Sustainability
Sustainability is Good Business
Last month I had the opportunity to attend the Boston Chamber event “Making the Business Case for Sustainability”. This was a panel discussion of the integration of sustainability into business with representatives Johanna Jobin from EMD Millipore, Carolyn Kaplan from Nixon Peabody LLP, and Tony Calandro from VOX Global. The panelists represented varying industries, from service to production, which provided a range of perspectives on what sustainability means to various sectors…
Rechler Corporate Headquarters Wins EDC Award
We’re happy to announce that the Rechler Corporate Headquarters has been awarded EDC Magazine’s Excellence in Design Award in the Commercial Renovation category. The award honors the building’s unique sustainable strategies, such as its highly efficient, super-insulated building envelope. The project will be featured in EDC Magazine’s June issue, along with a podcast on their website.
Check out the video above (1:50 – 2:50), and for more information on this project and the other winners check out the awards webpage.
Four Season Commuting
With the onset of spring, many people focus their attention on spending more time outdoors. A popular choice is cycling, particularly here in New England which has a strong history of mountain biking and road riding. I’d like to share some advice about combining a few passions many of us share – as my son says, “saving the world”, exercise, and something we all need to do: commuting to work…
Sustainability at KIPP Academy Lynn
Earth month seems like a good point to reflect on the recently completed and now fully occupied KIPP Academy Lynn project in Lynn, MA. Part of the challenge associated with designing this project was making the school comfortable during the warmer months without the luxury of having a budget that could support full air conditioning. While oftentimes this problem is lamented, we saw it as an opportunity to be creative with the building systems and fenestration to provide low-energy, passive, and (most importantly) low-first cost climate control…
Sustainability on Campus
Arrowstreet invited Dennis Carlberg to speak to the firm about his efforts as the Director of Sustainability at Boston University. I was able to attend the discussion and I wanted to share the exciting things that are going on at this large university. As with any university or institutional campus, BU has a large environmental impact. BU understands it is important to reduce that footprint and in 2009 they created the Director of Sustainability position to do just that. Dennis Carlberg, the first to hold this position, jumped right into the role and has facilitated several programs over the last four years to create sustainable awareness and action on campus. Carlberg noted that one of the first things necessary to determine how to reduce the university’s footprint was to know exactly what their impact was. They assessed exactly how much energy, water, and waste that the university consumed and produced. Once that was determined then they could measure their success of the programs…
Architectural Reclamation Centers: Benefiting the Environment through Reuse
We are all becoming more aware of the complex environmental problems that exist today; both the architectural practice and individuals are encouraged to be mindful of our planet by reducing waste, recycling, and reusing materials. One way individuals can help in this effort is to utilize architectural reclamation centers when remodeling or renovating their home or property. These centers take donated building materials and items and sell them at bargain prices to homeowners and renovators. It’s a resource that provides a benefit to the environment as items get reused instead of sent to the landfill. And furthermore, donated items are tax deductible! A few years ago, I donated to Boston Building Resources Reuse Center when doing a home renovation project. The process was extremely simple: I just called and set up a time for them to pick up the items right at my door.
There are a number of Architectural Reclamation centers around the New England area. For more information, visit the Boston Building Resources website.
60+ Going Beyond the Hour
Started in 2007, Earth Hour is a yearly campaign to raise awareness of global warming and other environmental challenges and encourage people to participate on a global level to protect our planet. Individuals, organizations, and cities pledge to turn off the lights for the same hour on a set day each year. Earth Hour has grown from one city in 2007 to hundreds of thousands of people in 2013 in more than 150 countries and even outer space. The amount of electricity saved during that one hour of millions of homes and even major cities shutting of the lights is quite significant. However, saving the planet isn’t just about one hour that is why Earth Hour has grown to go “60+ Beyond the Hour”. One way that Earth Hour is encouraging people to go beyond the hour is through the “I Will If You Will” challenge. Individuals or organizations create a challenge which if met they are willing to do something in return to benefit the environment. From celebrities to cities challenges big and small have been made…
Green Thoughts from Walmart at ICSC RetailGreen
[Part 3 of a series of posts from ICSC’s RetailGreen conference.]
Last year, at ICSC’s RetailGreen conference, Don Moseley from Walmart gave an amazing 15 minute presentation on how codes differ from one municipality to another, and especially how they vary even more from the new International Green Construction Code (IgCC). Although it sounds wonky, Mr. Moseley used the specific example of how the prescribed number of plumbing fixtures can vary from code to code, with the delta being as much as 20 fixtures for the same size Walmart store. Same store footprint, same demands, totally different plumbing requirements. Importantly, when a retailer has thousands of locations across the world, it’s more difficult to plan, and it hits the bottom line in myriad ways.
This year, Mr. Moseley showed what Walmart has been doing on their roofs…
A Time to Look Back
The start of a new year brings optimism and refreshed energy for the future, and also a chance to look back on accomplishments from the previous year. 2012 was a busy year at Arrowstreet. We celebrated the opening of two new charter schools in the Boston metro area, the corporate headquarters for Rechler Equity in Long Island, White Elephant Village Inn in Nantucket, a T-station garage and cool new bridge in Revere, and an LL Bean store in Danbury. The Arrowstreet construction banner was flying high in 2012…
Disrupt and Interrupt: Thoughts from Retail Green
[Part 1 of a series of posts from ICSC’s RetailGreen conference.]
In the first General Session of the ICSC RetailGreen conference in Phoenix last month, I moderated a panel discussion called “Disrupt and Interrupt”. Since it was the beginning of the conference, we wanted to speak broadly about sustainability issues that retail developers encounter when planning projects and business initiatives. The panel consisted of Audi Banny of Estée Lauder, George Caraghiaur of Simon Property Group, Jim Hanna of Starbucks, and Riggs Kubiak of Honest Buildings. Some of my questions were pre-planned, but we had fun taking live questions through an email account and a scrolling twitter-feed which we projected above the stage. It all worked quite well. Audience members kept me well-stocked with comments and questions.