May 18th - Portland

May 18^th - Portland

Green Hammer (Passive House)

            Green Hammer’s Passive House is the built example of their green building practices.  As mentioned earlier, the passive house embraces a principal of focusing on keeping the building’s envelope as sealed as possible.  This passive home does just that.  The property site originally housed an older home that was a foreclosure, and far from eco-friendly.  The owner, Paul and his wife bought the property and began my slowly de-constructing the existing home.  They tried to keep as much of the original home’s lumber intact for reclamation.  They then hired Green Hammer to come in and begin preparing the site for construction.  They leveled the site and then framed out the footprint of the new home.  They laid layers of concrete, membranes and insulation to prevent the natural ground temperature to penetrated the home.  Then they framed out the house itself, including a special sealant tape along each seam of the framing boards to prevent any air from entering those seems.  Then they included thick styrofoam insulation to absorb the outside temperatures and help the interior of the home maintain its operating temperatures.  Once the insulation was in, they wrapped several layers of thick membranes to help prevent any air and moisture penetration from the outside elements.  Special 3 pane windows went in to provide an extra layer of insulation but allowing natural sunlight to filter through the home, instead of relying on electricity used lighting.  Other special sustainable properties used in the home included: 

-          A mini-split heating and cooling system, one upstairs and one down to provide the homes livable temperatures. 

-          An air-filtration system that allows air to exit the building but prevents outside air from entering the home itself.

-          Special energy efficient appliances allows for smaller impact on the heating of the home’s interior as well as the energy usage throughout the home.

-          Solar panels on the roof will provide for the home’s electricity usage instead of it requiring much outside electricity.

-          A special water heating system also helps cut down on the homes electricity usage.

This passive home is a great example of sustainable architecture, and allows for a new way of building, and preventing much of the energy consumption in homes today. 

Climate Solutions: The Northwest Biocarbon Initiative

           

             Climate Solutions is a company that focuses on energy awareness and education for the local community.  Their Northwest Biocarbon Initiative, “The Northwest Biocarbon Initiative (NBI) is designed to position on the Northwest as the nation’s leading laboratory and incubator for biocarbon solutions. NBI’s purpose is to advance cutting-edge model policies and practices to store carbon in forests, farms and communities.” 

            They often campaign against coal mines, and other earth harming energy harvesting that has dominated out culture for the past century.  Many people don’t understand the impact that CO2 can have on our environment as a whole.  Most people know the CO2 emissions from vehicles enter the air can cause breathing problems and other health problems.  However, CO2 has the opportunity to enter our waters and soil as well.  Climate Solutions takes the time to educate the public about how that contamination occurs, and what each of us can do to prevent it in the future.  The representative spoke about speaking with natural gas and coal distributors, trying to being a common middle ground on their practices, and actually bringing them to the point of encouraging each other to follow more environmentally friendly practices.  Climate Solutions has taken on a big task, but is doing a wonderful job teaching specific causes and encouraging better alternatives to achieve a cleaner environment.

Zip Car System

            Zip Car Rental system is a new way to provide local transportation to local residence without having to own their own car.  The Zip Car system is a company that houses many various types of vehicles and allows customers to reserve a special car, whether it is a truck, SUV or even just an extra car for individual needs.  Customers pay a monthly fee to be a member, and small fee per hour to utilize their vehicles.  Several Zip Car locations are spaced out throughout the city, and offer customers to use a Zip Car for just a few mins to a few days at a time.  Special locations throughout the city allow for designated parking so that customers are able to take advantage of convenient parking throughout the city.  Each customer had a card, and is able to access a reserved Zip Car with that special membership card.  This allows them to use the car as they need, even extending time if needed.  Once they are finished using their Zip Car, they return the car to the same local where they acquired it and are able to conveniently return to their residence.  The Zip Cars are equipped with special smart data systems that allow the company to not only track where the car has been, but how much energy was used during its use.  Each car has a prepaid gas card that allows members to fill their car at no expense to them.  The gas card is included in the membership dues paid each month.   This convenient car sharing system cuts down on the number of cars on the road and allows member the convenience of saving money on a monthly basis instead of owning and operating their own car, and also cuts down on CO2 admissions being introduced into the environment.

Hopworks Urban Brewery

            Hopworks is an Urban Brewery that specializes in organic beer brewing and other organic restaurant choices, even specializing in a gluten free menu as well.  Their “Hopworks Gear” is also made from organic fibers as well.  “Here are some of the things Hopworks Urban Brewery is doing to stay Green:

• Organic Made from scratch Roma Tomato Sauce
• Use of Shepphards Grain “Food Alliance Certified” flour for our pizza dough & other bread items (pretzels, foccacia bread)
• Dressings made from scratch, less packaging
• 100 % post consumer waste
• 100% recycled dinner napkins
• Waste recycling programs that strive for zero waste
• Recycling food waste for animal feed & composting.
• Organic coffee from Stumptown “Holler Mtn”
• All togo material 100% post consumer 100% recycled material.
• Compostable plastic togo cups (corn based)”

-          The Hopworks Urban Brewery Website

Some of the other sustainable properties of The Hopworks Brewery include retention ponds to harvest rainwater, native landscaping, electric car primary parking, low flow toilets, skylights for natural day lighting, the use of reclaimed lumber and other reusable architecture elements, and much much more.

For more information on The Hopworks Urban Brewery’s sustainable efforts, please visit their website at:

http://hopworksbeer.com/green-culture/going-green

Green Building Services

            Green Building Services is an office comprised of both architects and LEED accredited professionals that offer a service of a green building analysis.  They are educated in green building and offer business owners and other architects the opportunity to design and build sustainable projects, without having to house their own sustainability team.  Green Building Services have worked on projects city wide and have had a hand in some of the most sustainable projects in the Portland area.

            Not only does the company offer their sustainability services to other builders and architects, but their facility itself has earned a LEED Platinum rating.  They have been able to utilize an existing building and retro-fit it into a property that fits their needs.  They use low impact lighting, reclaimed lumber throughout the facility, a composting system, recycled carpet tiles, and more.  This company has the opportunity to lead by example and provide a sustainable service that is often needed and wanted but its allowed for in the budget as an in house operation.

Passive House (Commercial Property)

            The Green Hammer Passive House – Commercial Property possesses a great deal of the same properties as the passive home, following the same building envelope principals as the passive home.  This unique project has its own complications though.  This project allows for only one level of passive house rating, that being the upper level.  The lower level is unable to meet those standards because of its existing foundation, which was left intact and unable to be modified or updated.  Therefore, the lower level of this mixed use development is designed to be a restaurant while the upper level is being designed as a rentable office space.  However, after Green Hammer began the project, they decided to use the upper level office space for themselves.  The upper passive level utilizes the same passive house construction as mentioned above:

“Then they framed out the house itself, including a special sealant tape along each seam of the framing boards to prevent any air from entering those seems.  Then they included thick styrofoam insulation to absorb the outside temperatures and help the interior of the home maintain its operating temperatures.  Once the insulation was in, they wrapped several layers of thick membranes to help prevent any air and moisture penetration from the outside elements.  Special 3 pane windows went in to provide an extra layer of insulation but allowing natural sunlight to filter through the home, instead of relying on electricity used lighting.”

This project is a great example of how the passive house design properties can be implemented in a unique way and mixed with a conventional structure project.