1 Sustainability Barriers and Barrier Breakers: A Resource Guide Annie R. Pearce 1 and Corey L.J. Fischer 2 Developed in 2002, this document presents the results of training conducted across the United States on sustainable facilities and infrastructure systems for federal project managers and facilities staff. Following introductory sustainability training, data were collected from over 500 professionals on what they perceived to be the biggest barriers to implementing sustainability for federal facility projects and the most effective ways to overcome those barriers. Cluster analysis was used to group these barriers into ten major groupings of impediments, conveyed in the attached matrix. Barrier breakers were also clustered and linked to the barriers they can be used to address, as indicated by the shaded areas in the matrix. The matrix represents the clustering of both barriers and barrier breakers that resulted from initial data collection efforts. Brief descriptions of each barrier cluster are provided after the matrix. The remainder of the document includes a variety of resources associated with each barrier breaker in the matrix. These resources were identified by members of the Sustainable Facilities & Infrastructure research team at the Georgia Tech Research Institute through a series of case studies of Department of Defense facility projects, interviews with federal project stakeholders, and review of best practice sustainability resources available at the time of development. Additional resources were identified by graduate students taking CEE 6120: Environmentally Conscious Design & Construction during Spring semester 2002 in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil & Environmental Engineering. The resources and links provided in this document were accurate at the time of development. The authors make no warranty, implied or express, of the current accuracy of these resources. This document was intended as a supplement to classroom instruction on the topics included. For more information about the contents of this document, contact Dr. Annie Pearce, corresponding author. Citation: Pearce, A.R. & Fischer, C.L.J. (2002). Sustainability Barriers and Barrier Breakers: A Resource Guide. Sustainable Facilities & Infrastructure Program, SHETD/EOEML, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA. 1 Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Myers-Lawson School of Construction, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061. Email: [email protected](corresponding author) 2 Research Engineer, Sustainable Facilities & Infrastructure Branch, SHETD/EOEML, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA, 30332.
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Sustainability Barriers and Barrier Breakers: A Resource Guide
Annie R. Pearce1 and Corey L.J. Fischer2
Developed in 2002, this document presents the results of training conducted across the United States on sustainable facilities and infrastructure systems for federal project managers and facilities staff. Following introductory sustainability training, data were collected from over 500 professionals on what they perceived to be the biggest barriers to implementing sustainability for federal facility projects and the most effective ways to overcome those barriers. Cluster analysis was used to group these barriers into ten major groupings of impediments, conveyed in the attached matrix. Barrier breakers were also clustered and linked to the barriers they can be used to address, as indicated by the shaded areas in the matrix. The matrix represents the clustering of both barriers and barrier breakers that resulted from initial data collection efforts. Brief descriptions of each barrier cluster are provided after the matrix. The remainder of the document includes a variety of resources associated with each barrier breaker in the matrix. These resources were identified by members of the Sustainable Facilities & Infrastructure research team at the Georgia Tech Research Institute through a series of case studies of Department of Defense facility projects, interviews with federal project stakeholders, and review of best practice sustainability resources available at the time of development. Additional resources were identified by graduate students taking CEE 6120: Environmentally Conscious Design & Construction during Spring semester 2002 in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil & Environmental Engineering. The resources and links provided in this document were accurate at the time of development. The authors make no warranty, implied or express, of the current accuracy of these resources. This document was intended as a supplement to classroom instruction on the topics included. For more information about the contents of this document, contact Dr. Annie Pearce, corresponding author. Citation: Pearce, A.R. & Fischer, C.L.J. (2002). Sustainability Barriers and Barrier Breakers: A Resource Guide. Sustainable Facilities & Infrastructure Program, SHETD/EOEML, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA.
1 Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Myers-Lawson School of Construction, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061. Email: [email protected] (corresponding author) 2 Research Engineer, Sustainable Facilities & Infrastructure Branch, SHETD/EOEML, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA, 30332.
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Sustainability Barriers and Barrier Breakers
Barriers and Barrier Breakers
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First cost offsets/solve multiple problems at once Free external resources
Multifunction team integration Problem reframing/spin doctoring
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Barriers
Perceived economic impacts
Description: common perception that sustainability projects cost more up front, even though they may offer life cycle cost savings Root cause: lack of knowledge; external factors that will eventually go away Barrier breakers: look for first cost offsets; see also lack of resources for ideas on leveraging “free” external resources; explicitly build in a cost factor to allow for learning curve items, premium products, etc.; begin with low or no cost solutions to establish a history of success, e.g., reuse of existing structures, change paint colors, native plantings to eliminate irrigation requirements; seek projects with rapid payback; use true cost accounting and count all benefits!
Resistance to change
Description: stake in the status quo; lack of appropriate trigger to drive change; perception of added responsibilities Root cause: lack of motivation; lack of knowledge Barrier breakers: Explicitly articulate costs and benefits – provide better information to encourage appropriate reactions; education; focus on the long term vision; top management support of key players; provide sufficient resources; focus on alignment; choose battles wisely to ensure short term victories; develop explicit goals; publicize via web site; emphasize existing sustainability successes; do pilot projects; develop awareness and alignment with vision; get everyone talking about it
Lack of necessary knowledge
Description: ties to risk of failure; lack of awareness of sustainability goals by all stakeholders Root cause: none (this is the ultimate root cause of unsustainability) Barrier breakers: more education and training; lunch and learns, case studies, field trips; establishing a resource center (product samples, reference materials); developing detailed guidelines for sustainability projects; safe environment for trial and error (tie to trialability); add experienced personnel to project teams; use mentors; develop a green team; get certain personnel trained deeply in specialty areas; periodic refresher training; give green team authority to audit projects and make change recommendations; partnering and mentoring (add to RFQ for A/E)
Risk of failure
Description: the caged guinea pig conundrum – products don’t perform as anticipated, expected returns on investment don’t materialize, and people lose credibility Root cause: lack of knowledge about likely outcomes Barrier breakers: Try new products in situations where no one always has to live with the consequences and where different technologies can be compared to one another, e.g., showers in gyms, toilets in dining facilities, etc. More information can lead to better decisions (raw data, case studies, analysis tools) with lower risk of failure; manage penalties associated with failure, especially when failure results from innovation. Establish a knowledgeable core team that can review potential ideas and confirm their reasonableness (distributing risk of failure across a team); partnering; mentoring
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Lack of management buy-in
Description: upper levels of management get in the way and fail to provide necessary resources, either through discouraging behaviors or sheer apathy Root cause: never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance. Lack of information about true costs and benefits. Barrier breakers: develop mission and vision to help management understand what you’re talking about in language they will understand; put the “get your star” spin on it; seek positive publicity; make management look good; emphasize federal policy trends; ensure that all stakeholders receive sustainability training; proactive alignment measures; command staff training; sustainability functional unit to provide continuity through command changes (civil servants always outlast command staff); organizational infrastructure that can sustain sustainability; promoting successes; investment in knowledge resources; creating awareness of (and subsequent demand for) sustainability benefits; framing benefits in ways command staff can understand
Lack of resources
Description: lack of extra time, money, and human resources to devote to the challenge of implementing sustainability; exacerbating factors include downsizing, already heavy workloads, etc. Ties to lack of management buy-in. Root cause: sustainability is perceived to require more resources (and for now that’s probably true). But what internal and external sources of resources could be exploited to fill the gap? How much waste could be eliminated? Barrier breakers: Seek ways to leverage existing tasks/responsibilities; management providing extra resources; using external “free” resources; seek solutions that solve multiple problems at once; seek durable solutions
Lack of incentives/rewards
Description: no benefits to change agents for doing things differently, and no penalties for staying the same Root cause: implementers are already overworked, and altruism is inherently unsustaining Barrier breakers: formal (programs to officially recognize and reward people who take steps toward sustainability), informal (management pats on the back), or inverse (policies to absolve penalties for trying new ideas) incentives; distribute responsibility for sustainability across whole teams to manage penalties of failure; choosing visible places to start; designating projects as pilot projects to highlight successes and explain failures
Unclear payoffs/measures of success
Description: uncertainty about the true impacts of trying sustainable solutions; traditional metrics such as total installed cost or on-time completion may seem to penalize sustainability projects, and metrics that could give sustainability projects an advantage are not traditionally considered. Root cause: no one wants to take a risk of failure if the requirements for “winning” have not been defined and the rules of the game are not understood Barrier breakers: Consideration should be given to establishing additional project metrics that are performance based (e.g., via whole project commissioning to ensure functionality to design specs), life cycle oriented (i.e., that take into account not only front end costs but also operations, maintenance, and
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end of life cycle costs), and environmental (i.e., that weight as important issues of ecological impact and human health, safety, and livability). Explicit goals and measurable objectives should be clearly established.
Existing procedures/standards
Description: Fragmentation and failure to convey information between parties as a project passes from initiation to contracting can result in sustainability features being "value engineered" out of a project in the interest of reducing installed costs, while significantly increasing life cycle costs. Color of money, dollar fencing, public accountability, and extra time requirements for sole sourcing can also stand in the way. Root cause: procedures designed to increase process efficiency and accountability have to be robust enough to work in all situations, and therefore they have a lot of extra fat. Barrier breakers: Existing procedures and standards exist for a reason – they represent the evolution of many years of trial and error. But they can also unnecessarily constrain situations where custom solutions are desired and adequate resources exist to make them successful. Changes in policy to improve the procurement process is one way to address this barrier, although such changes will likely only take place over time. More immediate strategies include training and education of all project stakeholders about the organization’s vision and mission for project sustainability, better documentation of design decisions that gets passed on to contracting, and feedback review of downstream changes. Application of life cycle-based metrics of project acceptability can also ensure that both contracting and engineering are making decisions on the same basis.
Conflicts with mission requirements
Description: the possibility that implementing sustainability strategies for a project may compromise the ultimate performance of the facility with respect to mission requirements. Root cause: the perception that sustainability is an “add-on” requirement; early experiments with alternative materials Barrier breakers: First, better knowledge about the likely performance of sustainable facility technologies and strategies can provide a greater confidence that they will perform as intended (see also Lack of Knowledge strategies). Second, reframing the existing mission to include sustainability can address this barrier. Piggyback on other requirements!
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Barrier Breakers
First cost offsets/solve multiple problems at once
What are some examples from the built environment of products, strategies, and technologies that demonstrate the use of integrated design to result in better performance at lower cost? There are examples in Natural Capitalism (HVAC + envelope, etc.). Collins & Aikman’s new 20 oz. Carpet is also an example (it uses less raw material); yet shows less wear and is easier to clean. Both first cost and O&M costs are lower. Other examples might include aerated concrete or integrated concrete forms – these are all products that provide multiple performance factors at once as well as labor savings, resulting in an overall better building at lower or equivalent first cost. Key principles to this barrier breaker include proper problem framing, whole systems thinking, and servicizing/ dematerialization. See www.greenbiz.com for articles on all these issues and more. The following resources are recommended summaries of the benefits vs. costs of sustainable construction practices. While most studies to date have focused primarily on commercial construction, several relevant resources for the residential construction industry are also included at the end of this document. Romm, J.J. and Browning, W.D. (1995). Greening the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity through Energy-Efficient Design. Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, CO.
Includes case studies to illustrate the relative importance of people costs in making the decision to build green. Available online at http://www.getf.org/file/toolmanager/O16F8527.pdf.
Kats, G. (2003). The Costs and Benefits of Green Buildings: A Report to California's Sustainable Building Task Force. California’s Sustainable Building Task Force, Sacramento, CA.
This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the financial cost and benefits of green buildings. This report explains how minimal initial investment of construction cost typically yields life cycle savings over ten times the initial investment. Available online at http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/News/News477.pdf.
US Department of Energy. (2003). The Business Case for Sustainable Design in Federal Facilities. Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Program, Federal Energy Management Program, US Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
The Business Case provides significant financial evidence from research findings and case studies that sustainable design is a smart business choice. This document provides data and information indicating that sustainable design does not have to increase first costs and yields economic, social, and environmental benefits to building owners and society. Available online at http://www.eere.energy.gov/femp/technologies/sustainable_federalfacilities.cfm.
US Green Building Council. (2003). Building Momentum: National Trends and Prospects for High-Performance. US Green Building Council, Washington, DC.
This document highlights important green building components such as environmental, health, productivity and economic and presents recommendations for expanding green building practices in existing federal programs and policies. Available online at http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/Resources/043003_hpgb_whitepaper.pdf
US Green Building Council. (2004). Making the Business Case for High Performance Green Buildings. US Green Building Council, Washington, DC.
This document discusses environmental impacts of the building sector, the economic and health benefits of green building, the barriers and opportunities it faces, and the role of the federal
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sector. Available online at https://www.usgbc.org/Docs/Member_Resource_Docs/makingthebusinesscase.pdf
O’Brien-Smith, C. (2003). “Green housing can pay dividends,” Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, Seattle, WA, April 24.
Discusses how much consumers are willing to pay for green features, and existing incentives and programs in Seattle for green housing. Available online at http://www.djc.com/news/en/11144318.html.
National Association of Home Builders. (2001). “Top 5 Ways to Sell Innovation.” This short article on the Partnership for Advanced Technology in Housing web site lists five ways to convince potential home buyers or renters of the benefits of green building. Available online at http://www.toolbase.org/tertiaryT.asp?TrackID=&CategoryID=1&DocumentID=4443.
Wilson, A., et al. (1998). Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate. Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.
Overview of how to make money by considering the environment in real estate development. Includes 80 case studies with economic data, described in more detail on the accompanying CD-ROM. An excerpt from the book on the topic of the Market for Green Development is available from the Rocky Mountain Institute’s web site at http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid222.php.
Free external resources
There is a surprisingly large number of sources available to you in your quest to green your company and its processes or products. Free resources fall into the following categories:
• Technical assistance programs – often provided by universities, local utilities, or federal/state/local government
• Cost matching or grant programs – government, private sector, non-profits • Tax credit or rebate programs – government • Financing assistance programs – energy efficient mortgages and others • Product demonstration or pilot testing programs
An especially useful guide to funding sources for green building-related initiatives is the Funding Green Buildings Directory, published by Jan McAdams. This binder of information has been compiled to include links, contact information, and descriptions of hundreds of relevant grant and technical assistance program. Purchasers of the directory can attend McAdams’ Funding Green Buildings workshops at no cost, and receive a weekly electronic newsletter highlighting specific funding and technical assistance programs and providing periodic updates to the Directory. This directory can be ordered online at www.fundinggreenbuildings.com. Other sources of information include: www.synergos.org/globalphilanthropy/00/fbsprogram3.pdf - Designing Grant Programs - The Synergos Institute. This site gives us an insight on how foundations design grantmaking programs, and it has a couple of examples that could be followed. It also describes the importance of a business plan in implementing programs successfully, the possible integration of different types of grants, and the effectiveness of the programs depending on the participation of all stakeholders. http://www.epa.gov/epahome/grants.htm - Environmental Protection Agency
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On the EPA website page, we can find all the information needed for their grants. This includes how to apply and all the procedures that need to be followed, a tutorial, and other recommendations. It is also divided by regions. Most important for our interest is a link to all the grants that are available and administered by EPA. The site in general has a wide variety of grant programs, and their description is very general, which may generate some confusion at the moment of trying to fill all the requirements. At the same time it brings a lot of opportunities and a lot of assistance on becoming sustainable and in helping the environment. http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/financing/grants.shtml - Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development The site shows a variety of links to different organizations and foundations to help communities fund sustainable development projects. It outline sources of information for Federal, private foundation, and corporate grant opportunities. Most important it provides information about green buildings and the resources that are available to do them. It also provides links to articles on commercial buildings which might be of interest.
http://www.cos.com - Community of Science Funding Database
The Community of Science web site is in charge of getting together researchers and scientists with the knowledge to provide help on the different issues that we may need. Its Database provides permanently on the grants that are available in each discipline. It also allows companies and researchers to create their own profile and therefore have the information filtered or used to match opportunities.
http://www.fedbizopps.gov/- Federal Business Opportunities FedBizOpps.gov is the single government point-of-entry (GPE) for Federal government procurement opportunities over $25,000. Government buyers are able to publicize their business opportunities by posting information directly to FedBizOpps via the Internet. Through one portal - FedBizOpps (FBO) - commercial vendors seeking Federal markets for their products and services can search, monitor and retrieve opportunities solicited by the entire Federal contracting community. http://www.ala.org/acrl/resjuly99.html - Association of College and Research Libraries
This is a general website which has a very complete variety of grant resources on the web, and links to where we can find them. It includes a broad database with Federal funding resources, the different foundations that are available, electronic publications, and most important links to different newsgroups with people that are involved in the grant programs process.
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/GreenBuilding/Grants/default.htm - a competitive grant program to support the use of green building technologies in public buildings in California. Sponsored by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. http://www.fdncenter.org/ - The Foundation Center is an information clearinghouse on grant programs and sources. This independent nonprofit has a directory of more than 160 grantmaker websites and a range of informational materials including brochures, application procedures, publications, training and frequently asked questions. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/grants/index.html- a resource guide to the nearly 50 financial assistance programs in six general areas: forests, habitat improvement, land protection, recreation, water, and gift/donation programs available from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. www.epa.gov/epahome/grants.htm - a list of all grant, loan, and fellowship programs available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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www.walmartfoundation.org - link to more information about Wal-Mart Environmental Grants. Each Wal-Mart store has an allocation of money for environmental grants to non-profit organizations and schools to support environmental efforts and education in communities where stores are located. Grants are in the $2,500 range. More than $1.5 million was granted nationwide last year. Grant applications, accepted on an on-going basis, are available and are submitted through a local store, but decisions are made in Arkansas. Wal-Mart also gives grants under the categories of community, children and education. http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/sustainablebuilding/incentives/default.htm - link to a database of grant information for Seattle projects and residents. Very well organized format; it would be nice if there were a national web site like this one!
Additional internal resources/piggybacking
This barrier breaker is about leveraging existing resources and opportunities to achieve sustainability, and is largely organization-specific. Ideas include bundling sustainability as part of (or an umbrella for) other capital initiatives such as force protection for the military, and bundling sustainability benefits with other benefits when marketing new products.
Rapid payback/high SLOS strategies
The slides contain extensive ideas on how to locate low hanging fruit. Beyond the plethora of strategies, consider the following information on Sustainability Likelihood of Success. These are the criteria that can be used to evaluate likelihood of success for Best Available Technologies and Strategies (BATS) for sustainability. Risk is used as an evaluation criterion in terms of the likelihood that implementing the BATS would actually result in the desired effect. In general, greater control is associated with strategies taking place inside the system (first order strategies) than outside (all other strategies). Likewise, being a customer of affiliate systems (third order strategies) means greater control over the success of efforts to improve those systems than if there is no market relationship between systems (fourth order strategies). By definition, control is inversely proportional to risk. Therefore, risk can be estimated for each BATS based on the level of control exerted over its lifecycle by decision makers. Reliability is also an important complementary consideration for determining how effective the BATS would be over time in achieving its desired impact without additional special efforts on the part of facility decision makers. In general, transparent solutions (where users are unaware that a better product has been substituted for another, for instance) are more reliable than other solutions. Transparent technology-based solutions are more reliable than solutions dependent on consistent behavior of stakeholders. For example, installing a technology that separates waste has a greater reliability than if stakeholders are expected to remember over the long term to separate their own wastes. Provided adequate expertise exists to operate and maintain the technologies, technology-based solutions avoid the foibles of reliance on human behavior for their success. The third evaluation criterion is value, in this case referring to the ability of each BATS to achieve the goal of ameliorating negative impacts without causing other negative impacts as a result. BATS can be rated based on how much of the undesirable impact they would eliminate if implemented correctly, and how many new undesirable impacts their implementation would generate. For instance, installing a more efficient lighting system might reduce negative impacts associated with electricity consumption over the life cycle of a facility, but it would also generate a solid waste stream during retrofit as well as set in motion a chain of events necessary to manufacture and transport the elements of the new system. The last criterion, difficulty, is included as a measure of how able project stakeholders are to implement the solution, given the available resources, current objectives and expectations, and constraints
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associated with the specific project situation and context. Solutions can be rated as more difficult to implement if they required additional resources (including time, cost, expertise, etc.), or changes in current behavior for affected stakeholders. Together, the four criteria return a qualitative comparison of the relative costs and benefits of each option, and can be used to prioritize potential BATS for allocation of resources.
Likelihood of Success Criteria for Rating BATS (Pearce & Fischer 2001) RATING CRITERIA
RISK A Classification as a First-order Strategy B Classification as a Second-order Strategy C Classification as a Third-order Strategy D Classification as a Fourth-order Strategy
RELIABILITY A Excellent – completely transparent technologies requiring no behavioral changes on the part of
stakeholders and resulting in no perceptible changes in performance B Good – transparent technologies that require no behavioral changes on the part of building users, but
may require behavioral changes on the part of building professionals (e.g., designers, contractors, operators, maintainers, etc.)
C Fair – non-transparent technologies that produce noticeable changes in performance and require some adaptation or “getting used to” by users
D Poor – strategies relying mostly or completely on behavioral modification of users VALUE
A Excellent – will completely eliminate undesirable impact without creating any significant new undesirable impacts that can’t be easily addressed
B Good – will partially eliminate undesirable impact without creating any significant new undesirable impacts that can’t be easily addressed
C Fair – will completely eliminate undesirable impact, but at the same time will create new undesirable impacts that cannot be easily addressed
D Poor – will partially eliminate undesirable impact, but at the same time will create new undesirable impacts that cannot be easily addressed
DIFFICULTY A Easy – requires no additional resources AND no significant behavior changes. B Doable – requires some additional resources OR some change in behavior or expectations on the part
of stakeholders C Difficult – requires many additional resources OR significant change in behavior or expectations of
stakeholders D Impossible – some policy or constraint prohibits implementation, or BATS is unavailable in this
situation. Change in policy would be required for implementation.
Here are some additional resources for finding low-hanging fruit… http://www.buildinggreen.com/features/lc/low_cost.html - this article from Environmental Building News is a classic source of information on no-cost, low-cost solutions for sustainable construction. Explore the options in this article if first cost presents a major barrier for your project. Classifies recommendations by building feature and type. http://www.naturalstep.org/learn/methodology.php- describes the overall framework developed to assist companies in following the Natural Step, a sustainability program developed in Europe and adopted by major companies in the US.
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http://www.ffadesign.com/sustain/tools.htm - this site offers the following definition of low hanging fruit: “strategies that are not difficult to employ either because they make sense as part of the basic program of the project, or because they clearly offer more benefit than cost” http://www.buildinggreen.com/features/4-5/priorities.html - this article by Environmental Building News discusses the issues associated with setting priorities in green building projects and provides a basis for choosing low-hanging fruits with high likelihood of success. http://www.progressivepractices.com/articles/systems_thinking.pdf - interesting article on how systems thinking can lead to identification of low hanging fruit and opportunities for successfully implementing quality and sustainability concepts.
True cost accounting/additional metrics
The idea of this barrier breaker is to identify the kinds of costs that are not typically considered when planning and designing a facility, but that will affect or be affected by the facility itself. They include productivity, absenteeism, environmental liability, and many more. Most books on green business touch on this subject. Very few people have tried to systematically quantify the information; although there are some good recent studies, most are still anecdotal. For additional information, see the following: Bennett, M. and James, P. (1998). The Green Bottom Line: Environmental Accounting for Management.
Greenleaf Press, Sheffield, UK. Compendium of articles covering the basics of environmental accounting. Includes case studies from multiple countries. Clear explanation of why present accounting methods don’t capture essential sustainability attributes. Highly recommended.
Hawken, P., Lovins, A., and Lovins, L.H. (1999). Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. Little, Brown, & Co., Boston, MA. Essential resource – free on the web at http://www.naturalcapitalism.com. Presents a new way of thinking about design that can achieve economic benefits while being sustainable. One of the only books out there that discusses how you can save first costs by investing in sustainable technologies.
Romm, J.J. and Browning, W.D. (1995). Greening the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity through Energy-Efficient Design. Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, CO. Includes case studies to illustrate the relative importance of people costs in making the decision to build green. Available online at http://www.getf.org/file/toolmanager/O16F8527.pdf.
Von Weizsacker, E., Lovins, A.B., and Lovins, L.H. (1998). Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use. EarthScan Publications, London, UK. The book that led to Natural Capitalism. Contains a wealth of examples on how to save money while investing more on environmentally superior projects.
Wilson, A., et al. (1998). Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate. Wiley & Sons, New York, NY. Overview of how to make money by considering the environment in real estate development. Includes 80 case studies with economic data, described in more detail on the accompanying CD-ROM.
Education/training
This section covers general sustainability training, and basic sustainability in the built environment training. There is a growing number of programs out there. I’d also like to see a good list of the must-see annual sustainability-related conferences appear here, including the U.S. Green Building Council’s
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annual conference, Energy Efficient Building Association’s annual conference, GreenPrints, etc. Following are examples of such programs, including web sites for more information. Austin Green Builder Program - http://www.greenbuilder.com/conference/This site, hosted by the City of Austin, TX Green Builder Program, gives you latest information on green building conferences around the country. The site contains a calendar of upcoming local and national events, and is updated regularly. Organizations hosting workshops or conferences can post their events on the site at their own discretion. Energy Efficient Building Association (EEBA) – http://www.eeba.org This organization hosts an annual conference that is devoted to new developments in the field of energy efficient building. Target audiences include stakeholders involved in both residential and commercial construction. The conference is often held in conjunction with specialized workshops and an expo, and includes a variety of green building and sustainability sessions. Environmental Building News Event Calendar - http://www.buildinggreen.com/ebn/calendar.html This calendar provides you with the latest workshops and conferences on sustainability and green building around the United States and in other countries. Organizations can list sustainability-related events by contacting Environmental Building News staff. The organization also provides an upcoming events calendar in its monthly journal, available by subscription. Georgia Tech Sustainable Facilities & Infrastructure Program – http://maven.gtri.gatech.edu/sfi This organization, affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology, provides public offering and contract continuing education courses on sustainable facilities and infrastructure. Public offering courses and technology workshops are available in the Atlanta area, and contract courses have been offered around the United States and in other countries. Courses range from general introduction to sustainable facilities and infrastructure (SFI), to more specialized courses on the economics of SFI, assessment and evaluation of sustainability, and courses targeted at specific building stakeholders such as designers, contractors, real estate developers, and facility managers. Greater Cleveland Green Building Coalition - http://www.clevelandgbc.org/workshops/ This organization hosts professional training workshops for the green building industry in the Cleveland area. Workshops cover topics of Building Assessment, Building Commissioning, and much more. Green Building Services - http://www.greenbuildingservices.com/green_resources/upcoming_events.asp This service highlights new technologies in the green building industry through workshops and seminars. The site includes a calendar of upcoming workshops on specific technologies. Harmony Foundation - http://www.harmonyfdn.ca/bss.html This organization offers a workshop entitled “Building Sustainable Societies: Training for Community Leadership” that covers issues relating to forming sustainable societies. The training includes three phases - Leadership Training Sessions, Community Action Workshops, and local initiatives. Sustainable Buildings Industry Council - http://www.sbicouncil.org/workshops_home.htm This organization provides a variety of workshops on topics ranging from low-energy design for federal building managers, to general workshops on commercial and residential green building guidelines. Southface Energy Institute - http://www.southface.org/web/programs&events/courses&training/sf_courses-trainings.htm This organization, serving the metro Atlanta and southeastern United States, offers selected courses in the Atlanta area targeted at audiences ranging from commercial builders to lay homeowners wanting to design and build their own houses. Training includes workshops on the Home Energy Rating System for
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building inspectors, an annual homebuilding school and environmental living conference for laypersons, and other courses. Southface also hosts an annual conference, Greenprints, targeted at all stakeholders of community and built environment sustainability. Scottsdale Green Building Program - http://www.ci.scottsdale.az.us/greenbuilding/Lectures/greenlec.asp This organization provides a series of lectures throughout the year that are given on several different topics, for example alternative building materials, improving energy performance, indoor air quality, and several other topics of discussion. Sustainable Seattle - http://www.sustainableseattle.org/nd/programs/default.htm This organization periodically offers workshops on sustainability in the Puget Sound area. US Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory - http://www.cecer.army.mil/sustdesign/ This organization hosts a web site on Sustainable Design and Development that contains a periodically updated list of training opportunities and training providers. The site primarily focuses on providers and curricula that would be useful for federal employees involved with sustainable facilities. US Green Building Council (USGBC) - http://www.usgbc.org/Events/events_training_calendar.asp This organization, developer of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System, presents both public offering training events around the country as well as customized courses for interested organizations on how to apply the LEED rating system to capital projects. The USGBC also hosts an annual international green building conference devoted to green building issues and topics related to commercial and residential construction. http://www.greenbuilder.com/conference/ - a list of some of the best green building conferences; includes both past conferences with links to proceedings, and listings of upcoming conferences. See also http://www.greenbuilder.com/general/ BuildingSources.html for a link to an online calendar of events. http://www.cecer.army.mil/sustdesign/CEvents.cfm - comprehensive list of green building-related events along with descriptions and links including links to other lists and calendars. http://www.greenbiz.com/reference/events.cfm - contains event listings (you can add your own) on a variety of topics related to green business. Excellent resource!
Specialty training
By specialty training, I’m referring to the kinds of training that you might want to send one member of your green team to, but you wouldn’t send everyone. Examples include specialty courses on continuous commissioning, day-lighting, energy modeling, sustainable landscaping, etc. This includes all courses that focus on one particular Built Environment Sustainability topic, as opposed to conferences and more general courses that cover the spectrum. Resources for finding specialty training include the following. http://www.greenbuildingservices.com/green_resources/upcoming_events.asp- a listing of educational opportunities offered by Green Building Services, a business unit of Portland (OR) General Electric. http://www.greendesign.net - an online database of every kind of green resource imaginable, including a list of courses and training providers on a variety of green topics. http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid261.php - this site is an excellent list of links to the best green building resources in general, and also contains a list of university programs on green architecture and design. http://www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/vitalsigns/ - this site contains an excellent set of curriculum resources on architectural design for high performance building. Highly recommended resources cover a variety of
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building performance topics such as lighting and design for energy efficiency. This is a highly recommended site for self-education. http://www.umich.edu/~nppcpub/resources/compendia/architecture.html - this is a site containing downloadable material for sustainable architecture education. Very useful material for self-education on basic topics. Other curricula relating to environmental studies and management are also available from the National Pollution Prevention Center through this site. http://www.ecodesign.org/edi/eden/ecoschools-map.html - this online database of educational institutions highlights organizations specializing in ecologically friendly building methods.
Vision/mission development and focus
Resources to assist in developing vision and mission statements include: Foote, Cameron (2000). “Mission statements: The benefits to you and your clients.” Step-By Step Graphics, Vol.16 (4), 22-23.
This article defines how a mission statement can be effective for a company. The author states that there are three criteria that a statement should address: It defines what makes that organization different; it increases similarity between the company’s various activities; and it merchandises the organization’s uniqueness to both employees and customers. The article is broken into four sections: Where are they most effective; Read this first; Why consider it; and The process. It explains what organizations need to do in order to develop a statement that will be beneficial to the organization in the future.
Garrett, Alexander. (Feb 2000). "Developing and Identity." Management Today, 86. Alexander Garrett presents some guidelines to ensure that the person(s) developing the mission statement does it in a manner in which the statement is represents the company and what they have to offer. This article is recommended due to the fact that it gives certain steps that need to be taken into account when creating a mission statement, for example, understanding what an identity is; involving your people; keep it simple; do and don't says. These steps are practical and easy to follow.
Dossenbach, Tom. "Define Your Vision and Mission." (2001). Wood & Wood Products, Vol. 106 (13), 43-47.
This article discusses the importance of a company defining its' vision and mission statement. Also stated are the advantages of the statement, the steps in developing a mission statement, and the effects on how the customers perceive the company. If one does not have an idea of the value of a company statement, this article will present it to them. The information provided in this article will help a person who is trying to become an entrepreneur and needs some guidance on how to appeal to the consumer. This article is recommended to anyone interested in developing a mission statement for their up and coming business.
Lesonsky, Rieva (2001). "On a mission." Start your own business, 2nd Edition, Entrepreneur Press, Irvine, Ca., 81-86.
The author describes what a mission statement is supposed to convey and to who it is to be conveyed to. It poses several questions to help create the mission of a company and then putting it all together.
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This book is recommended due to the fact that it is clear and concise about what one should think about when developing a mission statement. To do this, the author provides "cut-throat" questions that will help create a verbal picture of the business' mission. Lastly are steps about how to put your answers together to make the best statement that it can be.
Collins, James C. and Porras, Jerry I.(1997). "Building the Vision." Built to last, HarperCollins, New York, N.Y., 219-239.
Based upon a six year study conducted at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Compared various companies with their competitors and found which ones were exceptional and sustainable (long lasting). Found that a well thought out vision is one that consists of two major components, core ideology and envisioned future. This book was the number one business book for 1995, and is still in high demand. The authors have conducted extensive research in this area and can provide useful information to someone interested in beginning a business.
Graham, John W. and Havlick, Wendy C. (1994). Mission Statements: A Guide to the Corporate and Nonprofit Sectors, Garland Publishing, New York, N.Y., ix-xiii, 4-7.
Contains mission statements from major corporations, but also describes how big businesses develop a mission statement. Beginning with the planning stage followed by the creating stage of the statement. The authors believe that through the study of a mission statement, one can learn about an organization, their leaders, and their strategies. This book allows a person to read mission statements of their competitors, and then develop their statement with the idea of "do better" in mind. They would have a competitive edge.
Tom Brown, (2001). "A Vision from Scratch," Across the Board, [online] 38 (3) search Galileo (Accessed: 5 February 2002).
Donna Martin was asked to join a company as senior vice president, and her first project was to develop a mission. This article details her thoughts and processes taken so that she and a few co-workers could accomplish this task.
Barbara Bartkus, Myron Glassman, R. Bruce McAfee, (2000). "Mission Statements: Are they smoke and mirrors?," Business Horizons, [online] 43 (6) search Galileo (Accessed: 5 February 2002).
This article gives a scenario of a company that developed a mission statement and also lives the mission. It also poses a question that many think about. Are mission statements essential? Based upon the scenario and the rest of the article, a mission statement is essential in that it continues to bring back consumers because of the type of customer service they receive. When a company lives by its mission statement, good things usually come about.
Abrams, Rhonda, (2000). The Successful Business Plan. Third Edition, Running 'R' Media, California, 6,38,51,61-63,68.
A step by step guide to help one in creating a successful business plan. Contains statements, and ideas from successful business owners and CEO's. The book contains worksheets to help create the business plan. It provides information on how a mission statement should guide a company's short-term activities, and long term strategies. The worksheets are useful in that they ask questions to future business owners. These are questions that the owner(s) may not have thought of before; they prepare them for what needs to be done and possibilities on how to get it completed.
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Lanning, Michael J. (2000). Delivering profitable Value: A revolutionary framework to accelerate growth, generate wealth, and rediscover the heart of business. Persues Publishing, Cambridge Massachusetts, 74-77.
Written by the original creator of the "value proposition" at McKinsey and conducting twenty years of research, Lanning shows how to escape the destructive trap of "internally-driven" thinking. States that many organizations are geared towards the growth of the enterprise and do not take into account the experiences delivered to customers. The author describes some mission statements as being air-headed fluff. A mission statement can state the type of market the organization will be a part of, however he believes, or shall I say, his research has proven that the mission statement should be defined by its customers and their experiences relevant to them. This will enable an organization to maintain existing customers, but also continue to bring in new ones.
Awareness enhancement
Awareness enhancement resources include the following: 1. The article “Psychology and sustainability: An introduction.”(McKenzie-Mohr and Oskamp 1995)
takes a look at the environmental problems facing the world, including dangers to the atmosphere, forests, soil, and water. The focus of research is beginning to shift from psychologically how the environment affects human behavior to examining the dangerous impact human actions have on the environment. This is a good article to begin this process with because it establishes a base; the roots of environmental problems and focus on a direction for change. This can be used to open eyes and prepare people for change. The authors also provide examples of psychological research that promotes sustainability.
2. Another way to approach this problem of implementing sustainability is to understand what motivates people, or understanding why or why the don not participate in environmentally conscience behavior. The article “Determinants of responsible environmental behavior.” (McKenzie-Mohr, Nemiroff, Beers, and Desmarais 1995) provides insight into why a person may participate in environmentally conscience behaviors such a recycling programs. Two experiments examined the variables characteristic of individuals who engage in responsible environmental behavior. One experiment completed a phone survey, which measured the relationship between environmental attitudes, perceived tactical efficacy of environmental activism, perceived threat, environmental knowledge, and recycling activism. No common set of factors was found to predict responsible environmental behavior. Results emphasize a need for education, practice to become inherent, and more action is taken if a threat is detected. The implications for psychologists' roles in the development of environmental interventions are also stated. Through this article we can see problem that people do not react until the can see the problem, or until its too late. This is a common problem that needs new ideas and tactics to overcome this practice. Learning to understand people’s (a community) behavior is a key asset to helping implement a new sense of proactive behavior.
3. “Fostering sustainable behavior through community-based social marketing.”(McKenzie-Mohr 2000) is perhaps the most relevant article concerning the role of psychology and marketing towards implementing a change in sustainability. A central aspect of sustainability is widespread behavior change. However, most programs promoting sustainable behavior have featured information-intensive campaigns. This article looks to take use of psychological knowledge and change the approach to community-based social marketing. This article states that unlike many information-intensive campaigns, community-based social marketing has been shown to have a much greater probability of promoting sustainable behavior. The main idea is to identify the promoted activity and its barriers then design a strategy to overcome these barriers. In a sense, this is like setting a
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goal and expecting people to proactively, working as a community, achieve this goal. Two case studies are also provided to demonstrate a community-based approach and the possible outcomes.
4. Another angle for our approach to implementation is to examine the science of marketing. To improve our industry it is helpful to understand consumer marketing and also the marketing behind mass public health campaigns. The article “Effective mass communication strategies for health campaigns.” (Flay 1990) takes a look at the conditions under which mass media health campaigns achieve the greatest impact on the public. The article is based on a variety of a large body of scientific research and theory from the mass communication, social psychology, and public health fields. The article looks at effective public health campaigns versus effective product marketing campaigns. It also examines necessary conditions for effective campaigns. At the time of this memo, this article was not currently available. However, the best way for our industry to improve itself is to take, borrow, learn, and adapt practices from other industry sectors. Also, this article will provide valuable information about the science of marketing.
5. The next step is to take a look at labeling systems. Through web searching I was able to find the site www.sustainableproducts.com. This web site is a virtual community of companies that provide sustainable products, people who seek sustainable products, various labeling identification systems and information on pilot projects. Sustainable Products Corporation provides full service sustainable product certification, marketing, product positioning, and sales adding substantial value and increased product profitability based on LCA and environmental technology performance, verification, and warranties for sustainability claims. SPC also provides training programs to help companies increase their competitive advantage. This is a very in-depth and resourceful web page. They also offer consulting to companies looking to implement or improve their own sustainability capabilities. This is a very valuable site with various information, links to other sustainable implementation sources, and a good general breakdown of some better-known labeling systems. Some of the metrics they use to identify sustainable products are below. They are based on environmental benefits criteria, social benefits criteria and economic benefits criteria: (These are essentially a set of labeling systems used to identify sustainable products taken from the web site)
• Forest Stewardship Council Certified Wood - http://www.certifiedwood.org/ Today, the only ratings available that meet the criteria established by the Certified Forest Products Council are those of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). FSC standards were developed by representatives of conservation groups’ the timber industry, economic development organizations and the general public. A forestry operation that meets FSC standards protects forest ecosystems, water quality, wildlife habitats and local communities. To ensure the integrity of the certification, the wood and fiber from certified forests are tracked through the commercial chain from logging sites to retailers and to the end user. • Clean Vehicles - http://www.cleancarcampaign.org/ From the cradle to the grave, cars, vans and trucks spread pollution and use up vast stores of natural resources. As a general rule, motor vehicles are classified as "clean" if they conform to three basic standards: 1) fuel efficiency is 1.5 times the fleet average within that vehicle's class; 2) tailpipe emissions are within California's "Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle" (SULEV) standard; and 3) the manufacturing process uses fewer and non-toxic recyclable materials. This standard is supported by American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, Ecology Center, Environmental Defense, Great Lakes United, Michigan Environmental Council, & Union of Concerned Scientists. • Certified Organic Products Labeling - http://www.ota.com/
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The principal guideline defining "organic" is the use of materials and practices to enhance ecological balance. Organic growers, shippers, processors, farmers' associations, distributors, importers, exporters, consultants and retailers in North America are represented by the Organic Trade Association. Founded in 1984 to promote sales of organic products, the Association has helped shape new government regulations and open up the marketplace. "Organic" is now a labeling term that denotes products produced under the authority of the Organic Foods Production Act, enacted in 1990. USDA's uniform organic standards and label benefit both food and other agricultural products like fiber and now even plastic. • Certified Green e Power - http://www.green-e.org/ Green-e is the nation's first voluntary certification and verification program for "green" electricity products. The criteria require that at least 50% of the supply be generated from the sun, water, wind, burning of wastes (biomass) or geothermal heat from the earth. In addition, in the use of any traditional fuel, emissions of sulfur dioxide (which causes acid rain), nitrogen oxide (which causes smog) and carbon dioxide (which causes climate change) must be lower than average. The companies that receive the Green-e designation must agree to an annual audit to ensure they have purchased a satisfactory amount of "renewable" power. • U. S. Green Building Council LEED Rating System - http://www.usgbc.org/ The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based, market-driven rating system based on proven technology. It evaluates environment performance of an entire commercial institutional, and high-rise residential building over its full lifetime, providing a definitive standard for what constitutes a "green" building. The rating system strikes a balance between known practices and emerging concepts. Credits are earned for satisfying each criterion, and different levels of certification are awarded based on total credits earned. The LEED system was instituted by the U. S. Green Building Council membership, representing all segments of the building industry, and is open to public scrutiny. • Cleaner and Greener Certification - http://www.leonardoacademy.org/ Cleaner and Greener Certification is a program of Leonardo Academy, a charitable foundation dedicated to putting the competitive markets to work on reducing environmental emissions. It helps businesses, organizations and participants who reduce environmental emissions create market rewards for their reductions, including: recognition, preferential purchasing by consumers of products from certified companies, & adding rewards for emissions reductions from energy efficiency regulations. All certified entities are required to reduce their emissions. This program helps businesses and organizations communicate their positive emission reduction actions to consumers. Consumers identify certified businesses and organizations taking positive action to reduce emissions so they can preferentially make their purchases from them. • Green Seal Product Standards - http://www.greenseal.org/ Green Seal is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the environment by promoting the manufacture and sale of environmentally responsible consumer products. It sets life cycle-based environmental standards and awards a "Green Seal of Approval" to products that cause less harm to the environment than other similar products. By setting standards for environmentally responsible products, Green Seal seeks to reduce air and water pollution; cut the waste of energy and natural resources; slow ozone depletion and the risk of global warming; prevent toxic contamination; and protect fish and wildlife and their habitats. • Global Reporting Initiative (GRI); Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (2000); Social Equity
Performance Indicators
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GRI Social performance indicators cover 35 items to report on for workplace, human rights, suppliers, and products and services. GRI is a long-term, multi-stakeholder, international undertaking whose mission is to develop and disseminate globally applicable sustainability reporting guidelines for voluntary use by organizations reporting on the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of their activities, products and services. The social dimension of sustainable products captures the impact of a manufacturer's activity on society, including on employees, customers, community, supply chain, and business partners. Unlike the environmental metrics above, these indicators are not quantitative and still contain a degree of subjectivity in terms of what is good or bad. • Life Cycle Assessment As required by international law any product communication of more than one environmental benefit must be backed by LCA. LCA is an evaluation of multiple product environmental benefits over the life of a product from raw materials extraction to final product disposition.
6. In cooperation with the Sustainable Products Corporation is another web site known as the Dow Jones Sustainable Index (http://www.sustainability-index.com/). This site is promoting sustainability by offering expertise for customers interested in investing companies that embrace or execute sustainable practices. By using the DJSI with investment and industry expertise they are looking to boost implementation of sustainability through economic investment. It makes sense to stimulate growth and understanding through capital investment. This is a necessary component needed to help implement sustainable practices. Sometimes money speaks volumes and can go a long way to change the way things are done.
7. Also in association with the SPC is a Sustainable Products Purchasing Coalition Pilot Program. Vendors in the city of Portland can voluntarily participate in this program. The products are defined to provide social, economical and environmental benefits while protecting the needs of future generations, health and welfare of the environment of the life cycle of the product from the cradle to the grave. The expected benefits of the program are improvement of human and environment health, reduced pollution, improved air, less climate change, waste reduction, etc. This is one was a city has outlined a program and it can be tested on a smaller scale. If successful this program can serve as an example for other cities, states and nations. Again, the idea here is a voluntary program. The hope is for others to see the benefits and join in. This can be found at http://www.sustainableproducts.com/lca_info/announcement.pdf.
8. Another web site is the Environmental Choice Program (http://www.environmentalchoice.com/). This site offers a list of certified products listed by product type. They also offer the option of applying for product certification. Products and services certified by the Environmental Choice Program are proven to have less of an impact on the environment because of how they are manufactured, consumed or disposed of. Certification of products and services is based on compliance with stringent environmental criteria that are established in consultation with industry, environmental groups, and independent experts and are based on research into the life-cycle impacts of a product or service. They offer a guide, Environmental Purchasing Guide, which offers specifications, potential environmental impacts and case studies. Also offered are criteria documents and select one to obtain the specific criteria that goods and services have to meet in order to obtain the EcoLogo. This is a valuable source to find out the many different types of certifications, “green” products, and tips on buying environmentally friendly. This is also a good place to start implementation for your own company whether it is researching products/materials you use or certifying your own products.
Citations for this category:
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Beers, L., McKenzie-Mohr, D., Nemiroff, L., Desmarais, S. (1995). “ Determinants of responsible environmental behavior.”, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 51(4), p. 139-156. Dow Jones Sustainable Index, <www.sustainableproducts.com/lca_info/announcement.pdf>, (Feb. 05, 2002). Environmental Choice Program, <www.environmentalchoice.com>, (Feb. 05, 2002). Flay, Brian. “Effective mass communication strategies for health campaigns.”(1990), Mass communication and public health: Complexities and conflicts. Sage Publications, CA, p. 129-146. McKenzie-Mohr, D., Oskamp, S. “Psychology and sustainability: An introduction” (1995), Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 51(4), p. 1-14. McKenzie-Mohr, Doug. “Fostering sustainable behavior through community-based social marketing” (2000), American Psychologist, Vol. 55(5), p. 531-537. Sustainable Products Corporation. <www.sustainableproducts.com>, (Feb. 05, 2002).
Pilot projects/safe trial and error
Everett Rogers says that one of the attributes affecting diffusion of innovation is the trialability of an innovation, and one of the biggest barriers that typically emerges is fear of failure. What kinds of situations and conditions are most conducive to trialability in built facilities? For instance, if you’re going to try composting toilets, put one in each bathroom at a dining facility or gym where multiple people can try it if they like, but no one has to live with it all the time. That’s the kind of situation where you could get very interesting data from having, say, three different toilet technologies, and by comparing use data, you could identify what will and won’t work. This is one of the most interesting barrier breakers, particularly for A/E firms that don’t have to live with their own designs. Following are also sources of online databases of case studies that may provide ideas for pilot projects and lessons learned. http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/GreenBuilding/CaseStudies/ - an online database of green building case studies in California, sponsored by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. https://www.usgbc.org/LEED/Project/project_list.asp - this site contains a list of LEED-certified green buildings in the United States, some of which have case study information associated with their listings. Visit this site to explore how some design teams and owners are publicizing and conveying information about their green building projects. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/greenbuilder/coolprojects.htm - contains several case studies of buildings produced with the assistance of the City of Austin, TX Green Builder Program. http://www.moea.state.mn.us/greenbuilding/casestudies.cfm - a set of case studies developed by the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance. Contains details on some of the more aggressively designed green buildings in the country. http://www.buildinggreen.com/orders/gba_info.html - link to information about BuildingGreen’s Green Building Advisor software, which contains detailed case studies as well as a plethora of other information for a variety of buildings. An online tour of the software is available at http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/tour.html. http://www.sustainablefacilities.org - link to an online knowledge base about sustainable construction. Contains case studies linked to sustainability best practices, along with a capacity for users to share their experiences about specific technologies with their peers. Registration and access to the site are free.
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http://www.pprc.org/pprc/pubs/topics/greencon/toc.html - link to the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center’s Green Construction guide. Among many other kinds of valuable information, this guide contains case studies for a variety of building types. http://www.buildingscience.com/buildingamerica/casestudies/default.htm - this site contains links to six detailed residential case studies of buildings created in the Building America program using high performance construction techniques in six very different climates. http://www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/vitalsigns/ - an architectural curriculum project containing detailed case studies relating to high performance buildings. http://www.gggc.state.pa.us/publictn/gbguides.html - Online access to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Guidelines for High Performance Buildings; the guide contains a broad spectrum of case studies in the Commonwealth. http://www.greenbuildingsbc.com/new_buildings/case-studies.html- a great collection of Canadian green building case studies; includes some of the more famous green buildings on this continent such as the CK Choi Center. http://www.gbapgh.org/casestudies_main.asp- another database of Pennsylvania green buildings, the state that leads the nation in number of buildings certified under the LEED Green Building Rating System. This database is maintained by Green Building Alliance, a non-profit organization in Pittsburgh, PA. http://www.aia.org/75624_AIA-all-rv.pdf - link to the American Institute of Architects’ guidelines for case study development. http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/ - link to the Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development, an excellent and well-linked resource containing both success stories and case studies of sustainable communities and projects. http://www.greendesign.net/gbrc/index.html - a link to Greendesign.net, one of the most comprehensive sources of information on the web about green design topics. Searchable database of all kinds of green resources, from case studies to books to web sites and building professionals. http://energyroadmaps.org/road/tools.shtml - online toolkit containing links to case study databases of Energy Star rated buildings, LEED rated buildings, and other high performance buildings. http://www.greenbiz.com/reference/ - this excellent site contains links to a number of searchable online databases featuring green companies, support organizations, technical assistance resources, and other key resources. Highly recommended. http://sustainablebusiness.com/ - includes databases of sustainable business opportunities to serve as a matchmaker between ventures, financing, and other opportunities. Also contains databases of green job postings. Excellent! http://www.naturalstep.org/about/clients.php - this site is the home of the Natural Step, a program for achieving sustainability that has been adopted by businesses around the globe. This link leads to case studies of enterprises that have adopted the Natural Step.
Explicit goals
The basic idea is to make people realize that goals have to be clear and measurable, and operational to the stakeholders who are supposed to be achieving them. This also ties into objectives-setting. The slides from describe what are the attributes of good goals. See also Collins & Porras’ book Built to Last for the original definition of BHAGs – Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals.
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Resource center/more information
This ties back to the “Free Resources” section, in that many of the organizations who provide tech assist also have resource centers. What we’ve listed here is a list of green building or sustainability resource centers out there that are (a) available for public or client use; or (b) could serve as good examples for organizations wanting to develop internal resource centers. http://www2.cityofseattle.net/util/rescons/susbuild/library/search.asp - this is the online card catalogue for the City of Seattle, WA sustainable building library. While it doesn’t help those of us in other parts of the country to locate accessible reference materials, it does provide a template and example for how such a library could be set up. http://www.built-e.com/ - this is an online store for environmentally friendly building products. It offers many products that should be included as part of sample sets in resource centers. http://www.oikos.com/ - an online directory of green resources, famous for its searchable directory of green building materials. This is a good place to start searching for materials for which you want to order technical literature or samples. http://www.crbt.org/index.html - this is the home page of the Center for Resourceful Building Technologies, one of the original green building resource and demonstration centers in the US. http://www.southface.org - this is the most well-known non-profit green building resource center in the Southeast. It includes a demonstration facility as well as an on-site library and a variety of electronic resources from its web site. http://www.cmpbs.org/ - this is the website for the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, another longstanding resource center located outside Austin, TX. http://www.gbapgh.org - this is the website for the Green Building Alliance in Pittsburgh, PA. This nonprofit is located in a renovated historical building on the Southside, and features a library of sustainable resources as well as a host of product samples on display. http://maven.gtri.gatech.edu/sfi – this is the web site for Georgia Tech’s Sustainable Facilities & Infrastructure Branch, located in an adaptively reused historical structure on the Georgia Tech campus. This site (will soon) include an online card catalogue for the Branch’s extensive library of resources. The Branch also maintains a library of sustainable building material technical information and samples.
New guidelines
This has to do primarily with examples of organization-specific guidelines for Built Environment Sustainability, including those developed by the General Services Administration (GSA), the National Park Service, etc., etc. Some states and municipalities have also developed such guidelines. Guidelines are often available online and are frequently updated. For the latest links to the multitude of federal sustainability guidelines, see http://www.cecer.army.mil/sustdesign/ - this site keeps links updated.
Add experienced personnel
Sometimes it’s appropriate hire the talent to do sustainability if you don’t already have it in house. This (in contrast with partnering/mentoring below) focuses on sources for hiring people with green building experience. Resources inclcude: http://www4.greenbuilder.com/directory/search.gbpro - an online directory of Green Building professionals in the U.S. Searchable by name, address, location, keyword, or category.
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http://www.greenbiz.com/ - this is the site of Greenbiz.com, an online source of information and resources for green business. Contains databases for both posting and reviewing job opportunities, as well as links to technical assistance on a variety of topics. http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid261.php - this site is an excellent list of links to the best green building resources in general, and also contains a list of university programs on green architecture and design. http://www.energyusernews.com - this site contains a link to a database of job opportunities and resumes related to the energy industry. http://www.greenbiz.com/reference/mentor.cfm - this section of the Greenbiz website contains a wealth of information on mentoring and a searchable technical assistance database. Especially valuable are the resources at the bottom of the page on mentoring for environmental performance. See also http://www.greenbiz.com/reference for other sources of expertise, including a database of organizations and companies that are or provide services to green businesses. http://sustainablebusiness.com/ - includes databases of sustainable business opportunities to serve as a matchmaker between ventures, financing, and other opportunities. Also contains databases of green job postings, and links to other sites that offer green job matching services. Excellent! http://envirolink.netforchange.com/ - this network covers a broad variety of topics, and also features a job exchange for socially responsible or environmentally friendly jobs and job opportunities.
Green team/Sustainability Functional Unit
Many companies are putting Green teams together following general sustainability training. They can float from project to project, or develop policy/strategy for the organization, or many other roles. See Greenbiz.com for a great set of articles on this topic along with many case studies.
Process auditing/review/feedback
This ties in closely with the green team – what roles and responsibilities should they have for improving the company and its projects/processes? Again, what works and what doesn’t? What are good ways to provide feedback? More information on these questions can be found on Greenbiz.com. ISO 14000 standards also provide an excellent framework for process auditing.
Partnering/mentoring In contrast to hiring or training people to be in-house experts, this one focuses on identifying partner organizations (for instance, A/E firms if you’re an owner, or environmental consulting firms, or whatever) who can provide needed expertise that it’s not worth developing internally. The following is a list of selected examples from the A/E/C industry, corporate America, and educational organizations. This list gives a cross section of enterprises that have created working sustainability programs in their company or describe how to accomplish a sustainable environment.
CH2MHill http://www.ch2m.com/
CH2MHill is a large international firm with clearly defined set of goals. They work with their clients to develop and apply sustainable practices as well as pursuing new sustainable solutions to difficult challenges. They have goals to seek economically feasible opportunites to apply sustainable development concepts to do more with less, reduce the use of toxic materials, conserve natural resources, and minimize waste and emissions. They make a great effort to clarify their goals on sustainability. CH2MHill also encourages the adoption of sustainable practices by their suppliers while seeking partnerships with those suppliers that share similar
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sustainability goals. They improve metrics to measure and monitor their progress in achieving those goals.
Holder Construction http://www.holderconstruction.com/home.nsf/content/ServicesEnvironmental
Holder's Environmental Program provides education and leadership in sustainable, proactive, positive building practices. In this firm there are many techniques of sustainability implemented by their “Green Team”. They do life cycle cost analyses, value analysis, jobsite and office recycle/reduce/reuse programs, and make use of sustainability consultants during design phases.
HOK Architecture http://www.hok.com
HOK (Hellmuth, Obata, Kassabaum) is an architecture firm. They have sustainability in planning/site work, energy consumption, water, and material resources. They received an award from Global Green USA, the U.S. affiliate of Mikhail Gorbachev's worldwide environment organization Green Cross International. HOK is the first architectural design firm to receive the award, which recognizes the firm's commitment to advancing sustainable design and building by developing environmental solutions.
Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/measuring/meintro.shtml
This is an excellent site that explains all about sustainable development and defines ways of measuring your company’s success. They talk about indicators and how they make complex systems understandable. They discuss why it is good for a community to have goals and indicators of success in order to determine where it is, where it is going, and how far it is from chosen goals. Indicators of sustainability examine a community's long-term viability based on the degree to which its economic, environmental, and social systems are efficient and integrated.
Interface http://www.interfacesustainability.com
This is a carpet manufacturer that hired the natural step to help in making Interface sustainable. They have a clear and concise mission statement, vision, and goals to help them become sustainable. They understand that it isn’t so much what you do, but thinking about what you do before you do it.
Ford Motor Company http://www.ford.com
Ford has decided that the construction of is new SUV plant will be a green building. They have stated that this new Rouge plant will meet the needs of the present without compromising future generations. They want to balance the short and long term effects of the manufacturing design with social responsibility, environmental performance, and business results. The plant will have a “living roof-top”, porous parking lot pavement to allow for runoff to be routed to ditches and retention ponds for filtering and redepositing into the Rogue River. The plant will run off of cleaner natural gas for electricity, they are maximizing the amount of returnable packaging, and are significantly reducing the fumes given off in the painting process.
Manage penalties
What kinds of penalties have been used to promote sustainability? We all know about penalties associated with environmental regulations. Which ones also apply to sustainability, e.g., new NPDES requirements for construction sites? How to do this in public agencies is perhaps even more interesting
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(and hard to find). See also Incentive Programs (next section). The following resource talks about lessons learned in green building programs and may be helpful in this area. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/greenbuilder/suepaper.htm - a paper describing the development, successes, and lessons learned of the City of Austin, TX Green Builder Program. Contains good advice for public agencies seeking to develop green building programs. The Program also provides consulting services and products to assist in the development of new programs. More information about these resources is available at http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/greenbuilder/consult.htm.
Incentive Programs
What kinds of incentives have been used to promote sustainability? Examples might include incentives for reaching corporate recycling goals, or penalties for mixing recyclables and non-recyclables. “New York’s Green Building Tax Credit” (2000), <http://www.nrdc.org/cities/building/ nnytax.asp> (February 8, 2002)
New York allows builders who use environmentally friendly products to take deductions from their state tax bills in varying amounts. The bill, passed in May 2000, was the first of it’s kind. This is definitely an encouragement to implement sustainable building practices. Maryland has since passed a similar bill.
“State of the Environment 1997”(1997). <http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/soe/97/ch5/14_4.htm> (February 8, 2002)
This website is one of the best I found. It is very informative on the issues of sustainability implementation and the needs for incentives. From Chapter 5.8.4: “Sustainable decisions will be promoted where there are favourable regulatory and financial frameworks which provide incentives, or a lack of disincentives.”
This website describes the measures taken to make forestry a more sustainable enterprise. It provides for enforcement of the regulations but does not list the specific penalties or incentives for compliance. While this article relates to the forestry industry, I believe there is some useful information that the construction industry could follow as well. As designers and planners, it is important to choose suppliers of resources that are also sustainable.
“Mandate of the Commission on Sustainable Development” (2001) <http://www.un.org/esa/ sustdev/csdback.htm>(February 6, 2002)
United Nations mandate of the Commission on Sustainable Development This letter details the objectives of the commission and acknowledges that there is international pressure for all countries to implement sustainable development.
“Sustainability and new performance based regulations” (2000) <http://www.dbce.csiro.au/inno-web/0400/sustainnew.htm>(February 6, 2002), Australia Department of Building, Construction, and Engineering
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This is the website of the Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), an australian research organization supporting the Dept. of Building, Construction, and Engineering. This article describes some current problems and needs of the building codes there. The same problems and needs they are experiencing with implementing sustainable building practices are plaguing the United States. There are very few requirements for residential and commercial contractors to provide more sustainable buildings. There are some environmental protection requirements that are enforced. An example is controlling the amounts of rainwater that is running off a jobsite and placing test wells to monitor it's quality. Erosion control is another major code enforced. While these codes are directly protecting the surrounding environment, there are not any codes protecting the unnecessary depletion of our environment and resources.
“Do Current Regulations Encourage Sprawl” (1998) <http://sustainable.state.fl.us/fdi/fscc/ news/state/strategy4.htm> (February 6, 2002), Florida Sustainable Communities Center
This website also illustrates the need for more strategies to encourage sustainable building practices.
“Enforcement”(2002) <http://www.enr.state.nc.us/html/enforcement.html> (February 6, 2002), North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR)
This website has links to lists of the actual codes and regulations that have been enforced and the penalties charged to companies and individuals who did not abide by the regulations.
“Georgia Environmental Protection” (2002) <http://www.dnr.state.ga.us/dnr/environ/> (February 6, 2002), Georgia Department of Natural Resources
This website also lists executed orders and fines imposed on violators of environmental regulations.
This is the website of the EPA and has a great deal of useful information on the regulations and laws for the environment. Some of these regulations also apply to sustainability.
Building on brownfields This is a page that talks about the increased state and federal funding to help businesses clean-up and build on brownfields. Brownfields are sites that are contaminated from manufacturing facilities that were previously located on that site. A well known brownfield in Atlanta is the U.S. Steel site. This is a very good incentive for companies who are serious about sustainable development to not just build their site environmentally friendly, but to build on a contaminated site and clean it up.
“About OECA” (2002) <http://es.epa.gov/oeca> (February 6, 2002), Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA)
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This is the website for OECA who is responsible, along with the EPA, to enforce environmental regulations. The penalties they impose are the only penalties for not complying with sustainable principles and environmental regulations.
The Earth Council is an international council with a purpose “To support and empower people in building a more secure, equitable, and sustainable future.” This council is making efforts to provide benefits and incentives for sustainability internationally.
Ofori, G., Gang, Gu, and Briffett, C. (2002) “Implementing environmental management systems in construction: lessons from quality systems.” Science Direct Journal, Elsevier Science Ltd.
This article is from the Science Direct Journal describing some benefits from ISO 14000 implementation, including reduced operating costs, increased market access, compliance with regulations, enhanced image, and potential impact on world trade. This article also lists some barriers to adoption of ISO 14000.
Gutberlet, J. (2000). “Sustainability: a new paradigm for industrial protection.” International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education,. University Press, 1(3), 225-236.
One part stands out in the second paragraph which expresses what seems to be the consensus opinion of all of the resources located. It states that the irresponsible practices of companies are not punished and are prevalent, especially in countries that do not enforce the environmental legislation. This paper explains the need for a paradigm shift towards sustainability.
Hastings, M. (1999). “Corporate Incentives and Environmental Decision Making: A Case Studies and Workshop Report.” Center For Global Studies, Houston Advanced Research Center, Woodlands, Texas.
This paper takes and in-depth look at several companies and incentives for sustainable business practices. An example is Ford Motor Company. Their two main sources of incentives are the EPA requirements for vehicle emissions, which they try to get around by re-classifying and automobile to get around this, and the growing public demand for lower fuel consumption. An example for Chrysler is the PT Cruiser. It is classified as a “Truck” so that their average fuel economy for their truck line is increased. This report was found on the web at http://www.harc.edu/mitchellcenter/download/Case_Studies.pdf.
Positive publicity
Positive press is one of the only unquestionable kinds of incentives in many public agencies. Likewise, bad press is a substantial penalty. Resources include the following list of web sites. http://www.greenscissors.org - The Green Scissors Campaign, led by Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, has helped eliminate more than $24 billion in wasteful and environmentally harmful spending programs since 1995. Green Scissors ‘99 targets 16 new programs, including handouts to the oil industry and the big three automakers, and subsidies to transform radioactive materials into consumer products. This is one listing you DON’T want to be on if you’re a federal agency. http://www.whistle.gatech.edu/archives/01/jan/jan29.pdf - this is a press release on Ray Anderson from the Georgia Tech faculty and staff newspaper. It doesn’t get any more sustainable than this.
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http://www.builtgreen.org/media/press/ - examples of press releases written about Colorado’s Built Green home building program. Also contains a placeholder for so-called “Ready-Made Articles” to be used by program participants that is not presently available but is noted as coming soon. http://www.nrdc.org/media/press.asp - the Natural Resources Defense Council’s archive of press releases on environmental subjects. An excellent source of examples that illustrates the kinds of language that should be used in developing press releases that get attention. http://www.oikos.com/ - an online directory of green building products and technologies that features press releases and other information about listed products. Awards that may be relevant for your organization include: http://www.greenbiz.com/reference/awards.cfm - This is a searchable, comprehensive directory of local and national award and recognition programs that honor companies for being environmental leaders. Highly recommended! http://www.aia.org/pia/cote/topten/ - link to online application and more information for the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment annual Top Ten Green project awards. This is among the most prestigious awards that can be received by a green building project. Other prestigious awards given by AIA are the Gold Medal award to individuals and the Architectural Firm award to companies. Archives of past projects selected for the Green awards are available at http://www.aia.org/pia/cote/. http://www.csinet.org - home of the Construction Specifications Institute, a membership society of architects, engineers, constructors, building owners, and others dedicated to creating and sustaining the built environment, presents this award to those demonstrating environmental sensitivity in the design or construction process. Examples include: specification writing of recycled materials/products in a construction project; promoting or fostering environmental awareness in the construction industry; or owning/designing an environment-preserving project. http://www.uli.org - The Urban Land Institute Awards for Excellence recognize development projects for their financial viability, resourceful use of land, and sensitivity to the community and the environment. The awards are given in a number of categories, including: office, residential, recreational, mixed use, business park, and new community. Information on past award recipients is also available on this site. http://www.nesea.org - site of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, sponsor of the Annual Northeast Green Building Awards. These awards are presented to best buildings in the categories of commercial/institutional construction, residential construction, schools/government buildings, solar electric buildings, and student projects.
Emphasize policy trends
Many very good resources exist on environmental and sustainability policy. For a current list of policies, see www.epa.gov.
Proactive alignment measures
Georgia Tech offers customized training and facilitation on project alignment. For more information on this service, contact Dr. Jorge Vanegas at 404-894-9881 or via email to [email protected].
Policy change
This is highly dependent on organization, but it’s consistently one of the most significant barriers that emerges in any sustainability training. One example Georgia Tech encountered was in Minneapolis at a
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military base, where there was a group of people who had successfully thwarted a privatization policy being handed down that would make them lose their jobs. Their personal action items included meeting with Congress people and writing letters, setting up meetings with Base Command and local politicians, and asking forgiveness, not permission.
Documentation of decisions
See http://www.afcee.brooks.af.mil/green/resources/toolbox/TOOLBOX.asp for one example of a good template for documenting design decisions for sustainability. Each organization should develop a template for this task that is consistent with its design and operational practices.
Multifunction team integration
A Google search on cross-functional teams will yield an overwhelming amount of information on this topic.
Problem reframing/spin doctoring
It’s difficult to convince a CEO of a company or a top public institution official to go sustainable because it’s the “right thing to do”. You need to speak the right language, give the argument the right spin. Problem framing and spin doctoring are really two separate sides of the same coin. Both ways, you’re trying to look at a problem from some perspective other than your own, and understand how it could make sense from that perspective.
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Additional Resources This section includes additional resources dealing with specific sustainability topics.
General Sustainability
Energy and Sustainability Links – http://www.energybuilder.com/nrgsites.htm This site contains a collection of links to organizations with the common goal of preserving the biosphere. The organizations listed here focus on a range of specialties from computer modeling to energy conservation.
Recycling
Buy Recycled Business Alliance – http://www.nrc-recycle.org/brba/ This organization, established in 1992 by the National Recycling Coalition is dedicated to resource conservation and facilitating the procurement of recycled products. This site is a valuable resource for businesses because it demonstrates that when companies collaborate, they can increase demand for their products and services in the green market. The site contains fact sheets and case studies about recycling and sustaining the environment.
Energy and Power Generation
The McIlvaine Company – http://www.mcilvainecompany.com This source is an asset to companies seeking to improve they way they procure and use electrical power. The site contains marketing summaries that are useful to support decision making with cost information, leading to informed decisions that are both sustainable and profitable. The company portrays itself as a bridge of knowledge between power suppliers and end users, with an objective to preserve the earth by educating purchasers, suppliers, and the overall power industry. Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) – http://www.stanford.edu/group/EMF/home/ This forum, established in 1976, brings together universities, governments, and corporations to investigate practices of environmentally conscious energy consumption. The forum focuses on energy policy. Its web site contains a searchable database of research findings and publications on this topic. EMF’s meetings are open only to members, but records of past meetings are available for public review.
Product Life Cycle Optimization
National Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery – http://www.reman.rit.edu/ This center, established in 1991, is committed to aid the manufacturing industry in producing products without negative environmental impacts. The center is staffed with full-time engineers and is also affiliated with several other programs with similar goals. The site includes information on a variety of specialized training programs appropriate for the manufacturing industry.
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General Resources http://www.greenbuilder.com/general/GreenDBs.html - a listing of online, electronic, or print-version Green Building databases, ranging from listings of sustainability professionals to green product databases. Highly recommended! http://www.greendesign.net/gbrc/index.html - a link to Greendesign.net, one of the most comprehensive sources of information on the web about green design topics. Searchable database of all kinds of green resources, from case studies to books to web sites and building professionals. http://www.buildinggreen.com - this site has an annotated list of recommended green building online resources from the experts at Environmental Building News. Excellent set of links, all of which are high-value and low-noise. http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/buildings/usgovbe.shtml - listing of agency-level green building programs in the federal government, including web links and annotations. http://www.cecer.army.mil/sustdesign/OFA.cfm - comprehensive listing of federal sustainability programs that is frequently updated and well-maintained. http://www.hqda.army.mil/acsimweb/fd/linksSDD.htm - a well-organized listing of resources and links on sustainable design and development hosted by the US Army Corps of Engineers. http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Industries/Construction_and_Maintenance/Building_Types/Sustainable_Architecture/ - Google’s directory of Sustainable Architecture resources. You can list your site here, and the selection included is quite varied and interesting.
Sites on Which You Want to Be Listed http://www4.greenbuilder.com/directory/search.gbpro - an online directory of Green Building professionals in the U.S. Searchable by name, address, location, keyword, or category. http://www.oikos.com/ - an online directory of green resources, famous for its searchable directory of green building materials. You definitely want to be listed here if you manufacture or distribute green building materials. http://www.cecer.army.mil/sustdesign/index.cfm - this is one of the best-maintained sites on the web containing information about federal programs and resources on sustainability. It also contains frequently updated lists of educational programs and other resources. If you’re a federal agency doing sustainability, or if you provide resources or training appropriate for federal agencies, you want to be listed on this site. http://sustainablebusiness.com/ - If you’re intending to hire people who know something about sustainability, then your job posting needs to appear on this site. The listings here are incredible – don’t look unless you’re able to withstand temptation to leave your current position. http://www.greenbiz.com - this is the comprehensive resource site for green business. If your organization provides products, services, expertise, or just a good story on how you went green, then you should get yourself listed somewhere on this site.
