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Designers should endeavor to know more about where their materials came from and where they might go in the future.
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“Despite the trend toward telecommuting and “virtual companies,” almost all organizations need built environments to conduct operations. The vast majority of these organizations, however, are not in the business of designing or constructing their facilities, despite the massive strategic importance to successful operations. Corporate environments invigorate or hamper operations based upon the success of their design, establishing a potentially significant impact on market position.” — Kit Ratcliff
Introduction:
Topics of Sustainability
The most widely accepted strategies in sustainable design fall within one of the five following topics:
Site Sustainability –
How does your project impact a site? Buildings have significant effects on their surroundings, including vegetation, wildlife habitats, and water movements (hydrology). A building can also influence a site's cultural history, urban density, and local infrastructure. The key is to realize that your development is not only ‘sitting' on the ground, affecting the site adjacent to it, but also radiating its affects on larger systems, both local and global.
Water Conservation –
How well does your project use water resources? As with other resources, our buildings utilize a great amount of water annually. Some of the water is used in manufacturing processes and industrial uses. Other uses are for general plumbing fixtures found in typical homes and offices. Nationally, we utilize more water than is recharged to the natural water systems which can lead to rationing and drought. With implementation of efficiency measures we can save vast amounts of this precious resource and save money on utility bills as well.
Energy Efficiency –
How much energy does your project use? Buildings use approximately 2/3 of the electricity produced in this country. This electricity is generally produced using vast amounts of fossil fuels, oil, and coal. The traditional processes of making electricity account for substantial air pollution and geologic erosion. There are a range of techniques, some simple and some more involved to reduce the amount of energy used by a building and its occupants.
Materials Resources – What's your building made of?
Think of all the materials that go into a building – the concrete foundations, wood studs, carpet, steel hardware, doors, etc. Each material represents a process of resource extrication, manufacturing, transportation, and installation. These processes are responsible for energy use and are sources of pollution. Also remember that when buildings cease to be useful, they are mostly demolished and sent to landfills. Designers should endeavor to know more about where their materials came from and where they might go in the future.
Indoor Environment – How healthy are your spaces?
Buildings without consideration of the potentially harmful impacts of some stimuli can affect their occupant's health. This usually stems from harmful toxins released from materials over time. Other impacts on an individual's health are from our need for fresh air, views, and daylight. Creating healthier indoor environments has been shown to increase productivity and reduce healthcare claims. Clean and sanitary indoor environments are important, but we should also realize the benefits of comfort on our occupants' mental health.
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Presenter Bio: Christopher P. ‘Kit’ Ratcliff, FAIA, NCARB, LEED® AP, Principal and CEO
Kit Ratcliff is the third-generation principal of Ratcliff, an award-winning firm and leader in healthcare, academic and civic architecture. A visionary, he brings into alignment a diverse array of energies, resources and skills. Kit has pledged the firm’s resources toward sustainable practice in concert with the AIA’s 2030 Challenge. He is an innovator, speaker and writer on climate change and in promoting the obligations of the profession of architecture to make a difference. He directed the firm’s launch of the GreenMatrixTM , and developed a tool to measure greenhouse gas emissions, the GHG Calculator for Facility Operations .
His latest accomplishment is authoring the Green Action Plan (GAP) Framework for Existing Built Environments. The central idea of this publication is to encourage organizations to examine more comprehensively the environmental impacts caused by their existing operations on a campus- or corporate-wide scale.
The GAP defines a process and provides tools (such as the GHG Calculator and the GreenMatrix) for architects to work with their clients to develop and implement comprehensive green plans addressing their organization’s environmental impact. This five-step process integrates the actions from the GAP into an institution’s normal processes for renewal and change.
Dedicated to supporting sustainable architecture throughout its 100+ year history, Ratcliff is consistently developing and applying its knowledge of green design and construction principles. Projects either certified by or currently registered with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) include the following:- Berkeley City College - LEED® Silver
- Windrush School – LEED® Platinum
- De Anza College Mediated Learning Center – LEED® Platinum
- Foothill Community College Physical Science Center –LEED® Silver
- Berkeley School of Law South Addition and Renovation – LEED® Gold
- St. Francis Center – LEED® Silver
- San Pablo Corporation Yard – LEED® Certified
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Connections -
Kit - Christopher P Ratcliff FAIA NCARB LEED® AP
Principal
RATCLIFF | Building on our legacy to design a sustainable future
5856 Doyle Street
Emeryville, CA 94608
Tel 510.899.6400
Fax 510.899.6404
www.ratcliffarch.com
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"... LEED has been critical as an initial measure. It will improve over time."
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Propelling an eco-system approach with sustainable rigor: The PlanetShifter.com Networks Interview with architect, green businessman, and community builder Christopher P. ‘Kit’ Ratcliff by Willi Paul
How can permaculture be integrated into the wider green movement consciousness?
We are beginning to see ourselves as part of a larger whole. All of our actions have associated consequences, many of which are not considered in traditional practice. Permaculture becomes a part of the consciousness when we reach beyond the boundaries of our daily efforts, extending our definition of our work and sphere of influence, so that we see the larger systems and how we play a role in them.
Let’s say that permaculture is alchemy re-tooled. What traditional architectural practices have you transformed?
We are working on a new initiative to provide client services that go beyond green building to encompass all areas of a client’s environmental impacts. As architects, we have expertise in bringing conceptual ideas into reality. We are building on those skills to evolve a planning process that will enable us to assist clients to devise strategic green plans. These plans will allow them to understand and evaluate a vision for a sustainable future, much in the same way that a floor plan allows them to imagine a building.
In this sense, we are re-inventing the architectural project, expanding the definition of environmental design by looking at complete systems, inputs and outflows and taking responsibility for closing the loop. The boundary of concerns encompasses all areas where an organization creates environmental impacts… their responsibility for attending to these impacts is in proportion to their influence over the impacts.
Sustainability is key to your design mantra, but is it a new religion?
Religion involves faith in the unknowable. Sustainability is something that we can largely define and achieve, although many of the natural systems are so complex that scientists can only assign probabilities to changes in the natural systems (e.g. probabilities are assigned to the global temperature rise given a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions). Many people want an exact answer to these scientific questions, when all that is available is a probability…and thus many conclude that this is just speculation or religion because a precise answer is unknowable. Relying on probabilities should not be a surprise to us when we think of our normal weather predictions – the meteorologists give probabilities for whether it will rain, but very few people confuse meteorology with religion. However, it will take inspiration and faith in human nature to push our collective efforts towards the goal of a sustainable world, but it is something we can comprehend well enough now in order make significant progress.
What metaphors run through your mind when you first consider the shape and community of a building?
I like to think of the Mendocino Coast, the mountains join the sea in a seamless whole. Each retains its unique character, there are a series of microclimates that support individual communities of uniquely adapted life. These work in concert as part of the entire ecosystem, a diverse collection of component parts that sum to a self supporting whole.
As a designer, what are the limitations in the USGBC LEED prescriptions?
LEED is a wonderful system for encouraging better buildings, and it has done a great deal in terms of raising awareness and demand for green building. It is limited in that, the point system tends to drive focus towards a least cost accumulation of parts that will qualify the project as opposed to a more integrated consideration of whole systems and function that will bring us towards a zero carbon future and regeneration of the natural ecosystems. It has been found that many LEED buildings are not performing as well as their ratings suggest they will…so these standards need to be modified to require on-going commissioning of their engineering systems.
In addition, future versions of LEED are expected account for greenhouse gas emissions, life cycle assessment of products and materials and address a more regional and performance motivated response than the “one size fits all” system that we are working with now. It is important to begin somewhere and LEED has been critical as an initial measure. It will improve over time.
How are you doing so far on the AIA’s 2030 Challenge?
There are two different 2030 initiatives. The AIA is sponsoring the 2030 Commitment, and there is the architecture 2030 Challenge. Along the lines of the AIA 2030 Commitment, we have established a distinct division of sustainability in our office, as a way of transforming our practice. We are working on action plans both for our office operations and for a series of clients, and will be reporting back to AIA with our plans and participating in the ongoing discourse. We participate in regular meetings of BALSA (Bay Area Leaders in Sustainability Architecture), a group we are co-founders of, and are working with our colleagues there to share best cutting edge green practices, introduce new applications and compare results. We are also a signer on the 2030 Challenge, an imperative that requires that all new buildings be carbon neutral in their operation by 2030.
This is a much more ambitious goal. We are working towards the initial goal of a 60% reduction of fossil fuel consumption for all building we design for this year. We have completed some outstanding examples, primarily in our academic work. The Windrush School, completed in 2009, was LEED gold rated and is performing 65-75% better than title 24 energy code requirements. We currently have a project on the boards for De Anza College, a science and technology building, that is also slated for similar efficiencies. We are beginning to work with the health care sector of our practice to demonstrate the benefits and need for proactive planning, tying the mission of health care delivery to environmental stewardship. This sector has been slow to embrace sustainable practice, being focused instead on the financial viability of healthcare, as well as absolute reliability and back up as required for their life saving work. We anticipate that these clients will begin to develop a greater awareness, with our leadership, in the coming years.
When you consider the environmental impacts caused by organizations from their existing operations on a campus- or corporate-wide scale, what are the key metrics?
We look at all the essential operating systems and their inputs and outflows. We are also increasingly looking beyond the building at the total footprint of the organizational behavior to determine the overall impact and develop strategies for meaningful change. Again, the boundary of concerns encompasses all areas where an organization creates environmental impacts…their responsibility for attending to these impacts is in proportion to their influence over the impacts. Specifically we are tracking energy, water, waste, transport and product selection. Energy consumption is a measure of both on site efficiency and carbon output. Water use corresponds to system performance and represents a potential for savings through reclamation and retention.
We are beginning to monitor solid waste flows to encourage recycling and composting. We are including calculations of carbon output from transport via commuting and corporate travel to account for these “off site” impacts, and finally looking at supply chains to encourage product and materials selections that are best from a life cycle assessment perspective, including being non-toxic, local and sustainable.
What new earth-sourced building materials have experimented with? Results to share?
Since our work involves relatively large structures, we have not had many opportunities to work with earth-sourced materials like rammed earth or straw bale. We do extensive interiors work and are very sensitive to indoor air quality issues. We are using a variety of naturally based materials in those applications. Including:- Linoleum – employed quite frequently. Usually Forbo Marmoleum.
- Some porcelain tile manufacturers (such as Graniti Fiandre) build their tile bodies and glazes from post-industrial marble or stone dust. Used occasionally.
- Patient room tackboards are nearly always Forbo Cork, which is a linoleum/cork blend
- Armstrong has just come out with the Tierra bio-acoustic ceiling tile constructed from jute fiber
- IPC’s new G2 wall protection series is made from a PETG corn-based biopolymer blend
Even with something as simple a composting, building owners can have problems changing staff behavior. What are the dominant values and principles in Ratcliff’s process?
The single most dominant value in the Ratcliff process is inclusion. Every aspect of our work includes a series of community outreach sessions and planning workshops. By engaging the users in the process – not just review of our work, but actual hands-on development of key concepts and relationships - we are able to generate ideas based on real experience. Because we develop a Basis of Design in a deep way with the users of their buildings, the Design Response tailored to this Basis of Design has the greatest chance of long-term success. This Design may be a plan for a new building, a renovation or a program designed to reduce environmental impact. By involving the users at every level of an organization, we find that there is a real investment and an ongoing commitment.
How important is sunlight to human interaction?
Sunlight is the key ingredient for sustaining life on earth. We all have a deep response to the sun and it is critical to our relationships with each other, our health and well-being. We attempt to bring abundant natural light into all of our work. Our academic projects make extensive use of daylighting schemes to enhance the learning experience and to reduce the need for artificial light. Much of our healthcare work is inspired by a response to the site that provides for natural light in major spaces and allows it to penetrate into the core areas of patient treatment. On a policy level, we are working to advocate for building codes that will allow for more latitude in incorporating natural light and airflow in all project types.
Is it hard to design a green roof to function as both an integrated building component and a patio?
It is easy to design a green roof as a portion of the outdoor space and more and more common as we work in increasingly dense urban environments. For example, our new 350,000 sf addition to John Muir Hospital has seven exterior garden terraces for patients to access as part of their healing. Our addition at The Berkeley School of Law, Boalt Hall, includes an extensive and habitable green roof. As long as we begin the process looking for opportunities to create good access to these raised landscapes and we anticipate the engineering requirements for the additional weight, these applications are extremely successful. In addition to providing a human amenity, green roofs reduce heat islands, provide wildlife habitat and retain rainwater that would otherwise contribute to the flow of storm-water from impervious surfaces. It is true that a green roof is an involved technical enterprise, but the benefits to both the users and the local environment far outweigh the costs.
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