Sustainability Innovations: Insights from the American Public Works Association’s Sustainability in Public Works Conference

From June 25-27, Pittsburgh’s Omni William Penn Hotel hosted the AWPA (American Public Works Association) Sustainability In Public Works Conference, a conference showcasing successful projects around the nation with the purpose of “creating sustainable communities”.  Sustainable Pittsburgh sent two of its appointed Heinz Endowment interns, Sean Gaudio and Megan Wall, as a press team to sit in on several presentations and additionally interview speakers and catalysts for a more sustainable America. Among the presentations visited by the interns were: Treatment Plant Alchemy: Turing Waste into Platinum; The EVs Are Coming, The EVs Are Coming! Are You Ready; Solutions to the Epidemic of Inefficiencies in Drinking Water Systems; and Tree and Municipal Infrastructure. Below are detailed explanations pertaining to the conferences respectively, as our fellow interns summarize their conference sessions.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Treatment Plant Alchemy: Turing Waste into Platinum

The EVs Are Coming, The EVs Are Coming! Are You Ready

Treatment Plant Alchemy: Turing Waste into Platinum

The first presentation we attended was one entitled “Treatment Plant Alchemy: Turning Waste into Platinum” and was delivered by Jay Martin of The Miller Hull Partnership and Ruwan Jayaweera of PAE Consulting Engineers. The subject of their presentation was an interesting one, the transforming of something once seen as a useless burden, wastewater, into an asset that reduces costs and boosts efficiency. The client of Martin and Jayaweera, the Lott Alliance, originally burned off 50% of the methane they produced through the digestion of public waste. This flared off methane is twenty times more harmful to the atmosphere than CO2 emissions. Jayaweera’s firm, PAE Consulting Engineers found a way to harness the methane and utilize it for electrical power, thus saving costs and helping to protect the environment.

Another key advancement in the reuse of water pioneered by the PAE Consulting engineers is the innovative water system they installed in the Lott Alliance headquarters located in Olympia, Washington.   This system uses two separate pipe systems. One system consists of the normal potable water pipes while the other system channels reclaimed water into the building for use in the non-drinking fountains and toilets. Despite the high initial cost, this dual pipe system saves the business much more than one might think. The engineers from PAE Consulting expected the new water system to reduce costs by about twenty percent when it actually reduced costs by a whopping fifty percent, blowing away expectations.

Another innovative tactic employed by the Lott Alliance aimed at shrinking energy costs and becoming more eco-friendly is their new light control system. This state of the art system is composed of large-scale Venetian shades and automatic lights. A light sensor that picks up the sun’s rays is positioned on the roof of the Lott Alliance building. The building itself has a unique design and as a result some areas of the building naturally allow more light to enter than others. Before the system was installed, the Western wall received too much direct contact with the sun and became hot very easily; the South wall on the other hand received too little sunlight and as a result needed electric light for a majority of the day. The system uses giant Venetian shades to control this light imbalance. When the sun starts to hit the Western wall, the shades close and keep the building cooler. Simultaneously, on the South wall the shades remain perpendicular to the window surface, which allows the light to bounce off of the shades and onto the ceiling of the rooms inside, naturally lighting the building. Unfortunately, this system has increased energy costs for the Lott Alliance by twenty two percent, but the engineers are confident that the system just needs some tweaking and can be a cost reducer in the future.

Overall, the ideas presented and the innovations displayed showed a great promise for the future of sustainability of businesses. The harmony between engineer, architect, and business owner is what truly made this project possible. The advancements made by this project should serve as a model for other businesses looking to reduce costs, save the environment, and increase their overall sustainability.

The EVs Are Coming, The EVs Are Coming! Are You Ready

The second presentation we attended was called, “The EV’s are coming, the EV’s are coming.”  The overall topic of this talk was about the rise and fall of public opinion regarding electric vehicles. This presentation was delivered by Kim Lundgren and Vanasse Hangen of Brustlin, Inc. located in Watertown Massachusetts.  Kim spoke about how the public was so fascinated and excited about electric vehicles in the late 1990’s and the anticipation of all cars running on electricity in the near future. This wave of public excitement died down in the early 2000’s and critics thought the idea of electric vehicles would completely die and never return. With the economic downturn and rising gas prices, that wave of positive public regard for electric vehicles has returned and is growing every day. The difference between this second wave and the first wave is that the car companies are making a variety of electric vehicles instead of one standard spaceship model, which looked completely out of place on the road and aesthetically displeasing. There are many types of electric vehicles including hybrids and battery powered vehicles. Electric vehicle manufacturers, which now include companies such as Ford and Chevy, are banking on a successful second revolution of the electric car. The main challenge facing the rise of electric vehicles this time around is the limited availability of charging stations. Electric vehicle owners currently have to make trips that will allow them to return home in order charge up without using gas. The installation of new charging stations requires an all-around effort that includes businesses, electric vehicle owners and local government. Kim pointed to cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Boston and Chicago as leaders in the electric vehicle movement. Programs such as car2go (http://www.car2go.com/) are being debuted in America’s cities and are enlightening the public about the benefits of electric vehicles. Kim and Vanasse spoke optimistically about receiving funding from the government and other agencies to help boost the campaign and raise awareness. Overall the presentation focused on a bright future ahead for the electric car business.

 

By: Sean Gaudio and Megan Wall

Sustainability Innovations: Insights from the American Public Works Association’s Sustainability in Public Works Conference

(cont’d)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Tree and Municipal Infrastructure

Solutions to the Epidemic of Inefficiencies in Drinking Water Systems

 

Tree and Municipal Infrastructure

This talk was centered around all of the benefits trees have to offer to the community and why and how a municipality could improve itself by adding more trees to the neighborhood. At the same time, the presenters, Mr. Skip Kincaid and Mr. Chris Cowles, also focused on taking the necessary steps to ensure that these trees could flourish in their surroundings, as well as fulfill legal obligations when planting them. The obvious benefits of trees are often the most tangible ones. Trees provide shade on sunny days, homes for small animals, and are beautiful additions to any neighborhood. However, trees provide many other benefits to a community that are often overlooked:

• Stormwater management systems – Trees are basic, natural, and very effective stormwater management systems, mainly due to the large root systems they have, which can often have diameters of over 60 feet!
• Reduced energy costs – Trees shade many homes and in turn cut down household energy consumption.
• Increased property values – Studies have shown that houses with trees in their yards sell more often than yards without trees, proving that houses with trees are more desirable than arbor-free homes. In addition, shaded streets last longer and are preserved for a longer amount of time than unshaded roads.
• Improved air quality – Not surprisingly, trees are great for the air and for improving air quality, as well.

After learning about these benefits, Mr.  Cowles spoke about implementing trees as design elements rather than “afterthoughts” and also discussed improving tree conditions to help them grow more effectively. New technologies are helping to aerate and prune trees’ root systems, create sanitary sewer lines, and advocate good legal and construction practices to protect existing trees.

Overall, it was really interesting to see how truly beneficial and worthwhile it is to have trees in an area. Hopefully municipalities with tree-planting prospects will feel the same way!

Solutions to the Epidemic of Inefficiencies in Drinking Water Systems

The final lecture we attended at the Sustainability Conference concerned inefficient water purification systems, which, until now, I didn’t know was even a problem in the United States. As it turns out, America’s water pump quality is sometimes just as bad as third-world countries. The lack of awareness of this situation has been difficult to overcome. Advocates of efficient water pumps, like the speaker Steve Jones, explain that good water pumps prevent pumping in circles, have designs that are easy to comprehend, equalize water storage, have efficient layouts, and are free of rusted over pumps and motors.

One of the greatest challenges plaguing inefficient drinking water systems is the “old way” of doing things. Rather than adapt to the new, more productive ways of today, many employees, employers, and organizations stay true to the habitual way of doing things. These include excess “just-in-case” water storage for an emergency, using higher-cost water before lower-cost water (which can ultimately result in ¼ of the previous energy cost if lower-cost water is used first), using oversized pump stations, and ignoring new technological advances, like the water tracking computer programs of EPANET, whose website is http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/dw/epanet.html.

In the years to come (or better yet, in the months to come), municipalities would be well served to strive to better understand their water purification systems and determine new ways to overcome the obstacle of resistance to beneficial change and the occurrence of habitual actions in the workplace.

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By: Sean Gaudio and Megan Wall