measuring sustainability, point by point

[Image from Energy Points website]

I recently posted my 3 Keys to Big Picture Sustainability, a wholly qualitative set of evaluations. Energy Points is an attempt at the opposite- a methodically quantitative set of measurements that accounts for a wide variety of sustainability issues. According to their website, Energy Points' "platform translates all resources into primary energy for direct, one to one comparison of domains such as electricity, water, and fuel." 

A huge problem in understanding sustainability progress, as founder Ory Zik points out to Fast Company's Co.Exist blog, is that the metrics don't line up. Comparing savings in water, electricity, and other resources overlaid with information about the location can be incredibly powerful information for building managers, homeowners and more. When investing money in improvements, these individuals want to be able to make informed decisions and tools like Energy Points give them the ability to do so.

Is this a good thing? On the surface, yes. For buildings managers? Definitely. For designers?  Not always.

Designers need to be able to do the difficult balancing of sustainability themselves. The tradeoffs are about more than energy used. For architects and interior designers, a building's function cannot be measured only in its use of resources but in performance for its users. Energy Points is a useful tool, but for designers cannot be the only measure of sustainability. 

via verde grows sustainable architecture's reach

[Image from The New York Times]

 Via Verde looks more like luxury condo building than a subsidized apartment complex. It has the amenities of a luxury building too- fitness room with a view, lush gardens, tons of natural light.

But it started where community design should- by asking the neighborhood what they wanted. The answer: a healthy place to live.

By increasing building costs only 5%, Via Verde has green design as its core of the 71 co-ops and 151 rental apartments along with commercial space that includes a medical clinic. The building is designed to get residents into the outdoors and to promote growing the healthy foods the neighborhood lacks. Via Verde now has over six times the applicants that it has space for, a testament to the need for this type of development.

From NY Times:
"The greenest and most economical architecture is ultimately the architecture that is preserved because it’s cherished. Bad designs, demolished after 20 years, as so many ill-conceived housing projects have been, are the costliest propositions in the end. 

Of course a building consists of more than its skin and the claims of its makers. Its aesthetics remain inseparable from its function. It has to work, for the people who use it and live with it, not just see it. The real test for Via Verde — watch this space — will be once its residents have settled in, to see how green and healthy and gracious they actually find it."

Originally found on The New York Times.