Sustainability and Design for Environment ME415, ENVIR 415, and CEE 495 Course Homepage  Project Resources  2008 Project Description Background Environmental rating systems such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) Green Building Rating System help architects, construction engineers, and other decision makers design and build buildings that reduce negative impacts on the environment.  LEED is used as a design guideline and third-party certification tool that aims to improve occupant well-being, environmental performance and economic returns of buildings using established and innovative practices, standards and technologies (see the US Green Building Council’s LEED Green Building Rating System for New Construction & Major Renovations, available at http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/LEEDdocs/LEED_RS_v2-1.pdf) LEED uses prerequisites and credits in 6 categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor air quality, and innovation and design process.  Prerequisites are design features required in each category such as a minimum level of energy performance and storage and collection of recyclables.  Beyond the prerequisites, varying amounts of points are given for varying performance related to preferred design features.   For example, in the “materials and resources” category, the credit “maintaining existing walls” gives 1 point for maintaining 75% of the existing building shell, gives 2 points for maintaining 100% of the existing building shell, and 3 points for maintaining 100% of the existing building shell and 50% of the non-shell.  When completed, a building receiving a total score of 26-32 points is designated as LEED Certified; a total score of 33-38 points is designated as a SILVER LEED building; a total score of 39-51 points is designated as a GOLD LEED building; and a total score of 52-69 points is designated as a Platinum LEED building.  For your project, you and your team members will develop an environmental rating system for a product, process, or activity of your choice (although you may not choose anything already covered in whole by LEED nor desktop computers).  You will need to become familiar with the resources conservation and pollution prevention options for your life cycle, and at that point you may (1) develop a rating system similar to LEED with any set of categories and ratings your team think works well or (2) develop a rating system with some other structure (for example, to the ISO14020 EcoLabel Standard (available in the UW Engineering Library) or something like the Consumer Reports (see www.consumerreports.org or view the reports at Suzzallo Periodicals).  You will cover options at each stage of the life cycle. Your rating system MUST be based on a quantitative analysis of your system.  Tools at your disposal are those used in class and those you might identify on your own.  Further, you MUST be able to justify your rating system.  Specifically and within a specific impact category (like resource conservation or contribution to climate change), to the extent possible actions that are twice as effective should get twice the credit for implementation.  Between categories, you must explicitly define priorities. Again you have a number of sources at your disposal to help you complete this project, including, but not limited to, the websites and databases we have used in the class homework or discussed in class.  Don’t limit your research to only the World Wide Web (i.e., Google- searches), and don’t forget to correctly cite all sources used (see http://wally.rit.edu/pubs/guides/apa.html  for citation formatting examples). Project Timeline Due dates  Team Deliverable February 6 8 Project proposal February 27 Interim report March 10 and 12 Project presentations March 12 Final report Reporting Requirements All teams MUST submit a proposal and interim and final reports, the latter 2 either as a document or a website.  Figures and tables should be integrated within the text unless they are clearly part of an appendix or supporting webpages.  There is no page limit for the project reports, and it often makes sense to place calculations and other details in appendices or on supporting webpages (posting pdfs is definitely ok).  For your project presentations, teams may choose between preparing a short film (so think about something you would post on youtube) or developing a powerpoint presentation in which all team members speak. As described below, the proposal and interim report are intended to be a part of the final report and allows feedback as project materials are being developed.  Reports should be structured as follows, noting what is required in the proposal, interim and final reports. Executive Summary or Website Homepage (should be included in the final report) The executive summary or website homepage should be a self-contained, specific description of the rating system project capturing the most important points. It may contain graphics if appropriate. For documents, a table of contents should precede the executive summary.  For websites, the homepage should include navigation to supporting webpages. 1. Introduction/ "About the Rating System" (should be submitted as your project proposal and included in the final report) This section should provide a statement of the proposed project including (1) a description of the product, process, or activity to be assessed, (2) environmental implications considered obvious in the news, other literature, or brainstormed by your team, and (3) example “green” features considered obvious in the news, other literature, or brainstormed by your team.  For example, an “obvious” environmental implication of a car is operating emissions of carbon dioxide/ contribution to climate change and an “obvious” green feature is a hybrid electric power train.  Your final report should update the introduction to include less obvious environmental implications and features identified during the project and any comments received on the project proposal. 2. Design for Environment Characterization (should be submitted as your interim report and included in the final report) This section will be used to develop the rationale behind your team’s ranking system. You should begin with a brief discussion of what will be presented in the Design for Environment Characterization, and then include the following sections: 2.1       System Definition.  Define the life cycle of your product, process or activity in a way that allows alternative components to be identified and assessed.  Your life cycle should extend from materials acquisition through waste management, noting and justifying intentional omissions.  Include a functional decomposition of the life cycle, noting the overall system function and the function of system components (note that one-size might not fit all).  Include a figure depicting the system(s) (HINT: be comprehensive but be careful not to present an unnecessary level of detail) and note any resources used. 2.2       Life Cycle Resource Conservation and Pollution Prevention Opportunities. Based on your system definition, identify and analyze options for the life cycle stages of your product, process, or activity.  Include (1) life cycle process flow diagram(s) listing common and innovative options, and (2) table(s) referring to the flow diagram(s) with descriptions of each option and identifying relevant environmental implications, and (3) a quantitative assessment of the key environmental impacts of options. 2.3       Other Considerations.  Describe and provide a qualitative analysis of impacts not included in Section 2.2. Also, discuss potential conflicts in which the preferred environmental option might for example cost more, result in manufacturing problems, reduce product durability or quality, conflict with regulatory requirements, etc.  Your final report should incorporate any comments received on the interim report. 3. Green Rating System (should be included in the final report) Like the LEED Green Building Rating System document (at available at http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/LEEDdocs/LEED_RS_v2-1.pdf), the description of your team’s Green Rating should state the basic intent and requirements necessary to achieve certification. Note that in LEED, projects earn one or more points toward certification by meeting or exceeding each credit’s technical requirements; all prerequisites must be achieved in order to qualify for certification; and points add up to a final score that relates to one of four possible levels of certification. Be sure to include (1) a discussion of how the results of Section 2 led to the development of the rating system, (2) instructions on how to apply the system, and (3) a dissemination plan. You should begin with a brief discussion of what will be presented in the management plan, and then include the following sections: 4. References (should be included in the all reports) All references must be formally cited as described at http://wally.rit.edu/pubs/guides/apa.html  5. Appendices or supporting webpages (most likely included in the interim and final reports) Include appendices as specified throughout the document or website.   EXTRA CREDIT- engage an organization or company in the process of rating system development or dissemination planning. For more information, contact Associate Professor Joyce Smith Cooper at cooper@me.washington.edu