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INDIANAPOLIS, IN (May 8th, 2012) - The 9th Annual 'Greening the Heartland' Conference will be taking attendees outside it's venue at the Indianapolis Convention center, and into the city to discover how 'green' is more than a color in the urban landscape. A City Bike tour is just one way attendees will be catching the sites along with highlights of the city's more sustainable solutions in transportation, recreation, and education.
This year's theme 'Building Community' takes to the city streets on Friday May 18th at 1:00pm. Attendees will select from a total of 4 tour destinations where exploration reveals how careful planning, design, and construction practices are becoming more sensitive to healthy growth and the development of green treasures in concrete, steel, and glass. Indianapolis city planners and developers are taking pride in transforming the urban environment into a more user friendly experience for visitors and city dwellers alike.
The City Bike Tour (Tour D) follows the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, a popular amenity in the metropolitan area, and begins at the Bicycle Garage Indy Downtown. The remaining tours will begin from the convention center. Doors will be opened to 3 of the city's 'green' jewels currently occupying the built environment. Each one verifies that being green is not always as easy as planting a tree or putting on a little paint, they require careful thought and collaboration among various disciplines. The tours are organized to offer a diverse building type for conference attendees to select from and experience.
Tour A: Butler University, College of Pharmacy and Green Fume Hoods
Tour Guides: Dan Overbey, BDMD, Jim Hill, BSA LifeStructures, Rich Michal, Butler University
The Butler University tour features several projects.
- The addition and renovation of the new Pharmacy College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (COPHS) completed in 2010 achieved LEED Gold ver 2.2. It includes two large 150-seat tiered auditorium-style classrooms, undergraduate skills classrooms, a large open research laboratory and faculty offices. The COPHS effectively implemented innovative design solutions to address efficiency resource consumption:
- Organic and General Chemistry Teaching Lab Renovation in Gallahue Hall to be featured in a Friday break-out session. This project is the renovation of undergraduate organic and undergraduate general chemistry labs and features a new Green Fume Hood technology totally replacing 26 standard laboratory fume hoods with new filtered fume hoods that filter and recirculate laboratory air, providing improved air quality and energy efficiency.
- A third project was inspired by a student thesis. A 1,300-square-foot section atop the Old Pharmacy building was turned into an environmentally friendly green, or "living," roof covered in growing plants. The plant cover will lower stormwater runoff and prolong the life of the roof by protecting it from the sun and provide insulation for the building lowering heating and cooling costs. In addition, the plants improve local biodiversity, attracting bugs, birds and other life forms.
- The last project is an organic food farm spawned by Earth Charter Butler student group and developed by the Center for Urban Ecology. The farm concept arose from an interest in local organic foods, sustainability, environmental justice, food security, and the interconnectedness of life on Earth. The Butler Campus Farm provides the Butler University community with an opportunity to grow and learn. The social, environmental, and health benefits that are sought to provide through this venture include access to fresh food, community building opportunities, better personal health, education, and environmental protection.
Tour B: Indianapolis City-County Building, Sustainable Upgrades
Tour Guide: John Hazlett, Director of Office of Sustainability
On April 20, 2010, Mayor Ballard announced upgrades to the City-County Building, including energy efficiency, water conservation and renewable energy applications to reduce the City's environmental footprint, making it a model for green building in Indianapolis. Highlights of the tour include:
- geothermal heat-recovery chiller system
- Solar thermal panels on the tower roof help meet the domestic water needs of the upper floors of the building
- Wind, solar powered plaza lights
- 3.7 kW Solar PV system with monitoring of energy production through lobby dashboard
Upgrades are expected to decrease overall water consumption by 40 %; decrease energy consumption by 35 %; result in guaranteed savings of $750,000 annually for 15 years
Please Note that for this tour you must arrive a few minutes early as the building does contain a security checkpoint and all guests must participate.
Tour C: The Nature Conservancy (The Efroymson Conservation Center)
Tour Guide: Adam McLane, Director of Operations and Eric Anderson, Architect
The Efroymson Conservation Center in downtown Indianapolis is the bricks-and-mortar embodiment of our mission. The Conservancy's mission is to protect lands and waters that plants and animals need to survive. With our mission and values comes a responsibility to our environment. Thus our new headquarters was designed with sustainability in mind.
Known as the Efroymson Conservation Center, the building's LEED Platinum certification is pending. Key features of the building notable on the tour include several design and construction choices not typical in the downtown vocabulary at time of project conception:
* Native Indiana landscaping plants
* Vegetated roof insulates the roof, protects the roof membrane and reduces stormwater runoff
* Rooftop rainwater-collection system with a 2,500 gallon cistern to flush toilets and irrigate landscaping
* A bio-retention area, pervious parking lots and pavers and an underground infiltration gallery retains all stormwater onsite with reductions by almost 650,000 gallons/year
* Sustainably harvested wood from The Nature Conservancy's own forests
* Bricks and timbers captured from a structure demolished on the site
* Recycled more than 90 percent of construction waste
* Three vertical axis wind turbines provide renewable supplemental power
* And much more to be shared on the tour
Tour D: The Indianapolis Cultural Trail -This is the bike tour so plan on a workout!
Tour Guides: Kären Haley, Executive Director of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail and Kevin Osborn, Landscape Architect
The Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick is a world-class urban bike and pedestrian path that connects neighborhoods, Cultural Districts and entertainment amenities, and serves as the downtown hub for the entire central Indiana greenway system.
The five downtown cultural districts connected by the Indianapolis Cultural Trail include Fountain Square, Indiana Avenue, Mass Ave, The Canal & White River State Park, and the Wholesale District. The Cultural Trail will also connect with the Monon Trail, allowing visitors easy access to Broad Ripple Village from downtown.
The Cultural Trail is made possible by a large public and private collaboration led by Central Indiana Community Foundation, the City of Indianapolis and several not-for-profit organizations devoted to building a better city.
For $20 you can take a 2-hour bike tour of The Indianapolis Cultural Trail with those involved with the design and management of the Trail. Bicycle Garage Indy is providing rental bikes and helmets at a discount to Greening the Heartland attendees. The tour will start and end at the Bicycle Garage Indy Downtown, located inside the Indy Bike Hub YMCA at 222 E. Market St., Ste. E101. Please provide your height for proper bike fit.
You can find additional conference information or purchase tickets by going to: www.greeningtheheartland.org/registration/
Questions or for additional information call 1-888-473-2993 |
