Maryland Green Building Network
October 5, 1999 - Meeting Minutes
Location: Maryland DNR, Annapolis

Minutes from the Maryland Green Building Network (MdGBN) meeting October 5, 1999

Attendance:
Chuck Kines, DNR
Jack Tawil, DNR
Mark Bundy, MD DNR
Peter Yost, National Association of Home Builders Research Center
Robin Snyder, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Sherif Walden, Design Collective
Jessica Burgard, Design Collective
Janet Harrison, JHarrison Architects
Wendy Bratzel, Green Advantage
Bion Howard, Building Environmental Science and Technology
Scott Phillips, CS&D, Baltimore
Janie Nall, Outreach Center for Sustainable Building
Richard Keller, Maryland Environmental Service
Polly Houck, Dupont Flooring Systems
John Lippert, Eco-Living, Inc.
Jonathan Meyer, Meyer Sons Builders
Doug Schmauder, Armstrong Floors
Kim Schaeffer, KSA
Barbara Bailey, BAI.

Green Building Advisor demonstration
Bion Howard presented a 10-15 minute overview of the "Green Building Advisor" [ GBA ], created jointly by Environmental Building News and the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST) published in late 1998. The GBA is marketed on a CD-ROM with a useful manual, and supporting PDF files. Installation is simple, but can create a few error messages the first time run. Software users first declare various facts about their climate, site, building characteristics, and building program objectives. These inputs can be saved for future reference, and iterations of ideas through the system. Users are then provided with a wide variety of environmental building recommendations via an "expert system" where logical equations are used to sort through a large options data base. The data is provided to the user via a series of filtered screens accessed by virtual "index tabs." Further filtering can be done using a "check box" system, where priorities can be set for cost, complexity, and to recognize the time-frame in which the analysis is conducted during a given project.

GBA Strengths: 1.) easy to use interface -- much like the Mac "hyper stack" concept; 2.) good general grasp shown of many green building concepts; 3.) colorful, fairly well organized case studies section; 4.) excellent interdisciplinary project team; 5.) reasonable cost for product; and 6.) authors have tech support web site, and updating plan in place.

GBA Weaknesses: 1.) runs direct from CD-ROM and can be slow on some older systems; 2.) no MAC version available (seems odd since many architects run Mac's); 3.) limited residential projects in the case studies and supporting data; 4.) products section already out of date, but revision planned soon (this would be a good thing to have on line, accessible by software registered ID number); 5.) does not print out specific guidelines in comprehensive report form; and 6.) needs to be co-marketed with more sophisticated energy design software packaged on the same CD-Rom; such as the excellent SBIC /NREL _Energy-10/DLEB_ program.

A new Version 1.1 GBA is planned for release in early 2000, by the EBN folks. Existing users will likely get a big discount to upgrade. Several requests have come in for a low-cost regional workshop on practical green building plans review and analysis for builders, designers, remodelors. This would NOT be a conference, but rather a tightly focused one-day training seminar that would go on the road in Maryland, Northern VA and DC, Delaware, Eastern Shore, etc. Marketing via home builder and remodelor associations will be considered. B.E.S.T. is studying the economics of running a green building implementation workshop with the cooperation of non-profits, corporations and State funding. Comments on logistics and partnering proposals are encouraged for this project. B.E.S.T. contact info: Bion D. Howard, Principal, Building Environmental Science & Technology, Phone: 410.867.8000 Telefax: 301-889-0889

Main Discussion: Deconstruction
Peter Yost introduced the MdGBN to his deconstruction pilot project in Riverdale funded by the U.S. EPA. The purpose of the project was to take apart an apartment building manually, piece by piece, and evaluate the cost of removing each item. The results of their project indicated that deconstruction took longer than demolition and cost more. Peter said that the major cost of deconstruction (meaning what determines a successful deconstruction project) is labor. Training of volunteers however, could be included in deconstruction projects as a way to help off-set some of these labor costs. Training people on proper deconstruction techniques presents an incredible opportunity to educate them on better building technology. As they remove parts of buildings item by item, they will gain an understanding of the relationship of materials to the building's structural engineering. Also, the cost of processing materials (i.e., transporting materials to other location, cleaning, storage, associated fee transactions when appproriate, etc.) often can be high and is often overlooked.

Deconstruction poses an enormous opportunity for Baltimore and similar older cities and communities. The city possesses numerous buildings that were constructed in the 1940s, many of which are currently slated for demolition and/or major renovation. Exact figures are not available for Maryland, but there may be as many as 150,000 such structures nationwide. This equates to millions of tons of potential materials to re-use or recycle, and thereby diverting them from landfills. Peter said that there is a direct relationship between abandoned buildings, renovation activity, and deconstruction potential. He stressed the importance of including local Public Housing Authorities as partners in deconstruction projects since they often are suppliers (when public housing is demolished) and/or potential users (when public housing is renovated) of low-cost materials.

Many construction firms are not interested in deconstruction currently because the U.S. economy is strong and the construction industry is booming. Deconstructions simply is not as profitable as construction. Community and non-profit organizations will need to invest in jumpstarting deconstruction projects in the short term. Making deconstruction work includes identifying a market for materials. Often, these markets are informal when they do exist and "evaporate" quickly. Another issue involves identifying the types of buildings that are appropriate for deconstruction, which ones could be cost-effective. When a market system is developed for deconstructed materials, private firms will begin investing in it. Educating architects on how to "specify" recycled materials removed from buildings poses another challenge. A recent trend in deconstruction involves people donating houses to a local non-profit community organization as a tax write off, and the community organization de-constructs the building and profits from selling the materials that are removed. Determining how to get appraisers involved poses another challenge.

Mark Bundy asked Peter what the State can do to encourage deconstruction and/or make the deconstruction process smoother. Peter strongly encouraged involving property managers to determine when buildings are scheduled for demolition and request a site visit to evaluate the building's suitability for deconstruction. Also involve the Used Building Materials Association as a partner in deconstruction activities in Maryland. The UBMA is a non-profit, membership based organization that represents companies and organizations involved in the acquisition and/or redistribution of used building materials. (See list of web links featuring other information resources at bottom of this message).

Green Product presentation
Doug Schmauder from Armstrong Flooring introduced DLW Linoleum flooring products to the MdGBN. For more information, contact Doug at deschmauder@armstrong.com

Upcoming meetings/events
Solar Homes Tour, Oct. 16th (www.prsea.org); RMI's Bill Browning lecture, Oct. 26th; Greening the Building Codes/David Eisenberg lecture, Nov. 3rd; EEBA conference, Nov. 4-7th (www.eeba.org); DC AIA COTE Smart Design Forum, Nov. 5th; America Recycles Day, Nov. 15th. For details, see the Maryland Green Building calendar (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/programs/greenbuilding) or send a note to dnrsmartgrowth@dnr.state.md.us

Next meeting
November 2nd at the Baltimore AIA Offices. 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Discussion topics likely will include 1) Maryland Green Building Survey results, 2) an update on the Green redevelopment template and criteria. Main topic: TBD.

Web links for salvaged building materials:

Environmental Design Home
DNR Home

This page last updated on March 24, 2003