Dr. Annie Pearce is an Associate Professor in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia... more Dr. Annie Pearce is an Associate Professor in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech specializing in sustainable facilities and infrastructure systems. Throughout her career, Pearce has worked with practitioners in both public and private sectors to implement sustainability as part of building planning, design, construction, and operations. As a LEED-accredited Professional, Pearce brings the latest in green building methods, technologies, and best practices to the classroom. Her specific areas of interest include metrics of sustainability for built facilities, green building materials and systems, cost modeling to support sustainability implementation, and in situ performance of sustainable facility technologies.
Intentional and unintentional openings in a building's envelope provide opportunities for unwante... more Intentional and unintentional openings in a building's envelope provide opportunities for unwanted pests to enter buildings. The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål), is one such pest, causing a significant domestic winter nuisance in many locations. One important means of pest control is exclusion, or blocking openings through which they can enter, although some openings are intentional and cannot be completely blocked without putting a building at risk. To help understand what size openings are relevant to entry, adult H. halys ready for overwintering were driven out of heated boxes through openings designed to limit passage by their lateral pronotal and dorsoventral dimensions. Pronotally limited holes of 8 mm wide were passed by only one female (3.3% of those tested), and no females and only one male (3.3%) passed through 7-mm-wide holes. For dorsoventrally limited slits, few (13%) of females passed through 4-mm-high slits, and no individuals passed through 3-mm-high slits. Dorsoventral heights and pronotal widths of 930 individuals collected in Virginia were measured. Females were consistently larger, with pronota averaging 8.33 mm wide to the males' 7.47 mm and heights at the point of leg movement restriction averaging 4.03 mm to the males' 3.50 mm. Based on experimental data and size data, we conclude that most H. halys individuals will be excluded by slits smaller than 3 mm and holes smaller than 7 mm.
Investment in sustainability strategies and technologies holds promise for significant cost savin... more Investment in sustainability strategies and technologies holds promise for significant cost savings over the RSHUDWLRQDO SKDVH RI D IDFLOLW\ ¶V OLIH F\FOH ZKLOH PRUH HIIHFWLYHO\ PHHWLQJ VWDNHKROGHU QHHds. However, accurately estimating the first costs of a green project during the early concept development stages is challenging, and effective ways to comprehensively predict potential lifecycle cost impacts of sustainability strategies do not exist. This paper describes a agent-based model (ABM) of the Total Cost of Ownership of green facilities applicable at the earliest stages of concept development. An ABM approach captures the social, environmental, and engineering systems that characterize a facility ¶V OLIH F\FOH FRVW ,W permits evaluating the impact of the institutional and industry environment on facility life cycle performance, and also captures the cost impacts of tightly coupled facility systems that characterize green design.
The United States (US) and India are two populous democratic nations that are leading contributor... more The United States (US) and India are two populous democratic nations that are leading contributors to global climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. To address these problems, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is one of the tools commonly utilized by the two nations to reduce negative environmental impacts of buildings. This research studied the ways in which LEED certified buildings offer social benefits to their surrounding communities in different socioeconomic contexts. For this study, two LEED Platinum Rated Buildings were purposively selected in the US and India, and technologies and strategies used to achieve the Platinum rating were identified. These technologies and strategies were classified based on social benefits offered to the surrounding community, and cases were compared to evaluate whether benefits varied between the two contexts. For the building located in the US, 26 out of 70, and for the building located in India, 18 out of 57 technologie...
International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2002
The literature on built environment sustainability has grown dramatically in the past 10 years. D... more The literature on built environment sustainability has grown dramatically in the past 10 years. Despite the proliferation of literature, there is still no consensus on how comprehensively and uniformly to define the concept of sustainability as it pertains to the built environment, nor is there consensus on what aspects of the built environment should be considered in evaluating the sustainability of a built facility. This paper, through an evaluation of selected sources from the sustainability literature, takes a first step in systematically identifying what parameters of both the built environment and the concept of sustainability are emphasised in the existing literature on the topic. The outcome is a set of parameters that can be used in future research to begin uniformly and comprehensively to define sustainability as it applies to built facilities, using techniques such as concept mapping, content analysis, dendograms, and other established research methods.
The chair, Sherwood Wilson, called the meeting to order and commented that he was encouraged with... more The chair, Sherwood Wilson, called the meeting to order and commented that he was encouraged with the energy initiatives on campus. He introduced Mike Coleman who
AbstractCommunal rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems allow a community to collect rainwater from m... more AbstractCommunal rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems allow a community to collect rainwater from multiple roofs, store and treat it in a central location, and then distribute it back to the communit...
Received: Jul 17, 2019 Revised: Nov 20, 2019 Accepted: Feb 5, 2020 The construction industry is i... more Received: Jul 17, 2019 Revised: Nov 20, 2019 Accepted: Feb 5, 2020 The construction industry is inundated with unethical activity and is viewed as one of the most corrupt industries in any business sector. This activity has caught the attention of public agencies, industry groups, and academic accrediting bodies such as the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) which lead to a requirement for ethics education. The problem is that the requirement to teach ethics is not complimented with an understanding of construction student ethical competency. Construction students should possess the ability to recognize ethical issues of the construction industry, namely have ethical sensitivity, as a milestone to making proper ethical decisions in practice. The purpose of this study is to suggest a qualitative response, quantitatively scored means of testing the ethical sensitivity of construction students known as th...
Interest is growing regarding incorporating sustainability throughout university curricula, but t... more Interest is growing regarding incorporating sustainability throughout university curricula, but the al- ready full palette of educational requirements means that common tactics of adding new elective courses tend to isolate the concept and pit them against other courses in the curriculum. This paper presents six strategic entry points for sustainability in a typical construction- or engineering-oriented curriculum. It compares the pedagogical costs and benefits of each approach and shares lessons learned from experiences at two leading U.S. universities: Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. The paper discusses opportunities in terms of three perspectives on the pedagogy of sustainability: stealthy, flagrant, and a combination of the two. The paper concludes with a discussion of considera- tions that should be taken into account when evaluating the potential for sustainability in new educational contexts.
Dr. Annie Pearce is an Associate Professor in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia... more Dr. Annie Pearce is an Associate Professor in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech specializing in sustainable facilities and infrastructure systems. Throughout her career, Pearce has worked with practitioners in both public and private sectors to implement sustainability as part of building planning, design, construction, and operations. As a LEED-accredited Professional, Pearce brings the latest in green building methods, technologies, and best practices to the classroom. Her specific areas of interest include metrics of sustainability for built facilities, green building materials and systems, cost modeling to support sustainability implementation, and in situ performance of sustainable facility technologies.
Intentional and unintentional openings in a building's envelope provide opportunities for unwante... more Intentional and unintentional openings in a building's envelope provide opportunities for unwanted pests to enter buildings. The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål), is one such pest, causing a significant domestic winter nuisance in many locations. One important means of pest control is exclusion, or blocking openings through which they can enter, although some openings are intentional and cannot be completely blocked without putting a building at risk. To help understand what size openings are relevant to entry, adult H. halys ready for overwintering were driven out of heated boxes through openings designed to limit passage by their lateral pronotal and dorsoventral dimensions. Pronotally limited holes of 8 mm wide were passed by only one female (3.3% of those tested), and no females and only one male (3.3%) passed through 7-mm-wide holes. For dorsoventrally limited slits, few (13%) of females passed through 4-mm-high slits, and no individuals passed through 3-mm-high slits. Dorsoventral heights and pronotal widths of 930 individuals collected in Virginia were measured. Females were consistently larger, with pronota averaging 8.33 mm wide to the males' 7.47 mm and heights at the point of leg movement restriction averaging 4.03 mm to the males' 3.50 mm. Based on experimental data and size data, we conclude that most H. halys individuals will be excluded by slits smaller than 3 mm and holes smaller than 7 mm.
Investment in sustainability strategies and technologies holds promise for significant cost savin... more Investment in sustainability strategies and technologies holds promise for significant cost savings over the RSHUDWLRQDO SKDVH RI D IDFLOLW\ ¶V OLIH F\FOH ZKLOH PRUH HIIHFWLYHO\ PHHWLQJ VWDNHKROGHU QHHds. However, accurately estimating the first costs of a green project during the early concept development stages is challenging, and effective ways to comprehensively predict potential lifecycle cost impacts of sustainability strategies do not exist. This paper describes a agent-based model (ABM) of the Total Cost of Ownership of green facilities applicable at the earliest stages of concept development. An ABM approach captures the social, environmental, and engineering systems that characterize a facility ¶V OLIH F\FOH FRVW ,W permits evaluating the impact of the institutional and industry environment on facility life cycle performance, and also captures the cost impacts of tightly coupled facility systems that characterize green design.
The United States (US) and India are two populous democratic nations that are leading contributor... more The United States (US) and India are two populous democratic nations that are leading contributors to global climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. To address these problems, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is one of the tools commonly utilized by the two nations to reduce negative environmental impacts of buildings. This research studied the ways in which LEED certified buildings offer social benefits to their surrounding communities in different socioeconomic contexts. For this study, two LEED Platinum Rated Buildings were purposively selected in the US and India, and technologies and strategies used to achieve the Platinum rating were identified. These technologies and strategies were classified based on social benefits offered to the surrounding community, and cases were compared to evaluate whether benefits varied between the two contexts. For the building located in the US, 26 out of 70, and for the building located in India, 18 out of 57 technologie...
International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2002
The literature on built environment sustainability has grown dramatically in the past 10 years. D... more The literature on built environment sustainability has grown dramatically in the past 10 years. Despite the proliferation of literature, there is still no consensus on how comprehensively and uniformly to define the concept of sustainability as it pertains to the built environment, nor is there consensus on what aspects of the built environment should be considered in evaluating the sustainability of a built facility. This paper, through an evaluation of selected sources from the sustainability literature, takes a first step in systematically identifying what parameters of both the built environment and the concept of sustainability are emphasised in the existing literature on the topic. The outcome is a set of parameters that can be used in future research to begin uniformly and comprehensively to define sustainability as it applies to built facilities, using techniques such as concept mapping, content analysis, dendograms, and other established research methods.
The chair, Sherwood Wilson, called the meeting to order and commented that he was encouraged with... more The chair, Sherwood Wilson, called the meeting to order and commented that he was encouraged with the energy initiatives on campus. He introduced Mike Coleman who
AbstractCommunal rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems allow a community to collect rainwater from m... more AbstractCommunal rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems allow a community to collect rainwater from multiple roofs, store and treat it in a central location, and then distribute it back to the communit...
Received: Jul 17, 2019 Revised: Nov 20, 2019 Accepted: Feb 5, 2020 The construction industry is i... more Received: Jul 17, 2019 Revised: Nov 20, 2019 Accepted: Feb 5, 2020 The construction industry is inundated with unethical activity and is viewed as one of the most corrupt industries in any business sector. This activity has caught the attention of public agencies, industry groups, and academic accrediting bodies such as the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) which lead to a requirement for ethics education. The problem is that the requirement to teach ethics is not complimented with an understanding of construction student ethical competency. Construction students should possess the ability to recognize ethical issues of the construction industry, namely have ethical sensitivity, as a milestone to making proper ethical decisions in practice. The purpose of this study is to suggest a qualitative response, quantitatively scored means of testing the ethical sensitivity of construction students known as th...
Interest is growing regarding incorporating sustainability throughout university curricula, but t... more Interest is growing regarding incorporating sustainability throughout university curricula, but the al- ready full palette of educational requirements means that common tactics of adding new elective courses tend to isolate the concept and pit them against other courses in the curriculum. This paper presents six strategic entry points for sustainability in a typical construction- or engineering-oriented curriculum. It compares the pedagogical costs and benefits of each approach and shares lessons learned from experiences at two leading U.S. universities: Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. The paper discusses opportunities in terms of three perspectives on the pedagogy of sustainability: stealthy, flagrant, and a combination of the two. The paper concludes with a discussion of considera- tions that should be taken into account when evaluating the potential for sustainability in new educational contexts.
Uploads
Papers by Annie Pearce