E-Newsletters: Spring 2004
In This Issue:
Rainwater Harvesting:
A Sustainable Practice
 Rainwater harvesting seems to have come of age. Useful for helping a project to gain up to 8 points in the LEED® green building rating system, rainwater collection and reuse is showing up in an increasing number of projects, helping with stormwater management, site irrigation, landscape water features, and building water conservation.
Rainwater is being collected on high-rise buildings, including dormitories, as well as on smaller structures. The rainwater is simply pumped to water closets and urinals on the lower floors only, or is used for other purposes such as irrigation, hose bibs, water features or secondary fire suppression. Taller buildings have the advantage of collecting less debris, such as leaves, along with the rainwater.
There is no limit on the type of building that can accommodate a rainwater harvesting system. The simplest and most common point of collection is the roof; so the larger the roof footprint, the more rainwater that can be collected. This makes low-to-mid rise commercial and residential buildings good candidates because the ratio of roof area to water closets and urinals is greater.
Please click here to view a PDF article about Interface's approach and projects using rainwater harvesting...
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Our Web Site's New Look
 We are pleased to announce the launch of our new web presence. In addition to completely redesigning our web site, we have reorganized the information so that you can find what you want faster and more easily. There's also a visually-appealing Flash slide show of featured projects built right into every page.
In addition, we have added links to our latest case
studies, information on key people, overviews of our
most active service areas, updated contacts at our
five offices, and new presentations of our awards,
qualifications, and registrations. Take a quick browse
through our new web site at InterfaceEngineering.com
(or use the link below) to experience our new state-of-the-art
web presence.
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Flexible Busway Options
 Interface's
Senior VP, David Pickett, PE, LEED® AP, recently
published a survey of flexible busways for the national
engineering magazine, Consulting-Specifying
Engineer.
David writes, "Traditional conduit-and-wire busway systems have always dominated engineering specs. More and more, flex-busway systems are being installed for certain types of facilities, thanks to a number of benefits. Specifically, flex-busway fulfills the flexibility and power density requirements for server/ computer rooms, manufacturing plants and assembly facilities."
Click here to read David Pickett's article on the
Consulting-Specifying Engineer web site...
(this link is no longer active)
http://www.csemag.com/magazine/articles/cse0403flex.asp
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Interface Drives Hybrids:
Shares the Savings
 Interface Engineering is in the process of converting all of our fuel-efficient company cars to hybrids, and a number of individuals are also buying them. Given the eight-month wait for a Toyota Prius, the Honda Civic hybrid is emerging as our vehicle of choice. "We can save a lot of gas over a year's period," says Omid Nabipoor, Interface's president, "so we've decided to share the savings with our clients by reducing the mileage rates we charge for our projects. It's a matter of walking our talk and helping our clients do so as well."
Because of the extra gas mileage, we are reducing the standard mileage rate charged to clients by 10 cents per mile (calculated based on 20 extra miles per gallon, $2.00 per gallon gas), effective May 1, 2004. In announcing the move, Nabipoor said, "We're trying to show our clients and ourselves how sustainability thinking can be applied to all of our operations."
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Your Input Wanted: Survey on Solar Energy
We're getting more and more requests to design solar thermal (hot water) and photovoltaic systems into our projects. We'd like to know your experience. Please click on the link below and take just a few minutes to participate in our short 20-question survey on using solar power in new commercial and institutional projects. We'll share the results of the survey in our next newsletter.
To participate in our solar survey, please click here...
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Getting the Word Out on Green Building
 Interface's
Jerry Yudelson, PE, LEED® AP, recently wrote in
a national
engineering magazine about green building marketing
practices, based on a national survey that we conducted.
Jerry concluded that "conventional marketing theory
and the facts behind adoption of LEED® certification
project goals by companies, agencies and organizations
suggest that green building advocates and design professionals
need to become more educated in marketing theory, if
they are to successfully spread the message of sustainable
design beyond the current group of "early adopters."
To learn more
about how to get the word out and for the full text
of Jerry's article, please click here...
(this link is no longer active) http://www.csemag.com/news_stories/news98.asp
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