Building Green

Stephanie McPherson for TEI

Paul Fisette, Professor and Department Head of Natural Resources and Conservation, first realized the importance of energy efficient building during the energy crisis of the 1970s. As a general contractor, Fisette saw many homes with leaking window seals or water damaged foundation systems. “That really had an impact on me,” says Fisette. Since that time more than 30 years ago, Fisette has been a magazine editor and professor, has worked on numerous papers and projects and taught countless students about building houses in more environmentally durable ways.

While it is obvious that heating and electricity play a huge role in the amount of energy a household uses in its lifetime, a large percentage of a household’s energy is used before it is even occupied. The whole building process, including the extraction and harvesting of the building materials, transportation and installation, uses a large amount of resources. The energy required to deliver a home that is ready for occupation is called embodied energy. When totaled it rivals the amount of energy used to maintain a home while occupied. “If you look at the amount of energy that goes into all the materials used in [constructing] the house, it’s about one third of the energy that is required during the lifetime of a home,” says Fisette. “It’s a significant amount, and it’s a part that people ignore.”

As a house ages, damages occur – some of the worst due to water damage. Fisette’s main focus has been how to improve durability of building systems and maintain the integrity of the original structure. This reduces the frequency of maintenance and repairs, reduces the required embodied energy, lowers cost, and avoids the need to harvest or extract additional building materials, which further depletes the environment of valuable resources. “If I had to identify one primary focus [over my career], it has been studying the performance and durability of structures and how to construct homes so they last for a very long time,” says Fisette.

Though Fisette has been busy with his duties as Department Head, he has still found time to devote to outside projects. Along with a team of scientists, Fisette recently completed a two year study on green schools for the National Academy of Sciences. The book, titled Green Schools: Attributes for Health and Learning, looks at specific criteria that make a school environmentally friendly. “There’s not a clear definition of ‘green’,” says Fisette. “There are guidelines that talk about ‘green,’ such as if you used recycled materials and if you have bike racks, if there is no mold or mildew, if you use natural products and natural daylight, and natural ventilation. So there’s a whole string of these things that people consider as ‘green’ attributes.” Fisette and the team of experts examined each aspect of an actual “green” school to determine effects on the health and productivity of the students and faculty.

One of the goals of a green school as specified in the report falls in line with the traditional notion of “green” – “to have positive environmental and community attributes.” The other, as the title suggests, focuses on how “green” attributes affect the health and productivity of all students and faculty. Findings and recommendations include the benefits of high quality air ventilation and the efficient use of natural light to enhance a safe and healthy learning experience. The findings also noted there was a definite relationship between excess moisture in buildings and poor health and structural damage. According to the recommendations, “green” school guidelines must be revised to include specifications regarding an appropriate and safe amount of moisture in a building. Currently, such guidelines are non-existent. The report also recommended future research into the effect of moisture on health and learning in schools.

In the future, Fisette hopes to join his colleagues working on a project with the housing authority in Springfield, Massachusetts. Assistant Professors Simi Hoque, of Natural Resources Conservation, and Christine Rogers, of Public Health, are working to determine energy efficiency and indoor air quality of public housing. Good air quality reduces allergies and illnesses, and ensuring that the homes are energy efficient would allow families to save money on heating costs. “That’s what interests me,” Fisette says. “Looking at how houses work, how they are sustainable and healthy places for people.”

This attitude is reflected in the Department’s new Professional Masters in Green Building Program, which is aimed at educating students in a holistic approach to the essentials of the environmentally safe building process and sustainable living. The program is run by departmental colleague Associate Professor Peggi Clouston. The two-year program draws from a number of different departments to provide students with a broad understanding of what it takes to build “green.” It also gives students hands-on experience with home energy audits - assessing the energy efficiency of house - and evaluating city green building codes.

When Fisette discusses sustainability, he does not mean simply ensuring that what we do today will not hinder the progress of the next generation, which is the traditional definition. “It’s not that if you take a tree, one tree will be grown in its place, or if you do something, that the same capacity will be there later,” he says. “It’s ‘can we do things smarter so that we can actually improve the capacity of the Earth to provide fresh water and clean air, and provide us with the resources we need to live better?’”