Annual Northwest Sustainability Summit Points to Progress and Opportunity
Presented by Bullivant Houser Bailey and Seattle University School of Law, the 2010 Annual Northwest Sustainability Summit was held on Friday, April 16. The event was sponsored by Cascadia Region Green Building Council, an organization that promotes the design, construction and operation of environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live, work and learn.
The summit highlighted a number of projects and provided an overview on the legal and practical implications of new and upcoming changes in sustainability-related state and federal regulation. Speakers and panelists hailed from notable companies including Cyan Strategies, Gensler, Olson Kundig Architects, Weyerhaeuser, Alaska Airlines, Starbucks and others.
Moving Towards Restorative Design
Echoing The 2030 Challenge, several speakers addressed the urgent need for the architectural community to both improve and restore buildings to achieve environmental sustainability. The 2030 Challenge promotes innovative sustainable design strategies, the generation of on-site renewable power and/or the purchasing of renewable energy in order to meet the goal of carbon-neutrality by 2030.
Seattle is leading the charge with the Bullitt Foundation's development of the Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design and Construction, which will occupy 15th Avenue and East Madison Street. The center plans to include 100% on-site waste management and renewable energy generation, including a huge photovoltaic panel. The project aims to surpass LEED Platinum standards as well as The 2030 Challenge to meet the most rigorous green-building requirements in existence; namely, those of the Living Building Challenge.
The Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design and Construction is both a benchmark and a beacon of hope, showing substantial progress in the green building movement.
Integrated Project Delivery and Sustainable Practice
The Annual Northwest Sustainability Summit also shed light on how shifting project delivery paradigms can help achieve the goals of green design and construction. Instead of a linear design-bid-build process, the ongoing collaboration between architects, contractors and the entire building team facilitates a more insightful, efficient and sustainable approach to design and construction.
Finding New Opportunities
The Annual Northwest Sustainability Summit showed how a blurring between the traditional boundaries between the law, designers and builders presents unprecedented opportunity for innovation in sustainability and green building.
Outside Link: seattleps.builderarchitect.com/digital-editions/editions/june-2010/