Building for the future.

The terrorists who tried to blow up New York City's World Trade Center a few months ago found that the behemoth Twin Towers are not easily dislodged. But while the structural integrity of the 110-story glass-and-steel structures may be admirable, their energy efficiency is woefully outdated. Between them, the two buildings consume 350 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, roughly equivalent to the annual electrical consumption of the country of Niger. Like many other homes and retail and office buildings, the Twin Towers were built in the late 1960s, when energy prices were low and energy efficiency wasn't uppermost in the minds of architects, home builders, or buyers. But the increasing costs of electricity and growing concerns about the environmental effects of electric power generation have conspired to make energy efficiency a top consideration in more consumer decisions than ever before, including decisions about the buildings we work and live in. Unlike cars or appliances, which eventually become worn-out and are discarded, energy-hungry office buildings and homes are unlikely to be replaced by new, efficient structures for many years, if at all. And unfortunately, despite the advances in energy-efficient technologies, many new structures are little better than the old, possibly because many architects may not be taking into account the actual operating costs of the buildings they design.

Experts estimate that between 75 and 80 percent of energy use in a building or home can be cut with a comprehensive, integrated energy system. One-quarter of energy worldwide is spent on buildings, and where there is big spending, there is potential for big savings. Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, the share of energy consumed by buildings there was estimated at 20 percent, and the most recent figure for Eastern European and developing countries is 28 percent. In Western Europe, buildings consume about 33 percent, and in the United States, with its climate-controlled, high-tech office space, buildings eat up 36 percent of the U.S. energy budget--which is the largest in the world. Cutting building energy use by 75 percent in the United States would reduce annual energy bills by more than $130 billion, and eliminate the release of millions of tons of pollutants into the atmosphere.

Such a dramatic reduction is technically achievable, as demonstrated by builders and engineers around the world. In Amsterdam, for example, the International Nederlanden Bank constructed a new headquarters building in 1987 that comes close to the 80 percent savings mark, using just a fifth as much energy as a nearby office built during the same period using conventional Dutch construction techniques. The bank building has open office space with low cubicle walls and large windows to optimize natural lighting in the building. No one sits more than 23 feet from a window, the louvers have reflective tops bouncing sunlight onto the ceiling, and the atria are lit almost entirely by outdoor light. For cloudy or partially sunny days, a highly efficient lighting system uses occupancy sensors and auto-dimmers to reduce power when daylight enters the workspace. The savings from the lighting are complemented by the integration of well-insulated walls and windows and more efficient office equipment. The International Nederlanden headquarters was designed for the native climate--a key to building energy-smart structures. In general, the weather is cool enough in the Netherlands that air conditioning systems can be eliminated from buildings, especially with reductions in the internal heat load (heat generated by the equipment, lights and sunlight). The bank reduced this heat load enough to eliminate the need for air conditioning by using thermal mirror windows, shading to reduce solar heat gain, and energy-efficient office equipment and lights.

If the International Nederland Bank exemplifies what can be accomplished by designing efficiency into a new structure, the National Audubon Society's headquarters in New York City shows what can bc done by retrofitting existing buildings. The Audubon Society converted a former department store building into an office building that uses 61 percent less energy than offices built according to the New York City building code (building codes as a rule are fairly lax). Planners added thermal windows and well-insulated walls, installed auto-dimmers to adjust the lighting levels, and bought appliances with power-saver features. Topping all of this off is a climate-control system that uses variable speed fans and variable flow vents to deliver just the level of ventilation the office worker wants. And by using the existing building, Audubon avoided the significant energy required to knock a building down and haul away 300 tons of steel, 9,000 tons of masonry, and 560 tons of concrete. Homes offer an equally promising energy savings potential, particularly in many industrialized countries such as the United States and Canada, where homes collectively use more energy than all commercial buildings. In Canada, which has a relatively harsh climate, the typical homeowner will devote more than two-thirds of purchased energy to heating.

Canada is tackling the problem by designing "Advanced Houses" that test the maximum potential residential efficiency. The "Saskatchewan," one of 10 Advanced House models being built by independent contractors, is expected to use 75 percent less total energy than a conventional home of comparable size in the Saskatchewan area, due to design features that include super-insulated walls that surpass the U.S. standard five times over and a thick blanket of attic insulation. The high levels of insulation cut the need for continuous heating in the "Saskatchewan" and in the "Maison-Novtec," an "Advanced Home" model built in Montreal that used similar insulating techniques to achieve a two-thirds savings over "standard" homes in the area.

The Advanced Houses also contain super-thermal-shield windows, energy-efficient lighting, water conservation devices, and in-house recycling, as well as some new building products made from recycled materials-- insulation made from newspapers and drainage gravel made of broken colored glass bottles, for example. Advanced Home owners enjoy lifestyles that are the same, if not better than their neighbors', but their environmental impact is much less. A government-sponsored, voluntary program in Britain is taking a different approach in its quest to minimize the impact of the country's buildings on the environment. The BREEAM (Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method) program has a team of inspectors that evaluate a building against a set of environmental criteria. The BREEAM program originally focused just on new office construction, but expanded to include retrofitted offices and residential units because of consumer enthusiasm. Builders foot the bill for the evaluation, but often find that they get their money's worth when they look to rent or sell the space: now British real estate agents don't just tout the number of square feet and the great deal a renter or buyer is getting, but also the fact that the building has filtered, clean air ventilation and produces less pollution.

Healthy office environments, like those found in BREEAM-approved buildings, translate into more productive workers--a point that is of particular interest to company executives. According to the Building Owners and Managers Association, energy costs account for less than 2 percent of the total operating costs (including rent and taxes) of an office building on a dollar-per-square-foot basis for commercial buildings in the United States--82 percent of the costs are the salaries of the employees. Any changes that improve the lighting or ventilation of an office and result in happier, more comfortable employees will also increase worker productivity, and therefore generate more business (at the same salary) from each worker and a rapid return on the cost of the building improvements. An aircraft builder in the western United States, for example, recouped the money it put into improving natural day-lighting in the office in one year just through reduced absenteeism, according to Bill Browning, director of the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute's Green Buildings program.

This trend toward greener buildings will likely progress along two paths: one regulatory (a tightening of building codes that would require improved efficiency in homes and offices), and the other, a voluntary, pioneering effort by conservation-minded architects and home-builders. In Canada, the increasing efficiency of homes is partially fueled by strict residential building codes, and partially fueled by high consumer demand. "Consumers are coming to expect energy-efficient housing," says Gary Sharp of Canada's Advanced Houses program. If this attitude catches on, perhaps landmark buildings like the World Trade Center will overhaul their energy use and become towering examples of new age efficiency.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Forty thousand children die every day from hunger-related causes.

Bread for the World Institute for Hunger and Development report

China, Russia, and North Korea have begun working together, under the leadership of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), to create a sub-Siberian Hong Kong in a remote corner of northeast Asia. The unusual alliance has also secured the collaboration of South Korea and Mongolia, as well as the interest of Japan, which all stand to benefit if the plan realizes its goal: transforming the Tumen River Delta (where the borders of China, Russia and North Korea meet) into a major international shipping, trading, and manufacturing zone. United Nations Development Program

Alvin and Marilyn Levett, passengers on the Regal Princess cruise ship who videotaped ship employees dumping garbage overboard within miles of the Florida coast and then turned the tape in to authorities, have been given a $250,000 reward--half of the $500,000 fine levied against Princess Cruises Inc. in 1991, in the first ocean pollution prosecution. The cruise line was convicted for knowingly dumping garbage overboard.

The Washington Post

In 1991, the U.S. passenger car fleet shrank by half a million cars (from 143.5 million to 143 million)--the first decrease in 60 years.

American Automobile Manufacturers Association

An analysis of ice extracted from the full depth of the Greenland ice sheet has shown that the climate over the past 250,000 years has changed frequently and abruptly--with the exception of the 8,000 to 10,000 years since the last glacial epoch. Astonished climate specialists said it was a mystery why the past 8,000 to 10,000 years have been "strangely stable."

The New York Times

The Roto-Rooter Corporation polled about 200 of its service technicians, asking them to name some of the more surprising items they have found while cleaning household sewer lines. About 98 percent of the time, the typical Roto-Rooter job involves removal of wandering tree roots, according to the technicians. The remaining 2 percent of obstructions are due to some strange objects, including several bats (the animal kind); one baseball bat; one hockey stick; one 60-pound pig (in a six-foot drainage line); dentures (named by 22 technicians); $50,000 in cash (part of a murder payoff); a lawnmower gas tank; women's silk panties (size 62); and a plastic bag of marijuana (with pipe). U.S. Water News

The Indian bread-basket state of Punjab received more than a quarter of its entire annual average rainfall in one 48-hour period in September 1993.

The Washington Post

Gursaran Talwar, a scientist at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, India, has invented a vaccine that prevents pregnancy. The vaccine, which uses a woman's own immune system to block conception, has proved effective for one year in tests conducted at the institute. Three to six years of additional testing is required, however, before the vaccine can be made available commercially.

United Nations Development Program

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees' costs have doubled in the last two years alone, from $544 million in 1990 to almost $1.1 billion. Sadako Ogata, the High Commissioner for Refugees, says she will need $1.3 billion this year to feed and protect homeless victims of war and civil disorder. Unfortunately, the 22 governments the U.N. relies on for voluntary contributions have offered only $480 million, less than half of what is needed. The New York Times