We’ve all seen the graphs, charts, PowerPoint’s, etc…, regarding how much power is consumed by buildings in the United States, and the numbers are really staggering. On an annual basis, buildings in the United States (Source: The National Institute of Building Sciences):
- Consume 39% of America’s energy
- Consume 68% of its electricity
- Emit 38% of the carbon dioxide
- Emit 49% of the sulfur dioxide
- Emit 25% of the nitrogen oxides
Pretty sobering, and currently the vast majority of our energy is produced from nonrenewable, fossil fuel resources. Makes you wonder what you could possibly do to put a dent in those kinds of numbers. Well, it turns out there’s quite a …
Here’s the thing about the Sustainable Roadmap - it’s really not that complicated. Being sustainable, after all, is partially about doing less for a greater good. Doing less.
So it’s no revelation that when the Los Angeles “Sustainable Ops” group got together to discuss ways to be more sustainable in our day-to-day operations, many of the action items on our list were … simple. Now, an office can be a complicated and hungry beast. It’s hard to see quite how hungry it is as you go about your day. You walk in, you get a coffee. You turn on a light, you turn on your computer. There’s the emails to read, the instructions to remember. You print out a …
Sent to me by our BIM manager, technology guru, sustainable enthusiast, former industrial designer, enlightened thinker and jack of all trades… Dave Ivey. Thanks for a funny start to Monday Dave.
It turns out the 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day intersects with the 30th service anniversary of our very own Earth Mother: Mary Ann Lazarus.
We celebrated this sweet synergy with some delicious green and white cupcakes. Sharing guest-of-honor duties was the incomparable Joyce Saunders (MAL’s right-hand gal), who recently marked her own milestone (25-year) HOK anniversary.
This greened-at-the-hip duo has worked together to advance sustainability within HOK – guiding it from an intriguing idea, to a fringe movement, to a specialty group, to an integral part of our entire practice.
During a brief tribute, Vice …
This is my first time posting to HOK Life – hello to all!
I thought I’d dive in (ha) by sharing an update on the condition of our oceans in just the century since the invention of plastic (the history of plastic can be found here)…
The picture above shows an actual sample of the ocean near an area of the ocean affectionally called “The Garbage Patch.” Many think that this is like a floating garbage pile – a physical location of trash. Instead, it’s more like a rich depository, a sample of the incredible concentrations of plastic that now pervade our entire planet. Natural waste has collected here since there was a here …
The team designing a zero emissions office building met virtually on September 29 to brainstorm about the exterior walls. HOK participants included Bill Valentine and Dave Troup in San Francisco, Mary Ann Lazarus, Tim Gaidis and Tyler Meyr in St. Louis, and Jeff “heard but never seen” Sanner in Chicago. Joining the charrette via “Thunder” from the The Weidt Group in Minneapolis were Chris Baker and Vinay Ghatti.
The video quality isn’t exactly Ken Burnsesque, but the clip does provide a fairly rare opportunity to watch some really talented designers bounce ideas off one another:
Previous ZEB posts (in chronological order):
- Onward to Zero Emissions
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It’s been a banner week for sustainable accolades. First, ENR dubbed us the top green design firm, and now a Design Intelligence survey anointed our firm as the #1 sustainable role model.
Kudos all around.
But before allowing it to swell our heads completely, let’s not forget how much more work remains to be done…
It may not be easy being green, but it sure as heck beats the alternative.
For the second consecutive year, HOK nabbed the top spot on ENR’s “2009 Top Green Design Firms” survey.
Published in the magazine’s July 6 issue, the ranking is based on 2008 revenue from projects seeking LEED, BREEAM or other environmental certification.
In the sector rankings, HOK emerged first in the “Education” sector; second in “Commercial Offices;” second in “Sports, Entertainment & Civic” and third in “Government Offices.”
Regrettably omitted from the magazine’s coverage were rankings of the most innovative, creative and downright zany …
Great article on home and lifestyle consulting boom for the Eco-Savvy.
Article Here
It’s no lie, I am a hot mess when I get to work after my 14-mile bike ride. Fortunately for me and anyone who has to interact with me during the day, HOK has a shower (and my gym is right next to the office and has an even nicer shower).
One thing I struggle with is how to dress appropriately for work on cycling days. One solution is to drive in the day before and leave a bag of clothes. The other is to cram everything in a backpack and roll on in. Either way, there are two major risks: 1. forgetting a critical wardrobe element (from recent experience, I …
As a landscape architect at such a sustainable-minded firm, you just can’t help but actually attempt to enact the lessons you try to teach your clients every day. It is with this in mind, that the boyfriend and I went about hooking up our very own rain barrel this weekend.
I’m not going to lie, I didn’t do a lot of the work, Tom did most of it. I definately helped though (he’s taken to calling me the “sous chef” of projects. I’m really handy when it comes to handing tools off, etc.
We got the rain barrel through a …
As part of HOK’s annual Go Barefoot Day event to celebrate Earth Day and move our firm towards carbon neutral operations, all HOK offices were asked to complete a waste audit. Trash, recylables and compost were all weighed separately during a secret audit performed before Go Barefoot Day. The same calculations were then completed on a day when all employees were informed to make conscious decisions about their personal trach and recycling. The results were very telling and HOK Chicago showed a significant reduction in the amount of overall waste that we produced in one day by making conscious decisions about our purchases throughout the day. The numbers were great and can be found below, but the real fun came when …
HOK Bike to Work Month is Shaping Up
http://www.vimeo.com/4208874
Thank you, Jim Rice, for pointing us to this video.
With the Bike to Work Month Commute Challenge kicking off Friday May 1st HOK has already shown great enthusiasm with teams from across the firm and around the globe stepping up to meet the challenge. Leading the way is the Washington DC office with three teams signed up so far, including our very own Bill Hellmuth. Way to go DC! As of this morning we have 8 offices and 11 teams participating, with several other teams still forming. If you would like to join the fun it’s not too late. Teams can still form well into the month. For more information see the previous …
Back in the day, when I was a poor intern, I commuted into work from Way-Out-There, VA. It was a lovely hour and fifteen commute in, hour and fifteen minute commute out, one full tank of gas a week and a limitless supply of uncontrollable rage. Thankfully I now live in the vibrant (and all around awesome) area of Courthouse in Arlington, VA and get to walk to work. Today was a beautiful day in DC, so I thought I’d document my walk home and highlight some of the many advantages of the two-legged commute.
- You can take the time to appreciate the views.
- Stop and smell the
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Certain HOK-ers (ahem, John Gilmore ) have been bragging about HOK’s very cool new collaboration technology: the Advanced Collaboration Room, which combines Cisco Telepresence Technology and Polyvision Thunder Express. Well, John, you are no longer the only cool kid in town! The WDC office became the fourth HOK office to open it’s ACR for business. St. Louis, San Francisco, and Toronto already had them…next on the list are Houston, Los Angeles, and London.
After a few solid weeks of construction, the ACR was ready for …
Now I’m back and with the product that took all my time recently. I’ve been working on a competition lately for the Miami Public Water Works “re-skinning”. This is a pump station that is going to be on the park that will soon hold Herzog and De Meuron’s new Miami Art Museum… amazing. So my idea was to tie the park together with a common theme that could potentially “sprawl” out to the rest of the city as a resource to cover hardscape. My two cent posters entitled “Sustainable Sprawl” are below …
Today is “work-from-home-Wednesday” – one of my favorite days of the week! HOK Advance Strategies highly advocates alternative work to our clients as part of our workplace solutions offering, and also whenever we talk sustainability. This year, the DC team decided it was time to practice what we preach. There are six of us in the group and we have only five desks. We decided that we travel enough that there is usually someone out of the office…and if no one was travelling,someone would work from home. All we really need are a laptop and a phone, so it’s easy enough!
Each one of us has the option …
I read an article this week in the most current issue of GOOD magazine about Nau, and its initial failure in 2006 and why. The sustainable start-up had very ambitious dreams about not only clothing manufacturing and profits from the company, but also it’s web-face introduction to the market. It was very timely that I was to read this article this past weekend, as the new store (online) opened today. Check it out.
Image courtesy of Nau.com
A confession:
I have owned a car for the better part of my adult life… a remnant of my mongrel suburban pedigree. It was vital to being an architecture student at the University of Waterloo (suburban wasteland that it is) and 60 miles from Toronto (home to all that is good/bad, cultural/retrograde, engaging/revulsive….). Interestingly, upon graduating, I came to work in Toronto and, instantaneously, my automobile addiction took a precipitous drop.
A privilege:
I am privileged to been able to live (read: afford it) and work (see “live” previous) in an urban centre blessed with superior public transit and (in the past 10 years….) bike lanes. Consequently, I have cycled to/from work every day …
As a part of their Summer Internship experience at HOK Chicago, seven students were encouraged foster their Sustainable Design knowledge by taking part in the 2008 Life Cycle Building Design Competition. The international competition is sponsored by West Coast green, the United States EPA, BMRA, AIA and Southface. The Competition had over 60 entries in two different categories, Building and Innovation. The HOK Chicago interns won 1st place in the Innovation Category and won the Outstanding Achievement award across all categories for the competition. They will receive free passes to this years’ West Coast Green Conference in
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