[ Event ]
Duane Morris Partner Peter Funk to Speak at Sustainability and Energy Efficiency Event
May 6, 2008 | New York City
| Alexander Hamilton Customs House
Duane Morris partner Peter V. K. Funk, Jr. will be a speaker at "Sustainability and Energy Efficiency: Bridging the Gap from Concept through Operation," a day long seminar on interdisciplinary collaboration in support of sustainable building design, construction, and operations practices. The event will be held on May 6, 2008, from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Alexander Hamilton Customs House in New York City. Mr. Funk's panel will be "Developing and Transmitting Intent," which will include the topic points:
- Effectively articulating the sustainable project intent to a lawyer.
- How to work with a lawyer to transform building, construction and operations concepts into reasonable legal obligations.
- An experienced lawyer's role, as a project team member, to assist in enabling the sustainable project to move from concept to reality.
About the Conference
New York's roughly 950,000 buildings are responsible for a vast majority of the city's carbon dioxide emissions. In sharp contrast to the national average of about 32 percent, the city's buildings are responsible for 79 percent of the greenhouse gases produced by the city and are being cut each year, according to the study conducted by the city's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability. There is now greater awareness among Developers, Financiers, Owners, Contractors, Operators, Tenants and the General Public that reducing carbon footprint of buildings needs to become an essential mission for refurbishment of existing buildings as well as development of new properties. As a result, the green, high performance buildings industry is experiencing exponential growth in interest by all stakeholders. A plethora of new technologies and practices have rapidly evolved with the intent of reducing buildings' impacts on the environment. An overwhelming amount of information is flooding the buildings trade literature with claims about improved performance. A variety of reports have stated the increased comfort levels, health benefits, and energy cost savings benefits of green buildings, and often savings resulting from energy use reduction and higher productivity are cited as offsetting any additional first costs of green buildings. Most of the benefits, though, are based on predicted, not measured, savings. Bridging the gap between great intentions in design and construction, toward building performance at the desired levels, is a major challenge. To help such professional discussions on these issues, the area Professional Organizations, AEE, ASHRAE, IFMA, USGBC along with NYSERDA, and GSA are sponsoring this all-day seminar.For more information or to register online, please visit the USGBCNY website.