Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Fall 2012 - (Page 8)

POLICY & STANDARDS LiVing architecture PerFormance tooL unVeiLed at citiesaLiVe 2012 By: JORDAN RICHIE AND DAVID yOCCA, fASLA, AICp, LEED Ap A • t the recent CitiesAlive conference in Chicago in October, subject matter experts from the evolving arena of living architecture convened to unveil a draft version of the Living Architecture Performance Tool (LAPT). The LAPT is the result of an effort initiated by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) and its members to develop a set of consistent, comprehensive guidelines and performance thresholds for green roofs and green walls and other forms of high-performance living architecture. The aim in developing this tool is to: Improve the public and professional understanding of the value and benefits of incorporating living architecture into the built environment; Encourage continued improvement of living architecture systems and implementation through a widely recognized standard of practice; Build upon, inform and align with the ongoing development of other highperformance rating systems, including Leadership in Energy and Environ- mental Design (LEED), Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) and Living Building Challenge; • Help set an agenda to help target future research to calibrate performance with confidence and encourage collaboration amongst research groups; Establish performance benchmarks that are regionally sensitive to facilitate testing and evaluation of new products; • The basic concept for the LAPT was articulated; and leaders and experts in the field of living architecture were recruited to populate a network of sub-committees (see Figure 1), under the guidance of an Advisory and Implementation Committee. These sub-committees have identified numerous performance attributes within their topic areas that will be explored in greater detail in the coming months. • • CITIESALIVE 2012 CitiesAlive 2012 provided numerous opportunities to solicit feedback on the • Create a reference for municipalities and agencies that can be used to develop LAPT from industry experts and stakeholders policies, regulations, and incentives A meeting with the entire LAPT comthat accurately reflect the performance characteristics of living architecture sys- mittee preceded CitiesAlive and served as an opportunity to reflect on progress to tems and application. date and address questions about the specific form the tool will take as the initiaHISTORy AND pROGRESS TO DATE Initial consultations regarding this initia- tive moves forward. A panel discussion with LAPT comtive took place at CitiesAlive conferences in Vancouver in December 2010 and Phil- mittee members and conference attendees on the morning of October 18th identiadelphia in December 2011. Earlier this year, the GRHC board of directors opted fied potential uses for the LAPT that were as numerous and diverse as the group of to move forward with the first phase of professionals who attended. The need what will likely be a multi-year project. LIVING ARCHITECTURE MONITOR / SUMMER 2012 / 8 / 8 LIVING ARCHITECTURE MONITOR / SUMMER 2012 http://www.recovergreenroofs.com http://www.recovergreenroofs.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Fall 2012

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Fall 2012
Contents
From the Founder
Letter From the Editor
The World’s First Bio-Façade Ready to Grow
Save the Dates for the Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2013
On the Roof With…
Policy and Standards
Current Research
Leadership
Product
Plant
Project
2012 Awards of Excellence
New Corporate Members
Professional Calendar
GRHC Buyer’s Guide
On Spec

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Fall 2012