| buildings being designed or in use. The item overwhelmingly selected most often was energy consumption, mentioned by 82.6% as one of their three items. Chart 1 summarizes citation levels for the six most important items, many of which are of an economic nature. Forward-looking attitudes regarding sustainable design are | falls considerably short of energy efficiency and daylighting, suggesting that for these professionals, the desire for visually appealing architectural glazings may often be superceded by the need to lower energy consumption. With regard to daylighting, respondents were asked to rank the |
| [12]. Looking ahead, when asked about their likelihood to recommend or specify smart glass for a project, 87.6% said they would be highly likely or somewhat likely to do so if the price for smart glass is reasonable and it meets performance specifications. Respondents were presented with twelve performance attributes | gains in long-term resource preservation and overall quality of life. Supporting all of this is the growing portfolio of clean technology products and processes that not only advance sustainable ideals but do so profitably. A convergence is taking place, where societal and economic forces are meeting powerful technologies that offer unprecedented performance features and open new opportunities for innovative solutions. Smart glass is among these technologies. It is in the earliest stages of its life cycle, but the underlying daylighting benefits that it can deliver – control over light, glare and heat passing through glazings – are substantial and address a wide range of sustainability objectives. While awareness levels of smart glass are reasonably high among those surveyed, specification rates compared to conventional glazings remain modest. This is not an atypical state for a new category of technologies, and it is likely that as production volumes increase, costs for smart glass will decline and adoption rates will rise. A new, exciting and incredibly challenging era has arrived, and it’s one where smart glass will offer architecture professionals and their clients innovative and effective approaches to sustainability. REFERENCES 1. United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987. 2. U.S. GBC Research Committee, A National Green Building Research Agenda, U.S. Green Building Council, November 2007 (Revised February 2008). 3. Cleantech Network, LLC, Cleantech Defined, Retrieved from http://cleantechnetwrk.com on December 6, 2007. 4. J. Thaler, “Global Cleantech Spending Set for 14% Growth in 2007; Asia Ahead of U.S.,” Business Wire, May 31, 2007. 5. A. Sweeney, “2006 North American Cleantech Venture Investment Totals $2.9 Billion,” Business Wire, January 11, 2007. 6. J.G. Dorn, “Solar Cell Production Jumps 50 Percent in 2007,” Earth Policy Institute, Retrieved from www. earth-policy.org on February 27, 2008. 7. A.E. Braun, “Photovoltaics Ready for Next Big Market,” Semiconductor International, February 20, 2008. 8. C.F. Reinhart, J. Mardaljevic and Z. Rogers, “Dynamic Daylight Performance Metrics for Sustainable Building Design,” Leukos, 3 (1), 7-31, 2006. |
| 9. International Energy Agency, Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems Programme, Daylight in Buildings: A Source Book on Daylighting Systems and Components, Report of IEA SHC Task 21 / ECBCS Annex, July 29, 2000. 10. J. Loveland, “Daylight By Design: Studies From the Betterbricks Daylighting Lab in Seattle Illustrate How Daylight Can Be Integrated Into Site And Building Design,” Lighting Design + Application, October 2003. | 11. B.L. Collins, Windows and People: A Literature Review. Psychological Reaction to Environments With and Without Windows, National Bureau of Standards, Washington D.C. 12. G.M. Sottile, “2007 Study of United States LEED Accredited Professionals on the Subject of Smart Glass,” 50th Annual Technical Conference Proceedings of the Society of Vacuum Coaters, pp. 32-35, 2007. 13. The Freedonia Group, “Advanced Flat Glass to 2010,” 2006. |
