Tag: Green Building

Modular homes were hailed as a solution to housing crises. But the sector is now struggling to scale

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An employee checks the external casing with a spirit level in a modular house at the Tophat factory in Foston near Derby, UK, on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The idea of using pre-assembled components in housebuilding is far from new.

Modern tech-enabled versions of modular housing promise a faster, more sustainable solution to housing crises, according to experts. But the sector has seen better adoption in some countries compared to others where it has failed to scale — such as the U.K.

Prefabrication has existed in many forms, from the defenses used by William the Conqueror in his invasion of England in 1066 to Sears’ mail-order homes in the U.S. in the early 1900s.

Fast forward a century and entire modules can be built in factories to then be combined to create houses in just weeks. Speed is just one advantage that modular homes offer compared with traditional construction, a factor which is key in countries such as the U.K. which continues to face shortages of affordable housing.

The fact that modular housing is also made in a controlled factory environment means less waste is generated, while also resulting in more energy-efficient homes. Andrew Shepherd, managing director at British modular developer TopHat Communities, told CNBC that the firm’s factory had sent “zero waste to landfill” in the last three years.

Building entire sections in one place also means fewer delivery trips to sites, Shepherd explained. A 2022 report from industry group Make UK Modular highlighted that 80% fewer vehicle movements were needed to development sites with modular building.

Another study by academics at the University of Cambridge and Edinburgh Napier University, published in 2022, found that modular home construction can result in 45% less embodied carbon. This refers to the emissions generated in the construction process, including the making and transportation of materials.

‘A very tough business’

Despite these benefits, the sector has seen a number of setbacks in recent years and it remains relatively nascent in the U.K. and U.S.

In January, it was reported that U.K. firm Modulous had entered into liquidation after failing to find a buyer. In the U.K. last year, Ilke Homes collapsed, while Legal & General moved to wind down its modular housing factory. One of the most high-profile failures in the sector was SoftBank-backed Katerra in the U.S., which filed for bankruptcy in 2021.

Jonatan Pinkse, professor of sustainable business at King’s College London, highlighted that part of the challenge for modular construction firms is that they first have to spend money on building a factory in which to construct modules and then need to have the projects in the pipeline to pay for this investment.

He suggested that this presented more difficulty when coupled with the headwinds that also affected the wider construction sector, including higher energy costs and interest rates, as well as a cost-of-living crisis in many nations prompting people to hold off on house buying.

“And if you then can’t profit from a market that is actually going up, but instead is going down, then the problem is simply that [firms] can’t earn back their money fast enough, and investors then lose their trust in the business model,” Pinkse told CNBC.

Pinkse was one of the co-authors on research, published last year, which highlighted some of the issues limiting the use of modular, also known as 3D (volumetric) factory-manufactured modular homes, as the most advanced form of modern methods of construction (MMC).

Suzanne Peters, who also co-authored the research and is a research associate at Alliance Manchester Business School, told CNBC that the construction sector more broadly is a “very tough business” with a higher amount of failures versus other industries. Provisional data from the U.K.’s Insolvency Service, published in January, showed that the construction industry experienced the highest number of insolvencies of any sector in England and Wales in 2023, with 4,371 companies going bust. This equated to nearly one in five insolvencies.

Similarly, Daniel Paterson, director of government affairs at Make UK Modular, said that the modular housing sector had faced a “series of unfortunate events,” as the industry had essentially only launched in the U.K. in its current format in 2016/17. He explained that firms then need around 18 months to build factories, meaning it wasn’t long before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, along with the economic headwinds that followed.

Perceptions based on previous versions of prefabrication was another issue, according to Richard Valentine-Selsey, head of European living research and consultancy at Savills Research.

He told CNBC that, in the U.K., there is the “1960s hangover from prefabrication and the kind of connotations that has with lower quality, things that don’t last and all the kind of negative impacts of that from the building boom post-war.”

In addition, he said that the “construction industry is quite a conservative beast and finds it very challenging at times to change and think forward and innovate unless their forced to do it, which has kind of led to flirtation with new methods but no kind of wholesale change towards delivering using modular.”

Leaders in modular

Sweden and Japan are the countries cited as leaders in prefabrication. Savills Research highlighted in 2020 that 45% of homes in Sweden were built using offsite construction. In Japan, it said MMC was used in building 15-20% of new homes, though that still equated to between 150,000 and 180,000 homes a year.

By comparison, a Make UK Modular report published last year said more than 3,000 modular homes were being built in the U.K. annually, though there was capacity to build five times that number. A 2023 McKinsey & Company report, meanwhile, said that less than 4% of current U.S. housing stock had been built using modular methods.

In Sweden, one of the major players in this space is BoKlok, which is jointly owned by construction firm Skanska and homes and furniture company Ikea, and has been around since the mid-1990s.

A crane lifts a prefabricated residential housing module onto an apartment block at a modular rental property construction site, operated by Vonovia SE, in Berlin, Germany, on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shepherd pointed out that Sweden is also “not a country where you can build 12 months of the year.”

“They have very deep winters with limited daylight, so there is an incentive to look at an alternative construction process to keep people working all year, to get houses delivered at the volume needed,” he explained.

Valentine-Selsey said that in Japan there was also a difference in the approach to residential buildings. “In Japan, the value of the building depreciates over about 30 years, so by the end of that you kind of knock it down and rebuild it because it is worthless,” he explained, making new building methods useful, given that the delivery of new homes is higher.

Optimistic outlook

Looking at these examples, could methods such as modular help tackle the U.K.’s affordable housing shortage?

The current U.K. government has the target of building 300,000 homes a year, but 234,400 were built in 2022-23. Keir Starmer, the leader of the U.K.’s opposition Labour party, has pledged to build 1.5 million homes within a five-year term if his party is elected.

“That’s 300,000 houses a year, and there is zero chance … of that happening if there is not some form different approach adopted,” Shepherd said.

Looking ahead, Valentine-Selsey said he was an “optimist” in his outlook for the modular sector. “I think we’re probably going to see an uptake again over the next five to 10 years,” he said.

However, he believed that greater adoption of other types of MMC, such as panelized solutions, was more likely, but thought “modular will form part of that new mix of delivery.”

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March 17, 2024
How to plan a home renovation from picking an architect to managing the build

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Experts suggest thinking about how you’ll use your home in future when considering a building project.

10’000 Hours | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Extending your home or remodeling your kitchen and bathroom may be an exciting prospect but it’s worth carefully planning the design and build to manage the risks involved, according to specialists who spoke to CNBC.

If your project is fairly large, such as a home extension where you’ll be knocking walls down, it’s a good idea to hire an architect because they can guide you through the relevant planning permission and building rules depending on where you live. They can also help you appoint a building contractor (known as a builder in the U.K.).

Write an initial brief — essentially a wish list for your project — before approaching an architect, is the advice of a spokesperson from the U.K.’s Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), in an email to CNBC. Think about how you’ll use the new space now and how that might change in the future.

Then, consider your budget before you approach architecture firms, said Richard Parr, founder of design studio Richard Parr Associates. “Do the math before your first meeting,” he said in an email to CNBC.

He also advocates thinking about the “emotional” brief — Parr likes to get to know his clients by asking them questions like how they spend their time and where they like to go on vacation — as a favorite destination might influence their design choice.

Green building

Finally, consider green credentials. It’s worth focusing on any sustainability goals upfront, according to Ruth Lang, lead researcher in low carbon housing at the Future Observatory, a research program run by London’s Design Museum.

“Thinking about how your project can make better use of passive heating and lighting, and use reclaimed or natural materials, which have a lower carbon impact, can hugely change the manner in which a project would be conceived,” she told CNBC by email. You can also ask your team how they might minimize waste or repurpose materials, Lang said.

“If you were thinking of taking out a marble kitchen countertop, for example, you don’t have to reuse this in the kitchen again. You could instead consider how the material available could be used in other applications, such as being cut up for bathroom tiling,” she said.

Appointing an architect

RIBA’s online Find an Architect service asks for details such as your project’s aims and budgets, design style (such as whether you want it to be in keeping with the existing building), your overall aims — including more space, flexibility or more light — plus any restrictions like being in a conservation area.

In Germany, the Association of German Architects (known as the BDA), has around 5,000 members and you can search its directory by region, while the American Institute of Architects also has a listing of firms that is searchable by state or zip code.

RIBA advises meeting four or five firms in person to see how you get on, and to find out about their portfolio, fees, construction costs and timings. The architect will prepare technical drawings ready for a builder to cost and can recommend what type of building contract you should use too.

A home extension with a glass conservatory roof and bare brick wall.

John Keeble | Moment | Getty Images

You can opt for your architect to be your contract administrator too, meaning that they will oversee quality control during the build, according to RIBA. “If you don’t designate someone to this position, the responsibility falls on you,” its spokesperson said.

Budgeting

Gary Olsen, a chartered builder and director of design and build company Create, said this pre-contract phase is crucial — and not worth skimping on because it can avoid problems later.

Any scope of work document should include costs that “people might not initially think of,” Olsen told CNBC by phone, such as parking permits and fees for dumpster or skip hire. If the builder’s estimate exceeds your budget, write down your hierarchy of needs and wants and ask your contractor if they can revise it accordingly, Olsen said.

When you meet with potential builders, ask whether the person quoting for the work will also oversee it. If not, ask to meet the manager who is likely to be in charge of your build. “I’ve got to be confident that you’re going to be a nice person to work for and I’m going to get paid … And then [customers must consider]: Can I trust this person to deliver what he says?” Olsen said.

The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has a directory of building contractors, searchable by specialism and location.

Managing risks

Older properties may have structural issues, and it’s worth understanding these ahead of time, Olsen said. Victorian-era terraced properties, typical of the U.K., are sometimes “L”-shaped at the rear, meaning they have an outrigger, the part of the home that projects out into the backyard. Occasionally this can sink in relation to the rest of the building and it’s worth identifying these types of issues before work starts, Olsen said.

“Don’t … hide behind a sofa looking through your fingers, hoping that there won’t be something [wrong]. A defect won’t magically go away by itself,” he said.

If you share a wall with a neighbor (known as a party wall), it is a good idea to get a condition survey of their home before work begins, especially if you are doing excavations. This should include photographs, descriptions and measurements of any existing cracks or defects, Olsen said.

Payments

Changing your mind about fixtures and fittings can be expensive if work has started, Olsen said.

For example, if you decide you prefer an engineered wood floor instead of the vinyl one that has been estimated for, it may not simply be the materials that cost more — the concrete base underneath may need to be finished to a different level.

Flooring requires preparation, depending on the kinds of materials you choose.

Juanmonino | E+ | Getty Images

Olsen suggested setting up a WhatsApp group for requested changes, confirming what’s been agreed by email and adding cost details to a spreadsheet.

Olsen, who is board president of the FMB’s London region, said a contractor may ask for around 5% of the build cost to secure the project, followed by about 20% once work begins.

“Be wary of big money payments upfront,” Olsen said. And, if the builder doesn’t provide you with a payment schedule, “don’t sign the contract,” he said. Once the project has been completed, expect to retain about 2.5%, which you’ll pay once you reach the end of an agreed rectification period of about six months.

Try to remain flexible during the project, Parr said: “Renovation is not a precise science or a predictable art, so be prepared for discoveries and the unforeseen. Above all, I always tell clients to follow their gut instincts and make sure they enjoy the journey the whole way through.”

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December 19, 2023
Here’s what’s stopping cities from converting offices into apartments

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Some U.S. mayors are loosening up rules that determine how developers convert office buildings into apartment complexes. The conversion trend sped up in the 2020s, as the Covid pandemic remote work boom reshaped cities. Declines in office leasing activity is constraining funding for services like education and transit, leading some local leaders to prioritize conversion of dated buildings. These rule changes may create some additional housing supply in regions like the U.S. East Coast.

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July 15, 2023
The business case for green sports stadiums and arenas is growing

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A general exterior view of Climate Pledge Arena before the game between the Seattle Kraken and the Carolina Hurricanes on October 17, 2022.

Steph Chambers | Getty Images

Professional sports are inherently a copycat industry. From Major League Baseball’s Moneyball revolution to the NBA’s renewed focus on 3-point shooting driven by the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry, in-season and championship success quickly becomes a blueprint for other teams to follow.

Another recent trend spreading across sports has many hoping it will also follow suit: arenas and stadiums not only adopting sustainable and environmentally friendly practices, but putting those efforts front and center for fans, players, musicians, and anyone else who enters the building.

Much like the broader world of commercial real estate, arenas, and stadiums have been slowly adopting sustainable practices over the last few decades, from recycling programs to energy efficiency efforts. But several major sports facilities across the U.S. have taken this to another level in recent years, and their operators and owners hope that the success they’ve seen across multiple fronts creates real momentum around the idea of environmentally friendly stadiums.

Mercedes Benz Stadium, home of both the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and MLS’s Atlanta United, became the first pro sports venue in the U.S. to achieve LEED Platinum Certification in 2017. Footprint Center, home of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, works directly with the materials science company that holds its naming rights to eliminate single-use plastic from the arena and on other sustainable practices.

The bar across sports was set even higher in 2021 when Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle opened and not only became the first net zero certified arena in the world but served as a call-to-action for Amazon’s push for companies globally to be net zero carbon by 2040.

“Venue operators are relatively quickly understanding their opportunities and their responsibilities as it related to operating more sustainability,” said Chris Granger, CEO of OVG360, a management company that works with more than 300 venues across the world ranging from arenas and stadiums to amphitheaters and performing arts centers.

“Sports teams and venues have a platform on the topic of social change, and we have the ability to shine a light on issues that matter in a way that many businesses don’t,” he said. “I think our venue operators are saying ‘Okay, we get it. Now what do we do about it?’”

The trend in sports is not dissimilar to what is being seen across other industries: a desire from businesses to be better stewards in their community and connect with the growing number of people putting an increased emphasis on environmentally friendly actions, coupled with the fact that many of these measures also have a solid business case attached to them.

When work to renovate KeyArena in Seattle began, there were many discussions on how to introduce sustainability measures not only for construction goals but also operational goals, said Seattle Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena senior vice president of sustainability and transportation Rob Johnson.

That quickly evolved into making an arena that could be a “beacon of a sustainability district,” Johnson said, which helped attract the attention of Amazon, who in 2019 co-founded the Climate Pledge initiative to have companies, organizations, and partners work together to address the climate crisis and solve the challenges around decarbonizing.

That led to what has become the Climate Pledge Arena. Its efforts include being zero-waste by using compostable containers and reducing single-use plastic use, conserving water by retaining rainwater for reuse, and not using fossil fuels in the arena for daily use – including electric-powered Zambonis for Kraken games.

Setting a zero-waste goal at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Mercedes-Benz Stadium has been on its own sustainability path since it opened in 2017, with operator Arthur Blank pushing his AMB Sports and Entertainment Group (AMBSE) executives to set a higher standard for an environmentally friendly stadium.

The stadium opened as the first LEED Platinum stadium in the U.S., but “that was just the start,” said Steve Cannon, vice chairman of AMBSE.

“Anyone can make that incremental investment into your building, but if operationally you don’t perform in a manner that’s consistent with that, you’re leaving something on the table,” Cannon said.

That has led to a focus on getting to zero-waste status, which the stadium first achieved in 2020 for an Atlanta United match, Cannon said. After an investment of about $1 million to retrofit the building and put in other measures to achieve that zero-waste consistently, the stadium has now reached that goal.

In its 2022 fiscal year, there were more than four million pounds of waste at the stadium, and more than 91% of that was diverted away from landfills, according to Andrew Bohenko, Mercedes-Benz Stadium sustainability coordinator.

That required a significant amount of education for employees and fans, and also working with vendors and other departments within the company to ensure that “there was buy-in across all our of two-million-square-foot footprint,” Bohenko said.

Ultimately, the stadium saw more than 95% compliance from fans putting trash in the right receptacles, and it projects a $400,000 yearly return on its initial investment while spending about 13 cents per guest for its overall zero-waste efforts right now. AMBSE has even created a “playbook” for other stadium operators to follow if they also want to get to zero waste.

“Everyone understands that the environment is our number one global challenge. It’s reached a level of critical mass where people have moved past greenwashing, and they’re making substantive changes to their business practices,” Cannon said. “The platform that sports represents has a disproportionate impact on our society at large, so if you think about the aggregated impact of all ballparks and stadiums across America diverting waste from landfills that’s huge, but where it becomes even more important is the power of the platform to influence other businesses – then you start to really make meaningful change.”

Johnson said Seattle’s zero-waste push has led to savings as well, as composting costs less than sending garbage to a landfill.

Reaching fans, sponsors and performers through sustainability

Fenway Farms, a roof top garden in Boston’s Fenway Park, on July 6, 2020.

Boston Globe | Getty Images

Another impactful revenue opportunity related to the arena’s sustainability push, according to Johnson, is reaching new fans.

“Folks under 40, who we are all cultivating as critically important fans to our success in the future, identify the environment as one of their top three global concerns,” he said. “So, we believe it’s not just the right thing for us to do for the planet, but we also think that we’re speaking to a demographic that is key to the future of the success of our industry.”

Kristen Fulmer, senior director of sustainability at OVG360 parent company Oak View Group, said while it’s clear that “sustainability can be a good business,” there still can be confusion about what that really means.

“Sustainability is kind of noisy; ESG is a catchphrase that everyone knows but doesn’t quite know the meaning of, so there are some things that we can demystify about it,” Fulmer said. “We want to help them figure out what are things that are relevant to me, my specific building, my specific market, my community, my employees, so that they can hone in on something that’s really unique.”

Granger pointed to efforts like Sacramento’s Golden One Center where the arena is powered by 100% renewable and solar energy, and Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, where a deep-lake water cooling system utilizing nearby Lake Ontario helps keep the building cool and eliminates the need for air conditioning compressors.

Making sustainability a key part of any construction or building project is also becoming table stakes for bonds, loans, and other financial measurements, both Granger and Fulmer noted, a critical factor for many of the aging arenas and stadiums across the U.S. likely due for upgrades or full replacements in the coming decade.

It also matters more for artists and athletes. Granger said there are musicians asking for vegan or plant-based food options or asking buildings to let fans bring reusable water bottles to reduce the impact of single-use plastics.

Johnson said that when singer Billie Eilish came to Seattle to perform in 2022, her tour rider required the arena to not use single-use plastics for at least the night that she was to preform.

“That was a big inspiration for us; if Billie Eilish can come through your building and you’ll move to no single-use plastics for one night, why couldn’t you do it for the other 364 nights,” he said. Ahead of the tour date, Eilish’s mother and sustainability advocate Maggie Baird asked to tour the arena, telling Johnson and Seattle’s team that they “operationalized” the rider,” Johnson said. Seattle has given tours to numerous artists, teams, athletes and other organizations wanting to see more of the building’s practices in action.

All of these factors are pointing towards a future where sports and sustainability are more intertwined, Fulmer said.

“In the sustainability world we often say that imperfection gets in the way and creates inaction, and I think people are always really scared to not quite be perfect. In the sports world of course we all want to be perfect or always win,” she said. “Here, small wins are really important, and they’re leading to bigger wins.”

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April 29, 2023
Orange Closes Pre-Seed Round to Bring Affordable EV Charging to Apartments

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Orange is signaling its intent to drive EV adoption by bringing reliable, affordable EV charging to apartments and disadvantaged communities.

Press Release
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Jan 25, 2023 07:00 EST

SAN FRANCISCO, January 25, 2023 (Newswire.com)
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Today, Orange announced the close of its $2.5MM pre-seed round to scale affordable electric vehicle charging for apartment communities by leveraging lower-powered charging solutions.

Founded by former Tesla engineers and backed by prominent EV investors, Orange is creating an affordable charging platform that provides site owners with a compelling return on investment while maintaining equitable costs, bringing EV charging to more disadvantaged communities.

Orange installs EV chargers for the lowest possible cost while providing enough energy to satisfy daily driving needs using lower-powered 120-volt and 240-volt solutions. More stations are installed on the same circuit, making EV charging possible for the maximum number of residents at any property.

The Orange Outlet lowers the costs of charging for 39 million Americans living in apartment communities by ~70% over traditional charging solutions and carries little to no maintenance cost due to its simplified design. Additionally, Orange leverages the proprietary software, OrangeNet, which allows property owners to manage outlets across multiple sites and brings an average return on investment of 150%.

“Orange has achieved equitable access to electricity by re-thinking the entire process of vehicle charging by creating a system specifically for apartment communities, rather than pushing a public charging model that doesn’t fit onto them,” Nicholas Johnson, Orange CEO, said.

Baukunst, a leading pre-seed firm investing at the frontiers of technology and design, led the round. They are joined by notable angel investors in the EV space, including Tesla co-founders Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard, Johnathan Crowder, founder of the energy-focused firm Intellus Capital, and Sven Thesan, a Nobel-winning chemist.

About Orange
Redwood City, CA-based Orange is an electric vehicle charging solutions provider at multi-unit properties led by technology entrepreneurs and electrical experts. Founded in 2020, Orange offers customers an affordable and scalable way to bring EV charging capabilities to their residents by leveraging lower-powered charging outlets that reduce total costs by upwards of 70% compared to traditional charging solutions. The company’s innovative approach allows the millions of Americans living in multi-family housing access to affordable charging. For more information, please visit orangecharger.com.

INVESTOR QUOTES

Matt Thoms, General Partner at Baukunst:
“We’re thrilled to lead the pre-seed round for Nicholas and the team at Orange. At Baukunst, we believe a charging solution designed specifically for affordability and rapid adoption in apartment communities will catalyze the equitable EV movement.”

Marc Tarpenning, Co-founder of Tesla Motors and Venture Partner at Spero Venture:
“Orange’s low-cost EV charging solution for apartment communities solves a major problem for widespread and equitable EV adoption. We are excited to be part of Orange’s journey.”

Jonathan Crowder, Partner at Intelis Capital:
“We’re excited to partner with the Orange Charger team on their mission to solve the challenge of delivering affordable and convenient EV charging solutions for multi-family property residents and building owners.”

Source: Orange

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January 25, 2023
Green Ideas Celebrates 20 Years of Building Science Success

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Green Ideas Building Science Consultants has provided industry-leading services to develop sustainable, high-performance building projects for two decades.

Press Release
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Oct 6, 2022

PHOENIX, October 6, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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October 2022 marks Green Ideas Building Science Consultants‘ 20th year of helping businesses, universities and Architecture-Engineering-Construction professionals create resource-efficient projects with minimal environmental impact and maximum return on investment.

Charlie Popeck, President of Green Ideas and one of the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Accredited Professionals in the United States, founded the Arizona Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2002, which was the second-ever chapter of the national non-profit organization. Charlie has personally trained more than 40,000 industry professionals to pass the LEED Professional Accreditation exams over the last 20 years.

After two decades of performing building science consultation, the company has completed over 150 high-performance building projects, including 110 LEED-certified projects throughout the country. From the iconic Phoenix Convention Center in Arizona (LEED Silver) to the BASF Near-Zero Energy Home in New Jersey (LEED Platinum), Green Ideas maintains its business approach to high-performance building design, construction, and operations. Other notable projects include the Intel Ocotillo Campus, one of the most complicated manufacturing facilities on earth, and the General Dynamics Roosevelt and Hayden facilities, the largest LEED-certified industrial projects in the U.S. at the time of its certification. A complete list of Green Ideas’ projects can be found here.

Since its inception in 2002, Green Ideas has worked closely with many building owners and developers to save massive amounts of energy and water. Upon reaching the company’s 20th-year milestone, Charlie stated, “We’ve had some challenges transforming the commercial real estate market over the years but I’m proud of the energy and water savings we have achieved, as well as creating healthy indoor environments for building occupants…all while saving clients operating and maintenance costs.”

About Green Ideas^® Building Science Consultants
Green Ideas is a full-service building science consulting firm offering 3D energy and daylight modeling, building commissioning, and world-class LEED certification services. The firm is designated as a LEED Proven Provider by Green Business Certification Inc. and is a certified B Corporation. Its clients are building owners, architects, engineers, contractors, real estate developers, facility managers, and corporate entities wishing to establish business advantages through high-performance building practices. With a vision as bold as the results they achieve, Green Ideas is dedicated to transforming the market by promoting building science through a “triple bottom line” approach to business operations. Follow Green Ideas on Linkedin for more up-to-date information and latest projects.

Source: Green Ideas

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October 6, 2022
AC is hard on the planet. This building has a sustainable solution | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
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In mid-July at the construction site at 1 Java Street in Brooklyn, New York, the outside temperatures can reach sweltering highs in the 90s. But 500-feet underground, it’s 55 degrees all year round.

That stable, underground temperature will be key to making life comfortable in the residential building that will soon sit on the site, a scenic spot in the Greenpoint neighborhood along Brooklyn’s waterfront.

With 834 rental apartments plus commercial space, 1 Java Street is set to be the largest multifamily, residential building with “geothermal” heating and cooling system in New York State — and potentially the country — when it’s completed in late 2025, according to developer Lendlease.

Geothermal technology is essentially a more eco-friendly version of an HVAC system, allowing the building spaces and water to be cooled and heated more efficiently, without traditional window AC units and natural gas. Lendlease says the technology will make it possible for the nearly 790,000-square foot building to release around 55% less carbon and achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

With summer temperatures reaching record highs around the world, experts say finding ways to cool buildings that are less taxing on the environment could be crucial in fighting climate change. Even back in 2018, air conditioning and electric fans accounted for around 20% of total global electricity use, according to a report cpublished that year by the International Energy Agency. Now, energy and urban development experts are urging cities and developers to implement new solutions to keep buildings cooler. And both New York City and the Biden administration have identified geothermal systems as one way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Whenever we look at a site, we consider how we can make it more sustainable,” Layth Madi, Lendlease’s senior vice president and director of development, told CNN, adding that the development firm is aiming to reach net zero by 2025 and be fully decarbonized by 2040.

“I think many residents will choose to live in this building because of its green credentials,” Madi said. “We know a lot of people are thinking about climate change and our impact on the planet.”

Geothermal plumbing works by sending water from a building deep into the ground below it to take advantage of the earth’s naturally stable internal temperature — on hot days, the underground temperature will reduce the temperature of warm water from the building to help with cooling; on cold days, it will warm up cold water to help with heating.

At 1 Java Street, construction crews are drilling 320 holes, each around 4 inches in diameter and 499-feet deep, to create the building’s geothermal piping system through which the water will be pumped.

“Your thermostat turns on and it tells your building, ‘I need heating or cooling.’ And it energizes pumps, and those pumps flow fluid through the [geothermal] circuit that we’ve established here on site,” said Adam Alaica, director of engineering and development at Geosource Energy, the Canadian firm that’s installing and drilling the vertical geothermal piping at 1 Java Street.

For now, the process doesn’t come cheap. Installing the building’s geothermal system increased construction costs by around 6%, according to Madi, and required securing equipment and trained manpower that remains relatively scarce.

“We’re seeing rapid growth — I would say approaching that of exponential growth year over year in interest in the technology, which is very exciting for the industry as a whole,” Alacia said. “The bottlenecks to that growth have always been, and will continue to be in the years to come, specialty machinery to implement this infrastructure and the people resources it takes to do this.”

Eventually, though, as more developers invest in geothermal and more companies provide the specialty training needed to install the technology — Geosource operates its own training program — Madi said he expects the costs to come down. And once the building is up and running, it should be more cost efficient to heat and cool.

Lendlease didn’t specify whether residents of 1 Java Street will experience any cost savings on utilities thanks to the geothermal system (the units themselves will be priced at market rate, with 30% of them set aside as affordable housing). “Ultimately, it will be up to tenants to manage their power consumption and work with the utility company on billing,” the company told CNN.

While 1 Java Street will be one of relatively few geothermal buildings in the state, the companies behind its development say New York — and the world — could use more buildings like it.

“Geothermal is not a new technology … there’s kind of a primitive component to it, using the earth as a heat source and heat sink,” Alacia said. “In general, geothermal can really be used anywhere you have ground under your feet … The cost and the business case can vary, but technically it has strong credentials really anywhere in the country.”

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April 12, 2021