01/05/2011
APA to Announce Carbon Challenge Winner at the 2011 IBS
The winners of the Carbon Challenge 2010 Florida Design competition will be recognized at a special event at the International Builders Show on January 13.
Who can design a home with the lowest carbon footprint? That was the challenge presented by APA to Florida designers in the Carbon Challenge Design Competition. The winners will be revealed on January 13, 2011 at the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) International Builders' Show (IBS) in Orlando, Florida.
The awards ceremony will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, January 13 in Orlando’s Rosen Centre Hotel. Cash prizes totaling $15,000 will be awarded to the top three finalists and the winners of three design categories: Best Use of Wood Products, Best Curb Appeal and Most Cost-Effective Design. All of the winning designs will be on display.
For more information on the awards ceremony, download the official event announcement.
The Carbon Challenge sought a single-family house design with the lowest carbon footprint (least CO2 emissions). A panel of judges reviewed the entries to determine the winners, evaluating each design’s performance score based on a scientific life-cycle assessment (LCA), cost-effectiveness, and adherence to the architectural standards of a Florida development.
To aid contestants in determining how various building components and designs affect a home’s carbon footprint, APA teamed with the Athena Institute to develop the ATHENA® EcoCalculator for Residential Assemblies, a free software program that provides instant LCA results for commonly used building structure and envelope assemblies. Carbon Challenge participants used the Residential EcoCalculator to determine their design’s LCA greenhouse gas potential impact measure, a score based on cradle-to-grave life-cycle (from extraction of raw materials, to product manufacture, to completion of structure, to structure demolition) including fossil fuel energy use.
In addition to a cash prize, the grand prize winning design will be evaluated in a comprehensive LCA study conducted by the Athena Institute comparing the design in full wood-frame construction to construction on concrete slab with concrete block walls. The results of the study will be presented in a series of APA seminars this spring throughout Florida.
The Carbon Challenge is being conducted in conjunction with the Raised Floor Living program, a cooperative promotion effort between APA and the Southern Forest Products Association. Program sponsors and contributors include the Advanced Housing Research Center: Forest Products Lab, Forest Products Association of Canada, Cellulose Insulation Manufacturers Association, St. Joe Company, NEFBA Wood Council and the Florida Wood Council.
In addition to hosting the awards ceremony, APA will exhibit at the IBS. APA will occupy booth #W5949, along with the Southern Forest Products Association. APA will also present two seminars at the IBS: Winning with Energy, Costs and Customer-Satisfaction through Raised Wood Floors (January 12, 8 to 9:30 a.m. in West 308 C-D) and Top 10 Framing Errors and 5 Ways To Avoid Them (January 13, 8 to 9:30 a.m. in West 304 C-D). The 2011 IBS will run from January 12 through 15, 2011.
Carbon Challenge Florida Design Competition information and updates are available online at www.apawood.org/CarbonChallenge.
