Sustainable Development

district studies

We are specialists in community-based planning, place making, and campus planning approaches to good design. We engage stakeholders and clients in creative dialogues that lead to informed decisions.

With an understanding of client values, we help craft processes that lead to a strong sense of ownership, consensus and enhanced team-building capacity. Our multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach highlights the inter-related dimensions of sustainable district planning. Our mission is to help our clients succeed with systems that strengthen economic, community and environmental performance.

Case Study: 10 Steps to Make an Eco-District

How can the millions of dollars that are being invested in new development demonstrate the best thinking in sustainability? Can we create a true eco-district that exemplifies how cities need to grow in the 21st Century? And if the answer is yes, can we afford it?

Making the buildings green is a good start. Whether with LEED Gold or LEED Platinum or the Living Building Challenge, great green buildings can get the ball rolling. But there is a bigger possibility when we are looking at multiple buildings and new infrastructure to serve those buildings. New development opens significant opportunities for transformative district scale sustainability. All of this development can be leveraged to create a truly transformative sustainability play. Even better, this advanced level of sustainability can be the same or less expensive than business as usual.

However, having good intentions doesn’t guarantee that we will be successful. Success will follow if we set the right goals for new development, hire the right consultants who understand the power of district sustainability, and get the right contractors who know how to work in an innovation environment.

The following ten steps are how we can make sure that we create an eco-district that works.

STEP 1

Require green buildings – either LEED Gold or LEED Platinum or Living Building Challenge. LEED has become a de facto standard for Class A buildings.

STEP 2

Balance uses between those that need heat and those that need cooling. Residential users need hot water for bathing, washing, and for thermal comfort. Office and retail, however, typically need some year-round cooling. If we can balance the residential demand with the office and retail demand, the two systems can augment and offset each other and radically reduce the need for new energy.

STEP 3

Create thermal loops. A single pipe maintained at 73 degrees F is how we balance demand between uses and buildings. Each building taps into the pipe with a heat pump. This heat pump either cools or heats the building as needed. The “waste” heat of cooling goes into the thermal pipe loop. In very cold or very hot conditions all buildings may need heating or cooling at the same time. This is when the solar hot water, geo-exchange, and sewer heat recovery come into play. They can all be tapped to provide cooling services or extra heat to keep the thermal loop at the perfect 73 degrees. This system then shifts the vast majority of heating and cooling loads into a totally renewable resource with virtually all of the thermal energy coming from the site itself.

STEP 4

Create water loops. By reclaiming Class A water within the district using membrane bioreactors, we can reduce water use up to 50% and wastewater discharges up to 70%. The reclaimed water flushes the toilets and irrigates the landscapes. This approach sounds even better when we look at the price. Our study in Seattle indicated that this alternative costs less in year one than simply paying sewer and water rates.

STEP 5

Park smart. By consolidating parking between day users and evening users, we can lower the number of stalls needed. That can save costs for expensive constructed parking costs under buildings. Consolidated parking can also use smart systems, where the access and billing are electronically controlled.
STEP 6. Use landscape for infrastructure services. Landscapes are more than beautiful, they can also add significantly to the efficiency and operations of nearby buildings. We use vegetated swales and special soils to hold stormwater runoff on the land to reduce water pollution and add to the beauty of the landscape. Walkways and parking lots are designed using porous paving that not only reduces stormwater flows, but reduces ice and snow conditions in the winter. Thoughtful location of shade and evaporation in the district lowers cooling costs for office buildings. Studies show that lowering the temperature of intake air into buildings can save energy 10% and higher.

STEP 7

Create healthy pedestrian environment. Pedestrians activate our districts and make them safer and livelier. Walking is an excellent method to increase public health. So what is it that attracts people to become pedestrians? A district approach would make sure that nearby services, well-designed public spaces, vegetation, a distinctive mix of uses, and programming of public spaces all work together. We design areas where different building residents meet and mingle to pick up the mail, to drop off the trash, to get a cup of coffee. This helps to build a community from what might otherwise be co-located strangers. Making spaces for children to play creates opportunities for parents to meet, bond, and share resources.

STEP 8

Use landscape for urban services. Landscapes can also create habitat for humans and native creatures. For the same cost we can select plants and soil strategies that improve habitat while they provide beauty and shade for the disctrict. Landscape maintenance can use organic wastes to create compost that make the gardens grow and increase the habitat value. The psychological and social benefits of living a life where plants are part of the everyday experience is well-documented. The change of the seasons, the passage of time, and the moment by moment changes in the weather are all reflected by the plants and animals.

STEP 9

Offer healthy mobility choices. Walking, riding a bike, taking a bus, and riding an electric scooter are transportation choices that can be encouraged at the resilient district. Make it quick and easy to do the right thing. How? Specificly bike lanes, covered bike parking, and showers for employees to make it quick and easy for employees or residents who commute by bike. Transportation management plans and subsidies for bus fare can add to the effectiveness of alternative transportation

STEP 10

Use smart economics. Too often district options are “value engineered” out of a project without a conscious understanding of how they work. Some will look at first cost or regulatory burdens and take a pass. However, when we look at the net present value of these options across the life of the investment we get a much better picture of where the value lies. The benefits are often spread across the “triple bottom line” of economy, community, and the environment. Because we are applying the economics at the district scale, we can put together packages of services that make sense for different investor types. This then opens up new avenues for finance of projects. Dollars from private capital can flow to the energy loop, the water loop, and district parking. These separate financials work at the district scale as it is a perfect mix of distributed services and economy of scale. Public entities, too, may choose to incentivize district strategies because of the environmental advantage. Using net present value comparisons between business-as-usual and these resilient alternatives demonstrates that the triple bottom line approach of resilient districts makes social, environmental, and economic sense.

Taken together, these ten steps can open up a range of new possibilities for sustainable districts that might otherwise be missed on a building by building approach.