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Fort Bliss Invests in Energy Efficiency

While Congress keeps wavering on the need to invest in infrastructure improvements to reduce energy usage, many military units are tapping creative solutions to answer the Obama administration’s call for improvements to save energy and create job opportunities in the private sector.

Fort Bliss, an army base about the size of the state of Rhode Island, is outside of El Paso, Texas.  It created a forward-looking energy reduction program in 2009 with the goal of becoming the Army’s leadership center for renewable energy. Its vision of energy security has been focused not only on energy conservation and management efforts, but also on renewable resources such as geothermal, solar, wind, and other “off-the-grid” power sources. Recently it signed a $16 million energy efficiency contract with Johnson Controls. The energy savings performance contract will pay for improvements over a 24-year period with savings on electricity and other utility bills. The project includes the installation of 5,500 solar panels at no cost to the Army. With 330 days of sunshine on average, the El Paso area is a prime location for solar installations. In addition to the panels, daylighting solar “light pipes” are being installed to illuminate building interiors.
 
The base, which is envisioned as the base to around 34,000 troops and their families, has the goal of being “net zero” in energy consumption by 2015.

Roads in Wisconsin

Who pays for them?

A new research report provided by the State Smart Transportation Initiative and 1000 Friends of Wisconsin details the sources of funding for Wisconsin highways and roads. The report aims to clear up some of the misconceptions people have about how transportation is funded. The report discusses the fact that roads in Wisconsin are not just paid for by users (through gas tax, tolls, and licensing). Rather, they are heavily subsidized by taxpayers. Between 2004 and 2008, roads in Wisconsin cost an average of $4.24 billion annually. $1.74 billion came from revenue sources unrelated to road use, such as property and sales taxes. Read the full report here.

EJCDC Adds Teaming Component to Revised Joint Venture Agreement

Recognizing that firms are in many cases teaming with others to pursue business opportunities, the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC) has added a Teaming Agreement to a new revised version of the joint venture document. The EJCDC E-580, Teaming Agreement to Pursue Joint Business Opportunity and Joint Venture Agreement Between Engineers has two components—the Teaming Agreement can be used for two firms that wish to join together to pursue an opportunity to obtain work, and the Joint Venture Agreement can be used to define the relationship of the firms when they are providing professional services to a client.

 EJCDC documents can be obtained at the online stores of the four sponsoring organizations of EJCDC: the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), and the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). They can also be purchased at www.ejcdc.org.

Airport Terminal in San Francisco Awarded LEED Gold Certification

The new Terminal 2 at San Francisco’s International Airport has been awarded LEED™ Gold certification for sustainable building. According to news reports, it is the first airport facility in the United States to achieve the ranking. The terminal cost $383 million and earned the LEED™ Gold certification status because of the many attributes that support green building practices.

Planting Roots for Sustainable Living

They say that old habits die hard. A Connecticut prep school is taking action to ensure that good habits as they pertain to sustainable living are instilled at a young age. Choate Rosemary Hall, in Wallingford, CT, will open the Kohler Environmental Center next fall. The center was made possible through a $20 million gift from Choate alumnus Herbert Kohler (CEO of Kohler Co), and was designed by Graham Wyatt and Kevin Smith of Robert A.M. Stern Architects.

As reported by Fast Company magazine, the 31,325 LEED Platinum facility will allow students to live there while competing against each other as they attempt to live their daily lives in the most sustainable way, in addition to creating and implementing an environmental project. As Linda Tischler writes:
 
The challenge is that while they're enjoying their new digs, they will constantly be managing their environment to try and be net zero—that is, they can't consume more energy than the building produces. The building's needs will be provided by a 325-kilowatt photovoltaic array, a roof-mounted solar water-heating system, a geothermal heat pump, a water-recycling system, and waste vegetable oil. Choate is considering installing stationary bikes so students themselves can generate power.
 
As a member of the Eight Schools Association, Choate is hoping that this experiment will spread to other schools and teach students about how their daily activities impact the environment and how little changes can add up to a big difference.