Gravitas Blog

• Won a Platinum award for being Champions of Alternative Transportation through May in Motion & ACHD Commuterride. #
• Sending out the prelim. for a home design that will go on Lake Gaston, in Virginia. Then off to see Ryan Schupe at Alive after 5. #
• Updating our project map with Kentucky & Missouri http://gravitaslc.com/AboutGravitas.html somehow we lost NV, anyone have a friend there? #

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Additional Sustainable Links, credit due to the USGBC for assembling this exhaustive, continuously updated resource: www.USGBC.org

Life Cycle Analysis & Costing

• ATHENA Sustainable Materials Institute
• BEES (Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability) [NIST]
• BuildingGreen.com – Life Cycle Assessment
• California Life Cycle Cost Assessment Model
• ENVEST (environmental impact estimating design software) [UK BRE]
• LCA Center
• Life Cycle Analysis of Wood Products
• LISA (LCA in Sustainable Architecture)

Materials, Guides & Certification

• Advanced Buildings
• Advanced Buildings Core Performance Guide
• American Concrete Institute
• ASHRAE Advanced Energy Design Guides
• ASHRAE GreenGuide
• Building Materials Resource Center
• Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES 2.0)
• CIWMB Recycled Content Product Database
• Concrete Network
• Construction Materials Recycling Association
• Environmental Design + Construction magazine
• Environmental Resource Guide- American Institute of Architects
• Forest World – Sustainable Forest Products Resource
• Good to be Green
• Green2Green
• Green Building Databases & Design Resources
• Green Building Materials: A Guide to Product Selection and Specification, Second Edition
• Green Building Products Initiative
• Greenroofs.com
• GreenFormat
• Green Guide for Health Care
• Green Home Guide
• Green Sage
• GreenSpec, from Environmental Building News
• Minnesota Green Affordable Housing Guide
• NY Wa$teMatch Materials Exchange: Building Materials Reuse Calculator
• oikos – Green Building Source
• Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing
• ReGreen
• SpaceMedGuide – A Space Planning Guide for Healthcare Facilities
• Sustainable Design Resource Guide
• Sustainable Products Corporation
• U.S. EPA Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
• Whole Building Design Guide

Media

• Building Design + Construction
• BuildingGreen Suite/Environmental Building News
• Eco-Structure
• Environmental Building News
• Environmental Design + Construction Magazine
• Environmental News Network
• Green@work
• GreenBiz.com
• GreenerBuildings
• GreenSource
• HGTV – Green Building Pages
• Journal of Green Building

Product Certification & Testing

• American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
• Forest Certification Resource Center
• Forest Stewardship Council (in U.S., with international links)
• GreenGuard
• Green Seal
• Scientific Certification Systems

Research Centers

• Carnegie Mellon University Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics
• Carnegie Mellon University Green Design Institute
• Center for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Technologies (CEERT)
• Center for Green Roof Research
• Center for the Built Environment – UC Berkeley
• Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS)
• Center for Sustainable Building Research
• Centre for Sustainable Design
• Environmental Energy Technologies Division – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• FICUS-Florida Internet Center for Understanding Sustainability
• Green Building Research Center
• Hong Kong University – Building Energy Efficiency Research
• InformeDesign
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory-Building Technologies Dept.
• MIT Building Technology Group
• National Association of Home Builders Research Center
• National Institute of Building Sciences
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory-Buildings Technology Center
• Pacific Energy Center
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• Renewable Resource Data Center
• Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)
• Rutgers Center for Green Building
• Sandia National Laboratories Renewable Energy Office
• The Vital Signs Project

Residential Resources

• 16 Ways to Green Your Home – US Green Building Council
• Consumer’s Guide to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
• Fine Homebuilding – Green Building Guide
• Green Building Advisor
• Green Home Guide.com
• Health House
• Healthy Home Brochure – Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
• National Association of Home Builders Research Center
• Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing
• ReGreen
• Residential Energy Services Network
  

Sustainability/Miscellaneous

Ecosystem

• Ecosystem Valuation
• What is an Ecological Footprint?

Sustainability

• ClimateBiz.com
• Ecosustainable – Sustainable Environment
• Education for Sustainability Profiles (Second Nature)
• The Florida Center for Understanding Sustainability
• GreenerComputing
• Institute of Energy and Sustainable Design
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• National Centre for Sustainability (NCFS)
• Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development
• Redefining Progress – Sustainablity Indicators
• Sustainable Development Gateway
• Sustainable Energy Authority of Victoria, Australia
• Sustainable Measures
• The Natural Step
• Towards Sustainability
• United Nations Environment Programme
• United Nations Sustainable Development Programme
• World Bank
• Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy

Urban Sustainability

• Congress for the New Urbanism
• Global Development Research Center – Virtual Library on Urban Environmental Management
• Green Communities Assistance Kit
• Livable Communities
• Smart Growth Network
• SURBAN (database on sustainable urban development in Europe)
• Sustainable Urban Design and Climate
• Urban Ecology Australia

This contemporary home was built in rural Idaho, to a couple interested in passive solar, and eclectic materials.  The use of corrugated aluminum, raw concrete, and bountiful sunshine, fulfilled their desires, as well as ours.

–Rendering–

–Video–

Floor Plan

—To download information about the Gallatin, or Gravitas, click on the boxes above—

Technorati Tags: Stock Plans,Alternative Materials,Contemporary Design WordPress Tags: Stock Plans,Alternative Materials,Contemporary Design

We hope to provide you with another resource to track down information regarding sustainable design, and green building.  We have relied heavily on the USGBC for many of these www.USGBC.org.

• Building Industry Professionals for Environmental Responsibility. BIPER USA provides a range of resources for sustainable design professionals.
• GreenClips is a summary of news on sustainable building design and related government and business issues published every two weeks by e-mail.
• EcoIQ offers general information on a wide variety of subjects and includes an extensive treatment of green building.
• Environmental Building News offers a checklist to help you get started with your green building project.
• Green Building Concepts contains general information on green building with a focus on residential and the do-it-yourselfer.
• Green Building Information Council. Based in British Columbia, Canada, the Council provides information and links to other green building Web sites.
• Green Resource Center. More than 600 resources are available here. There are plenty of case studies, how-to information, specifications, and more!
• NAHB Research Center identifies resources for developing a Green Building Program and Green Building activities at the Research Center.
• Rocky Mountain Institute provides information on green building and sustainable development including case studies.
• Sustainable Sources allows the user to search through a sustainable building site and a green building professionals directory and find other environmental related sites.
• U.S. Department of Energy. The Sustainable Building Technical Manual may be downloaded from this site.
• U.S. Green Building Council. Check out the Leadership and Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. It will help you evaluate buildings and understand the characteristics of the green building.
• Whole Building Design Guide. a complete Internet resource to a wide range of building-related design guidance, criteria and technology.
• http://www.epa.gov/greenbuilding/
• http://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/

Codes and Standards

• American Concrete Institute
• American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)
• American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
• Building Codes Assistance Project
• Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development – codes compilation
• GreenSpec
• International Code Council
• International Organization for Standardization
• U.S. DOE BTS – Codes and Standards program
• U.S. DOE EERE – Building Energy Code Resources
  

Design Tools

• Building Design Advisor
• Construction Carbon Calculator
• Continental Automated Building Association
• Daylight and Thermal Simulation Quality Assurance
• Energy Design Tools
• Energy and Environmental Building Association Bookstore
• EnergyStar Target Finder
• Environmental Support Solutions
• EQUER (France)
• Green Building Advisor
• Green Building Studio
• Interactive Tools Survey [University of Weimar, Germany]
• International Association for Impact Assessments (IAIA)
• International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA)
• Lawrence Berkeley National Lab- Simulation Research Group
• U.S. DOE Building Energy Software: Tools Directory
• U.S. DOE EnergyPlus Energy Simulation Software
• Whole Building Design Guide

Design Resources

• Advanced Buildings
• AIA’s 50 strategies toward 50 percent fossil fuel reduction in buildings
• American Concrete Institute
• Architecture and Building
• ASHRAE Advanced Energy Design Guides
• Built It Green
• Earthship Biotecture
• Environmental Building News
• Environmental Resource Guide – American Institute of Architects
• Field Guide to Sustainable Construction
• Green Building Pages, Inc.
• Green Building Primer
• Green Design Sustainable Architecture
• The Hannover Principles
• International Stormwater BMP Database
• LISA (LCA in Sustainable Architecture)
• New Buildings Institute
• Research Design Connections
• Sustainable Architecture
• Sustainable Building Sourcebook
• University of California-Berkeley, Green Design/Sustainable Architecture Information Sources

Energy

• Advanced Buildings
• Alliance to Save Energy
• ASHRAE Advanced Energy Design Guides
• ASHRAE GreenGuide
• Better Bricks
• ClimateBiz.com
• Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency
• The Energy Foundation
• Energy Services Coalition
• National Association of State Energy Officials
• New Buildings Institute
• Sustainable Energy Coalition
• U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• U.S. DOE and U.S. EPA — Energy Star program
• U.S. Department of Energy Library
• U.S. Department of Energy – EnergyFiles
• U.S. National Energy Policy
• U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• World Bank energy projects

I wanted to post a quick belated note about the Timber frame presence at Greenbuild in Boston last year. It’s old news with Greenbuild Phoenix now on the horizon but still relevant. It’s easy to forget with the loud and much publicized arguments against logging and deforestization that wood is indeed a very sustainable option for a building material. With sustainable harvesting practices and sensitive control measures our forests can provide us with a valuable resource generation after generation. Being ingrained in the log and timber industry I’ll admit that I was surprised to see both Riverbend Timber Framing and Hugh Lofting Timber Frame at Greenbuild 2008. The surprise was not that it was inappropriate, there are obvious reasons for their exposure there, it just caught me off guard to see something so familiar amidst the endless booths of porous asphalt and green roofs. I hope both of these companies had some beneficial exposure and leads from the conference. It looks like Riverbend Timber Framing will be at this Greenbuild 2009  in Phoenix and a quick look doesn’t show any log or timber frame competition. I would imagine some migration of these vendors to the West Coast Green expo which is in San Francisco this year. This expo, in my opinion is more geared to the residential market.

A lot of people don’t know this but videos of some of the speakers at both expos are archived, a great way to catch up on some inspiring people.

Greenbuild speakers 

West Coast Green Speakers

Check them out, try to attend, you are sure to learn a lot.