Sustainability Weekly
Fridays are for…
International Women’s Day, Wind Turbine Magnets, Flaco the Owl, Electric School Buses, Bird Friendly Glass, and more!
by Alli DiGiacomo
Happy Friday and International Women's Day! Today we honor the achievements of women and their empowering contributions to social, economic, cultural, and political advancements both worldwide and in architecture. Women's ongoing influence on the built environment and on the continued fight against the climate crisis is inspirational and something to be celebrated.
If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out this impressive article featuring one of CTA’s Passive House projects in Hudson! Passive House is a standard for energy efficiency in a building with the primary goal of drastically reducing the building's ecological footprint and energy consumption. Passive Houses achieve this through a combination of design principles, insulation, airtightness, and efficient ventilation systems.
Keep reading for more of this week’s sustainability news!
T H I S W E E K ’ S T O P S T O R I E S
A NEW DOE PROGRAM AIMS TO RECYCLE WIND TURBINE MAGNETS
A new initiative by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is targeting the recycling of rare-earth magnets from wind turbines. The DOE's Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, awarded 20 winners with cash prizes to develop cost-effective and sustainable recycling methods for wind turbine components, including the magnets found in some generators that contain rare-earth minerals. The goal is to advance recycling technologies that can support clean energy deployment and decarbonization efforts, while addressing the growing demand for these valuable materials.
Currently, most of these magnets end up in landfills, despite their potential for reuse in products such as smartphones and electric vehicles. Rare-earth magnets are crucial for wind turbines and other clean energy technologies, but their extraction and refining processes are environmentally harmful. By recycling these magnets, we can reduce the need for new mining and minimize environmental impacts. While the competition won't immediately establish a new recycling industry, it will lay the groundwork for future commercialization. As more wind turbines reach the end of their lifespan in the coming decades, recycling rare-earth magnets will become increasingly important for sustainability and resource conservation.
NYC’S BELOVED OWL, FLACO, HAS PASSED AWAY AFTER COLLIDING WITH A BUILDING.
Flaco, a beloved Eurasian eagle owl who escaped New York City's Central Park Zoo last year, tragically died after colliding with a building in Manhattan. The owl was found unresponsive by the Wild Bird Fund (WBF) and pronounced dead at the scene. Flaco's remains were taken to the Bronx Zoo for a necropsy. The zoo staff had hoped to recapture Flaco after vandals damaged his enclosure, but he evaded their attempts for nearly three weeks. Despite demonstrating survival skills, Flaco's freedom ultimately ended in his demise. The news of his death prompted an outpouring of grief on social media. The incident highlights the dangers birds face from collisions with buildings, with up to one billion birds estimated to die annually in the US from such accidents.
Read about Bird Friendly Glass in the Sustainable Tech section below.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES OUTPERFORMED DIESEL IN THE WINTER
Electric school buses in Colorado's West Grand School District in Kremmling, one of the coldest towns in the country, performed exceptionally well in extreme cold temperatures, outshining their diesel counterparts. Despite concerns about reduced range in cold weather, the electric buses maintained their battery charge, offering reliability even in subzero conditions. The success of these buses has led to increased confidence in electric vehicle (EV) technology, with grants from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) supporting further adoption. Additionally, the expansion of electric school buses across Colorado underscores their potential to reduce operating costs, improve air quality, and serve as mobile power centers during emergencies.
MORE IN SUSTAINABILITY NEWS
6 female architects advocating for sustainability in design.
55 women-owned businesses that are doing good for the environment.
EU Parliament votes to criminalize most serious cases of ecosystem destruction.
Binge this science comedy podcast this weekend! Shoutout to Maddie for the recommendation!
SUSTAINABLE TECH SPOTLIGHT: BIRD FRIENDLY GLASS
Birds are important! In addition to the pleasure they can bring to people, we depend on them for critical ecological functions. Collision with glass claims the lives of hundreds of millions of birds each year in the United States. It is second only to domestic cats as a source of mortality linked directly to human action. Glass is invisible to both birds and humans. Humans learn to see glass through a combination of experience and visual cues like mullions and even dirt, but birds are unable to use these signals. Most birds’ first encounters with glass are fatal when they collide with it at full flight speed.
Bird-friendly materials and design features often overlap in function with materials to control heat and light, security measures, and decorative design details. Bird Friendly building-design strategies also fall into three general categories, although all three could be combined in a single structure. These are:
1. Using minimal glass (Bronx Call Center, U.S. Mission to the United Nations).
2. Placing glass behind some type of screening (de Young Museum, Cooper Union).
3. Using glass with inherent properties that reduce collisions (Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitors Center; Student Center at Ryerson University, Toronto; and Cathedral of Christ the Light). This can be ceramic “frits”, UV-patterned glass, opaque and translucent glass, window films, and decals or tape.
The New York City Council adopted Local Law 15 of 2020, which requires that materials that reduce bird strike fatalities be installed on newly constructed or altered buildings. The Local Law, effective January 10, 2021,amends the New York City Administrative Code (AC) and the New York City Building Code (BC) to mandate the use of bird friendly materials in exterior walls, balconies, parapets, and other similar locations. Projects filed on or after January 10, 2021, will be required to use bird-friendly materials in all new buildings, and where alterations of buildings include the replacement of all exterior glazing.
A success story is the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. In 2009, the New York City Audubon Society identified it as having one of the highest bird-collision mortality rates in the city. A major renovation and expansion, designed by the bird-friendly architectural firm of FXFOWLE, was completed in 2014. Some especially deadly glass at street level was replaced with opaque panels. Large panes of clear fritted glass with varying surface characteristics were brought to the site and compared to find the right combination for birds and people. A 6.75-acre green roof, with adjacent translucent glass, crowns the building and is already providing resources for birds. Best of all, collisions at the now much larger site have been reduced by 90%.
