Building Green With Howard Kaplan

posted by David Wolf on Mar 5, 2009 | Comments (2) | Permalink | Trackback URL

Howard M. Kaplan, RA, AIA, LEED Accredited Professional is an architect in private practice and he has been a proponent of green buildings since the 1970’s. Howard is currently working on several LEED registered buildings in New Mexico. He has been closely involved with advocacy and energy efficiency policy to advance the Architecture 2030 goal of achieving carbon neutral buildings. He is co-founder and President of CASA—A Center Advancing Sustainable Architecture which was created to lead and manage the transformation of the building industry to green buildings. Howard was a founding member and past president of the U.S. Green Building Council, New Mexico Chapter and is immediate past-chair of the Regulation & Legislation Committee. He served on Governor Richardson’s Climate Change Advisory Group and is a member of New Mexico’s High Performance (HiP) Schools Task Force; the City of Albuquerque’s Green Ribbon Task Force, the City of Albuquerque’s Climate Action Task Force and as an advisor to the City of Santa Fe’s green code development committee.

Unifying the Building Industry for a Carbon Neutral Future

THE MISSION – 2007
CASA’s mission is to facilitate, lead and mange the transformation of the way buildings are design and constructed. Our goal is that all buildings and communities are environmentally sustainable and healthier places to live, learn and work. We support the goal of eliminating green house gas emissions, reducing energy consumption, incorporating the use of renewable and recyclable materials, and integrating all aspects of sustainable design in the design and construction process.

THE NEED
There is no greater challenge facing the human race than the issues of global warming and the depletion of energy and material resources. We are racing towards an uncertain future if we do not take the necessary steps to change the course we are currently on.

While the climate change discussion has focused primarily around the issues of energy production and vehicle emissions, it is buildings that are far and away the greatest consumers of energy and materials and, to a lesser extent, direct contributors to green house gas emissions through the direct combustion of natural gas and oil in heating and cooling. These two factors taken together amount to about 50% to 55% of all energy consumed in the State of New Mexico and this country. These percentages do not take into account the energy used in the production of materials specified, the transportation of those materials nationwide and the energy consumed in the construction process itself. It is not a great leap to see that reducing the energy consumption of all buildings will have a tremendous impact on energy consumption and also positively influence energy production and transportation emissions.

The problem has been defined by Architect Ed Mazria’s research that is available on his website http://www.architecture2030.org. The question then is: where do we go from here and how do we get there? Steps are being taken in New Mexico and a handful of other states, but a concerted, coordinated effort is needed to align all sectors of the building design and construction communities to incorporate sustainable design principles in all building types.

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