Current Opportunities
The following is a list of current project opportunities available with Dr. Pearce’s research team. Click on the project title to learn more about each project. To get involved in any of these projects or to propose a new project, click Get involved... to learn how.
LEED-Homes Pilot Project
Client in northern VA has requested technical assistance as part of a small development of green homes in Louden County, VA under the LEED-H pilot program. Client needs assistance in developing educational materials for homeowners describing the attributes and proper operation of their building systems. Client needs assistance in designing and implementing a performance evaluation protocol for the homes after occupancy.
Green Building in Southwest Virginia
This project involves evaluating the state of the art of green building practices and resources in our part of the state, and developing case studies and a resource guide for local owners and builders.
Roanoke Headquarters Expansion LEED Project
Roanoke client is seeking to pursue LEED certification for a headquarters expansion project and would like to partner with VT.
Public Sector Green Building Policy Implementation
This project involves updating and applying the findings from a recent study of state-level green building policies conducted in 2005. The study will use the State of Virginia’s current green building policy undertaking as a case study to validate findings.
Service Learning for Sustainability
Professor Tony Songer and Professor Annie Pearce require assistance in developing literature review and gap analysis of service learning efforts pertaining to sustainability and construction. Professor Songer is working with a local organization that does service learning in Viet Nam.
Costs and Benefits of Green Building
Assistance is needed in updating database of studies on the costs and benefits of green building and conducting a meta-analysis of findings.
Risks and Rewards of Integrated Design
How does tightly coupled, integrated design affect project costs? Lovins et al., in their book "Natural Capitalism" (see http://www.natcap.org for an online version) suggest that green buildings can be built for both lower first costs and life cycle costs by combining the optimization of systems such as building envelope and lighting with downsizing of HVAC systems. However, the reality of the design and construction processes means that sometimes parts of these designs can be "value engineered" out without readjusting the designs of other related systems, leading to ill-performing buildings that perform badly and often require excess maintenance and systems replacement.
Holistic Decision Making for Sustainable Capital Projects
What are ways in which externalities can be included as part of decision making for green facilities and infrastructure? This project will explore how decisions are affected by including difficult-to-quantify or qualitative information as part of decision making for capital projects.
Contextual Adaptation of Learning Materials for Sustainability Education
Professor Pearce needs assistance in reviewing existing teaching materials for sustainable construction and identifying how they should be adapted for application in different contexts (public vs. private sector, different countries, etc.). International background and knowledge of different cultural/climate contexts is an asset.
Collaborative Technologies in the Construction Classroom
This project involves working with Professor Pearce to develop protocols and evaluation mechanisms for use of new collaboration technologies and approaches in BC classes;. Activities will include designing learning experiences for existing BC courses and evaluating their relative effectiveness in application. An interest in teaching is an asset for this project.
Peer Evaluation in Project-Based Learning
This project will involve working with Professor Pearce to develop an online tool for collecting peer evaluation data for team projects undertaken as part of BC 2014/5514. Experience with web forms and/or educational assessment is a plus.
Best Practices for Sustainability in Construction Education
This project involves reviewing state of the art in approaches to teach sustainability in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology (SMET) education, identifying core competencies and associated pedagogical strategies for learning those competencies, and contributing findings to a National Science Foundation online library of learning tools.
Barriers to Green Building Implementation
Despite enormous progress in the diffusion of green building best practices within the construction industry and a growing body of evidence to support their benefits, many owners and project teams are still reluctant to adopt these practices. This project will characterize the experience of deciding to adopt green building practices for the first time and develop a typology of barriers and contextual factors affecting successful adoption.
