This article discusses the building’s innovative features and the hope that it will inspire the construction industry to wholly adopt green thinking and building.
Link: Net Zero Office Building Breaks Ground
What made it helpful
I liked that the article brought up several key points. It cited the importance of government playing a role in the building industry’s transformation to green building. It also mentioned that the building’s higher upfront construction costs are to be considered as investments that avoid imposing “external costs” on society and the planet. The article also discussed how the ground-breaking green innovations the Bullitt Center incorporates will in time essentially become standard in the construction industry due to improving technology, dropping costs, and changing attitudes.
Why I liked it
The fact that the center is meant to “spark a radical overhaul” in commercial construction and design is incredibly significant and inspiring; it seeks to be a powerful precedent and is already making changes (a building-materials manufacturer actually reformulated a product to permanently eliminate a suspected mutagen when the manufacturer had been told that the Bullitt Center couldn’t use its product).
This article portrayed the kind of building that future buildings should aspire to be like: One that produces as much energy as it consumes, processes all its own waste matter, and will eventually provide all its own water. In addition, this building makes a positive contribution to outdoor air quality by providing parking only for bikes (thus discouraging driving) and provides a healthier indoor air quality by declining to use common building materials that contain PVC plastics, mercury, cadmium and about 360 other hazardous substances. And heavy materials, such as steel, concrete, and wood, will all come from within 300 miles in order to mitigate the project’s carbon footprint.
General thoughts
Though the wood for the building’s frame will come only from sustainable forests, there should be a better option than cutting down trees for the building. And although the center has refused to use materials with over 360 hazardous substances, I’m also wondering how many other dangerous substances are present in the materials that are actually used. Perhaps Net Zero may also refer to the chemicals brought into the building as well.
