World Food Prize Illustrates Efficient Building with Dashboard

The World Food Prize Hall of Laureates is educating the public about the sustainable renovation of their century-old building with an interactive display created by QA Graphics. The display provides real-time building performance feedback.
 
Oct. 19, 2011 - PRLog -- During the October 2011 World Food Prize week of events, the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates held a public open house, allowing visitors to see the space for the first time since its renovation. As part of the open house, visitors were able to learn what makes the location sustainable using an interactive display called an Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard® created by QA Graphics.

The World Food Prize is the foremost 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 Prize calls attention to what has been done to improve global food security and to what can be accomplished in the future. The World Food Prize was conceived by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize.

As a special tribute to Dr. Norman Borlaug, and to provide an enduring foundation for all of the programs he created, the World Food Prize has embarked on a $29.8 million capital project to restore the century-old public library building in Des Moines, Iowa, as the Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates. The entire process of renovating the Des Moines public library building was completed under historic preservation standards, as well as following green building standards in anticipation of achieving the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED® platinum certification for energy efficiency and resource conservation.

The World Food Prize Hall of Laureates will serve as a museum to recognize great achievements in agriculture and as an educational facility featuring interactive displays on hunger and food security. As part of the open house, visitors were able to learn what makes the location sustainable using an interactive display called an Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard®. An Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard is an interactive application used to illustrate building performance and provide education about sustainable building. The World Food Prize collaborated with QA Graphics®, a design firm in Ankeny, to create this educational display.

“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,” said Dan McCarty, president of QA Graphics.

Visitors are able to interact with the dashboard on a 42-inch touchscreen to see real-time feedback on how efficiently the building is operating. Education is provided on the different sustainable features 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.

It also provides detailed demonstrations to explain how some 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 display include a LEED checklist which describes how all of these features were implemented to ensure the restoration of the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates following LEED platinum certification standards.

QA Graphics has provided similar educational applications for libraries, schools, universities, restaurants, commercial businesses and government organizations to help them educate occupants and the public about what makes their organization sustainable. Learn more about the Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard at http://www.qagraphics.com/eeed.

View a video of the interactive display: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8bKu2P7Vdo



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About QA Graphics
QA Graphics is an interactive graphic design company specializing in graphical user interfaces, interactive design, 3D design and animation, interactive content and other multimedia solutions. The company is also a leader in providing creative solutions for the building automation and green building industries, providing graphic outsourcing services and 3D displays to help educate the public about energy efficiency and a building’s sustainable efforts. Visit http://www.qagraphics.com to learn more.
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