Green Buildings

1
Green Buildings

• Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
• Special Solicitation Workshop
• San Francisco Mar-23-04
• Olof Hansen
• U.S. EPA Region 9
• Waste Management Division
• Strategic Planning and Partnership Office

2
Buildings in the United States have a significant
impact on the environment and account for

• Energy
• 37 of primary energy use
• 68 of all electricity use
• Materials
• 60 of non-food/fuel raw materials use
• Waste
• 40 of non-industrial solid waste from
  construction and demolition debris per year
• Water
• 36 billion gallons of water per day
• 20 loss of potable water in many urban systems
  due to leakage
• Air Quality
• 35 of CO2, 49 of SO2, 25 of NOx, and 10
  of PM emissions

3
Green Buildings and EPA

• Sustainable building is a priority under EPA's
  Resource Conservation Challenge
• EPA is an active member of the U.S. Green
  Building Council
• Federal statutes require green building practices
• Agency issued Environmental Quality Guidance for
  Green, High Performance and Sustainable Buildings
  
• Buildings have tremendous human health and
  environmental impacts

4
Environmental Impacts of Buildings

• Indoor Air/Human Health
• Americans spend 90 of their time indoors
• On average, indoor air is 2-10 more contaminated
  that outdoor air
• 20 of workers suffer from indoor air illnesses
  resulting in 11,400 premature deaths/year
• Health and productivity losses associated
  w/indoor air quality are estimated to cost tens
  of billions of annually

5
Environmental Impacts of Buildings

• Air/Energy Impacts
• Buildings consume one third of all energy
• Consume 2/3 of all electricity in the U.S.
• Buildings contribute
• 25 of all greenhouse gas emissions,
• 49 of sulfur dioxide emissions, and
• 10 of particulate matter emissions

6
Environmental Impacts of Buildings

• Waste Impacts
• Worldwide construction activities consume 3
  billion tons of raw materials each year
• Nearly 40 - 136 million tons/year - of waste
  going to landfills in the US is building
  construction and demolition debris
• More than 30 of the mercury in solid waste is
  from building switches, thermostats, florescent
  tubes, and paints

7
Environmental Impacts of Buildings -Waste
8
Waste from Building Construction and Demolition
Debris
136 M Tons 1.36 M Freight Cars 15,000 Miles
9
Federal Government Leading by Example

• Owns 500,000 buildings 3.1 billion sq. feet of
  floor space
• Largest energy user in the country
• 2 of building-related greenhouse gases in US
• 3.4 billion/year
• 23 reduction in energy (85-01)
• 100 buildings are Energy Star labeled
• 10.5 million metric tons of carbon equivalent/year

10
Federal Green Building Materials Requirements

• Building insulation
• Carpet padding
• Cement concrete containing fly ash/slag
• Latex paint
• Floor tiles
• Flowable fill
• Laminated paperboard
• Patio blocks

• Railroad grade crossing surfaces
• Restroom dividers
• Structural fiberboard
• Compost mulch
• Landscaping timbers
• Park benches picnic tables
• Playground equipment surfaces

11
Federal Law RCRA 6002 and
Executive Order 13101

• Requires the purchase of recycled materials -
  Federally funded projects
• Uses Federal purchasing power to promote
  recycling
• EPA and State inspectors enforce implementation
  of RCRA 6002
• TOOLS
• Screened vendor lists
• Specifications

12
Why Recycled Products?

• Aluminum
• 95 less air pollution
• 97 less water pollution
• One can energy savings of ½ a can of gasoline
• Paper
• 74 less air pollution
• 35 less water pollution
• One ton 17 trees 7,000 gallons water
• Green House Gases 25 million cars/year

13
Additional Federal Focus Areas

• Energy Star
• Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
• Green Janitorial Products
• Biobased Products (wheatboard, soy adhesives,
  plastics)
• Construction Demolition Debris
• Database of CD Recyclers
• Green Leasing
• Waste Wise
• GreenScapes

14
The Challenge
15
The Challenge

• Increase the efficiency with which buildings and
  their sites use energy, water, and materials, and
  
• Reduce building impacts on human health and the
  environment, through better siting, design,
  construction, operation, maintenance, and removal
  
• Assess the complete building life cycle

16
Green Building requires anintegrated design
approach

• Focusing on only one component of a building can
  have unintended environmental, social, or
  economic consequences
• Examples
• Poorly designed energy efficient building
  envelopes can result in poor indoor environmental
  quality
• Some recycled content latex paint could have
  higher volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions
  than other environmentally preferable paints

17
Example of Green Building (1)

• New GSA Federal Building in San Francisco
• windows that open,
• shared spaces between offices,
• lots of natural light,
• reduce energy costs by 45 percent, and
• is expected to save 500,000 per year in taxpayer
  dollars.

18
Example of Green Building (2) - Low Tech

• Earthship
• 4500 used tires
• Round adobe bricks
• Solar Panels
• Sinks
• Grease particle filter
• Garden grey water
• Freshwater collection
• Roof/rain gt 4 cisterns
• 40,000 gallons

Garden gray water
19
SBIR RD for Green Buildings

• Impacts of buildings are so tremendous
• Numerous research opportunities
• on buildings environmental effects and
  interactions and
• on technologies and techniques to reduce these
  impacts
• We encourage new ideas/research

20
Research Needs

• Water conservation and reuse,
• Recharging of groundwater,
• Construction runoff control,
• Use of green building products,
• Indoor environmental quality (e.g., day-lighting,
  ventilation, low emitting materials)
• Design products to consider toxicity emphasizing
  natural, low-emitting materials
• Effect on cost savings, worker productivity, and
  worker health
• Comparable information on the environmental
  impacts of building products
• life cycle assessment (LCA) and
• building product life cycle inventories (LCI)
  tools and protocols

21
Some Green Building SBIR Topics

• Design techniques or equipment to promote
  building renovation/deconstruction instead of
  demolition
• Design, construction practices or equipment to
  improve indoor air quality
• Building materials development to reduce risks
  from persistent, bio-accumulative, and toxic
  (PBT) chemicals
• Recycled content building materials development
  using local feedstock
• Develop natural flame retardancy for building
  materials

• Rapidly renewable/bio-based building materials
  development using local feedstock
• Environmentally preferable building systems or
  materials with unique application to arid
  Southwest
• Measurement/metering equipment for green building
  systems
• Moisture control systems/materials/detection
  equipment for condensation, water intrusion, etc.

22
EPA Resources

• Websites
• Green Buildings
• www.epa.gov/greenbuildings
• Recycled Products
• www.epa.gov/cpg
• Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
• www.epa.gov/oppt/epp
• Green Building Contact in Region 9 Timonie Hood
• [phone]
• hood.timonie_at_epa.gov