Environmentalist McKibben drives home urgency of climate change to Iowans

Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben spoke to a captive and energetic audience in Iowa City last night, courtesy of the Office of Sustainability at the University of Iowa. His message was both pessimistic and optimistic, but was most importantly honest.

McKibben started out with the current (and depressing) state of the environment. The earth has risen only about 1 degree in temperature, but already we are seeing the major impacts of that increase in glacier melting, increased floods, increased high temperatures, and increase in disease spread (through warmer climates). We are above the 350 parts per million limit that scientists believe is sustainable for the planet (currently at 390, see image below).

After establishing the current state of affairs, he next showed us his efforts to date with the recent 10/10/10 events, which is a part of the overall 350.org movement. I was amazed at how global this initiative has become, especially since I have not heard that much about his organization. He has made an impact on nearly every country in the world, and it continues to grow each year. He even self-admits that he is not a motivational person and knows very little about how to drive a grass-roots effort like this, but it is clearly working. It reaffirms that anyone can make a difference.
Finally, his message was that people have to make political changes to make dramatic reduction in our emissions. The technology is already here to do that (solar, geothermal, wind), but the policies and investment isn't there yet. He mentioned that 70% of your time should be spent on local actions and 30% on political action.

Video clips are available on the Daily Iowan website
Here is McKibben's latest book, Eearth: Making of Life on a Tough New Planet...






And here is the first book he wrote, which was widely popular, called "The End of Nature"

Rockwell Collins goes green with LEED buildings

I had the opportunity to tour one of the LEED certified buildings on the Rockwell Collins campus in Cedar Rapids, IA. The older building of the two is Gold certified, and the newer one is Silver.

 

At the beginning of the project, they discovered that many LEED buildings cost around $250 per square foot. They were able to complete the 120,000 square foot pre-engineered building for less than $100 per square foot. The additional investment in obtaining LEED certification, and the enhancements required to achieve a high enough score, had a payback of about one year. Therefore, in the 2nd year, they would start to see cost savings, compared to a non-LEED certified building.

 

Some of the cool features that are included in these buildings include:

• 99% of construction waste — more than 1,000 tons — was diverted from the landfill

• Building footprint covers only 2.75 acres, and nearby pond was incorporated into the design
• More than 30 dedicated parking spaces for low-emissions and fuel-efficient vehicles
• 40% (385 gallons) of water use reduction through waterless urinals, dual-flush toilets, rainfall capture on roof, etc

• Exceeds ASHRAE 90.1-2004 minimum energy performance requirements by more than 20%
• More than 15% of building material is recycled content
• Energy Star reflective roofing
• Lots of natural light to minimize need for lighting, and lights are on timers and motion sensors to reduce costs when left on
• Energy efficient windows with shades to reduce heating effects
• To reduce driving and wasted time to get to the main facility (headquarters) across the street, a shuttle vehicle was setup that runs every 5 minutes
• Chaning rooms and showers to encourage bike riding
• Optimized parking lot lighting
• Low VOC paint and coatings, and carpet contained recycled content
• Xerascaping (native plants) deployed to minimize amount of water usage
• Variable frequency drives (VFD) installed on equipment to reduce electricity costs of large equipment, part of larger energy management software system

The cafeteria is also very modern, clean and open, with access to the outside, so employees can eat with visitors, or just enjoy the weather. There is also a nice walkway near the pond, which is located between the two buildings.

 

 

 

As an employee, if you need a break from work, try hitting some putts in the break area, or put together a puzzle.

To learn more about this project, visit the Ryan Construction website.

 http://www.ryancompanies.com/projects/Rockwell-Collins/