GOOD PRACTICE
dave.ramos
24-01-2011
25-10-2010

Higher education's contribution to sustainability

Research

Sustainable Architecture, Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Document Actions

Center for Sustainable Building Research (CSBR)

University of Minnesota
UNITED STATES
North America

Contact Information

Kerry Haglund


  

The Center for Sustainable Building Research (CSBR) was established as an official unit within the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (CALA) in 2001, although its staff has been conducting building research at CALA since 1997. CSBR's main sources of funding include: the US Department of Energy, state agencies such as the Minnesota Departments of Natural Resources and Transportation, and the Office of Environmental Assistance. CSBR also receives private funding from organisations such as 'Asper Research' and other organisations in the industry.

CSBR aims to promote sustainability criteria for all activities undertaken by architects in their professional lives. To achieve this, it uses resources and tools such as new technologies and applied knowledge in directing and managing building processes. CSBR believes it is necessary to establish interdisciplinary collaboration with other units in the College of Architecture, as well as with other colleges in the university, in order to gain a wider perspective on the concept of sustainability.
Over the past few years there has been a large increase in building work based on sustainability criteria. However, some challenges remain to be met in terms of their general application to all building processes, since there are ambiguities in the definition of the concept of a green, or sustainable, building. There are also many systems for assessing the sustainability of buildings. In many cases, the design strategy, or the building once it is complete, is assessed, but no recommendations are made on the building process.

Though it is important to highlight that a significant number of public bodies have developed procedures for building based on sustainability criteria, it should also be added that very few bodies promote methods of assessment to determine the results of the process.

Given these challenges, the University of Minnesota, and in particular its Center for Sustainable Building Research, aim to provide a set of practical and flexible tools to promote sustainable building practices.

The Center for Sustainable Building Research (CSBR) was established as an official unit within the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (CALA) in 2001, although its staff has been conducting building research at CALA since 1997. The CSBR's main sources of funding include: the US Department of Energy, state agencies such as the Minnesota Departments of Natural Resources and Transportation, and the Office of Environmental Assistance. The CSBR also receives private funding from organisations such as "Asper Research" and other organisations in the industry.

The CSBR aims to promote sustainability criteria for all activities undertaken by architects’ in their professional lives. To achieve this, it uses resources and tools such as new technologies and applied knowledge in directing and managing building processes. The CSBR believes it is necessary to establish interdisciplinary collaboration with other units in the College of Architecture, as well as with other colleges in the university, in order to gain a wider perspective on the concept of sustainability.

The CSBR is responsible for three projects that promote sustainable building:
  • The State of Minnesota Sustainable Building Guidelines (MSBG), which are included in the "Building, Benchmarks and Beyond" (B3) guide and were drawn up in cooperation with Hennepin County Government.
  • The Guide for the Sustainable Development of Minnesota (GSDM), which is a more specialised document.
  • The creation of a database, which is a set of tools in the form of a database containing building strategies, results and strategies for building materials.
CSBR's main objectives are:
  1. To educate all the sectors involved in the building industry (architects, builders, operators and users) on the concepts, objectives and meanings of sustainable building.
  2. To make the tools that CSBR aims to develop easier to apply, by:
  • Producing a system to monitor decisions made and results obtained during the building process.
  • Providing a flexible system that can be adapted to new priorities, different users and agencies and different regions and building models.
  • Creating an information system that includes experiences and on which all the information can be consulted.

1. The first project began in 1999 when the County of Hennepin put three research groups—including the CSBR—in charge of writing a manual to facilitate management, sustainability and efficiency in the construction of new buildings in the private sector. The guide is called "Buildings, Benchmarks and Beyond" (B3), and the CSBR's contribution was taking charge of the recommendations on sustainability, as outlined in the MSBG.

An interdisciplinary team comprising lecturers and researchers from the University of Minnesota was formed to develop the MSBG. This team also included architects, builders, interior designers and landscape architects. These experts developed a system of recommendations that provides material resources, references and case studies. The first version of the manual was published in 2000, but was designed as a tool that can be adapted to include new information and resources. Several editions have been issued, the latest of which was published in 2004.

2. Based on the experience of its partnership with Hennepin County, the CSBR believed it was necessary to produce a guide specifically for professionals—mainly students and lecturers from the University of Minnesota, as well as practicing professionals. The GSDM is a guide with approximately 50 possible strategies divided into five subject areas (Water, Energy, Air, Materials and Waste).

3. Finally, two instruments for the organization and systematization of the information are used in order to make continual improvements to the GSDM. These are the materials database and the case studies.

Using the GSDM, a database was created that can be consulted on the Internet (http://www.buildingmaterials.umn.edu/). The database contains data on materials that are classified according to their environmental impact. Data is provided for each material on record about its cost, its impact on human health, its life cycle, and technical data (resistance, energy consumption, etc.). This data is used to classify the materials according to how appropriate they are with regard to sustainability. The information stored in this database comes from professionals in the field who fill in an online form.

Another database was developed for case studies, and contains buildings that used the GSDM when being constructed. These documents pay special attention to the criteria for making decisions and identifiable results. Identifiers are established in order to systematize the case study. Quantifiable indicators are used as much as possible to facilitate queries, but qualitative indicators are also used where it is not possible to measure the results. The indicators are specially designed to obtain information, especially in the areas of the building industry for which there is little data on sustainability.


In general, all the resources developed by the CSBR for sustainable building are of a practical nature. These are free-to-access resources that aim to promote sustainable building without generating additional costs or that enable costs to be assessed.

1. The main achievements of the MSBG include:

The fact that it is an easy-to-use tool that makes it possible for staff with little training in sustainability to oversee the building process.
The design of the guide may facilitate or enhance the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accreditation process (green buildings), since the guide is specially designed to complement this accreditation process.
The process makes it possible to calculate costs and benefits in human, social environmental and financial terms.
The flexible guide is regularly republished following an assessment process, with the next version due to be published in July 2006.

2. The GSDM provides professionals with a practical tool that is constantly evolving to improve sustainable building processes. The main results of the guide are:

The database of building materials containing around 140 studies of materials assessed for their environmental impact, their health effects, their cost and other criteria.
The 19 case studies of building processes using GSDM.
 



1997; active
Document Actions
infoarrobaguninetwork.org | Ph: +34 93 401 70 08 | Fx: +34 93 401 08 55 | C. Jordi Girona, 31. Edifici TG(S1). E-08755 Barcelona