“Building a Better Tomorrow, Today” is a new YouTube video competition created to encourage innovation and advance the green-building industry. The competition is being sponsored by YKK AP America Inc., Austell, GA. Interested participants can submit videos showcasing their ideas for how America can enhance the built environment for generations to come, whether it’s through an energy-savings, green building, or sustainability perspective. Submissions are encouraged from architects, designers, contractors, manufacturers, students, and the general public, and can consist of a new or existing idea, design, product, or project. Winners will be announced at GreenBuild in Chicago in November.
   To enter, participants can post their videos, which should not exceed 120 sec., to YouTube as a video response to YKK AP’s Building a Better Tomorrow, Today video. The grand prize winner will receive $1,500 in cash as well as a $1,000 donation on their behalf to support the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Philanthropic Programs. Two runner-up projects will be awarded an Apple iPad.
   A panel of experts will judge each video on the overall message and relevance to the theme, creativity, and entertainment value. Judges include Jim Fausett, a previous architecture professor at Southern Polytechnic State University; Susan Ellis Proper, director of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Atlanta Chapter; and Sydney Roberts, PhD, Southface Home Services Program Manager.
“We created this video contest to foster the sharing of ideas and innovation in sustainable, green building practices,” said Oliver Stepe, senior vice president of YKK AP America.  ”We’re always thinking ahead to what’s next and how we can better serve the industry and our customers. We want to encourage others to share their vision and ideas on how America can enhance the built environment. We look forward to reviewing the submissions, and we encourage all participants to make your video fun, smart and entertaining!”
   The contest opens on Wednesday, September 1 and closes at midnight Eastern Time on Friday, October 15. For complete contest requirements and instruction, visit the competition web page.—Gary L. Parr

If you have a top-flight green building, it’s time to get some recognition. The SBIC (Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, Washington) has issued a call for entries for the 2010 Beyond Green High-Performance Building Awards. The awards program recognizes “the initiatives that shape, inform and catalyze the high-performance building market, as well as the real-world application of high-performance design and construction practices.”
   Award winners present their projects on Capitol Hill as part of an educational briefing for lawmakers and the public. The briefing is held in conjunction with the High-Performance Buildings Congressional Caucus (HPBCC) and the High-Performance Buildings Congressional Caucus Coalition.
   The 2010 Beyond Green Awards program will also feature an afternoon session and expanded poster session, held at Catholic University’s School of Architecture and Planning, Washington. Area students and local building practitioners will have an opportunity to understand winning projects in greater detail, ask questions, and earn AIA CES credits. Winning projects will also be published on the Whole Building Design Guide website, which is managed by the National Institute of Building Sciences.
   To learn more, download the Call for Entries pdf file. This year’s deadline for entries is October 29, 2010.—Gary L. Parr

Two industry economics reports are indicating that the commercial-construction business may be stabilizing and that growth may be on the horizon. While there are still several negative influences in place (credit, demand, economic uncertainty), the positive influences seem to be gaining ground.
   The latest Architecture Billings Index (ABI), from the American Institute of Architects, Washington, indicates a negligible increase from May to June. The index reflects the approximate 9-to-12-month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending. The June ABI rating was 46.0, up slightly from a reading of 45.8 in May. The new-projects-inquiry index increased from 55.5 to 57.7.
   ”The steep decline in nonresidential property values has slowed investment in new facilities,” said AIA chief economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “Conditions at architecture firms continue to remain very soft, but we’re optimistic that they will improve before the end of the year.”
   Even more positive is the July report from Reed Construction Data, Norcross, GA. That report indicates that non-residential construction starts through June are 13% higher than the same 2009 time period and 3% more than in May 2010. According to the report, the numbers indicate that construction has been relatively steady for the past four months. The numbers also tell us that construction starts are 46% greater than the low point in June 2010, but 25% less than the pre-recession peak. Reed also expects construction starts to remain steady in the coming months and then rise at the end of the year.
   Comparing January through June 2009 numbers with the same time period this year, Reed shows construction-start improvement in government office (30.1%), laboratory (12.3%), religious (8.7%), hospital/clinic (14.7%), police/courthouse/prison (45.7%), and school/college (12%). A real standout is military facilities, which showed a 203.7% growth.—Gary L. Parr

Beth Leslie Glasser, AIA, LEED AP, is the winner of our Brand Preference Survey drawing and will soon be enjoying an Apple iPad. Beth’s firm, BLGarchitecture LLC is located in Baltimore. You can contact her at bg@blgarchitecture.com or 410-929-1239. I’m confident she’d be receptive to any work you want to shove her way. Congratulations Beth! Enjoy the new toy.—Gary L. Parr

Kohler Rental, part of the Kohler Co. (Kohler, WI) Global Power Group,  is providing temporary power and air conditioning services to wildlife rehabilitation centers located across several Gulf Coast states. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Washington, a bureau in the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Washington, established wildlife M*A*S*H units following the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill that has been occurring in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana since April.
   Included in Kohler Rental’s support effort is Fort Jackson Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Buras, LA, an epicenter of bird rescue and cleaning operations located in Louisiana’s fringe coastal area, south of New Orleans. The center plays a crucial role in the effort to rescue, clean, and save the lives of hundreds of brown pelicans and other native bird species exposed to the crude oil that is polluting the Gulf of Mexico.
   Helping wildlife caretakers combat Louisiana’s summer heat and humidity, Kohler Rental has brought in portable air conditioning equipment and power generators to run the units and power the equipment used to clean the birds. Including additional wildlife rehabilitation centers and temporary housing for volunteers and workers located in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, Kohler Rental has been called upon to deploy nearly 30 high-capacity air conditioners and power generators in support of the oil cleanup efforts.
   ”The men and women rescuing, cleaning, and nursing pelicans and other birds back to health in Gulf Coast states may not know Kohler Rental is onsite. And we’re not running the wildlife rescue camps. However, the people who do operate the rescue centers reached out to Kohler Rental and it’s our mission to climate control the rescue camp and deliver additional power. By providing a more comfortable working environment, Kohler Rental helps keep workers at their best throughout the countless hours spent caring for the helpless birds,” said Mike Nasif, general manager, Kohler Rental. “Kohler Rental is involved in something a lot bigger than Kohler and fortunately what we do—providing for temporary climate control and power needs—can make a difference. It has been awe-inspiring to see the passion and dedication of the people we support as they save wildlife affected by this environmental disaster.”

The Fort Jackson Center’s role in the crisis
Brown pelicans and similar bird species get oiled as they float on the surface of Gulf of Mexico waters or when diving for fish. Once oiled, the pelicans can lose the ability to fly, dive for food, or even float on the water. In some cases, an oiled bird will die of hypothermia or become ill as a result of ingesting oil while grooming themselves.
   If found and rescued in a timely manner, oil-coated birds have an extremely high survival rate after receiving care at bird-cleaning camps. Upon arrival, each bird is given a physical and time to de-stress. Removing a bird’s oil-coat involves meticulous scrubbing with household dishwashing detergent, followed by a rinse and dry. Prior to being released into wildlife refuges located away from the Gulf, birds at Fort Jackson are placed in outdoor aviary pens, referred to as Pelican Island, for observation, recovery, and rehabilitation.—Gary L. Parr

When business is slow it’s often wise to focus resources on putting your company in a position to take advantage of new business when the market recovers. Two areas that should receive the lion’s share of resources, but rarely do, are promotion/marketing and training. Training is often a frustration because, when business is slow the bean counters don’t want to spend the money and when business is moving quickly there’s never any time for training. The result is that people end up getting trial-by-fire training, which involves mistakes and unnecessary expense.
   Project management is one area in which training is needed  and, according to a new report from ZweigWhite, Wayland, MA, doesn’t get much support, at least from A/E firms. According to the company’s 2010 Project Management Survey, only 51% of project managers report that they received any job-specific training before being promoted to the position of project manager. Moreover, less than a third of firms reported that they always provide project-management training to new project managers.
   ”Project manager is a role of many dimensions and project management is a skill we will always be learning, no matter how many years we’ve been practicing it,” said Christine Brack, PMP, principal, ZweigWhite Strategic Advisory Services. “Even if economic circumstances did not influence dramatic changes in the way we manage projects, it is still worthwhile to compare, validate, and improve our practices and policies.”
   For more information about the report, click here.—Gary L. Parr

Trane Inc., St. Paul, MN, recently presented its Trane Energy Efficiency Leader Award to six customers. The customers, located in six countries, were recognized for doing dynamic work to link the physical environment of their buildings and assets to their business outcomes. The award is presented to customers across all sectors, including healthcare, education, retail, grocery, government, industrial, and commercial real estate.
   Award recipients leverage improvements in building design, renovation, construction, and operations to achieve real business outcomes, such as lowering energy and operating costs, reducing tenant turnover, creating better learning environments, and achieving improved patient outcomes.
   Award recipients were:

• Ivory Properties Group and GH Consultants Sdn. Bhd., Penang, Malaysia, for development of the Penang Times Square shopping mall. The mall was initially designed to include a conventional air conditioning system. Ivory Properties Group, with support and advice from GH Consultants Sdn. Bhd., instead opted for a more energy efficient Trane chilled-water system. The system is expected to achieve 0.63 kW/ton system efficiency on an annual basis and will be 30% more efficient than conventional chiller plants found in typical commercial buildings in Malaysia.
• Macalester College, a private college in St. Paul, MN, with 163 full-time faculty and nearly 2,000 students, was recognized for a campus-wide dedication to efficiency and sustainability. This effort led to significant energy saving upgrades on campus. Upgrades included a chilled-water system plant, an Eco House (on-campus green living experience), and the construction of LEED Platinum-certified Markim Hall. Markim Hall, which opened in July 2009, is a $7.5 million, 17,000-sq.-ft. facility housing the college’s Institute for Global Citizenship. The building is the first higher education facility in Minnesota, and one of the first nationwide, to receive the highest level of LEED certification. Energy simulation models predict that Markim Hall will use nearly 80% less energy than a standard building in an equivalent climate.
• Monterrey Tec is a private, independent educational institution with more than 8,500 teachers serving more than 90,000 students at the high school, undergraduate, and post-graduate levels at its 31 campuses in Mexico. Based in Monterrey, Mexico, the school is recognized for recent infrastructure improvements that significantly reduce annual energy consumption. As a result of the upgrades, the university has created a more comfortable teaching and learning environment while also reducing energy consumption by 13% to 15% year.
• The P.P. Porty Lotnicze Terminal at Warsaw Chopin Airport, Warsaw, Poland, serves nearly half of the passenger air traffic in Poland. The P.P. Porty Lotnicze Terminal features high-performance infrastructure systems that make the state-of-the-art terminal operationally and energy efficient, while at the same time providing visitors and workers with a comfortable environment. It is estimated that during the first 10 years of operation the infrastructure systems will save enough energy to power a city of 11,000 people for one year.
• Tishman Speyer received an award for development of the Castelo Branco Office Park in São Paulo, Brazil. Because of the investments in efficiency, the 1.1 million-sq.-ft. site provides the same quality and technology of premium areas of the state capital, but at less cost. The office park encompasses a 27-acre site that includes six towers, a horizontal corporate space for parking and services, and state-of-the-art buildings using the latest technologies in climate-control solutions.
• Transitions Optical, Galway, Ireland, the optical industry’s top photo-chromic lens manufacturer, recently completed upgrades to its plant that are generating €144,000 in annual energy savings and reduced the energy required to produce each lens by 50%. Automation has saved Transitions Optical €432,000 over the past three years, saving enough electricity to run the plant for three additional days every month.

   This group of recipients makes a total of 25 Trane customers who have received the Trane Energy Efficiency Leader Award in the past year.—Gary L. Parr

On April 9 we reported on the upcoming April 22 deadline for getting certified under the EPA‘s Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting rule (see that story here for lead-safe work practices. Apparently training and certification haven’t gone as efficiently as the EPA was expecting (I’m going to guess extensive red tape). To accommodate the concerns “raised by the regulated community regarding difficulties experienced in obtaining the rule-required firm certification and renovation working training,” the EPA has extended the compliance deadline.”
   To quote the memo, “Until October 1, 2010, EPA will not take enforcement action for violations of the RRP Rule’s firm certification requirement.” Also, “For violations of the RRP Rule’s renovation worker certification requirement, EPA will not enforce against individual renovation workers if the person has applied to enroll in, or has enrolled in, by not later than September 30, 2010, a certified renovator class to train contractors in practices necessary for compliance with the final rules. Renovators must complete training by December 31, 2010.”
   Download the entire announcement here. Obtain information about training here.
   If you’ve been putting this off, it’s time to get cracking.—Gary L. Parr

At the AIA Nat’l Convention, held June 10 to 12 in Miami, Schott North America Inc., Elmsford, NY, introduced RestrictView, a glass product designed for buildings in which privacy is a priority. The security glass is designed to prevent viewing through two pieces of glass but permit viewing through one piece. In other words, a viewer can see an object or person in a room when looking through one pane of RestrictView, but cannot see through the RestrictView glass on the other side of the room.
   For example, in a hospital, patients can see nurses or attendants in the corridor through windows in their rooms, and the nurses can see the patients. Patients, however, cannot see across the corridor into the room of another patient. In a courtyard application, people can see into the courtyard, but cannot see through to viewers on the other side. Adjoining treatment rooms or conference rooms are only viewable from corridors.
   RestrictView glass is a laminate and can be manufactured in a variety of formats, including approved attack-specification formats for psychiatric hospitals and prisons. A 3/16-in.-thick laminate consists of:

• 4 mm Schott Amiran anti-reflective glass
• 0.76 mm polyurethane with an RV interlayer
• 4 mm of Amiran anti-reflective glass

   The glass weighs 4.68 lb./ft² and is available with maximum dimensions of 44 x 44 in. The glass is designed for hospital, hotel, commercial, or security applications.
   At the show, Schott also announced that its fire-rated Pyran glass-ceramic glass recently received “Cradle-to-Cradle” certification. According to the company, “‘Cradle to Cradle’ certifies that Pyran is produced in an environmentally preferable way and qualifies it as the only environmentally friendly, fire-rated glass-ceramic on the market. It will be the only fire-rated glass option to help architects and designers qualify for LEED certification.”—Gary L. Parr