Performance
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As part of our goal to monitor energy use in every Lake | Flato project, we've outfitted another house with its own eMonitor. These monitors test our ability to design energy efficient buildings, allow clients to control their energy consumption and give us the information we need to improve our practice. Throughout the design process we chose passive systems, insulation, glazing, lighting and HVAC systems using energy modelling software to predict energy use. The performance of our projects is tested during post-occupancy; eMonitors provide us with up-to-the-minute data from every circuit in...
The Big Give S.A. is a 24-hour online giving event that will last until 11:59pm tonight. It’s our day to celebrate San Antonio’s spirit of generosity and support the work of nonprofits. The goal of the event is to introduce supporters to all of the wonderful charitable organizations located in South Central Texas. Please consider giving to Solar San Antonio and Build San Antonio Green, two local nonprofits that Lake|Flato has been deeply involved with for several years.
The American Institute of Architects have selected the Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Projects for 2015. These buildings are the top ten (plus one legacy project) examples of sustainable design projects in North America. The COTE Top Ten Awards program, now in its 19th year, is the profession's most rigorous recognition program for sustainable design excellence. Congratulations to all of this year's winners . We are very excited to see that two of the winning projects are right here in San Antonio, Texas!
The U.S. Green Building Council will now recognize energy and water requirements from the Living Building Challenge green building system within the LEED green building program. USGBC says it shares common goals with the International Living Future Institute, developers of the Living Building Challenge. This move means that projects achieving the energy and water requirements in Living Building Challenge will be considered as technically equivalent to LEED. You can read more about this news in USGBC's press release .
The Josey miniseries is back and better than before with re-branded sustainability graphics! At Lake Flato, we are pushing forward with our efforts to visually display the graphs and data of the sustainability world and after a month hiatus, here they are. This is the fourth and fith post of a thirteen post series on the process of obtaining Living Building Status. Each month over the next year, we will be posting an update on our water and energy usage as well as an overview on how we achieved each of the 20 imperatives mandated by The Living Building Challenge. Since the last update in...
Say hello to the newest member of our team, Dorothy. Coming in at over 7 feet tall, she is a hard worker who really puts her head to the wind in everything does. Dorothy is energized on sunny days, and lets everybody know when it is raining. Named after the iconic robot from the movie Twister , Dorothy is our new weather station. The unit remotely logs weather data that can be viewed and analyzed using HOBOware software. Powered by solar, the device can report a comprehensive list of climate information, including temperature, relative humidity, dew point, and wind speed (as well as direction...
A recent article in The Guardian cites several studies on sustainable offices and why workers are demanding healthy work environments.
Lake|Flato has a very high percentage of employees who commute daily by bicycle. This study has some great information on how that impacts our happiness and well-being. Via BikePortland.org (brought to me via Rand Pinson ): "Commuters who bike to work are the most satisfied with their morning travel, according to a new study by Portland State Urban Studies Planning Graduate School. The study concludes that commuters who walk to work were almost as happy as cyclists, the least happy being solo drivers. Considering that 76.6% of Americans drive alone to work, the findings should resonate with...
November was a big month for the Josey pavilion. After winning an AIA San Antonio Honor Award and celebrating its official grand opening, the pavilion is still operating as predicted, recording an energy surplus of 68 kWh after two months of occupancy. This is the third post of a thirteen post series on the process of obtaining Living Building Status. Each month over the next year, we will be posting an update on our water and energy usage as well as an overview on how we achieved each of the 20 imperatives mandated by The Living Building Challenge. After a solid performance in October, Josey...
Lake|Flato's Andrew Herdeg will serve as a juror for AIA New York's inaugural COTE Awards . The local awards program was inspired by the national AIA COTE Top 10 program , which awards the 10 best projects for sustainable design in North America each year. The AIANY COTE Awards will recognize truly sustainable projects within 100 miles on Manhattan that set the standard for both beauty and performance.
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