Article

How green is your building? A kiosk tells all

A design firm creates kiosks to provide interactive info about buildings' green practices.

October 27, 2011

An interactive kiosk is educating Des Moines citizens about the sustainable renovation of a 100-year-old building that used to house its public library.

QA Graphics, a design firm based in Ankeny, Iowa, created an Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard — a touchscreen kiosk — that provides visitors with energy usage information and a variety of other features about the sustainable building practices.

The kiosk was part of a $29.8 million project to transform the library building into the Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates. Borlaug, who earned the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize, developed the World Food Prize, an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

"The World Food Prize worked diligently to make this beautiful, historic building into a model of energy efficiency," said Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation. "But that work was only half of our responsibility; we also need to educate and inspire others, and to share these incredible examples illustrating how it is possible to transform an older building into a model of energy efficiency, utilizing energy-conserving systems and solutions that are good for our planet."

The new kiosk helps the World Food Prize do just that, said Dan McCarty, president of QA Graphics.

"We're honored to have had the opportunity to have been a part of this process and help such a renowned organization share the story behind their sustainable accomplishments," he said.

How it works

Visitors interact with the kiosk via a 42-inch touchscreen to see real-time feedback on how efficiently the building is operating. Education is provided on the different sustainable processes that were put in place, including a geothermal system, photovoltaics, low-flow water fixtures, reusing recycled materials, resources to reduce heat island effect, the encouragement of alternative transportation and more, McCarty said.

It also provides detailed demonstrations to explain how some of these sustainable features actually work.

For example, it shows how the rainwater harvesting system in place minimizes water runoff and stores the water for reuse. It then shows how many gallons of water have been saved, what's currently being held in the underground cistern and how much has been used for irrigation.

Another example demonstrates how the building's fan coil units have electronically communicated motors, which reduce power consumption in comparison to a traditional constant volume motor. To back this up, data shows how much energy is being used by the fan coils in the building, and this is compared to baseline data to illustrate how much energy would have been used if the traditional fan coil units were installed.

Other educational features on the kiosk include a LEED checklist that describes how all of these features were implemented during the restoration of the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates in anticipation of meeting LEED platinum certification standards.

Other deployments

QA Graphics has provided similar educational kiosk applications for schools, universities, restaurants, commercial businesses and organizations to help educate occupants and the public about what makes their organization sustainable.

One such project launched in a McDonald's restaurant in Riverside, Calif. Franchisees Tom and Candace Spiel have the fourth McDonald's in the country to earn LEED certification. They installed in the store's lobby a QA kiosk to make customers aware of the sustainable features implemented at the restaurant. For example, visitors can see that there are photovoltaic panels located on the carports outside and watch a demonstration to understand how the photovoltaic system works.

It features a 42-inch LCD touchscreen that takes customers on a virtual, 3-D tour through both the inside and outside areas of the restaurant.The display is much more than a LEED credit, providing community information such as bus routes, bike paths, events and more.

It also tracks real-time data to show how much energy is being output by the new green features. Candace said customers who experiment with the display typically have a "wow" reaction.

"Sustainable building requires a lot of time and resources, and sharing this technology serves as a positive marketing solution, allowing them not only to share their sustainable initiatives with occupants and the community, but also educate on how everyone can help conserve resources," McCarty said. "Education is an important part of any movement, so making people aware of initiatives that a facility has in place, and educating them on measures that they too can follow to be more energy efficient can help conserve resources and ensure those efforts are practiced in the future."

The cost

QA solutions are custom designed, so cost depends on the amount of information and design required, McCarty said.

"For example, if an organization has existing design assets, such as building renders etc., that helps minimize costs," he said. "On average, I'd say that the solution is around $12,000 to $20,000.

Watch below for a demo of the World Food kiosk.

Alicia Kelso contributed to this story.

Read more about custom kiosks.