.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} The first modern sustainable building in Iowa was constructed on the University of Northern Iowa’s campus in the mid-1990s, about the same time the U.S. Green Building Council was formed. Since then, only a handful of buildings in Iowa have achieved USBGC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard.

But the trend may pick up rapidly, with more than 20 projects in Iowa registered with the council’s LEED program and several more striving to achieve high energy-conservation goals. Architects are leading this effort.

Historically, said Kevin Nordmeyer, a partner at RDG Planning & Design and chair of the USGBC’s Iowa chapter, architects have done what their clients have asked. Though this remains true today, he said many architects are becoming educated about energy conservation and sustainable and green practices and have worked to spread that knowledge to building owners. They are becoming more proactive about using better building design.

The number of LEED-accredited professionals, primarily architects, in Iowa today is nearly 200. “It’s just been growing exponentially,” Nordmeyer said.

“We are seeing an increase in interest in green building both coming from our membership at [the American Institute of Architects] and also clients asking about it,” said Tony Holub, an architect at RDG and chair of the committee on the environment for the Iowa chapter of AIA. “It seems to be much more in the mainstream media’s mind.”

Though only about 2 percent of buildings currently being designed in Iowa follow these standards, Holub said, more people are familiar with the concepts, which could lead to more in the future.

Futurist David Zach, who spoke at the AIA’s spring conference last week, believes architects will lead the sustainable and green building effort if they are willing to push for these principles with their clients. He said this is part of a worldwide trend to design buildings not just for function but also for aesthetic value, which being green is a part of.

“A lot was pushed by it being a fad,” Zach said, “It got people to buy into it based on the passion of ‘Let’s save the earth.’ What’s going to bring it into the much broader marketplace is ‘Let’s save some money.’ That makes it pretty valid.”

Architects play an important role in sustainable design, because a project is more effective if it is designed with these goals in mind from the beginning, said Jason Alread, a partner at Substance Architecture. Sustainable design by its nature takes a holistic approach to building.

“We’re sort of the ones that herd the cats,” Holub said, “We bring everyone to the table and make sure everyone is communicating effectively.”

Though it costs more to become LEED certified upfront, if a client commits to it from the beginning, he or she has more opportunities for features that can reduce energy use and maintenance, even as simple as a building’s position and how many windows it has, Alread said.

So far in Iowa, the public sector is setting the example. The four completed projects on the LEED list are on university and school campuses, and the majority of those registered are for university or government-related facilities. Part of this is because the government recognizes that sustainable design can save taxpayers money in the future through lower operating costs and buildings that will last longer.

Plus, the government is requiring high standards for public buildings. The Iowa Legislature may pass a bill this session that would require all state-funded projects to be LEED certified.

An extension to the Iowa State University College of Design
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The Environmental Protection Agency, through its National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit program, also is looking not just at the quantity of storm water that systems can handle, but also how the water is being treated, placing stricter standards on city development, said Doug Adamson, landscape architect and founder of Site + Inc., a landscape architecture and planning firm. As a result, many of Site +’s clients are government agencies looking for landscape features such as bioswales, retention cells and rain gardens that draw rainwater into the soil which can then be treated biologically rather than allowing it to run off into rivers and lakes.

Sustainable and green design have also become more popular among home builders as energy costs have increased. Cynthia O’Brien, co-founder of Urban Elevation, a new architecture and interior design firm, said that about every third client asks about sustainable practices.

“It’s really a process of working together with a client on having their spaces still be functional and energy efficient, cost effective and where it’s at a comfort level, where they’re comfortable with using and discovering new products,” she said.

Commercial development is slower to follow, especially standards as high as LEED, because there’s an upfront cost to have a building certified, Alread said.

“It hasn’t really come to fruition, but companies are starting to look at these things,” Adamson said. “I think the greener you are these days, it’s definitely something that they can market.”

Many businesses in Central Iowa have been at least interested in energy conservation practices, RDG’s Nordmeyer said, because of their cost impact.

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield has expressed interest in having RDG incorporate some sustainable and green features when it designs its new headquarters, and the Crosswinds development near the Northeast Mixmaster plans to be a sustainable community.

Still, green projects are far less common in Iowa than in the rest of the nation, Holub said. In Chicago, for example, the city has mandated that all commercial and public buildings be at least LEED silver certified, the program’s lowest level.

Architects say that for these practices to take off more in the commercial sector, businesses need to look not only at the initial cost of the project, but also at the long-term savings and other benefits.

A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study conducted in 2000, for example, found that building characteristics and indoor environments can increase the occurrence of communicable respiratory illness, allergy, and asthma, “sick building” symptoms and reduce worker productivity.

The study estimated the potential national savings from health and productivity gains after indoor environmental quality improvements could be up to $56 billion.

Holub points out that there is not one solution to environmental problems through design. Though energy is the focus now, water conservation could be an issue in the near future, he said.

“It’s going to take a lot of different technologies, strategies and a lot of people believing it’s an important thing for us to protect our way of life, our standard of living, while balancing that with social justice and environmental justice,” he said.