This report is an exploration of the theoretical and applied aspects of green affordable housing. First, it presents an in-depth examination of the current status of green affordable housing by exploring the synergy between green rating systems which guide and certify developments and the financial and policy mechanisms which either support or curtail them. Second, this report will analyze diverse case studies from around the country in order to examine how green affordable housing is developed in various real-world contexts. Two-tiers of case studies are presented: secondary and primary. Secondary case studies receive a brief overview while the primary case study examines in-depth an ongoing development in Austin, Texas. The primary case is also an example of current innovative movements and provides a glimpse into what the future of green affordable housing might look like. And lastly, conclusions are drawn from the research that itemize best practices in green affordable housing. The report concludes that green affordable housing is not an easy development practice and thus, recommendations are provided to ease some of the existing barriers to further development. This report also concludes that while costbenefit analyses and arguments for energy-efficiency are salient, concerns for public and environmental health need equal weight in the argument and advocacy for green affordable housing. I argue that green affordable housing should be developed with an integrated design process specific to local context, with a local visioning process that cultivates community connections. And most importantly, education for housing providers and tenants regarding on-going operations and maintenance is a crucial part of that integrated design process. / text

Green design is now a ubiquitous term in the profession of architecture, yet the energy performance of buildings in real-world conditions is poorly documented. A large number of buildings use substantially more energy than is predicted during design, and one possible explanation is that designers do not adequately understand the impact of thermal bridging through insulation on the energy use of a building. This study proposes a methodology that uses the parametric design program Grasshopper to quantitatively analyze infrared images for the degree of thermal bridging in a wall assembly. The end result is a user-friendly tool that architects can use to study the relative energy performance of their buildings in the field, giving them an increased understanding of the energy efficiency of their designs. Case studies of various details show a ten to fifty-five percent reduction in the effective R-value of the overall wall assemblies due to thermal bridging. / 10000-01-01

Master of Science / Department of Architectural Engineering and Construction Science / Charles L. Burton / Ground source heat pump systems have been around for nearly 50 years. The efficiencies that can be achieved today are difficult to match with any other type of heating and air conditioning system. With the familiarity of the system, installed costs have become very reasonable, and in some cases have been the same or less expensive than other comparable systems. Given all this, the question remains – why aren't more of these systems being proposed and installed? This report will investigate some of the reasons why and what can be done to remedy them. Major issues include professional education, availability of research and design material, industry or governmental incentives, and education in our K-12 schools and universities. Certainly all participants in the design process, from the designer to the owner, play a part in this dilemma. Recommendations will be made that address key hurdles this industry faces regarding making ground source heat pumps the system of choice.

No description available.

Master of Science / Department of Architecture / David R. Seamon / In this thesis, biomimicry is defined as imitating or taking inspiration from nature’s forms and processes to solve human problems (Benyus, 1997). As the design community realizes the tremendous impact human constructions have on the world, environmental designers look to new approaches like biomimicry to advance sustainable design. Building upon the claim made by biomimicry scientists that a full emulation of nature engages form, ecosystem, and process, this thesis uses a phenomenological approach to interpret human and environmental wholeness. Phenomenology broadens biomimicry’s scientific and technical focus on nature and considers how wholeness can be found among form, ecosystem, and process; and between people and environment. The thesis argues that, without a deeper, more responsive connectedness among people, nature, and built environment, any proposal for sustainable design will ultimately be incomplete and thus unsuccessful. In developing this phenomenological critique, the thesis reinterprets several environmental designs from the perspective of human and environmental wholeness: American architect Eugene Tsui’s hypothetical Ultima Tower; South African architect Michael Pearce’s Eastgate project in Zimbabwe; the Altamont Pass Wind Energy Development in California; Montana philosopher Gordon Brittan’s Windjammer wind turbine; American environmentalist David Orr’s Lewis Center at Ohio’s Oberlin College; and American architect Christopher Alexander’s Eishin campus in Japan. The collective claims developed in this phenomenological critique identify considerations and approaches that move beyond replacement technologies and systems to describe a way of environmental designing and making that is necessary for actualizing a more realistic sustainability in regard to both the natural and human-made worlds.

<p>Traditional manufacturing industries develop the contradiction between human beings and the environment is becoming more and more serious. In order to solve this problem, the establishment of green supply chain management can to be a way, to introduce the idea of sustainable development in practice. The pollution from the car industry is a problem today, so developing green supply chain management is important. The purpose of this thesis is to establish green supply chain management supplier evaluation index system by taking BYD as an example. In this thesis, we study the problem by using primary and secondary data, by combining the reality with the theories. First, we introduce the principle and basic situation of green supply chain management in China now, then we analyze the aspects that green supply chain management should include in BYD. We propose a plan for the improvement of green supply chain management in BYD and construct the GSCM performance index system. Eventually we proformce a plan for the establishment of green supply chain management in BYD.</p>

Sustainability is quickly becoming a “buzz word” in today’s environmentally conscious world from political leaders to building professionals to design experts to consumers as they rethink their impact on current healthy, efficient indoor/outdoor environments as well as long term benefits to future generations. This paper seeks to investigate ways to increase the structural engineer’s influence over the sustainability of the building industry by using integrated design teams. It explores current practices within the building industry, in particular the housing industry and the ways in which the integrated design team differs from most current practices. It strives to promote the positive impact an integrated design team with structural engineers on board from the onset has on the design process as far as time, cost, and environmental concerns are considered. This paper continues by establishing methods for measuring the success of an integrated design team,its effects on sustainability, and how the structural engineer was involved. The focus of this paper is the New Norris House class project: its background and the integrated design team’s process as it differs from the traditional design concept. The results of the project including the LEED and HERS rating and material efficiency and the impact of the structural engineer’s inputs from the onset will be discussed. The paper ends with a discussion on the differences between the educational and professional community and how integrated design teams are an efficient and cost effective way to achieve high levels of sustainability.

Traditional manufacturing industries develop the contradiction between human beings and the environment is becoming more and more serious. In order to solve this problem, the establishment of green supply chain management can to be a way, to introduce the idea of sustainable development in practice. The pollution from the car industry is a problem today, so developing green supply chain management is important. The purpose of this thesis is to establish green supply chain management supplier evaluation index system by taking BYD as an example. In this thesis, we study the problem by using primary and secondary data, by combining the reality with the theories. First, we introduce the principle and basic situation of green supply chain management in China now, then we analyze the aspects that green supply chain management should include in BYD. We propose a plan for the improvement of green supply chain management in BYD and construct the GSCM performance index system. Eventually we proformce a plan for the establishment of green supply chain management in BYD.

Sustainability is quickly becoming a “buzz word” in today’s environmentally conscious world from political leaders to building professionals to design experts to consumers as they rethink their impact on current healthy, efficient indoor/outdoor environments as well as long term benefits to future generations.This paper seeks to investigate ways to increase the structural engineer’s influence over the sustainability of the building industry by using integrated design teams. It explores current practices within the building industry, in particular the housing industry and the ways in which the integrated design team differs from most current practices. It strives to promote the positive impact an integrated design team with structural engineers on board from the onset has on the design process as far as time, cost, and environmental concerns are considered. This paper continues by establishing methods for measuring the success of an integrated design team,its effects on sustainability, and how the structural engineer was involved.The focus of this paper is the New Norris House class project: its background and the integrated design team’s process as it differs from the traditional design concept. The results of the project including the LEED and HERS rating and material efficiency and the impact of the structural engineer’s inputs from the onset will be discussed. The paper ends with a discussion on the differences between the educational and professional community and how integrated design teams are an efficient and cost effective way to achieve high levels of sustainability.

Throughout time, our natural environment has been one of the only constants in our evolution. While cultures change and evolve, nature's beauty and positive effects on humans have always been present. Unfortunately, our built environment has generated much attention for its profound impact on our natural environment. Buildings in the United States consume a third of our total energy use, raw material use, and waste output, not to mention the negative effects they can have on our well-being, economy, health and productivity. In an effort to protect our natural environment, our built environment must become more responsible to the environment and the building users. A great stride has been made lately with the emergence of organizations like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and the US Green Building Council. These organizations have pinpointed the benefits that result from building green. Still, sustainable design has become complicated and is missing the awareness and priority of the qualitative experiences one receives when their built environment and natural environment coexist. With this thesis, I explored an evolving building type, the library, as a symbol of our evolving culture and its relationship to nature; studied the phenomenological relationship between humans and their natural environment; defined basic design principles for sustainable design; analyzed successful and unsuccessful examples of libraries and sustainable architecture; studied the process of programming a building efficiently; and explored creating architectural and natural environmental experiences. This thesis proposed a design of a new academic library in Sarasota, Florida. It is located on the campus of New College of Florida on the Sarasota Bay, servicing New College of Florida, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, and the general public. This project's goal was to give both library users and the public the opportunity to have memorable, sensory experiences of architecture and nature in their everyday life and buildings they inhabit. This constant reminder of the beauty of nature will place a desire in the public to protect and preserve it. While nature is defined as the 'constant', it will only be a constant throughout time if we take care of it now.