New grants will support research in the sustainable built environment

The Woods Institute for the Environment has awarded planning grants to 17 Stanford faculty members to develop a campus-wide research agenda for the sustainable built environment (SBE), an emerging field that promotes the sustainable development of buildings and urban areas.

"Buildings consume about 40 percent of the energy and about 70 percent of the electricity in industrialized society," said Ray Levitt, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and a senior fellow at the Woods Institute. "Because the built environment has such a big impact on the natural environment, a consensus emerged across campus that SBE should be a core area of research at Stanford."

In April, the Woods Institute invited faculty to submit research proposals to the SBE Faculty Planning Committee led by Levitt and Doug McAdam, a professor of sociology. "In May, the committee awarded grants to three interdisciplinary teams drawn from the schools of Engineering, Law, Medicine, and Humanities and Sciences to develop ambitious proposals that address challenging research questions aimed at enhancing the sustainability of buildings, infrastructure and cities," Levitt said.

The following faculty teams have been awarded a total of $157,500 over the next 10 months:

Creating More Sustainable Decisions and Behaviors Through New Processes and Focused Interventions (jointly funded by the Woods Institute and the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency)

Principal investigator: Greg Walton (Psychology)

Research team: John Haymaker, Greg Deierlein and Eduardo Miranda (Civil and Environmental Engineering); Scott Klemmer (Computer Science); Banny Banerjee (Mechanical Engineering); Abby King (School of Medicine); Sam McClure (Psychology)

Stanford Engineering and Public Policy Framework Project: Climate Change and Its Impact on the Built Environment in the Coastal Zone

Principal investigator: Martin Fischer (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

Research team: Stephen Monismith, Oliver Fringer, Jack Baker and Ben Schwegler (Civil and Environmental Engineering); Meg Caldwell (Law School)

Green Adhesives for Clean Air Buildings

Principal investigator: Curtis Frank (Chemical Engineering)

Research team: Lynn Hildemann and Sarah Billington (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

For more information, visit http://woods.stanford.edu/ideas/townhall.html.

-30-