Camden Yards Sports Complex awarded two LEED Certifications!

The Camden Yards Sports Complex, in partnership with the Maryland Stadium Authority, has been awarded two LEED Certifications. The B+O Warehouse has been certified LEED Silver and Oriole Park has been certified LEED gold, both under the EBOM (existing buildings, operations and maintenance) rating system.

The Complex joins a host of other sports venues that have been certified. According to the MLB.com, Orioles Park is only the fourth major league baseball stadium to be awarded Gold level certification.

The EBOM rating system focuses on existing building looking to undergo sustainable improvements to their every day operations and maintenance practices. It is used to help building operators measure their performance and addresses whole-building issues.

The Park and Warehouse demonstrate sustainable practices through waste audits and an increase in recycling, system upgrades, a dedication to using only sustainably certified green cleaning products, a decrease in energy demand through the use of off-site renewable systems, and a commitment to tracking and decreasing their greenhouse gas emissions.

Doo Consulting supported Paladino in achieving LEED certification. Specifically, Doo Consulting conducted the onsite refrigerants survey for both the Warehouse and the Stadium; tracked and monitored the use and purchase of sustainable equipment throughout the complex; tracked the facility alterations and additions documentation; and reviewed various policies to be implemented into the Complex’s maintenance program, such as the Integrated Pest Management Plan and the best management practices for IAQ management program.

While Doo Consulting has certified various entertainment venues, such as the new MGM Casino and Merriweather Post Pavilion, this is their first stadium.

 

USGBC Maryland Wintergreen Award Winners!

Doo Consulting is proud to have contributed to two winning design teams at USGBC Maryland’s Wintergreen Awards for the innovation in LEED® sustainable building design.

The Wintergreen Awards recognize businesses and local projects that demonstrate exemplary performance in sustainability. They focus on the key attributes of sustainability: high performance building, healthy design, environmental stewardship, and community impact. They highlight these green building initiatives and achievements within the USGBC Maryland community.

JP2 Architects LEED® Certified Gold interior fit-out for their Dillon Street office won the Wintergreen award for commercial interiors. Their adaptive reuse of a long-existing building combined with their focus on occupant health highlights all of the attributes a Wintergreen Award winner should exemplify. They used only low impact materials, installed Energy Star® rated equipment and appliances, and incorporated daylighting opportunities through the installation of Solatubes – tubular daylighting devices that offer high-performance lighting and bring daylight into interiors spaces. These features helped to create an inspiring open office plan and optimal work environment.

The Richard and Virginia Holt Center in Chestertown, MD, converted a historically designated 1865 church into a new, state-of-the-art learning center for the community. With innovation in sustainable design being a primary goal, the foundation transformed the building into their office headquarters, an education center, and schooner project shop. The Holt Center is LEED® Certified Platinum, featuring a rooftop solar array that offsets 18% of the building’s total energy cost, and a 48% water-use reduction with the installation of low-flow, high-efficient plumbing fixtures. What is most impressive is how the Holt Center serves as a teaching tool for all who enter, making it the ideal winner for the Wintergreen Community Leader Award for innovation in New Construction.

Both Baltimore’s JP2 Architects and Chestertown’s Sultana Education Foundation are both owners that value a holistic design approach to construct efficient, high-performance buildings. Through their work they will continue to inspire the sustainable design community here in Maryland. Congratulations to both teams!

Healthy Ground for a Healthy Environment

Healthy Ground for a Healthy Environment

Two articles on the benefits of cover crops to soil health crossed my desk this month. The simultaneity of these articles piqued my curiosity. One article, “A Revolution With Deep Roots in the Past,” was in the New York Times and the other, “Healthy Ground, Healthy Atmosphere,” was in Environmental Health Perspectives’, a National Institutes for Environmental Health Sciences online publication.  The crux of these cover crop articles is that by maintaining plant cover in fields intended for cash crops, farmers are able to rejuvenate the soil, prevent erosion, reduce fertilizer use, decrease the fuel consumption (by not having to till or fertilize), retain moisture, increase yields while also sequestering carbon, recharge the aquifer, and protect the watershed. Whew! The economic benefit is substantial. Mr. Rulon, a farmer in Indiana estimates net annual economic benefit from using cover crops is more than $69 per acre. Read more

Imagine Bowie,” an “Appreciative Inquiry

“Imagine Bowie,” an “Appreciative Inquiry”

Doo Consulting participated in an Appreciative Inquiry workshop, led by Kauser Rasvi, of UPD Consulting, one of our partners on the creation of a sustainability plan for the City of Bowie, Maryland. Appreciative Inquiry is a technique of questioning and exploration (inquiry) to uncover the best ideas and talents within an organization or entity to realize a common goal. The approach focuses on “what do we want?” and “What are our strengths?” (appreciative) rather than “What’s the problem that needs solving?” or “What are our weaknesses?” With nearly one hundred participants, Ms. Ravsi, assisted by Doo Consulting partners and staff, led the group in a full day workshop to “Imagine Bowie” as a more sustainable city in the future. Specific goals and tactics were developed during a “design” phase of the workshop. The products of the day are being used to develop the City’s sustainability plan

Doos New Year Innovation Blog

Doos New Year Innovation Blog

THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE RED FIRE MONKEY!  We all know that the monkey is a clever and playful animal who can be an effective problem solver but also a trickster.  Year of the monkeyAs we celebrate 2016’s Year of the Red Fire Monkey, there should be exuberance, entertainment and time for devoted entrepreneurs to carry on their innovative ways.  However, those looking for quick and easy solutions could get duped as some monkey spirits will be on the ball, and quick to have their fun and games.

Doo Consulting wishes all of its colleagues, clients and friends the very best in 2016. Though it is the year of the Fire Monkey, according to Chinese Five Elements Horoscopes, Monkey also contains Metal and Water. Metal is connected to gold. Water is connected to wisdom and danger. Therefore, we will deal with more financial events in the year of the Monkey. Metal is also connected to the Wind. That implies the status of events could change very quickly. Think twice before you leap when making changes for your finance, career, business or personal relationships in 2016. Your individual prospects for the year can be found here.

DOO’S NEWS

We want to thank everyone who is a part of our ever expanding network. Our portfolio grew in geographic and economic breadth. We returned to our consulting roots with the opportunity to work on the development of sustainability plans for the City of Bowie, Maryland, and the Broadmead Retirement Community. A new accreditation in the WELL Building Standard

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Nature is here to stay. Are we

Nature is here to stay. Are we?

Nature is speaking.  Will we listen?  In time? Watch these beautiful vignettes about specific elements of nature – water, the forests, soil, flowers – appreciate the glory and power of each as expressed in the narration that accompanies each gorgeous self portrait – including a feature of mother nature herself.  The message is clear.  Nature is powerful, All of nature is VERY necessary for our lives and ability to live – for the air we breath and food we eat.  But make no mistake.  We are not necessary to nature.  Not much more needs to be said.  But much needs to be done.   Does everyone understand, each in their way, in their place? can we have the conversations about what can and must be done?  Do we have the will to make reparations where they must be made?

Living City Block - Doo Consulting Blog

There’s no place like home in a green city…follow the sustainable brick road…

Planet earth is home to 7.2 Billion people with no signs of a slow down in growth. On any given day, we celebrate more than 35,000 births and see rituals for 15,000 deaths. The staggering numbers however did not appear until after the industrial revolution: The world’s population did not reach one billion until the year 1800 – thousands and thousands and thousands of years after the birth of the earth. The second billion-population milestone was hit 130 years later, in 1930; the third billion occurred in less than 30 years (1959), the fourth billion in 15 years (1974), and the fifth billion in only 13 years (1987). It’s rather mind boggling to watch our numbers grow every second – but you can do it, real time, around the globe, on the website WorldoMeters. The numbers of births, deaths, population growth today and year to date, as well as the top largest countries are available, along with a variety of other statistics to dramatize the state of the world population.

Watching numbers can be fun, if you are a statistician, but the increase in world population, and the move towards urban centers, highlights the critical importance of ensuring that the cities are designed to support a low carbon footprint–and to teach individuals to adopt sustainable living as a simple matter of fact, as early in life as possible.  Fortunately, many cities are transforming themselves to reduce their carbon footprint. A critical part of that transformation includes behavior changes through engagement of the population.

Greening of cities has become a prominent priority for planners, and both innovative and familiar strategies have been implemented to improve energy efficiency – targeting both systems and sources. Transportation has also been addressed so that access to useful public modes of transport, and safer bike and pedestrian options reduce reliance on individual cars.  While infrastructure and technology are the foundation for greening our cities, the other key element is citizen behavior. And not only changes in behavior to support the implemented strategies, but changes that will create additional improvements.

_Living-City-Block

The National Earth Day Campaign works throughout the year to help cities and citizens accelerate their transition to a cleaner, healthier and more economically viable future through improvements in efficiency, investments in renewable technology, and regulation reform. On April 21-22, 2014, The New York Times hosted its second annual conference on “Cities for Tomorrow,” bringing together public policy makers and C-suite executives in energy, technology, building and transportation, along with filmmakers, craftspeople and innovators, to discuss strategies for creating an urban environment that meets the needs of its citizens and runs cleanly and efficiently – in the world of tomorrow.

We have to be optimistic – as Pete Seeger said – “There is hardly anything bad in the world that doesn’t have something good connected to it.” So here are some interesting things to think about for Energy, Green Buildings and Transportation…

Energy: Within the United States and in other countries, there is continued reliance on outdated electric generation structures. To become more sustainable, the current systems must be redesigned and transitioned to renewable energy sources. Solutions for the 21st century must be embraced and implemented.

Looking towards the future, imagine communities sharing solar grids, or solar sidewalks such as the one recently installed at George Washington University, or micro grids and smart grids that integrate and function seamlessly. The projects underway at CASE (Center for Architecture Science and Ecology) are a sampling of the potential in this area.

Green Buildings: Buildings account for nearly one third of all global greenhouse gas emissions. As efficiency and design improve performance as a base standard, emissions will decrease dramatically. But this must occur across the construction industry, across the globe, and particularly in highly built up regions. Cities must update ordinances, switch to performance based building codes, and improve financing options.

In the future, we can expect that homes and other buildings will operate as living organisms. They will monitor performance and adapt to our needs in real time, saving us energy and money. Food will be available from the walls of our homes or foraged from the landscapes around any building.

Transportation: Transportation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. More than 75% of these emissions come from road vehicles. To reduce emissions and smog, local governments must develop stricter standards for emissions, while providing more options for public transportation and greater investments for alternative transportation, walkability and bikeability.

Imagine a future not just with smart cars, but with smart electric bicycles. TheSmart Wheel,” was created by start-up in New York City. It is a motorized bicycle wheel that fits onto almost any bike and contains a battery-powered motor in its wheel hub. The “smartwheel” connects to a smartphone through Bluetooth and monitors speed, distance, location and route. Over time, with enough data, the company will be able to learn where to build bike lanes and how to improve bike-friendliness in cities. According to the makers, “We want to make cities more livable, and make them more people—not car—friendly

The Earth Day 2014 website offers a host of toolkits and resource materials to support those interested in developing Green Cities campaigns. To find out more, send an email to greencities@earthday.org.

Maryland has made a priority of greening its cities and communities for many years.  Governor O’Malley kicked off the State’s Smart, Green and Growing initiative in 2009 to “provide a place for citizens, businesses, organizations and governments to strengthen the economy, protect the environment, and improve the quality of life – components of a more sustainable future.” Doo Consulting provides information from a cross section of the State in this blog. If we’ve missed a city, county or municipality, please let us know by sending an email to info@bviwebsites.com, with the subject line, “Another Maryland Sustainability Plan.” Everything will be posted on our site in a Municipal sustainability strategies section, along with resources we can offer for the municipalities to help with their planning, implementation and metrics tracking or reporting.

Maryland’s Success Stories in Sustainability: Greening across the State.

Baltimore City’s Office of Sustainability: In 2014, the BoS used a public process to develop a comprehensive Disaster Preparedness and Planning document (DP3). That document and process is now being vetted with hundreds of citizens through a comprehensive outreach program.

The City of Bel Air: To encourage the purchase and use of sustainable products and local merchants, rebates are offered for the purchase of green products.Baltimore County: In an effort to promote more efficient transportation choices, the county is providing Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in the county garages; four more have been added this year

.Howard County: In addition to its many Sustainability initiatives for transportation, green buildings and energy incentives, Howard County encourages communities to adopt a green neighborhood program. They provide a “how to” document which is a guide to how to meet each requirement.

Frederick County: There are a variety of initiatives in Frederick County, from the Refrigerator Exchange program to Solarize Frederick. The Green Homes Challenge was featured this year, and the winners were just recently announced.

Maryland’s Sustainable Communities Program: Now there are more than 33 communities across Maryland named under this program that recognizes communities that have met certain requirements for sustainability, including more transportation choices, equitable, affordable housing, economic competitiveness, healthy, safe and walk able neighborhoods, and mixed use development.  Read about them at the Department of Housing and Community Development, and perhaps find your own community there – or a reason to get started on the application!

Finally, if you are looking for more information on what to do on Earth Day, or other times during the year, check out this website.