Sustainability Matters - Blog

Concepts

How Will California’s New Energy Code Affect School Design and Construction?

Recently, Michael Adams of Glumac’s Energy team sat down with HMC Architects to discuss the impacts of Title 24 code updates on the design of education spaces. His interview is reproduced here with HMC’s permission. Every three years, the California Energy Commission (CEC) updates its section of the Building Standards Code, Title 24 Part 6 […]

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The Carbon Reduction Opportunity of Adaptive Reuse is Too Large to Ignore

We’ve discussed building embodied carbon a lot at Glumac, stating its overall necessity as part of a global carbon drawdown, strategies for reducing it in new buildings, and even the impact material choices have on a building’s life-long carbon footprint. And that materials challenge looms large. Though many manufacturers still do not disclose the embodied […]

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Carbon Drawdown: An Imperative in the Built Environment

Human influence on warming the atmosphere, ocean, and land is an unequivocal fact. Each of the last four decades has been successively warmer than any decade that preceded it since 1850 as greenhouse gas (GHG) have continued to concentrate in the atmosphere. In 2019, atmospheric CO2 concentrations were higher than at any time in at […]

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Materials: Beyond Energy’s Impact on a Building’s Carbon Footprint

While a lot of attention is paid to the role transportation plays in the massive carbon draw down necessary to mitigate the worst effects of climate change, designers in the built environment actually have a much larger piece of the carbon pie to slice: Building materials. Expanded public transit and electric vehicles definitely play a […]

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Data-Driven Design Series | The Impact of Building Electrification

For our latest installment in our Data-Driven Design Series, we spoke with Brian Goldcrump, Glumac’s Northern Region Energy Director, about the impact our power grid has on building decarbonization. With the recent efforts by states on the West Coast to divorce their energy grid from fossil fuels, building system electrification now presents a real and […]

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Personal Environments to Mitigate the Spread of COVID-19

As part of our work with Tetra Tech’s COVID-19 Task Force, we discussed with Dr. Willaim Bahnfleth, Chairman of the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force, and Dr. Michael Kaiser, esteemed infectious disease expert, how personal environment style air purifiers can mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the built environment, and create healthier spaces in the future. […]

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Design Challenge: Focus on Future Occupants

Over the next several weeks, we will be publishing a series on Sustainable Building Design Challenges and how our Sustainability Consulting Team responds to them. We asked the group a series of questions related to building design. This is the first entry in that series. How do we make sure today’s big picture thinking results […]

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Bipolar Ionization & COVID-19: Our Experts Weigh In

Bipolar Ionization has been claimed to potentially mitigate, or reduce, the spread of bacteria and viruses throughout a space. Bipolar Ionization works by introducing positive and negative ions into the air. The ionization causes production of clusters of hydroxyl (OH) radicals, which are formed on the surface of microbes, removing hydrogen from the microbes’ cell […]

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Expert Interview: The Role MEP Design Plays in Designing Equitable Spaces

We spoke to Mechanical Engineer Staci Atwater on how MEP engineers and architects can work together to create more equitable spaces for occupants. Staci is certified as a WELL Accredited Professional and Living Future Ambassador. She specializes in sustainable projects, such as net zero energy (NZE) buildings and projects pursuing LEED, WELL, or Living Building […]

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Fresh Air & Daylight: The Importance of Healthy Buildings in a Pandemic

Wellness may finally be having its day as a critical function of building design. Over the last decade, architects and engineers have been working to educate owners and developers on the wellness impacts of sustainable building design approaches in creating healthier and more productive lives for their occupants. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that […]

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What Can We Learn from Going Back to Work in Glumac Shanghai Office?

Along with much of China, our Shanghai team has already begun returning to its office. It’s a high-performance space with some of the best air quality in the country. But during a pandemic, adjustments need to be made to maintain the health and safety of our staff. Life is different. The basic ways we navigate […]

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Trim Tab Magazine: Rethinking High Performance Buildings

When the sustainable building design community discusses resilient buildings, the dialogue is often couched in phrases like “onsite energy independence,” “future-proofing,” and “community readiness.” Yet, as we’ve learned from the increasing incidence of traumatic climate-related events, resiliency goes beyond keeping buildings upright and lights on. We have seen (and some of us may have unfortunately […]

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The Case for Timber Structures in Sustainable Building Design

The timber trend is beginning to gain traction as a potential change agent in sustainable building design  – particularly in forest-heavy areas of the country like the Pacific Northwest. And it’s due in large part to the increasing availability of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT). CLT is a prefabricated material consisting of sustainably-sourced lumber layered in […]

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MEP Engineering: Cost-Effective Comfort with Radiant Heating and Cooling 

At this point, a lot of digital ink has been spent discussing the benefits of radiant heating and cooling systems in the built environment. Traditional forced-air systems, while cheaper to install, use more energy to properly condition a space. Radiant solutions often recommended by MEP engineering experts because they are more effective in providing and […]

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Utilizing the Structure to Reduce Energy in Building Design

Energy efficiency continues to weave itself into the expectation of building design. Building trades, including Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, and Structural Engineers, are having to modify their general practices. The new requirements of building codes, namely energy codes, are subsequently forcing age-old structural detailing into a new realm. Moreover, as designers seek to get the most bang […]

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Great Projects

Closing The Loop in Sustainable Building Design

It’s an idea that’s drilled into most our heads as children in one form or another: clean your room, put your toys away, when you leave a place be sure it’s as clean as you found it. Basically – be responsible for your actions, and close the loop on them. It would seem obvious that […]

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Getting Back to Nature: Why Does Biophilic Design Seem so New?

We’ve discussed the benefits of biophilic design in this space on several occasions. It is the practice of integrating nature into the built environment. But one question that lingers is – why does it seem so new? People tend to enjoy opening a window, taking in a view, and observing nature-based patterns. For this reason, […]

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New Thinking About Building Performance Energy Metrics

In the past two decades our industry has seen a significant shift toward a focus on energy efficiency and sustainability. In order to properly gauge whether this shift has had a quantifiable impact, terms such as Energy Use Intensity (EUI), Power Use Effectiveness (PUE), and Gallons/Day have become commonplace. These simplified metrics are useful tools […]

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Healthy Building Design and the WELL Building Standard

“Green building” became a buzzword in the A/E/C industry about 15 years ago, and since then design conversations have mainly focused on performance. Improvements to occupant wellness was simply assumed as a side benefit. After all, a healthy planet can better support the health of growing populations. Sounds like a win-win. But as we prioritized […]

Concepts

G Force One Takes Flight:
Glumac Uses Drone with Thermographic Camera to Evaluate Building Facades

Our in-house drone pilot recently flew over the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in Portland, Oregon. Click below for footage of that flight and to see G-Force One in action!   For more information on G Force One, and to schedule a flight in your area, please email us at [email protected].