Sustainability News: Kieran and Timberlake to Take Professorship, and Brown U. Goes Green

Professors in green: The University of Washington plans to jointly appoint Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake, partners at the well-known firm KieranTimberlake Associates, to an endowed professorship in sustainability. The professorship is the first of its kind at the University of Washington, which has had a number of sustainability efforts in recent years.

There is a difficulty here, however: KieranTimberlake is located in Philadelphia, which makes for a long — and fuel-intensive — commute to Seattle. A university spokeswoman referred The Chronicle to KieranTimberlake when asked about how the appointment would be made sustainable. Carin Whitney, a spokeswoman for the firm, seemed to think that it was the university’s problem. “I’m not sure how the university is planning to address that,” she said.

Mr. Kieran and Mr. Timberlake, who have been involved in a number of green projects, like the Sidwell Friends Middle School, in Washington, D.C., will teach concepts in sustainable design. “Our communities urgently need critical, creative thinking in sustainable building design,” said Daniel S. Friedman, dean of the university’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning. “Kieran and Timberlake are among the first to attack the problem systemically, through technology transfer and novel production.” The Board of Trustees still has to approve the appointment.

Deadline 2020: Brown University has announced that it will try to cut its greenhouse-gas emissions to 42 percent below 2007 levels by 2020. The plan will involve reducing energy use on several fronts, including switching to more efficient appliances and relying on renewable energy sources. New buildings on the campus will have to meet silver ratings in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, and energy consumption in those buildings will have to be between 25 percent and 50 percent below standards required by state code. Newly acquired buildings will have to reduce emissions by 15 percent and 30 percent.