By Tara Tuckwiller

People are tired of high energy bills, Charleston architect Adam Krason says. So they’re turning to something traditionally favored by environmentalists: “green building.”

“It’s something a lot of clients are bringing to the table now,” said Krason, an architect at ZMM Inc., which designs public and private buildings.

“Over the last few years, as energy costs have increased, clients are eager to consider anything to keep energy consumption down.”

Green buildings use energy, water and materials efficiently, provide healthful interiors for their occupants, and tread lightly on the environment. Green building strategies — using windows to capture heat and light, for example — were popular in the 1990s for environmental reasons. But now, the dollar savings are driving green building into the mainstream.

Last year, Washington became the first state to require new state buildings to meet LEED standards. (LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green-building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.) Washington estimates that will it cut energy and water costs each by 20 percent a year.

Nevada followed suit. Now, several federal agencies, at least eight states and 28 cities and counties mandate or offer incentives for public and private green buildings, including West Virginia’s neighbors Pennsylvania, Maryland and Arlington County, Va.
Taxpayers like it, one poll found: In a December 2004 nationwide poll of 1,000 people (margin of error 3.1) by two polling firms — one Republican and one Democrat — 87 percent said they are more likely to vote for political candidates who support requiring all government buildings to reduce pollution and conserve energy and water. New tax breaks for such buildings were favored by 82 percent.

Private, for-profit buildings make up one-third of all LEED-registered green developments. Companies from hospitals to condo developers have found benefits from green building, whether it’s less employee turnover and better productivity or quicker home sales and higher rents.

For example, the Bank of America Corp. skyscraper now being built in Manhattan will save millions of gallons of water each year by reusing its rainwater and wastewater (for things like flushing toilets, watering landscaping and radiant heating and cooling). Another skyscraper, Hearst Tower, is using a diamond-grid frame that weighs 20 percent less than a traditional frame, saving 2,000 tons of steel.

In West Virginia, the new Department of Environmental Protection building is LEED-certified. In Pendleton County, Habitat for Humanity has been building affordable “green” houses for its homeowners for years — and the average homeowner spends just $20 a month to heat the home in one of West Virginia’s most frigid climates.
“Several of our buildings have incorporated the LEED principles,” Krason said. Now, “there are certain things we consider on almost every project: minimum energy performance, daylighting, appropriate materials.”

Krason became a LEED-accredited professional in August — one of the few in West Virginia — meaning that he can work on the increasing numbers of buildings seeking the LEED seal of approval. But many clients interested in green building don’t want to jump through the paperwork hoops necessary to get the LEED label.

“I don’t really think it’s critical that a client pursue LEED certification,” he said. “But I do think it’s critical that clients consider some LEED design principles.”

Green in West Virginia
Green building has been around for more than 100 years. In the 1800s, some buildings were using “green” cooling systems, such as roof ventilators and underground cooling chambers. In the early 1900s, New York City’s Flatiron Building and the New York Times Building used deep-set windows to shade the sun.
But with the advent of air conditioning, people stopped using these time-tested cooling strategies. During the 1970s oil crisis, people started to see their usefulness again.

By the 1990s, green building was being employed at the White House, the Pentagon, and elsewhere — including Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Denali national parks.
The National Park Service was one of the first to bring a high-profile green building to West Virginia. The New River Gorge’s Sandstone visitors center opened in 2003.
“Even the land itself was recycled,” said David Caldwell, an interpretive park ranger and public information officer for the center. “This was the site of the old Sandstone High School.”

The long-closed school with its broken windows was replaced by a building that blends into the landscape, with a sandstone exterior and natural, native landscaping. A silvery roof helps keep the building cool. Geothermal tubes circulate water in and out of the 55-degree earth beneath the center, helping to heat the building in winter and cool it in summer.

Stormwater is collected from the roof, road and parking lot to water the landscaping. The outside lights point downward, “to reduce pollution of the night sky and disturbance of the nocturnal creatures,” Caldwell said.

Inside, south-facing windows collect winter sun, meaning cheaper heat and light bills. The lights operate on sensors, dimming as the sun gets brighter and turning themselves off if nobody is in the room.

The insulation is made of recycled newspapers. Local schoolchildren, who compete in a center-run program to see who can recycle the most, were on hand to see it blown into the walls.

By the time the Sandstone center was built, green designers were able to learn from those who had gone before. “Before we built this,” Caldwell said, “we visited Oglebay.”

Two percent outlay, 20 percent savings
Wheeling’s Oglebay Park opened its Schrader Environmental Education Center in 2000 — three years before Sandstone.

“In green building, that’s a long time ago,” said director Eriks Janelsins. “Probably a generation ago.”

Schrader was touted as a 97 percent recycled building. The insulation was recycled glass bottles. The flooring was recycled bus and tractor tires. The recycled carpeting “will never go in a landfill,” Janelsins said. “They’ll come and grind it up and make new carpeting. That’s a neat thing.”

Today, the center hosts environmental programs for schoolchildren, conservation professionals and others. The center itself is a living lesson in the evolution of green building.

“It cost about $4.5 million to build — about double the price” of a traditional structure, Janelsins said.

But by 2003, California’s Sustainable Building Task Force reported that buildings that spend just an additional 2 percent for green measures reap a 20 percent return over the life of the building.

Green products and systems are now easier to use, and easier to buy. “When we built the building, a lot of it was revolutionary,” Janelsins said. “Our decking is Trex material, made from milk jugs and sawdust. You can buy it at a lot of lumber and hardware stores now.”

Oglebay used local architects and builders for its environmental opus. “The idea was to increase knowledge of green building in the local community,” Janelsins said.
Now, the center hosts schools for conservation workers nationwide.

“They incorporate what they’ve seen here at other parks and nature centers around the country,” Janelsins said. “It’s a pretty neat legacy.”


Easy being green
Following the principles of green architecture isn’t all about pricey solar panels or complicated cooling systems. It can involve simple, inexpensive choices:

- Conserve energy. Use locally available materials, so less fuel is used to transport them. Install insulation with a high R-value.
- Minimize the use of new resources. For example, recycled plastic-and-sawdust decking is now a readily available alternative to treated lumber.
- Build with respect for the user. For example, most paint manufacturers now offer paints with low or no chemical fumes, at about the same price as regular premium paint.
- Build with respect for the site. Use reclaimed land. Save and relocate native species, or replant new native species.
- Work with local climate. Facing the long side of a building toward the south will allow more windows to capture the sunshine, adding passive heat to the house.
- Deciduous trees or inexpensive, translucent shades can block the heat in summer.
- Build with a holistic approach. Use all of the above principles.

Where to learn more

EnergyStar (www.energystar.gov). This program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rates the energy efficiency of everything from light bulbs to furnaces.

Greenguard Environmental Institute (www.greenguard.org). This nonprofit rates building materials — paint, insulation, adhesives, etc. — in terms of fewest pollutant emissions.

Green Seal (www.greenseal.org). Partly geared toward office buildings, this nonprofit offers background and environmental impact ratings for products as diverse as carpet, lawnmowers and toilet paper.

GreenSpec (www.buildinggreen.com). Lists more than 1,800 environmentally preferable building products. Subscription site.