Brad Benke, AIA, is a Research Engineer at the Carbon Leadership Forum focused on developing data-driven resources to help practitioners and policymakers adopt and scale decarbonization strategies in the built environment. With a background in deep-green architecture and consulting, Brad works to synthesize and improve life cycle assessment practices and tools within the AEC industry and deliver practical solutions for low-carbon building design and construction. His recent work includes leading the CLF WBLCA Benchmark Study and developing the background data and methodologies for the CLF Embodied Carbon Policy Reduction Calculator. Brad is a former co-chair of AIA Seattle’s Committee on the Environment, and a former Senior Architect at McLennan Design, where he led diverse teams and stakeholders toward achieving decarbonization goals for buildings and organizations across the country.
Research Theme: Green Building & Infrastructure
Methods and scholarship such as carbon sequestration and green infrastructure, in the built environment, at the scales of the building to the region
Megan Kalsman
Megan Kalsman is a Policy Researcher with the Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington. She specializes in advancing the procurement of low-carbon materials and informs the development and implementation of cross-sectoral climate policies targeting embodied carbon.
Before joining the CLF, Megan completed her Master of Science degree at Lund University in Sweden in Environmental Management and Policy with the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics. She published her thesis project in 2021, on the intersection of gender equality with different environmental issues like climate change, biodiversity, and chemicals on an international policy scale.
Prior to studying in Sweden, Megan coordinated environmental policies and programs for local government agencies in California with a focus on toxic chemical reduction and pollution prevention. She helped in developing the first in the nation ban on toxic flame retardant chemicals in San Francisco. This served as a model policy for the State of California and other states in the U.S. passing similar policies. Her undergraduate degree was in Environmental Studies at San Francisco State University with a minor in Urban Planning and the Built Environment.
Megan’s work at the CLF combines her environmental research experience and policy design background. She strives to frame her work with an intersectional lens each day – protecting the health of people and the environment in an equitable way. At the CLF, Megan enjoys interacting with a variety of stakeholders around embodied carbon policies and ultimately working together towards a more sustainable and just future.
Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon
De Almeida, Catherine. (2019). Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon. Journal of Landscape Architecture, 13(3), 64-77.
Abstract
Materials and landscapes associated with waste are perceived as objectionable. By reactivating and embracing waste conditions as desirable opportunities for diverse programmes rooted in economy, ecology, and culture, designers can form hybrid assemblages on waste sites through the exchange of waste materials—a landscape lifecycles approach. This frame-work is applicable to not only design research, but also as a critical lens for evaluating the landscape performance of existing projects that engage with waste reuse. The Blue Lagoon in southwest Iceland materialized as a spa industry out of geothermal waste effluent from the adjacent Svartsengi Geothermal Power Station, reusing undesirable materials and transforming a waste landscape through diversified material recovery strategies. Featuring an industrial by-product turned economic generator, this case study reveals the opportunities for reusing geothermal ‘waste’ in these emergent landscape conditions, which hybridize economies with recreation, research, and ecology, and shift the conventional relationship with waste from passive to performative.
Keywords
Waste reuse; Blue Lagoon; material lifecycles; Iceland; landscape reclamation
Coefficient of Thermal Expansion of Concrete Produced with Recycled Concrete Aggregates
Okechi, Ikechukwu K.; Aguayo, Federico; Torres, Anthony. (2022). Coefficient of Thermal Expansion of Concrete Produced with Recycled Concrete Aggregates. Journal of Civil Engineering and Construction, 11(2), 65-74.
Abstract
This study presents a comparison between the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of concrete produced with natural aggregate and that of concrete produced with recycled concrete aggregate. In order to achieve this, natural aggregate concrete (NAC) specimens were produced, tested, then crushed and sieved in the laboratory to obtain recycled concrete aggregates, which was then used in the production of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) specimens. The RAC samples were then tested and compared to the NAC samples. The CTE testing was carried out using a AFTC2 CTE measurement system produced by Pine Instrument Company. In addition to CTE testing, the water absorption, specific gravity, and unit weight of the aggregates was determined. A vacuum impregnation procedure was used for the water absorption test. The recycled aggregate properties showed a significantly higher absorption capacity than that of the natural aggregates, while the unit weight and specific gravity of the recycled aggregate were lower than that of the natural aggregates. The average CTE results showed that both the NAC and the RAC samples expanded similarly. The results show that the CTE of RAC depends on the natural aggregate used in the NAC, which was recycled to produce the RAC. Also, there was no significant difference between the average CTE values of the RAC and that of NAC that could discredit the use of recycled aggregate in concrete.
Keywords
Coefficient of thermal expansion; Recycled concrete aggregate; Natural concrete aggregate.
Examining the Association between Urban Green Space and Viral Transmission of Covid-19 during the Early Outbreak
Zhai, Wei; Yue, Haoyu; Deng, Yihan. (2022). Examining the Association between Urban Green Space and Viral Transmission of Covid-19 during the Early Outbreak. Applied Geography, 147.
Abstract
Even though exposure to urban green spaces (UGS) has physical and mental health benefits during COVID-19, whether visiting UGS will exacerbate viral transmission and what types of counties would be more impacted remain to be answered. In this research, we adopted mobile phone data to measure the county-level UGS visi-tation across the United States. We developed a Bayesian model to estimate the effective production number of the pandemic. To consider the spatial dependency, we applied the geographically weighted panel regression to estimate the association between UGS visitation and viral transmission. We found that visitations to UGS may be positively correlated with the viral spread in Florida, Idaho, New Mexico, Texas, New York, Ohio, and Penn-sylvania. Especially noteworthy is that the spread of COVID-19 in the majority of counties is not associated with green space visitation. Further, we found that when people visit UGS, there may be a positive association be-tween median age and viral transmission in New Mexico, Colorado, and Missouri; a positive association between concentration of blacks and viral transmission in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida; and a positive association between poverty rate and viral transmission in Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, and the Northeast United States.
Keywords
Public Spaces; Viral Transmission; Covid-19; Extraterrestrial Beings; Covid-19 Pandemic; Smartphones; Cell Phones; Memes; Big Data; Urban Green Space; Geographical Information-system; Parks; Accessibility; Regression; Community; Stress; Health; Level
Richard Haag: New Eyes for Old
Way, Thaisa. (2012). Richard Haag: New Eyes for Old. Sitelines: A Journal Of Place, 7(2), 6 – 8.
Celina Balderas Guzmán
Celina Balderas Guzmán, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture. Dr. Balderas’ research spans environmental planning, design, and science and focuses on climate adaptation to sea level rise on the coast and urban stormwater inland. On the coast, her work demonstrates specific ways that the climate adaptation actions of humans and adaptation of ecosystems are interdependent. Her work explores how these interdependencies can be maladaptive by shifting vulnerabilities to other humans or non-humans, or synergistic. Using ecological modeling, she has explored these interdependencies focusing on coastal wetlands as nature-based solutions. Her work informs cross-sectoral adaptation planning at a regional scale.
Inland, Dr. Balderas studies urban stormwater through a social-ecological lens. Using data science and case studies, her work investigates the relationship between stormwater pollution and the social, urban form, and land cover characteristics of watersheds. In past research, she developed new typologies of stormwater wetlands based on lab testing in collaboration with environmental engineers. The designs closely integrated hydraulic performance, ecological potential, and recreational opportunities into one form.
Her research has been funded by major institutions such as the National Science Foundation, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, UC Berkeley, and the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab. She has a PhD in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, she obtained masters degrees in urban planning and urban design, as well as an undergraduate degree in architecture all from MIT.
Narjes Abbasabadi
Narjes Abbasabadi, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington. Dr. Abbasabadi also leads the Sustainable Intelligence Lab. Abbasabadi’s research centers on sustainability and computation in the built environment. Much of her work focuses on advancing design research efforts through developing data-driven methods, workflows, and tools that leverage the advances in digital technologies to enable augmented intelligence in performance-based and human-centered design. With an emphasis on multi-scale exploration, her research investigates urban building energy flows, human systems, and environmental and health impacts across scales—from the scale of building to the scale of neighborhood and city.
Abbasabadi’s research has been published in premier journals, including Applied Energy, Building and Environment, Energy and Buildings, Environmental Research, and Sustainable Cities and Society. She received honors and awards, including “ARCC Dissertation Award Honorable Mention” (Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC), 2020), “Best Ph.D. Program Dissertation Award” (IIT CoA, 2019), and 2nd place in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Race to Zero Design Competition (DOE, 2018). In 2018, she organized the 3rd IIT International Symposium on Buildings, Cities, and Performance. She served as editor of the third issue of Prometheus Journal, which received the 2020 Haskell Award from AIA New York, Center for Architecture.
Prior to joining the University of Washington, she taught at the University of Texas at Arlington and the Illinois Institute of Technology. She also has practiced with several firms and institutions and led design research projects such as developing design codes and prototypes for low-carbon buildings. Most recently, she practiced as an architect with Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), where she has been involved in major projects, including the 2020 World Expo. Abbasabadi holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Architecture from Tehran Azad University.
Rethinking Marine Infrastructure Policy and Practice: Insights from Three Large-Scale Marina Developments in Seattle
Wilson, A. Meriwether W.; Mugerauer, Robert; Klinger, Terrie. (2015). Rethinking Marine Infrastructure Policy and Practice: Insights from Three Large-Scale Marina Developments in Seattle. Marine Policy, 53, 67 – 82.
Abstract
The global transformation of the marine nearshore is generating profound losses of ecological and geomorphological functions and ecosystem services, as natural environments are replaced with built. With conservation a diminishing option and restoration often unrealistic, there is a need to rethink development and the potential for marine infrastructure to contribute to net environmental gain. Through analysis of 150 years of change associated with the development of three large-scale marinas in the Seattle area, this research identifies the ways in which evolving policy frameworks and ecological understanding determine the nature, efficiency and environmental outcomes of coastal marine developments. Decisions on infrastructure design, mitigation strategies and policy interpretations directly determined the ecological fate of marine biota inhabiting these structures as well as surrounding ecosystems. In spite of increasing evidence of environmental legislation driving mitigation and innovative engineering, the net ecological trajectories remained negative. There were no tested demonstrations of marine mitigation to confirm which measures would succeed. Where scientific understanding existed, the uptake into planning and legislation was slow. More broadly, this research highlights a need and opportunity to consider marine infrastructure as living laboratories to inform a policy shift from a no-net-loss paradigm to net-environmental-gain. This evolution is timely, with sea level rise requiring new approaches to coastal defenses and with marine energy infrastructure increasingly being located offshore, where there is little knowledge of the ecological changes occurring in both time and space. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Coastal; Restoration; Landscape; Habitats; Science; Driver; Areas; Act; Marine Coastal Infrastructure; Ecological Mitigation; Novel Marine Habitats; Environmental Governance; Pacific Northwest
Impact of Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Policy on Office Buildings
Shang, Luming; Lee, Hyun Woo; Dermisi, Sofia; Choe, Youngjun. (2020). Impact of Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Policy on Office Buildings. Journal Of Cleaner Production, 250.
Abstract
Building energy benchmarking policies require owners to publicly disclose their building's energy performance. In the US, the adoption of such policies is contributing to an increased awareness among tenants and buyers and is expected to motivate the owners of less efficient buildings to invest in energy efficiency improvements. However, there is a lack of studies specifically aimed at investigating the impact of such policies on office buildings among major cities through quantitative analyses. In response, this study evaluated the effectiveness of the benchmarking policy on energy efficiency improvements decision-making and on real estate performances, by applying two interrupted time series analyses to office buildings in downtown Chicago. The initial results indicate a lack of statistically strong evidence that the policy affected the annual vacancy trend of the energy efficient buildings (represented by ENERGY STAR labeled buildings). However, the use of interrupted time series in a more in-depth analysis shows that the policy is associated with a 6.7% decrease in vacancy among energy efficient buildings. The study proposed a method to quantitatively evaluate the impact of energy policies on the real estate performance of office buildings, and the result confirms the positive impact of energy-efficient retrofits on the real estate performance. The study findings support the reasoning behind the owners' decision in implementing energy efficiency improvements in their office buildings to remain competitive in the market. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Office Buildings; Building Failures; Time Series Analysis; Real Property; Energy Consumption; Metropolis; Building Performance; Chicago (ill.); Building Energy Benchmarking And Disclosure Policies; Building Energy Efficiency; Time Series Modeling; Energy Star (program); Building Management Systems; Buildings (structures); Decision Making; Energy Conservation; Maintenance Engineering; Time Series; Disclosure Policy; Energy Benchmarking Policies; Building; Benchmarking Policy; Energy Efficiency Improvements Decision-making; Estate Performance; Energy Efficient Buildings; Energy Star; Energy Policies; Energy-efficient Retrofits; Interrupted Time-series; Regression; Behavior; Designs; Building Energy Benchmarking And; Disclosure Policies; Buildings; Cities; Energy Efficiency; Energy Policy; Markets; Quantitative Analysis; United States