Business & Professional

RESEARCH

Sustainable Friendship

Technion, Lawrence Tech explore research partnership.

Nabil Grace
Special to the Jewish News

S

ustainability in construction,
energy consumption and water
usage have become widely rec-
ognized goals in the United States only
recently; but in Israel, that approach has
long been a way of life.
Israeli scientists and academic
researchers have made much progress
in all three fields and they want to
accomplish even more by drawing on the
knowledge and collaboration of universi-
ties in the United States.
That is why a potential partner-
ship with Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology holds so much promise for
Lawrence Technological University in
Southfield.
An academic workshop on sustainable
buildings held at Technion's campus in
Haifa July 12-13 provided a starting point
for collaboration that I hope will grow
between our two institutions.
Sustainability in construction involves
the use of environmentally and eco-
nomically sound design and development
techniques to produce buildings and
infrastructure that are affordable, do not
deplete resources and minimize damage
to the environment.
A series of grants from the National
Science Foundation have enabled me to
organize three international workshops
on sustainability as it relates to construc-
tion and highway infrastructure. We need
to develop construction techniques for
buildings and infrastructure that require
less maintenance and energy, making
them more economically sustainable in
the long term.
The first workshop was held in Japan
last October on lifecycle assessment for
sustainable materials for infrastructure.
The second was held in my native coun-
try of Egypt in March on sustainable
green building in a desert environment.
In organizing the third workshop,
held in Israel, I had the great privi-
lege of working with Professor Rachel
Becker of Technion's Department of
Structural Engineering and Construction
Management. Eighteen American speak-
ers from universities and government
agencies were joined by more than 20
academic and government leaders from

42

September 16 • 2010

Prior to his trip to Israel, Nabil Grace and LTU President Lewis Walker met with leaders of the Jewish Community Relations
Council of Metropolitan Detroit: JCRC President Richard Node!, Grace, Walker, JCRC Executive Director Robert Cohen and
JCRC Associate Director Allan Gale.

.

Israel in a discussion of recent develop-
ments in materials and energy related to
sustainability.
The sessions were held in the Yitzhak
Rabin Civil and Environmental Building
on the Haifa campus, which was built in
memory of the inspirational Israeli lead-
er with tremendous support from many
Jewish Americans.

Building Blocks
The workshop in Haifa focused on the
materials and energy sources that can
be used to improve the sustainability of
buildings. Professor Becker delivered a
paper on a performance-based approach
to sustainability and sustainable building
design. My topic was sustainable fire-
protection materials in green buildings.
Building sustainability is a very wide
field that we couldn't begin to cover in
a two-day workshop so we focused on
topics that are at the forefront, such as
lifecycle assessment modeling, innovative
materials and low-energy buildings as
well as smart and adaptive materials and
intelligent controls.
The workshop had several specific
objectives:
• The use of lifecycle assessment to
help in the development of innovative
sustainable building solutions.
• Ways to promote the development of
innovative and "smart" materials that can

Nabil Grace, standing, joins Rachel Becker of Technion, right, in organizing a
workshop on sustainable buildings held at Technion's campus in Haifa in July.

be used for sustainable construction.
• The identification of cutting-edge
intelligent technologies that may lead to
breakthrough improvements in energy
performance.
• Examination of innovative concepts
for modeling and designing buildings
with extremely low energy usage.
Following the workshop, Professor
Becker was kind enough to lead some of
us on a cultural tour of Israel. As a Coptic
Christian, I fulfilled a lifelong ambition
to visit holy sites in Jerusalem, Nazareth
and Bethlehem.

Modern Miracle
I was most impressed by our visit to the
Golan Heights where advanced agricul-
tural technology has been utilized to
literally make the desert bloom. Water
tubes for individual trees are controlled by
Israeli farmers sitting in front of computer
consoles. They provide water and fertilizer
with almost no waste, and measure the
heat of the leaves to determine when an
individual tree needs more water.
Water is a precious resource in Israel
and the way Israelis use technology to
conserve it is amazing. In the United