from the Ferrier Custom Homes website):
Ferrier Homes also has an "Affordable Green Home." Which is a production style home that offers sustainability at about $100 per square foot.
To learn more about Ferrier Homes, here's a link to their website:
http://www.ferriercustomhomes.com/home/
Don said he gets three types of customers.
First are baby boomers, who are looking to build their "last" home. He said they may have more money to spend, but are, or will soon be living on retirement income and want to make their monthly dollars stretch as far as possible, so they look to energy efficiency to keep monthly expenses as low as possible.
Second, he sees younger couples and families who want to build a highly efficient home because they are looking for smart design, and want to be green to be socially responsible.
Third, he get's customers who want to be completely self sufficient. These are survivalists, often termed, "Preppers" because they are preparing for hard times, or even the Apocalypse.
He then spoke about three projects his company has completed. First is a cabin. The customer wanted to be "off grid." They designed the cabin to be as highly energy efficient as possible, and installed a windmill on a poll to provide for the electrical needs of the cabin.
Next he spoke about a remodel he did for his daughter. She had been living in another home Don built that was very energy efficient and wanted to transport another home. Here are the results of that remodel:
The third project was a commercial building for a small energy company. Here are some of the stats of that remodel (from the Ferrier Custom Homes website):
- Structural insulated panels
- Tankless water heater
- Low voltage lighting
- Stained & sealed concrete floors
- Low VOC paints & stains
- Highly reflective metal roof
- Energy Star certified
Ferrier Homes also has an "Affordable Green Home." Which is a production style home that offers sustainability at about $100 per square foot.
To learn more about Ferrier Homes, here's a link to their website:
http://www.ferriercustomhomes.com/home/
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