Team Grayskull

With the Olympics coming up in the next few months the United Nations Environmental Program is seeking ways to make the games more sustainable. They have been doing this for the past few years and every year they get a little more progressive in their tactics to make the games better. This year they are researching the area for green hotels, fuel efficient transportation, finding ways to lower emissions for peoples coming to see the games.

Beijing, which is the host city of this years games have been taking other steps to be sustainable after the games leave town also. They have been devolving an emissions lab that will be operating early next year. Other cities that are hosting the games in the future are also making similar changes to their city to fit the UNEP standards. This is another reason the games are helping out with awareness in sustainable design. The cities getting involved are Vancouver for the 2010 games and London for the 2012 games.

The UNEP has been monitoring the games environmental benefits and problems for years now and they feel that they are making good progress. With the help of the athletes voicing their concerns to not just make the games green but also to take this into every bodies lives. For more information on sports going green listen to our podcast and learn more. Also visit the EDRA website at www.edra.org and also visit the United Nations Environmental program at their website www.unep.org/sport_env/index.asp.

 Welcome to the third post for the Environmental Design Research Association.  This post is about how one college is changing the campus to go green.

Elmhurst college looks like one would expect it to for a college whose name means Elm Woods.  New building initiatives have given the college a chance to make the campus buildings as green as the lawns, hedges, and trees that are around them.

The facilities management department has been engaged in efforts for 30 years to minimize energy consumption, reduce air and water pollution and recylce waste.  Elmhurst college is pursuing LEED status on buildings as part of their commitment to sustainable design.  “If successful, we will be one of the very first colleges in Illinois to have a residence hall certified by LEED,” said Jill McWilliams, the assistant director of corporate and foundation relations.

The campus will become a model in stormwater management.  The goal is to decentralize the rain that falls to return back to the ground to become a resource for Salt Creek.  The college plans to surround part of the campus with a native prairie garden and woodland ecosystems.  In May, Elmhurst obtained a grant to install solar panels that can reduce water heating bills by 30 to 40 percent.

In the spirit of the original campus, this and other projects reach into the community- as educators and “green” leaders.  The new projects take into consideration the impact of development on natural resources, the health and well-being of the campus community and the environment of the city and beyond.

If you would like more information on green design for colleges, please visit  http://public.elmhurst.edu/news/archive/9016922.html or you can listen to the podcast.  Thank you for reading this entry!

 EDRA advances and disseminates behavior and design research toward improving understanding of the relationships between people and their environment.

Get ready for another update on green architecture in industries! Today we’re looking at health care industry, specifically green hospital construction.

If you’ve ever heard that going to the hospital can make you sick or sicker, it’s not far from the truth. The structure of the building itself, including construction materials, flooring, and furniture, can be filled with toxic chemicals. This makes it harder for people with already compromised immune systems to get and stay healthy.

“Studies show that patient in green hospitals have greater emotional well-being, require less pain medication and other drugs, and have shorter hospital stays,” says Gail Vittori, a coauthor of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture. Because of this, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital will be featuring large windows to allow more natural light into their new 136-bed cardiac care center.

Another hospital taking the lead in green architecture is Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas. One of the greenest, most healthful hospitals in the U.S., it features safe building materials, energy-efficient lighting, and ventilation. There are six courtyards, a 30,000-square-foot indoor garden, views of the outdoors, and operable windows. Outdoor open space includes a 3-acre healing garden with a reflecting pond and waterfall that use recycled water. The Dell Children’s Medical Center is on target to earn a LEED-Platinum rating. Those benefiting from this hospital’s green approach to health care include the environment, the staff, and the thousands of children who will get better faster in this state-of-the-art facility.

If you would like more information on green design in the health care industry please go to our pod cast and if you want more information on green architecture please go to our website at EDRA.org. Thank you for reading and check back next week for the next post!

EDRA advances and disseminates behavior and design research toward improving understanding of the relationships between people and their environments.

Welcome to the first Environmental Design Research Association blog entry! The purpose of this blog is to spread information concerning green design and to examine green aspects of industry. This first post is about the automotive industry, specifically about how car dealerships are going green.

Automotive companies aren’t forcing their dealers to go green, but they are giving them guidelines on how to become green. More dealerships are going green because it is becoming profitable. It is well known that having a green building will limit utility costs and therefore, over time, profit could be had. However, a lot of car dealers are realizing that being green is good for business in other ways.

Joe Chrzanowski, executive director of dealer network planning and investment at General Motors, said in “Automotive News”, “They can put the certification sticker on the door or use the environmentally friendly aspect of their facility as part of their marketing.”

While there aren’t many LEED certified dealers because of the long inspection times and over $200,000 in paperwork many are going green. Car companies are embracing green design with their office buildings and their plants and they want the green way of doing things to filter down to the dealerships. Toyota announced at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit that there will six LEED certified Toyota dealerships in the U.S. by the end of the first quarter of 2008. The first car dealership to go green was Pat Lobb’s Toyota dealership in McKinney, Texas.

If you would like more information on green design in the automotive industry please go to our podcast and if you want more information on green architecture please go to our website at EDRA.org. Thank you for reading and check back next week for the next post!

EDRA advances and disseminates behavior and design research toward improving understanding of the relationships between people and their environments.