The Oregon chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects next month will host in Portland a free trivia night geared toward design professionals.

The Built Environment Emerging Professionals Trivia Night will take place on July 16 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Lotus Cardroom & Cafe, 932 S.W. Third Ave. Registration and team-forming begins at 6 p.m. The trivia game will run from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., followed by time for networking.

It will be the third trivia night ASLA Oregon has hosted that features questions related to landscape architecture, architecture, planning and engineering in Oregon, according to ASLA Oregon spokeswoman Rebecca Wahlstrom. Potential questions could be about Oregon state parks, public transit or buildings in Portland.

The upcoming trivia night will be the first ASLA Oregon has co-hosted with the Built Environment Emerging Professionals with the aim of offering networking opportunities across various industry disciplines. The group includes emerging professionals from the Oregon chapters of ASLA, the American Planning Association, the Cascadia Green Building Council, the Women’s Transportation Seminar and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Registration for the event is available .

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An early leader in the movement to create more sustainable businesses is merging with the .

announced today its three-person operation will join the Cascadia Green Building Council, the northwest chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. The Natural Step is a Portland-based nonprofit that helps businesses and organizations reduce their environmental impact. Formed by Swedish doctor Karl-Henrik Rob猫rt in 1989, The Natural Step framework is considered a pioneering document in the sustainability movement.

The move, according to Natural Step’s executive director Regina Hauser will allow both groups to merge their resources to carry out their groups’ similar missions.

“We saw real synergy in the missions of both our organizations,” Hauser said. “Cascadia touches more than just builders. Our collaboration will help all businesses continue to be more sustainable.”

The two groups will sit down this week to discuss their agenda for 2011. The Natural Step plans to move into Cascadia’s offices in the coming months.

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Data is scare on the environmental and economic benefits of building reuse. But a study being undertaken by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Portland’s Green Building Services and Seattle’s Cascadia Green Building Council hopes to change that.

The three groups plan to study different building types throughout the US to examine the different environmental impacts avoided when owners reuse and retrofit an existing building rather than tearing it down and building a new green structure.

“We don’t have very good information on the real environmental benefits of using what we have already made an investment in,” said Jason McLennan, chief executive officer of the Cascadia Green Building Council. “We hope to get a matrix of answers so that people can understand the cost and environmental impact of reuse.”

General contractor Skanska and life cycle assessment consultant Quantis will also assist with the study, which is expected to be completed in early 2011.

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At last week’s Living Future conference in Seattle, Cascadia Region Green Building Council CEO Jason McLennan knew he was preaching to the green building choir. But that didn’t mean he thought the singers should remain resting on the risers.

“We are the choir,” McLennan said. “But we need a lot of practice. This is the first year of the last decade that we have to make significant change.”

McLennan, a former architect and co-founder of building materials rating system Pharos, is concerned about the lack of progress being made in the battle to keep Living Building Challenge Red List materials out of new construction and renovations.

He said architects, engineers and builders can compel manufacturers to replace materials such as polyvinyl chloride and chemically treated wood with safer alternatives.

“We’ve made no headway with the materials red list,” McLennan said. “We have no idea what’s in our materials. Our manufacturers don’t know what’s in our materials. Tell your clients why you won’t specify PVC-backed carpet. If we said we’re done with PVC, we could change the industry in a year.”

The Daily Journal of Commerce spoke with McLennan on Thursday afternoon to discuss the red list, green washing and why the industry needs 鈥榥utrition facts’ for its building materials.

91视频: Many architects I talk to say avoiding materials on the red list brings up issues of cost and limited alternatives from the manufacturing side. Do you believe these are significant barriers?

Jason McLennan: They are right and they are wrong. A client is not typically telling them to meet specific line items. It’s always within the context of the overall budget. There are always decisions that can be made on where you spend money. They use cost a bit as a crutch. There are good alternatives to things like PVC. (The solution) has to do with putting the industry on notice that this is important to us. Manufacturers get their materials from other manufacturers. There’s a supply chain that needs to be educated and made aware we don’t want (these materials) in our buildings.

91视频: What products out there today would you consider guilty of green washing?

McLennan: Pick up any architectural magazine and people are making claims. When a person is marketing a product they will highlight its best attributes. How do you talk about a product if you have a dirty secret? A food product could be filled with vitamins but what if it has a carcinogen? Does that make the product healthy? No. What we no longer accept on a food level, we accept on materials level. It doesn’t matter how much recycled content a material contains; if it’s toxic, it’s toxic.

91视频: Do you think we need a 鈥榥utrition facts’ type label for building materials?

McLennan: We need complete transparency and full disclosure of the energy, water, chemicals and ingredients used to produce a material. It’s not an unreasonable thing to want as a citizen or consumer. It’s unfair to introduce a product into someone’s life with a hidden legacy of things that are harmful. When the food industry was being required to label, they kicked and screamed. They said, 鈥榮omeone will know what’s in my cookie.’ If you’re a serious industry in any way, your competitors already know what’s in your cookie. Dell knows what’s in an Apple computer. This notion of proprietary secrets is b——-. Manufacturers need to realize they can bring loyalty and have nothing to hide. Everyone’s afraid of being sued and they don’t want to admit they didn’t do everything perfectly.

91视频: Can you tell me more about Pharos (A green materials rating system McLennan created with the Healthy Building Network)?

McLennan: I shared the idea with the Healthy Building Network eight years ago. The notion (of Pharos) is that we need a nutrition label for buildings and materials. We need to not treat the public like a bunch of dummies and agree that they can handle the information. What if when you went to the grocery store to shop for healthy food for your kid and the only information you could get on a product is a sticker with a happy face? The person might ask, 鈥榃hat the (heck) does this mean? I need more information.’ Architects and engineers run into the same thing except it’s a green leaf. There’s a lot more information we need to convey. We need to convey it simply but not dumb it down. It requires participation from manufacturers. It’s not a threat; it’s the way forward. It could happen rapidly when there’s enough movement in the market.

91视频: Do you believe that preserving older structures is a sustainable building method?

McLennan: There are a lot of reasons why one should consider using what already exists. We shouldn’t dismiss the past in our haste to look to the future. The social and historical fabric of a community is incredibly important. There’s obviously a huge sunk investment in the materials that made these buildings in the first place. Whether one builds new or old is a complex question with many variables. One can’t just throw out an answer. But one should never start with the assumption to tear down. What do we have here? What does the site deserve? From those questions, the right decisions can be made. It really deserves a complex answer.

91视频: What are your thoughts on carbon offsets?

McLennan: It’s one tool in the tool kit. It’s not the silver bullet. The quality of offsets varies so dramatically. You have to be careful. It’s the Wild West out there in terms of how it’s being invested and whether it’s providing its stated benefit. I like the idea conceptually, but we shouldn’t build whatever we want and purchase our way out of the guilt. In LBC we push people to generate all of the energy they can. We have an offset for embodied energy; that’s the only way to deal with it right now.

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To meet the Living Building Challenge, designers must do more than simply meet net-zero energy and water use requirements. They also must do so without using materials on the Red List, which includes chemicals and materials considered harmful to humans and the environment.

Mark Nye of Nye Architecture needed a roof membrane for the Living Building design of the June Key Delta Community Center. But after deciding to use Perlite tapered insulation, Nye found that the membrane used formaldehyde, a chemical on the Red List. Nye then switched to rigid, tapered foam insulation in order to meet the requirement.

鈥淲e had to do a fair amount of back-and-forth research,鈥� Nye said. 鈥淚t’s called the Living Building Challenge for a reason. They are trying to set 鈥� a higher standard.鈥�

The Living Building Challenge tasks architects, engineers and builders with creating a building in the most sustainable manner possible, ensuring that all energy required to operate the structure is created on-site. Guidelines for Living Building projects are incorporated into six categories: beauty and inspiration, site, water, indoor quality, energy and materials. Unlike LEED projects, a Living Building must be operational for one year before it can be evaluated and certified.

Materials and chemicals listed on the Living Building Challenge’s Red List include polyvinyl chloride (PVC), chemically treated wood and halogenated flame retardants. There are few alternatives for each of those, which are all building industry standards.

鈥淢aterials are probably the most complicated aspect of the Living Building Challenge,鈥� said Eden Brukman, research director for the Cascadia Green Building Council. 鈥淭hey depend on manufacturing, and some things we just don’t have currently. Manufacturers don’t want to make something people don’t want to buy.鈥�

Brukman says that 75 percent of all PVC is used by the building industry, mostly for irrigation piping and as covering for electrical wires. Finding a suitable alternative for PVC can be trying.

鈥淚t’s never a simple switch,鈥� said Caroline Forsythe, senior associate architect at Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects. 鈥淵ou can bring in copper piping at an incredible environmental and manufacturing cost. You can bring in steel, which has performance liabilities. It’s going to take a lot of careful product development to make something as viable as PVC.鈥�

鈥淩omex wiring is coated in vinyl,鈥� said Mike O’Brien, a consultant with the city of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. 鈥淚f you’re not going to have that jacket, you need to have a metal jacket, which doubles the cost of electric wiring. Vinyl wiring is what our market is set up for.鈥�

The BNIM Architects-designed Omega Center for Sustainable Living in Rhinebeck, N.Y., completed in July, is anticipated to be the first certified Living Building in the U.S. But the design team did not find a non-PVC alternative for certain parts of the structure’s wastewater treatment system, BNIM principal Laura Lesniewski said.

鈥淲e worked with Cascadia to understand if we could find alternatives, or if there just wasn’t something available,鈥� Lesniewski said. 鈥淭here are specialty pieces where you can’t get away from using PVC.鈥�

Until more alternatives exist, the Living Building Challenge allows design teams to use red-listed materials as a last resort. But only if they write a letter to the manufacturer stating that purchasing the product is not an endorsement, and that a more sustainable product needs to be developed.

鈥淚 haven’t started that letter-writing process,鈥� Nye said. 鈥淏ut there are going to be some things that we will write those letters for, one of which is shear board. You can’t get that without formaldehyde.鈥�

Finding building insulation that doesn’t contain halogenated flame retardants and formaldehyde can be a dilemma. Some designers turn to fiberglass insulation, which doesn’t have any red-listed materials, but doesn’t insulate as well in extreme heat and cold, according to a report by the Living Building Institute titled Code, Regulatory and Systemic Barriers Affecting Living Building Projects. The report also says that alternatives such as Nye’s choice of foam insulation, when improperly installed, can lead to trapped moisture within the building.

鈥淚nsulation is the next product people will be evaluating,鈥� said Forsythe. 鈥淚t’s critical to energy performance, and there needs to be a lot more research done to make a suitable alternative.鈥�

Lesniewski’s advice for architects pursuing the Living Building Challenge is to focus on materials selection early in the design process to avoid having to go back to the drawing board.

鈥淲e were not paying as much attention at the beginning,鈥� Lesniewski said. 鈥淎rchitects should pay attention to what they are hoping their building systems and materials will be early on in the design process and check them against those systems and materials the Living Building Challenge lists.鈥�

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