National Academy of Environmental Design

NAED advocacy activities are limited to educating government officials and the public on key issues related to public policy and the NAED’s mission of promoting the flourishing of individuals, communities, and the natural world through the sustainable design and stewardship of human and natural environments.

HPBCCC High-Performance Building Week May 23-29, 2011

The High-Performance Building Congressional Caucus Coalition (HPBCCC), established by ASHRAE, will host a week-long event, May 23-29, 2011, highlighting the importance of high-performance buildings to federal, state and local policymakers and the general public. Click here for the press release.

To learn more about the HPBCCC High-Performance Building Week visit http://www.hpbccc.org/hpbweek.php

NAED Signs on to Support Holding the 2011 Solar Decathlon on the National Mall

NAED joins a list of organizations that have signed a letter, on behalf of the High-Performance Building Congressional Caucus Coalition (HPBCCC), to support holding the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in 2011. It was recently announced that the Decathlon would be moved from the Mall in an effort to protect and restore the National Mall grounds. The letter supports the exploration of other venues in future years, but asks that the event be held on the Mall this year, to avoid hurting schools that have already budgeted for an event in Washington, DC.

This letter will be transmitted to President Barack Obama, U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and prominent House and Senate committee members with jurisdiction over this matter.

The Decathlon has been held biennially since 2002, and is open to the public, free of charge. Visitors can tour the houses in the competition, gather ideas to use in their own homes, and learn how energy-saving features can help them save money. For more information on the Decathlon, visit www.solardecathlon.gov.

The NAED Co-sponsors Briefing on Landscape Architecture for High Performance Buildings

On May 28, the High-Performance Building Congressional Caucus Coalition, whose members include the National Academy of Environmental Design and a number of other leading organizations in green building, hosted a briefing on landscape architecture for high performance buildings.

The briefing, held at the Rayburn House Office Building, began with a presentation by Daniel P. Beard, Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives, on the progress being made in “Greening the Capitol.” He discussed the landscape sustainability elements planned for the House side of the Capitol grounds, including the enhancement and maintenance of landscapes, plans for green roofs, stormwater management, and related issues.

David J. Yocca, a principal partner at the Conservation Design Forum, followed with a presentation on the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SSI), an interdisciplinary effort by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden to create voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction, and maintenance practices. Yocca presented a variety of projects highlighting SSI’s efforts to create sustainable and balanced landscapes and communities in local, state and national parks, sites with buildings including industrial, retail and office parks, military complexes, airports, botanical gardens, streetscapes and plazas, and residential and commercial developments.

The Sustainable Sites Initiative intends to provide tools for individuals who influence land development and management practices and can address increasingly urgent global concerns such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and resource depletion. These recommendations can be used by those who design, construct, operate and maintain landscapes, such as planners, landscape architects, engineers, developers, builders, maintenance crews, horticulturists, governments, land stewards, and organizations offering building standards.

Last year, the Sustainable Sites Initiative created a “Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks,” a report which demonstrates how a site can protect, restore, and regenerate ecosystems. SSI offers these guidelines as tools that can be applied right away to support new sustainable practices wherever possible.

To learn more about the Sustainable Sites Initiative visit http://www.sustainablesites.org

NAED Responds to New York Times Editorial Columnist Bob Herbert's Op-ed Piece on Nation's Energy Efficiency Strategy

To the Editor:

In his August 5, 2008 op-ed piece in The New York Times, Bob Herbert rightly laments the lack of leadership in the struggle for energy efficiency. In response to this very problem, the major environmental design and planning disciplines—communication design, industrial design, interior design, architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, development, and planning—have come together to form a new National Academy of Environmental Design (NAED) to achieve much greater energy efficiency and conservation in our designed environment.

Buildings generate almost half of the greenhouse gases we emit, with transportation and manufacturing roughly another quarter each. The "fastest, cheapest, easiest, and cleanest step toward a sane energy environment" involves a change in how we plan, create, approve, finance, manufacture, construct, maintain, and operate the designed objects and environments we use and occupy in our everyday lives. The design disciplines have been inadvertently responsible for creating our current carbon-emitting surroundings and we also know how to help change this situation.

The NAED and the design and planning professions are prepared to help provide the leadership Herbert advocates. We would encourage you to visit the National Academy of Environmental Design website at www.naedonline.org and read more about our efforts.

Sincerely,
Thomas Fisher
Dean, College of Design, University of Minnesota
Member, Steering Committee NAED

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