The Center for Environmental Innovation in Roofing is accepting entries for its 2009 Excellence in Design Award program through Nov. 21. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the center is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization that serves as a forum to unite the roofing industry in the common cause of promoting the knowledge base, development and use of environmentally responsible, high-performance roof systems.

The program honors those who design energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and long-lasting roof systems according to accepted industry practices. Nominated roof systems must have been designed and installed after Jan. 1, 2006. Entries must be received by Nov. 21, and judging will be conducted by a panel of four roofing industry experts selected by the center.

One winner will be selected and notified by Dec. 5. The winner will be recognized during NRCA's 122nd Annual Convention in Las Vegas Feb. 1-5, 2009, and will receive $2,500, publicity during the convention, and acknowledgement in Professional Roofing and on the center's Web site and SpecRight's Web site.

For more information and to download an official entry form, click here.

For more information about the award program, contact Mary Mai, the center's director of corporate relations, at (202) 380-3371; fax (202) 380-3378; or e-mail mary@roofingcenter.org.
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SpecRight Program training has been successfully completed by 304 participants. SpecRight-approved professionals are able to provide the most up-to-date information to customers about sustainable, environmentally responsible, energy-efficient roof systems. In addition, the SpecRight Program helps contractors by giving them the tools needed to emphasize quality over cost.

The SpecRight Program stresses the importance of proper design, quality materials, proper installation and ongoing maintenance. Roofing contractors who participate in the SpecRight Program will be able to position themselves as consultants and stewards of the environment.

Click here to view a list of SpecRight-approved professionals. Testimonials of professionals who have participated in this program are also available by clicking here.

A SpecRight Program training session will be held Feb. 2 in Las Vegas in conjunction with the 2009 International Roofing Expo (IRE) and NRCA's 122nd Annual Convention. Click here to register on IRE's Web site, or call (800) 684-5761. The program also is available as a customized educational training class. For more information, contact Allison Noble, NRCA University's manager of customized education, at (800) 323-9545, ext. 7509 or anoble@nrca.net.
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This month, NRCA will launch the first two of six modules in NRCA University's Roofing, Energy and the Environment Series, an online educational program aimed at helping roofing professionals and end users understand how roof systems can contribute to energy conservation and environmental protection. The first module, Vegetative Roof Systems, focuses on vegetative roof system types, components, accessories, design, installation, maintenance and safety concerns. In the second module, Cool Roofs, participants will learn about the surface properties that contribute to a roof’s coolness and how these properties can be maintained for maximum effectiveness over time. Each module takes about an hour to complete. Other modules will include Photovoltaics and Roofing, Building Codes and Rating Systems for Roofing, Introduction to Energy-efficient Roof Systems, and EnergyWise Tutorial and Case Studies. Those who complete the entire Roofing, Energy and the Environment Series and a final exam will receive a Roofing, Energy and the Environment Series Certificate.

For more information about the Vegetative Roof Systems Cool Roofs modules or NRCA University's Roofing, Energy and the Environment Series, contact Jeanne Schehl, NRCA University's director of education program development, at (800) 323-9545, ext. 7566 or jeaschehl@nrca.net.
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An emphasis on environmental and energy-related issues is providing opportunities for the use of reflective roof coatings. Being aware of these opportunities may allow roofing contractors to generate new business for their companies. "Coating opportunities" seeks to explain the terms "sustainable," "cool," and "green" and outlines energy-related topics such as the heat island effect, energy rebates and insulation issues. In addition, the article details program opportunities and provides an outlook for reflective roof coatings. Click here to read the full article.
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NRCA Bookstore is offering 35 percent off the purchase of NRCA Construction Details on CD—2008 until Nov. 30. In addition, NRCA Bookstore is discounting select technical products by 20 percent during November.
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Tempe Building to Be Supergreen
Arizona Republic (AZ) (11/04/08) Hermann, William

In Tempe, Ariz., the city's new Transportation Center is aiming to be one of the country's most energy-efficient buildings when the office block opens in December. The three-story, 40,000-square-foot office and retail complex boasts environmentally friendly designs found in few public buildings. Those features are expected to make it 50 percent more energy efficient than traditional structures. Among them is a green roof system that is the first of its kind in a commercial Arizona building. Other features include a 12,000-gallon rainwater-recovery system, which will provide water for drip irrigation and washing plaza areas; movable screens, which protect the building from the sun during the hottest parts of the day; and low-flow toilets that are designed to save thousands of gallons of water per year. Charlie Popek, who heads the Phoenix environmental-consulting firm Green Ideas, states: "Tempe did it right on this building. They started early, knew what they wanted and could plan it all with care."
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JCPenney Goes Green
Plano Courier Star (11/04/08) Flemmons, Stephanie

Early in November, JCPenney broke ground on its first store constructed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) specifications. The 115,000-square-foot store will open in August 2009 as an anchor tenant of The Village at Fairview lifestyle center in Texas. Based on its design, the Fairview store is expected to use 41 percent less energy than the average similar building. The new store will feature a reflective white roof system and energy-efficient lighting. Also installed will be an HVAC system that is 21 percent more energy efficient than those for comparable new buildings. It will feature an energy management system that allows remote monitoring and control of HVAC and lighting systems. To receive LEED certification, the structure must satisfy requirements and earn points in a six categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation in design. Michael Dastugue, director of property development for JCPenney, remarks: "Because LEED is the recognized benchmark for green building, this store will provide further insights to features and best practices that can help the environment and potentially deliver long-term energy and cost savings."
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Study: 'Bright' Green Buildings a Growing Trend as ROI Improves
Commercial Property News (11/03/08) Kalinoski, Gail

Throughout North America, there is an increasing use of intelligent technologies to take green building practices to the next level. A new report by the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) aims to show property firms that using intelligent building features along with green building designs can result in a substantial return on investment (ROI), as well as provide a more healthy and productive environment for tenants and their employees. CABA President and Chief Executive Officer Ron Zimmer notes the report "reveals how 'bright' green buildings lower operating costs due to more efficient operations and better control, thereby enhancing the value of the buildings themselves." The typical intelligent building features a fully networked system integrating data, voice and video with security, HVAC, lighting and other electronic controls on a single Internet Protocol network platform. Chiefly, it is capable of monitoring and controlling lighting conditions, heating and air conditioning, and water usage. Marybeth Marx, vice president of marketing for Ortronics/Legrand, comments: "IP-based building technologies will become mainstream when the cost-saving benefits become more fully understood in both the IT and building management companies." The CABA study went on to offer several real-life examples of intelligent technology used in buildings around the world, including hospitals, universities and shopping centers.
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Davenport Unveils New Student Center
Mlive.com (11/04/2008)

Michigan's Davenport University has taken the wraps off an 87,000-square-foot student center at its Caledonia campus. The facility will feature a 1,500-seat field house for men's and women's basketball and volleyball games, along with an auxiliary gym and recreation space for students. Amenities range from a climbing tower and indoor track to billiards, big screen TVs and more. Construction began in the summer of 2007 just after Halloween this year. The building is designed to achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. To this end, it features a white roof system that deflects heat, along with rain sensors and high-efficiency irrigation systems to decrease indoor water consumption. If achieved, the LEED certification would help Davenport University's entire campus be among the most environmentally responsible in the United States.
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Fresh & Easy to Open Stores in Bakersfield, Calif.
Display & Design Ideas (11/06/08)

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is set to open its first two stores in the Bakersfield, Calif., area on Dec. 3. In total, Fresh & Easy currently has five announced store locations throughout Kern County. Each store will be erected as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified building, recycling or reusing all shipping and display materials and featuring other environmentally friendly features. The retailer, a division of London-based Tesco PLC, has also invested in one of California's biggest solar roof system installations on its California distribution center.
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University Installs Green Roof at ESIA
GW Hatchet (11/03/08) Altskan, Alex

In Washington, D.C., George Washington University recently constructed its first green roof system atop the Elliott School of International Affairs (ESIA) City View Room terrace. The 2,000-square-foot development was organized by the university's chapter of Net Impact with the assistance of other environmental groups. The green roof system features multiple layers of vegetation and waterproof covering placed on top of the building's existing structure. The goal is to offset carbon emissions and decrease storm runoff, reports Facilities Planning Director Nancy Giammatteo. The green roof system had been in the planning stages since this past spring when it received final approval from Executive Vice President and Treasurer Lou Katz. Subsequently, more than 4,000 plant sedums were planted in a three-color layout designed by Sustainable Landscape Design Director Adele Ashkar. More than 70 percent of the $25,000 needed to complete the project came from the university, with another $2,000 provided by the Class of 2007 Green Campus Fund. The final $5,000 was from the Student Association Social Responsibility Initiative.
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Coating Helps Solar Panels Soak Up More Sun
Reuters (11/04/08) Steenhuysen, Julie

U.S. researchers say a new type of reflective coating can make solar panels far more efficient, soaking up nearly all available sunlight from nearly any angle. Surfaces treated with a coating developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., can harvest 96.2 percent of sunlight compared with only about two-thirds of available sunlight absorbed by current solar panels. "That is a tremendous savings," says Rensselaer's Shawn-Yu Lin, noting that the technology captures more colors of solar spectrum than current solar cells, and it captures light from all angles. "If you look at a solar panel, it looks a bit bluish," Lin says. That is "telling you not all of the blue color is being absorbed. It should look totally dark." The coating is made up of seven layers of porous material stacked so that each enhances the antireflective properties of the layer below, thus working together to act as a buffer zone, trapping light from all angles. "Your efficiency increases by 30 percent," Lin says, adding that he believes the material could be applied to all types of solar cells.
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Duke Halves Its $100 Million Plan for Solar Panels
Charlotte Observer (NC) (10/23/08) Henderson, Bruce

Duke Energy has slashed its $100 million plan to place solar-electric panels on hundreds of North Carolina rooftops in half after consumer advocates for the state Utilities Commission criticized the proposal for being too expensive. Under a 2007 state law, Duke Energy is required to use renewable energy sources to generate 12.5 percent of its retail sales by 2021. Solar power has to be a small but growing part of that mix, starting in 2010. Under the utility's initial proposal, it would generate 16 megawatts of electricity by installing solar photovoltaic panels on as many as 850 roof and ground sites, most of them at commercial or institutional buildings. The power would feed into the larger power grid. However, opposition was raised by the Utilities Commission's Public Staff, whose members contend that Duke Energydoes not need the full rooftop plan to meet its solar-power obligations through 2014. Staffers further argued that the size of the original proposal could have handicapped development of cheaper forms of renewable energy. Their concern was that Duke Energy could "bank" surplus solar credits for future years but miss the opportunity to generate power more cheaply if solar costs come down as expected. Retailers Wal-Mart and Kroger also objected to the plan, fearing that it would raise their electric rates. Under Duke Energy's revised proposal, the utility will spend $50 million over two years to generate 8 megawatts from up to 425 solar sites. Additionally, the amended plan aims to reduce projected costs to consumers.
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GRB To Get Solar Roof
Click2Houston.com (10/21/08)

Houston's George R. Brown (GRB) Convention Center is making progress in its efforts to "go green." In October, the president of Houston Endowment Inc. presented Houston Mayor Bill White with an $850,000 grant for a pilot program to install solar panels on the roof of the GRB. White remarked: "We are a city that likes to be affordable, which means we want to make investments that reduce our operating costs over the long run. Solar panels do that."
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Target Center Green Roof Design Unveiled
Finance and Commerce (10/27/08)

In late October, Kestrel Design Group released images of what the Target Center's green roof system will look like. The 113,000-square-foot green roof system will rank as Minnesota's biggest when it is completed in 2009. Peter MacDonagh, lead designer at the Kestrel Design Group, reports that the arena's green roof system has been designed to capture approximately 20 million gallons of stormwater annually. In addition, it will help prevent the flow of toxins and other contaminants into the Mississippi River. With an expected lifespan of 40 years, the green roof system is also expected to last twice as long as a traditional roof.
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Multi-Tenant R&D Lab Buildings Go Green
R&D Magazine (10/27/08) Leary, Chris; Giardina, Michael

Developers are increasingly constructing multi-tenant, core-and-shell laboratory buildings in expanding urban markets where government, research institutions, healthcare institutions and pharmaceutical firms have historically erected purpose-built buildings. Sustainable design and construction is a focus of developers for reasons that include meeting a corporate mandate to create sustainable buildings, zoning requirements and augmenting project marketability. Such developers initially had difficulty in certifying their buildings via the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC's) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program because the LEED for New Construction (NC) rating system did not easily apply to core-and-shell development. Consequently, USGBC established a pair of new rating systems—LEED Core & Shell (CS) and LEED for Commercial Interiors—to separate LEED NC into two distinct but affiliated rating systems. The engagement of a LEED CS building calls for a strategic design approach that avoids over-building or under-building, particularly in relation to vital building systems. The approach delivers flexibility, maximizing the range of future tenants who will be able to occupy and use the building, as well as the ease with which they can build out a sustainable interior if they want.
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City's 1st Green Roof Planned for Northside
Indianapolis Star (10/18/08) O'Shaughnessy, Brendan

The city of Indianapolis plans to begin installing the first environmentally friendly green roof system on a government building in 2009. As part of an $8.5 million project that will improve storage and pumping capacity and add disinfection processes, Mayor Greg Ballard confirms that a Northside sewer facility will get a green roof system. Construction is scheduled to begin in November 2009. The green roof system will contain a thin layer of grasses and plants on top of a waterproof membrane, designed to reduce stormwater runoff and the building's energy costs by providing natural insulation. According to Ballard, the project is one of a half-dozen environmental programs he is championing. He stated: "I want to encourage people to consider green roofs as a normal way of doing business," highlighting a private development by Keystone that will have the largest commercial green roof in the city. Keystone President and Chief Executive Officer Ersal Ozdemir said it would cost approximately $500,000 more to build a green roof system on the building, which will have 44 condominiums and approximately 14,000 feet of retail space. He concludes: "It does cost significantly more to do a green roof, but we wanted to be a leader. It does help distinguish our building."
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Denver a Test Market for Solar Program
Denver Business Journal (10/16/08)

CH2M Hill Cos. Ltd. has won a three-year, $5.5 million contract from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help 25 U.S. cities use more solar energy. The contract is part of the Solar America Initiative, which seeks to make solar-generated electricity using photovoltaic panels cost-competitive with traditional, fossil fuel-fired power plants by 2015. The engineering firm will work with federal and city officials to create customized programs that encompass everything from solar zoning code revisions and structural engineering analysis to site selection for solar arrays and installer certification and training. Among other things, CH2M Hill will offer cities the opportunity to map entire cities, rooftop by rooftop, enabling residents to figure out how much each household could benefit by installing solar energy panels. In San Francisco, CH2M Hill created such a solar map as that city aims to have 10,000 solar roof systems in place by 2012. Other cities in the project include: Austin, Boston, Denver, Houston, Knoxville, Milwaukee, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.
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Landscaped Roof Blends Pretty and Practical
Star News (N.C.) (10/20/08)

The 2007 Green Roof Industry Survey by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities shows that green roof system construction increased by 30 percent in North America in 2007. In the United States, the idea has spread to such cities as Chicago and New York where developers are offered incentives to go this route. Chicago currently boasts 517,633 square feet of green roof systems, more than any other North American city. On a smaller scale, the North Carolina city of Wilmington's central business district provides perks for green building techniques. Phil Prete, senior environmental planner for the city, states: "I'd love to see a city building with a green roof as a demonstration or to lead by example. Maybe one day, who knows?" A green roof system had been included in the original plans for Wilmington's convention center. However, the idea was eliminated because of the project's rising cost. Developer Ron Pickett has said he would like to build a green roof system on the 11-story garage included in his Gateway project. He remarks: "I intend to have several green features with this project. It just doesn't make any sense not to think economically green... . The cost of that roof is worth it to the project for the enjoyment of the people." County officials are embracing green building techniques, with commissioners recently approving a manual that gives developers alternative ways to manage storm runoff. Green roof systems are featured in the manual.
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SunPower and GE Partner to Power-Up HP in San Diego
PRNewswire (10/13/08)

SunPower Corp. and General Electric have completed the installation of a 1.1-megawatt, solar-electric power system on the roof of HP's printing technology research and development facility in San Diego. The SunPower T10 Solar Roof Tile commercial roof system, which tilts at a 10-degree angle to increase energy capture, aims to reduce more than 60 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over the next 30 years—equal to providing electricity to 3,800 homes. SunPower CEO Tom Werner states: "For leading companies and individual homeowners, clean, reliable solar power will become a core energy investment over the next decade. Solar power can be delivered anywhere, at any scale, when and where we need it." As an alternative to buying the commercial system itself, HP is purchasing electricity from GE Energy Financial Services, which owns the system under the SunPower Access power purchase agreement program.
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