|
October 14, 2011
By Michael Shilale, AIA, LEED
Back to Press
Releases and Publications
Toronto, Canada -
Greenbuild, the largest green building conference in
the world, went international this year. Over
30,000 people headed to Canada for a week of
educational and inspirational events. Some
impressive speakers and thinkers shared ideas and
strategies directed towards the next steps in our
goal to better balance the built and natural
environment.
One of my favorite authors, Tom Friedman, delivered
the keynote. He ironically compared ‘environmental’
accounting to our recent financial accounting,
revealing that borrowing from future generations is
the opposite of sustainability. We are mortgaging our financial and
our environmental future and we need to stop spending
and expending our resources foolishly.
We also witnessed many examples of high performing
buildings that deliver more value and make a net
zero future - believable.
Architects should be
particularly encouraged as it was revealed that the
more buildings approach net zero energy use, the
more we will need to rely on passive energy
strategies such as daylighting, natural ventilation, window placement and glazing
type, shading, thermal insulation, thermal mass, building geometry
and orientation. This should elevate the role
of architects in the built environment.
We saw some innovative
strategies such as earth tubes and ventilation
chimney's in action. We also heard about
industries right here in NY using biomimicry (learning from nature) to deliver
innovative, energy saving products and systems. Look
at what Regenenergy (regenenergy.com) is doing to
reduce peak demand energy costs, making our
buildings smarter than the grids they are connected
to. The dirty little secret about these smart
grids everyone wants is that it will cost us
all a lot more money if we hook up all our dumb
buildings to them. We need to make ourselves
and our buildings smarter. Regenenergy has an
innovative product that utilizes 'swarm' logic
inspired by bee colonies that simply manages when
systems come on to prevent excessive peak loads.
All in all, Greenbuild Toronto was a fun and informative
event. While Friedman lamented at the pace of
our environmental awareness and insulted the lot of
us calling us 'too dumb to quit,' I believe Greenbuild 2011 attendees were too smart to not
continue our quest for more sustainable
buildings and communities.
Michael Shilale Architects, LLP is an architectural
engineering firm committed to protecting and
preserving the environment through strategic design
work. Their three-pronged personalized approach,
solving building problems, protecting assets and
investments, and building under budget, helps
diverse clients realize their unique vision, with
environmentally sensitive and innovative results. For
more information about MSA, please call
845-708-9200, or visit their website at,
www.shilale.com.
For a look at 20 of their top projects, designed
since 1991, go to
http://www.shilale.com/20/
|
