Design Thinking for Beyond-Sustainability Solutions

The RFP states: “Sustainability shall be embraced in all aspects of design to attain a building that is less costly to operate and has a positive impact on the environment. ” A commendable intent, but a bald platitude. Less costly to operate has some merit, as one could infer a link to reduced energy consumption. But a positive impact on the environment? Think about it. Is this a NET positive impact, or just a not-so-negative-as-usual environmental impact? The phrase is bantered about in marketing literature for many “green” products.

Yet this is indeed the ultimate challenge. Beyond Sustainability. The most cited definition of sustainable development as that which “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” was written by the Brundtland Commission in 1983. At the time, the state of our population, ecosystems, and social systems were such that one could envision maintaining that level as a possible “sustainable” equilibrium. Yet almost 30 years have passed, and the concepts of status quo have long since been surpassed by the need to halt any further stresses on the earth in balance, or achieve a “net-zero.” Indeed, it can be argued that for the survival of the planet, to meet the needs of the future, developments must now give back more than they consume, or “have a net positive impact on the environment.”

Beyond Sustainability - Morning Star

How is this possible? Give back more energy than consumed, clean the air or water, consume garbage and give back compost, plant trees, support butterfly habitat. A site might be able to contribute directly through green roofs, planted wetlands, or renewable power generation in excess of demand. Or it might be able to support the “Green Peace” volunteer efforts of employees. AND the business could donate a percentage of profit to like-minded causes. Net contributions can be calculated through a life cycle analysis. This differs from the Walmart greenwashing, where the net benefits are directly in the corporate coffers.

At the crux of this is a major paradigm shift. Visionary sustainability goals are too often fettered by green points lists or even carbon counts, which are just another form of compliance. So how to break loose of these mental handcuffs? Perhaps in reframing the problem to have no upper constraints, with sufficient ambiguity to welcome all forms of wacky brainstorming, and adopting the assumption that all ideas can be realized. While this may seem costly and outrageous, there is a history of this design thinking approach breaking through the complexity and cost boundaries, and resulting in a solution which is both more elegant and less expensive that the more traditional cheap fixes. The process itself peels away tangential issues until the real essence of the problem is revealed, which can often be addressed in a very simple manner. Solutions which seem obvious, and are absolutely on target.

Such was the thinking of Thomas Edison, of Steve Jobs, of the pioneer “NetZero” builders. It is time to get past the concept of sustainability being about reducing our footprint, limiting our consumption, and being the nay-sayers to industry. Perhaps it is an opportunity to embrace “Gaia,” the earth in balance and seek creative ways to contribute in a positive way to those resources. It is time to get past the perspective of lean construction as a way of reducing waste, but to adopt this process which allows us to realize high quality and value in our work, to create buildings which will serve generations of people well into the future. Buildings which provide not only the minimal life-safety of the code, and even beyond the minimal requirements for LEED. We can offer the future generation a built environment design for permaculture gardening, support structures for pedestrians and cyclists, or high-quality affordable housing to provide security for future generations.  Anything is possible, if our intent is authentic.   

Previous related posts: Green Engineering – Beyond Sustainability
Adaptive Re-Use, Designing for the Long Now

Lean “Plus” – or IPD on Steroids

We often discuss innovation in reference to new “green” building materials, but less rarely is this linked with the consideration of the changes this might require of the delivery process. The standard design-bid-build construction delivery method is being replaced by a wide range of options, primarily design-build and CM-at-Risk. There are iterations of joint ventures between public and private, partnering with industry, and various forms of integrated design. They all have in common the need to address the issue of speedy delivery without compromising quality or escalating cost, the need to accommodate new techniques and materials, and most of all – to bring together a very fragmented industry which seems more concentrated on risk aversion than on building some value.

The construction delivery method which seems to stand out from the crowd is Lean Construction. One of the showcase projects was just written up in Engineering News Record, “An Unprecedented 11 Partners Propel Integrated Project Delivery at Sutter's New California Hospital.” Imagine getting the top 11 stakeholders, including the owner, on a $320 million dollar project to sign an agreement which has a shared risk for both profit and loss. The profit is an agreed upon percentage, plus a possible bonus if the overall project comes in under budget. While a big mental leap, imagine the motivation this offers for every player to optimize their costs, work to reduce waste, keep the overall project on task, and support the success of the other trades.

This particular project, at 70% completion, is on budget and set to open six weeks early. There are only 333 RFIs, when 3,000 is more the norm. There are only 26 owner-initiated change orders that amount to less than 1% of the project costs. About 400 are typical.

I chuckle at the article’s description of the process as Lean Plus. Just as it has taken us several generations of books on Lean Manufacturing to understand that the Toyota System is more than a set of tools, so are we relearning the lesson in construction. In America, we are so enamored with things, punch-lists, and 10 step procedures. It is hard for us to accept that something intangible could be responsible for keeping a project the size of the Sutter Hospital on task. But this project was about willingness to launch on a great experiment, to identify value and seek solutions to waste. It required an honesty and total financial transparency, and a great deal of open communication. Lean is both flexible and resilient, and is able to support and integrate innovation and green building. Lean is Cradle to Cradle, from the first moments of the project concept, to the final days of the building life. It is a way of thinking. To observe, seek value, frame scenarios, test them out, and then to repeat the cycle, continuously improving, innovating.

These 11 companies took the risk, and are reaping the rewards. Lean. Thanks for Thinking

The “LEED”ing Joke about Bicycle Parking

Have you heard the one about the RFP calling for bicycle parking in order to get a LEED Silver? This one always makes me wince. While LEED projects have a reputation for turning into “point” gathering exercises, I have also come to respect the contribution of the LEED program to articulating specific benchmarks of green building. And so I wondered if there might be a good reason to specifically refer to the bicycle points in LEED within an RFP.

This particular project is a (student) proposal for a research facility located in the coastal Hampton Roads area of Virginia. The RFP called for

Bike Parking in Amsterdam

a LEED Certified project, with an alternative proposal for LEED Silver. Within the specifications document, one of the notations about the site was for bicycle parking, “per LEED criteria.” Moving past the joke, I looked deeper, and called on some of my colleagues for more insight.

In this case, the city zoning mandates bike parking., but only specifies the number of spaces relative to car spaced. Referring to the LEED criteria is a way of leveraging the considerable “public consensus” discussions undertaken by the USGBC for a more complete specification which includes the quantity of spaces based on occupancy, the proximity of these spaces to an entry door, and the need for shower facilities.

Further investigation into the project revealed that bicycle commuting is very much on the radar of the regional transportation planning. “The region is abuzz on bicycle and pedestrian transportation issues. With the overarching focus on sustainable mobility and livability in planning nationally, Hampton Roads also is enhancing the integration of bicycle and pedestrian issues in regional transportation planning,” according to a HRTPO Transportation Engineer, Benito O. Pérez. Bicycle commuting makes sense in locations such as these, which, like Holland, have a relatively flat terrain and mild weather – barring the occasional hurricane.

Titanium Bike Frame

Another important consideration is the nature of the facility, an aerospace research center whose mission is to “develop new technologies for the nation and help inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.” It is an anchor building for a much larger research / education campus. Does the next generation of scientist and engineers ride bicycles? Yes. According to data from our alternative transportation department on our campus, the engineering buildings have 30 -50 bikes, often overflowing the racks, compared to less than a dozen for most of the other disciplines’ buildings. Some informal “fact-finding” revealed this engineering commuter population to include not only students, but also a handful of faculty and staff, some of whom volunteered that it would be nice to have a shower or change room with lockers. Of course, any truly relevant research would have to into account criteria such as the length of commute to student housing, but overall, it appears that the engineering population does have a propensity to bicycle commuting.

A final piece of relevant information is that many of the new materials being adapted in bicycle manufacturing, such as titanium and carbon fiber, were first developed in the aerospace industry. It would seem that there is a solid basis for calling for bike racks, and perhaps even a discussion about planning for future increase or spaces.

Bike "Tree" Parking

Armed with this justification of the deeper rational for the bike parking, I was certain that the master plan would be the clincher which showed a well-evolved set of bicycle trails to link with future buildings. As it turns out, the master plan has no mention at all of bicycles, or for that matter, linking into any mass transit plan for the area. And so I come full circle, and must concede that the call for bike parking may have been stuck on the RFP as a “gimme,” and not part of this greater scheme of sustainability. So the joke was on me. But it was worth the exercise of exploration, establishing the neuron patterns of thought which helps form my general approach to sustainability issues.

Thinking about Traffic Noise

In a previous blog, When Sound Becomes Noise, I explored the many internal sources and pathways of sound within a building, a thinly veiled reflection on the causes of my sleep-deprived state. Today, we will take a broader view of noise generated by car traffic and transportation. The World Heath Organization guidelines state that in the European Union about 40% of the population is exposed to road traffic noise with an equivalent sound pressure level exceeding 55 dBA (Decibels) daytime; and 20% is exposed to levels exceeding 65 dBA.  This translates into construction requirements, starting with resilient channel attachment of sheetrock and on into double stud walls, or products such as ICFs; window with higher noise attenuation, roof cavities with noise baffling, and other such detailing.

Transportation projects must increasingly plan for noise reduction management both during construction and for the intended use of the project. Even in places as remote as the Northwest Territories of Canada, construction and traffic to oil and gas exploration sites must consider their impact on the migration of the caribou herd.

More typically, transportation projects consider construction noise mitigation strategies such as staging and spacing the construction equipment to lessen the cumulative impact of high noise machinery, using sound dampeners on equipment, or even surrounding the area with temporary sound walls.

Permanent sound barriers are all too frequently sound reflectors, which don’t really block the sound overall, but just deflect it. Concrete is typically used for its durability, and could be made more absorptive with a design which might include baffles, honeycomb cells or some other surface which would combine a surface opening which would then entrap, or absorb the noise. Unfortunately, the surface design is typically much more related to aesthetics than noise control. Vegetation, in the form of a mixed canopy of trees and shrubs, can also provide some visual and audible separation of roadways.

A transportation noise mitigation plan might also address road surface noise. In one study in Arizona, a thin course of asphalt (80%) combined with ground tire rubber (20%) over the original Portland cement concrete pavements (PCCP) not only increased the service life of the roadbed, but also resulted in significant reductions in traffic noise ( from 9 to 6 dB (A) at distances from 15-120 meters (50-400 feet)
from the highway).

Another consideration is that the noise impact from one truck is the equivalent of about 32 cars. Thus a national highway noise reduction strategy would actually be to increase the transport of freight by train, or barge along the waterways. While this can’t be mandated, it is certainly impacted by the current subsidizing of roadways vs railways.

At the urban master plan level, the noise from multiple cars can be replaced by mass transit options, there in turn considering noise as a factor when choosing between light rail, streetcars, or busses. Planning an infrastructure to support plug-in electric vehicles will also help reduce traffic noise. In fact, electric cars are so quiet that Toyota has considered building in a “noise-maker” when the car is in low gear or idle, to increase pedestrian awareness.

Ultimately, the quietest traffic noise is in the absence of car noise, when urban environments can be negotiated by bike or on foot.

Thinking About Communication

Construction may be based on nuts and bolts, but communication is critical in knowing how to put it all together. And there are many challenges. The most obvious is the language problem with foreign speaking workers, but even among regular English speakers – there are lots of gaps.

For example, I followed up on a water conservation rebate today, and discovered that it had been paid out to my contractor. Since the contractor had not shared this little piece of monetary exchange with me, I asked him for clarification. His understanding was that the rebate could be paid out to contractors. Yes, as a matter of accounting, it could and was. Of course, what the conservation agent hadn’t thought necessary to communicate was that this money was to be applied to the cost of the product, ie toward the final bill to the homeowner. That slight detail would have come to light had the required homeowner signature been collected, instead of the contractor just forging the homeowner name. So, the contractor feels we have a communication problem. I agree, but for a different reason.

My dad had a great saying by Sir Francis Bacon, about the increased precision of writing over speaking. Yet, even writing can have varying degrees of precision, as these examples of signage demonstrate.  Or they miss the point altogether. The fine print on the CAUTION sign says: “ALSO, THE BRIDGE IS OUT AHEAD.” Really? Good communication calls for clarifying your own message, and making sure it can be understood from the perspective of the intended audience.

The construction process is being increasing challenged by gaps in information flow as the whole culture has shifted with the advent of computerized work. No longer does everyone come together in the trailer over blueprints, have a cup o’ joe and hash out the day. While it is true that BIM models can better capture all the data, run clash detections, and work out schedules - this 3D modeling often falls short on the connections details that were much easier to whip up and incorporate in drafting programs. So now we’re working on embedding hyperlinks to these details, captured as PDFs, or perhaps YouTube videos to demonstrate an installation technique. But this seems more caught up in the technology of data management, and perhaps losing the triage of message intent, clarification and effectiveness.

As much as technology is evolving to address the gaps in information flow, it creates even a greater need for solid verbal communication skills. Even when presented with a drawing, there is still a need for a verbal commitment from both contractual parties to express full understanding of and intent to deliver the specified work. In the case of the sprinklers, this would have taken place in a conversation to confirm that the rebate will end up in the pockets of the final payee - the homeowner. It comes back to the need for thinking: Why are we putting together nuts and bolts, and how does my work fit into this big picture.