Photovoltaic Systems

Three years ago, Macalester College decided to build a new home for its Institute for Global Citizenship (IGC), a program that educates students to become global citizen leaders.  The building, Markim Hall, which was named for Mark and Kim Stricker, was designed to attain LEED Platinum certification as a way of reflecting the program’s commitment to global leadership.  Currently, there are 12 college campus buildings in the country that have achieved platinum-level certification, and Markim Hall is one of only two campus buildings in Minnesota designed to earn LEED Platinum certification. 

At a cost of $7.5 million, the 17,000 square foot building houses the IGC classrooms, offices, meeting rooms, and civic engagement study abroad and international programs.

The open atrium is for campus events and features an original bronze bust of former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, who graduated from Macalester College in 1961.  While the hall opens this summer, the official dedication and campus-wide convocation will be on October 1, 2009. 

The current energy simulations predict that Markim Hall will use 80% less energy than a standard building in the same climate.  Sustainable features include:

• Triple-glazed, low-e glass windows on the north, east, and west facades to prevent heat loss; south facing windows are double-glazed in order to collect more sunlight in the winter months and reduce heating costs. 
• Super insulated building envelope, walls have R-40 insulation (as opposed to R-22, as required by code) and the roof has an R-70 rating (building code is R-13).
• Hydronic heating and cooling in ceiling panels and a radiant floor in the atrium.
• Low flow faucets and and plumbing fixtures that reduce water use to 45% less than a typical, code-compliant building. 
  
• A drop off area but no parking to reduce car trips while also promoting the use of local bus lines.
• Floor tiles made from recycled porcelain, glass tiles made from recycled bottles, window sills made from recycled newspapers, and cabinetry made from recycled sunflower seed husk. 
• Native or adaptive plants and no permanent irrigation system on site. 
  
• Carbon offsets purchased to cover heating, cooling, and electrical consumption. 

Markim Hall was designed by Bruner/Cott & Associates and built by McGough Companies.  Markim Hall has won a Building of America Award and is scheduled to be featured in the upcoming Green Building of America-Midwest Green edition publication.

Photo credits: Macalester College. 

The Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL), which officially opens on July 16, 2009, is at the bleeding edge of green building.  It’s located on the 195-acre campus of the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, an education and retreat center.  Not only is it on track to achieve LEED Platinum, it may be the first building in America to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge.

About OCSL:

The building is intended to be the heart of the Omega Institute’s initiatives focused on the environment.  It began in 2005 as a plan to replace the aging septic system that had been there since the land was used as a summer camp in the 1950s.  The building has a whole host of green features, but the real feat is how they all work together with the local environment.  As Robert “Skip” Backus, OCSL’s CEO puts it, “it’s not just about compact florescent light bulbs, it’s not just about recycling, it’s about looking at what are the systems and the ways of engineering that are available to us now so that we can go to a higher level of sustainability — one that is truly in balance with the natural environment.“

Green features include:

• Net zero energy use due to photovoltaic array;
• Net zero water use;
• High fly-ash content concrete;
• Green roof;
• Rain gardens;
• Automatic windows to vent out hot air;
• Recycled content steel throughout;
• Closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling;
• All construction materials are FSC certified, locally sourced, and do not contain chemicals on the Living Building Challenge’s Red List.  

The Eco-Machine:

The center has several classrooms, but at the core of the 6,200 SF center is the 4,500 SF greenhouse containing a water filtration system called the “Eco-Machine.”  The Eco-Machine is the latest in Living Machine technology designed by Dr. John Todd.  Living Machines use a combination of plants, bacteria, algae, snails, and fungi to treat and recycle wastewater.  Wastewater flows through a system of aerobic and anaerobic tanks located under ground, inside the greenhouse, and outside through the four “cells,” which are man-made wetlands. The OCSL handles all of the wastewater generated by the Institute’s 23,000 annual visitors and has a daily capacity of 52,000 gallons.

How to be a Living Building:

The Living Building Challenge (LBC) was conceived by Jason F. McLennan and has been operated by the Cascadia Green Building Council.  It was not intended to compete with LEED but to go beyond it.  Unlike LEED, whose goal is to make the built environment more sustainable, the LBC takes it even further to outline requirements for buildings to take nothing at all from the environment.  Buildings must generate their own energy, use no outside water, and be built with locally sourced, sustainably harvested materials that do not contain any harmful chemicals on their “Red List.” 

The Red List:

Designing a building that generates is own energy and reuses water is actually the easy part, the material requirements are the biggest challenge.  The Red List includes toxic materials, CFCs, petrochemical fertilizers, and mercury, which can be easy to avoid, but also includes things like PVC, wood treatments (with creosote, arsenic, or pentachlorophenol), flame-retardants, and added formaldehyde that are present in the majority of manufactured products. 

Most electrical, plumbing, and pump assemblies have at least some parts that are made out of PVC, which make for an added procurement challenge.  It might mean choosing one manufacturer over another, or asking the manufacturer to change their entire manufacturing and procurement process just for you.  Companies that can or will do this are few and far between and it comes at a premium.  Project architect Laura Lesniewski of BNIM Architects sums it up, “In the marketplace, it’s tough to meet the materials list, the red list, and the FSC [requirements] and make it affordable.“

Material Sourcing:

LBC also outlines how far materials in manufactured products can be sourced, which is a huge challenge in today’s global supply chain.  Skip Backus encountered this firsthand, “most companies don’t even know where the parts in their own products come from … toilets were the hardest because almost all of them are made in Vietnam.“  Exceptions are made on items that cannot possibly be custom manufactured to meet the requirements, such as computers.

The bar is incredibly high and the LBC has yet to certify a building in America.  Certification is not complete until one full year after opening, when it can be proven that the building is able to meet its own energy needs year round.  Time will tell if the OCSL becomes the first project to receive the lofty and coveted certification. 

Photo/rendering credits: Gregory Edwards (top); BNIM Architects (second and third renderings); Andy Milford (fourth image of lagoons); Omega Institute (fifth image of Eco-Machine); Andy Milford (sixth image of exterior). 

When you think of manufactured homes, you might think of the ranch house with vinyl siding that you gingerly pass on the interstate as it travels on the back of a wide-load truck.  You might also think about a LEED Platinum home and imagine a roof spotted with photovoltaic panels, windmill in the front yard, and geothermal dug deep into the ground.  The newest offering from New World Home turns both of these ideas on their heads.

This home in Cobb County Georgia is the first LEED Platinum factory-built home in Georgia and the first in Georgia to obtain Platinum certification without the aid of renewable energy sources (cf. RainShine House).  Moreover, the home earned EarthCraft Gold certification, as well the the National Green Building Certification Gold, which is administered by he NAHB Research Center.  The house has:

• Spray foam insulated walls and rafter;
• FSC wood from sustainably harvest forests;
• Pre-cast, insulated concrete foundation;
• Energy Star rated doors, windows, roof, ceiling fans, and appliances;
• Low-flow WaterSense fixtures and tankless water heaters;
• Gutters that collect 100% of rainwater for irrigation;
• Low or no VOC paints, adhesives, and finishes; and
• Non-added formaldehyde cabinets, floors, and trim.  

New World Home calls the design platform New Old Green Modular (NOGM or “Nogum,” if you want to say it out loud).  The platform incorporates a holistic approach to historically inspired green homes, whose models are named after famous ecologists.  The process results in homes that are manufactured, transported, erected, and finished in less than 100 days.  This allows New World Home to have a supply model similar to Dell Computer’s where the house is built on-demand.  This is different than traditional models where developers build spec homes and have to pay carrying costs waiting for the homes to sell.  It’s a model that’s catching on in this economy.

By building in a factory setting, connections can be tighter and the thermal breaks can be minimized.  Outdoor contaminants such as mold and mildew can be avoided during the building process and construction waste is easily diverted and reused.  Even the foundation is factory-made, which uses 50% less concrete and carries a 25-year warranty against water damage.

Co-Founder and President of the Product Division, Mark Jupiter, describes his rationale for not adding power generation or geothermal to his designs: “We wanted to prove a point that using a standard supply chain: Owens Corning for the windows, standard foam insulation, a standard HVAC system … that we could produce a home that uses 50 percent less energy and thousands of gallons less water.”

Photo credit: New World Home.