It could be getting pretty stuffy in your office these days, so just reach over and crank open the window, adjust the venetian blind to bounce the sunlight off the ceiling (you won’t need the fluorescents) and let the fresh spring air ramp up your creativity.

Of course, in a lot of modern buildings, you can’t do that. Your window units are sealed and you don’t have individual air and heat controls for your workstation.

Greener building design with more natural light and ventilation saves money and improves office worker productivity in addition to using fewer resources, according to discussions at the fifth annual Sustainable Building Symposium last week. More than 300 people attended the Calgary and Edmonton sessions, representing the public and private sectors.

David Marlow photo
Amory Lovins shows off the Rocky Mountain Institute interior

In a keynote speech titled Sustainable Buildings Make Business $ense, Amory Lovins, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo., cited several examples of buildings that were more environmentally friendly than normal while providing better working and living conditions.

Lovins said high-efficiency equipment doesn’t raise costs. North American motors don’t rise in price with efficiency up to 225 kilowatts, and the same goes for industrial pumps, most rooftop chillers, refrigerators and televisions.

At the Rocky Mountain Institute’s headquarters, bananas grow indoors without a furnace in a place where the altitude is 2,200 metres and temperatures can reach -44°C in winter. The building is super-insulated, and its windows have krypton gas between the double glazing and spectrally selective film coating. The windows have 10 measurable benefits in construction, but only one price tag, he said.

“When I want to turn on the air conditioning, I open the window,” he said. “To turn on the furnace, I open the curtains.”

At the other climatic extreme, a house in Davis, Calif., stays comfortable without an air conditioner despite summer heat of 45°C.

Much of what attendees heard at the symposium is not rocket science. Hot air rises, so duct it vertically out the building. Windows encourage air flow. White paint reflects heat. And so on.

The 50,000-sq.-metreING Bank headquarters in Amsterdam was built within budget at market cost and achieved a 90-per-cent energy savings. The windows open, and solar energy is collected by active and passive means. The cooling system is passive, with a back-up chiller system.

The bank found absenteeism dropped 15 per cent when it moved into the building, its stodgy public image improved, and it went from No. 4 to No. 2 in the marketplace.

The green design of Four Times Square in New York achieved market average construction cost for the 47-storey, 149,000-sq.-m tower. It saves 40 per cent on energy.

Another of Lovins’ examples was the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. The 1871 structure incorporated vertical air chimneys in the walls and a glass-domed cupola to carry away heat. Over the years, their purpose was forgotten. The wall passages were filled with wires and ducts as technology grew more complex, and 782 window air conditioners were installed.

Besides Lovins, speakers from the public and private sectors discussed topics including business examples, building materials and case studies of sustainable building design.

Kevin Hydes, president of Keen Engineering, said the computer science building at Toronto’s York University presented an interesting opportunity. Keen did the mechanical engineering on a team that included architects, structural engineers and electrical engineers, who took 18 months to design the building. Nothing was drawn until eight months into the planning.

The building uses low-tech solutions such as natural ventilation and exposed concrete to absorb and then slowly release heat. The mechanical system is 50-per-cent smaller than in a conventional building.

The team approach was raised in a presentation by Seattle city architect Tony Gale and sustainable building program leader Lucia Athens. Athens chairs Seattle’s inter-departmental green building team, which includes parks, environment, facilities, utilities and other stakeholders.

Seattle calls itself the Emerald City, and its environment, natural beauty and economic opportunity have drawn many people and businesses in recent years. The city, which is having its biggest public building boom since an 1889 fire, sets out common language and goals for the team.

The municipality chose the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver standard as a benchmark Seattle isn’t doing things greener at any cost. It’s balancing initial investment with long-term payback.

But a small increase in productivity can pay for a building. Green building makes business sense.