Author: jfriedman

Joan:  After visiting European sites using sustainable energy, we were eager to see an example of something in the US, so we took a local excursion and had a guided tour of the new Summit County Metro Transit Center in Akron. The center opened this past January and uses both solar and geothermal energy. It’s a very impressive structure that is expected to receive LEED Gold certification.

The roof holds 435 photovoltaic solar cells, which generate nearly 40% of the building’s energy needs.

Twenty-five wells drilled to a depth of just over 300 feet bring up ground water, heated naturally to a temperature of 62 degrees, into a heat exchanger that heats air which is then pumped through the building. Thus during cold weather only a small amount of additional heating is needed; during hot weather, no additional cooling is needed. Sensors in the building optimize the system’s energy use. The initial construction was somewhat more expensive than an old-style bus station, but they will recoup the costs in about 10 years because operating costs are significantly lower.

Metro planners thought carefully about conserving resources and protecting the environment:

· They used recycled concrete for the building’s base.

· They recycled about 75% of their construction waste.

· The roof captures rainwater, which is then used for watering the landscaping and flushing toilets.

· They installed waterless urinals, saving 40,000 gallons/year.

· In a few locations they installed test slabs of permeable concrete, which allows water to filter through into the ground. Permeable concrete prevents runoffs which overload drains and send untreated water into sensitive waterways (in Akron, the still-recovering Cuyahoga River); it also prevents depletion of aquifers. However, Metro planners need to be know how it behaves under winter conditions before using it on a large scale.

The Transit Center currently serves both the county bus system and Greyhound, and was located by the old rail line to allow for integrated mass transportation. We learned, however, that if Ohio gets its proposed Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati rail link, it will most likely run through Mansfield rather than Akron, because the track is in better shape on that route.

Joan:  I left the group on Saturday morning and went to the city’s only synagogue, built in 1833.  As in most European synagogues these days, there was a security guard at the street entrance who questioned me politely but insistently and also searched my bag, to make sure that I was really there to attend the service and not blow it up.  I generally avoid Orthodox synagogues because of the separate seating for women, but this was a rare and very moving opportunity to worship with one of the few Jewish communities on the continent whose liturgical traditions now are the same as they were before the Holocaust.  Although there are a lot of newcomers to the community from eastern Europe and Israel, there are still substantial numbers whose families lived in Denmark before the war, since almost all of the 6500 Danish Jews were saved by the Danish underground and the population as a whole.  The Danes were tipped off by someone within the Nazi hierarchy that a mass deportation was planned for early October 1943.  In the space of a few nights the Jews were secretly transported to coastal villages and smuggled across to Sweden in fishing boats.  The Danes also preserved the synagogue from destruction and kept all of its Torah scrolls and ritual objects safe.

(Joan):  Believe it or not, we are once again having internet connection problems.  The internet connection in our apartment is broken, so we´re sitting in a public internet linkup in the main railroad station, and the guy right next to me is smoking like a chimney, so I may have to cut this short.  We arrived in Copenhagen, where there are already a noticeable number of advertisements in the airport for products and services claiming to be eco-friendly, all linking thmselves to the upcoming climate summit here.  There is certainly a great deal more environmental consciousness here than in Iceland.  The tourist guides prominently feature organic restaurants, eco-friendly shopping, and more.

Our first meeting on arrival was with Martha Lewis, whose father Arn is an emeritus Wooster faculty member in art history.  Martha is an architect and works for a firm here that specializes in environmentally sensitive architecture.  We met her at her office, where she had prepared for us a detailed presentation about a huge project the firm is working on in Hamburg.  We learned a tremendous amount in a very short time about the kinds of considerations that go into designing and building this sort of structure.  Among other things, Martha had reservations about US LEED certification, which is granted to a building based on adherence to a checklist of criteria in construction, but which does not require any sort of assessment to see if the completed structure meets its planned specifications.  The German standard is far stricter; a building receives provisional certification as environmentally friendly on the basis of its design, but then there has to be an inspection after a certain period to make sure that it is actually as energy-friendly as claimed.  [Addendum 24.7.09:  Amyaz Moledina from Economics just sent us a link to a press release from the US Green Building Council, saying that LEED certification will now include post-construction evaluation. Thanks, Amyaz!]

She also explained to us that the certification process involves five separate categories, of which energy efficiency is only one.  The others are:  type of materials used; human health and comfort; low maintenance and operation costs; and public access to the facility.  A project can choose to go for certification in some or all of the categories.  She also told us that in the architectural world there has been a revolution in thinking just within the last two years with regard to environmentally sensitive building.  Firms and clients are taking it much more seriously, and there have been numerous advances in concepts and designs.  She recommended that we see a special exhibit at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art on eco-friendly architecture; we’ll report on that in our next post.

We were exhausted after our strenuous hiking, long drive back from Skaftafells, and only three hours of sleep before getting up to catch our flight, so after our wonderful meeting with Martha we had a relaxed evening walking around Copenhagen.   Melissa would like to say that while Reykjavik is a cat city, Copenhagen appears to be a dog city.  Dogs are even allowed on trains.  And I would like to note my particular delight at finding that the Pilsner Urquell served here is the real Czech beer, not the watered-down swill they export to the US.

Mareike 7.17.09
Mareike (7.19.2009)
It was a perfect confluence of personal and professional interests for our group to meet Martha Lewis, architect with Henning Larsen firm in Copenhagen, and daughter of professors emeritus, Arn and Beth Irwin Lewis. Martha explained that about 30-35% of total global emissions come from buildings (from heating, cooling, and lighting), which makes the design and the building of green buildings highly relevant to attaining the goal of a sustainable environment. One of her office’s contracts has been to design the new Spiegel headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. It was fascinating to hear her talk about how the client was swayed to aim for the highest certification level (on a 5-star system) they could afford.
I am interested in what makes a company like the Spiegel want to go for green when they commission a new building. Many of the ideas that were eventually realized came from the architecture firm’s proposals. In this particular case, the city of Hamburg also set certain standards or goals for the development of the entire area (Hafen City) – without imposing the particular ratings. The client is always moved by financial concerns, by peer/social pressures, and by ideological and perhaps even ethical concerns. The social pressures here are interesting: the star system rewards sustainable building and it becomes almost like a competition for prestigious institutions like this news magazine for highly educated readers to go for 5, whenever they can. And since Spiegel prides itself on a high degree of social awareness and is closely allied with Germany’s media capital of Hamburg, which is located on the Elbe river, one of Germany’s largest rivers, it makes sense that the publisher would attempt to merge social with natural spaces in a sustainable way.

We have arrived in Copenhagen and now have much better internet access, so stay tuned for some text and LOTS of photo additions in the next day or so, including photos added to earlier posts.

(Mareike 7.16.09):  We arrived at Skaftafell National Park around 3 p.m. Since this is the European holiday season, there were many tourists and campers at the park. We headed out on a moderately steep trail to Svartifoss waterfall. Along the way we passed a smaller waterfall, at the head of which we found what we thought was a troll hut. Upon investigation, Bill and Tom found that the building actually contained a restored a restored turbine that was used to generate electricity for a local farm in the early 20^th-century. We continued on to Svartifoss (“black falls”), a high falls that tumbles over a wall of basalt columns that appear from a distance to be massive wooden planks. From Svartifoss we traversed a high meadow Sjornarnipa, a point that overlooks the massive glacier, Skaftafelljökull. From this point we could see the broad, curved sweep of the glacier , which terminates in a series of small lakes and braided streams that run across the massive black plain to the sea.

Mareike 7.16.09

Since the short stop became a major excursion and late lunch (still only about 50 km outside of Reyk.), we arrived at our destination (Skaftafell National Park right on the edge of the Vatnajökull glacier – the largest one in Europe) at 9 P.M. , with still plenty of daylight, but unable to do any more hiking. So we picked up some trail maps and continued on to the town of Höfn, where we had hotel reservations (another 2 hours drive, which seemed longer because of frequent stops for unruly, free-ranging sheep). After a restful night in two very crammed rooms and a plentiful breakfast (pickled herring was enjoyed by two of us), we drove back towards the park and stopped on the way at the amazing glacial lagoon (Jökulsarlon), where we took a guided boat ride and learned about the ice and movements of the glaciers.

Tom 7.15.09

After visiting the geo-thermal plant, we continued toward Skaftafell National Park, but took what was supposed to be a short stop to satisfy European Mareike’s obsession with outdoor bathing (with suit). Our short detour turned into a 3-hour, fly-infested hike to sulfurous Shangri-la. We were headed for bathing pools that were heated by geo-thermal vents, recommended by Meagen Pollock. The fata morgana that drew us into this adventure into the wild was the steaming fumeroles that appeared after every turn or hill on the trail. We stopped numerous times to question the sanity of our quest, but each time concluded that the pools were just around the bend. With some minor casualties along the way – Dale got excessively wet fording one stream – we reached the confluence of two streams, one extremely hot and the other extremely cold, which created warm bathing pools. Mareike was able to soak for a few minutes in the deep pools, and the rest of us soaked our feet, upstream from Mareike. On the way to and from these pools, we crossed the mid-Atlantic rift , saw several wild sheep, numerous bubbling pools of black, smelly stuff that Mark Wilson can help identify.

After our breakfast with Sigridur we were supposed to meet with a representative of the Renewal Energy School of the university up in Akureyri (largest town on Iceland’s north coast) to tour a geo-thermal facility.  Due to a scheduling conflict he was unable to meet with us, so we headed out early toward Skaftafell National Park on the Ring Road.  On the way we stopped at the Hellisheidarvirkjun geothermal facility, and viewed some very informative video presentations on the natural history and geology of the area, and the workings of the geo-thermal facility.  One of the video installations simulated some of the more recent earthquakes in Iceland, which occur every four years on average.  When Bill and Mareike first activated the earthquake video, they both jumped in fright in response to the extremely loud boom.  We all left the facility with a much clearer understanding of the way in which Iceland has been able to provide ample heat and electricity for their population of 300,000 through geothermal energy.  It was easy to understand how Icelanders could become complacent with their environmental practices, given the sustainability of their geothermal system, which stands in stark contrast to the hydroelectric projects for providing energy for aluminum smelters.  As Arni Finsson put it the night before at dinner, the hydroelectrically energized aluminum smelters amount to an energy exportation system, through which Iceland’s energy is exported in the form of aluminum cubes that are shipped to other countries for finished processing.

(Joan):   I’ll leave it to Melissa to write the more detailed and correct explanation of the processes of the geo-thermal plant, but this is apparently a super-efficient plant.  It sits on a site where there is volcanic magma underground, heating underground water.  It uses the hot water pumped up from the earth to create steam to drive a turbine to produce electricity, and then uses the residual steam from that process to heat clean water to be piped to Reykjavik and elsewhere for hot water use.  The system then returns the unfiltered water back into the ground to be reheated by the magma.  This allows the system to be reused indefinitely — a completely renewable source of energy.

Here is the diagram of the system that is part of the self-guided tour there:

(Joan, 1:57 AM GMT, Friday, 17 July) I’ve been ordered by more senior faculty not to blog tonight, but as long as I’m waiting for the shower I thought I’d at least let you know that there won’t be anything new until tomorrow. We’ve been out in the boonies of Iceland where functioning internet connections are few and far between — lots to talk about and lots of great pictures, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. We’re all exhausted from two days of hiking and lots of driving, and we’ve got to be out of here at 6:00 am to get our flight to Denmark.