John W. Spears C.E.M., LEED AP
President, Sustainable Design Group
President, CEO, International Center for Sustainable Development
John Spears is the president of Sustainable Design Group and the
nonprofit International Center for Sustainable Development in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He is an internationally recognized expert with 30 years experience in energy conservation, renewable energy systems, indoor air quality and sustainable design. Mr. Spears provides design and consulting services in the areas of residential and commercial building energy conservation, renewable energy systems, “Green Building” design, indoor air quality and sustainable community development. As a home designer, his homes have appeared in publications such as Better Homes and Gardens Building Ideas, Popular Science, Solar Age, New Shelter, and Environmental Design and Construction and has been featured on Home and Garden TV (HGTV), Dream Builders and Old Homes Restored. Since 1973 Mr. Spears has been consulting with clients such as The Department of Energy, EPA, Electric Power Research Institute, Gas Research Institute, National Association of Home Builders, utilities and product manufacturers. As the Senior Architect for the National Association of Home Builders Research Center, Mr. Spears headed the energy, indoor air quality and building systems research. As Senior Energy Planner for Montgomery County Maryland in the early 1980s, he developed and managed a comprehensive energy management plan to lead the county to energy self-sufficiency by 2020. Mr. Spears has served on the board of directors and founded local chapters of the American Solar Energy Society and the Energy and Environmental Building Association.
Mr. Spears is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) by the Association of Energy Engineers and was awarded the Environmental Professional of the Year 1995. He is also a member of the US Green Building Council and a LEED Accredited Professional.
Mr. Spears has helped numerous institutions and developers develop sustainable community projects in the USA and around the world. Mr. Spears designed the first passive solar, sustainable community development project in South Africa. www.sustainabledesign.com/rsa-haus.htm This project was presented at the UN Global Warming Conference in Kyoto Japan in December 1997 as an example of how developing nations can grow and prosper while minimizing the emissions of greenhouse gases. Known as a “no regrets” project, this development cost no more to implement than conventional development and creates sustainable economic growth and stable healthy communities.
Mr. Spears has extensive experience working throughout China. Working together with the USDOE and the Beijing Ministry of Science and Technology and local Guanghan, China city government Mr. Spears designed a model sustainable village with approximately 100 new homes, town center and community building, sustainable water, waste and energy systems and a sustainable agriculture system. The concept of recycling village resources has become central to making this a sustainable design, with renewable energy powering the village: solar heating as well as biogas production to provide cooking gas and a biogas-powered generator for electric power. The biogas is generated on a farm, which serves as the main revenue source alongside the agriculture. The village economy and environment is further aided by new enterprises: compressed earth block technology, straw board manufacture, and flexible home designs that allow villagers to operate small shops to serve villagers and tourists. This sustainable village serves as a model not only for villages in China, but throughout the developing world in agricultural based regions.
Mr. Spears has been working with the Chinese Ministry of Health through the World Bank and the GEF to design, build, monitor and evaluate over 30 passive solar health care clinics in 3 north western provinces of China and to train their Design Institutes on energy efficient passive solar building design.
Mr. Spears has worked with 5 cities in China, providing sustainable development technical assistance in both rural and urban development and is playing a key role in the US-China cooperation on Greening Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.
Richard Crenshaw RA
Senior Architect, Sustainable Design Group
Bachelor of Architecture, University of Virginia
NCARB Architectural Registration Maryland, Virginia and Washington
Master of Landscape Architecture from Ian McHarg, University of Pennsylvania
U.S. Green Building Council Member
Mr. Crenshaw has devoted himself to an architecture that protects the environment and responds to the psychological, physical and financial needs of his clients. He does this through programming, developing behavior patterns, site analysis, and working closely with the tradesmen or women on the construction site.
After his graduation from architecture school, Mr. Crenshaw worked in architectural offices and on construction sites. During this time, he worked as a draftsman, designer, job captain, carpenter and general contractor. He worked on houses, office buildings, apartments, dormitories, hotels, shopping centers, and churches. Mr. Crenshaw designed a group of inexpensive townhouses in Reston, Virginia and acted as general contractor in the remodeling of a house in Georgetown, in Washington D.C. In 1966, he became an associate in the firm of Douglas Stenhouse and Associates. In 1969, he worked as a design consultant to Mark Beck and Associates where he dealt with architectural programming and energy analysis. In this capacity he developed a building program and a design for a Builder’s Solar House and worked on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Data Network.
Mr. Crenshaw worked at the Rouse Company as project coordinator for village and neighborhood centers in the new town of Columbia, Maryland. He was responsible for evaluating proposed building sites, developing building programs, budgeting, and coordinating the work of the architects and contractors. At neighborhood centers he carried the additional responsibility of directing two draftsmen in the preparation of design drawings, working drawings, and specifications.
Mr. Crenshaw worked at the Center for Building Technology (CBT) at NBS on performance specifications and energy. He worked on Operation Breakthrough (industrialized housing) developing the PBS Performance Specifications for Office Buildings, a performance version of the Minimum Property Standards, performance guidelines for evaluating the design of housing sites, performance specifications for windows, solar energy, and energy conservation. His work in energy began with performance specifications for active and passive solar buildings. Following that work, he located funding at the Community Services Administration (CSA), organized and managed a $3 million (dollar) demonstration of energy conservation in low-income housing and spent two and a half years managing this project which involved contracting, budgeting, data processing and coordinating people at 12 sites across the U.S. The project conclusively demonstrated to a Congressional panel that, for an investment of $1,700, the energy consumption in existing houses could be reduced by an average of 40%. The cost data collected was used as input to an energy consumption computer model CIRA developed at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and then the consumption data was used to validate the program. As part of this demonstration, data was also collected on infiltration, mechanical systems efficiencies, air quality, temperature stratification, and comfort.
Mr. Crenshaw worked at the Lawrence Berkley Laboratory (LBL) as Deputy Program Leader for the Energy Efficient Building Program (EEB). EEB was an $8 million (dollar), 100 person research program consisting of five subprograms devoted to research on infiltration, daylight, windows, lighting, indoor air quality, conductive heat transfer data and computer modeling (DOE-2). His work there was concerned with planning, contracts, budgets, personnel, space allocation, and review of publications. He was also able to continue his research on comparing calculated and measured data on energy use in houses.
Mr. Crenshaw was an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at Florida A & M University. He taught both Environmental Technology and Design. In Environmental Technology, he taught a series of three courses beginning with a course on comfort, passive heating and cooling and HVAC; going on to a course on day lighting, lighting, electricity, acoustics and indoor air quality; and finally ending with a course on field measurement. In the final course, actual buildings were measured, evaluated and recommendations were made for their improvement. Along with this series of courses there were laboratory sessions. In the Labs, Mr. Crenshaw instructed students on how to evaluate the thermal and day lighting aspects of their designs. They did heat load calculations, ran computer energy simulation programs, created light distribution curves for lighting fixtures designed by students, and made daylight measurements of student’s models both outside and in a 10’ x 10’ indoor artificial sky. In the design studio he focused a great deal of attention to the detail use of buildings and their sites and to the use of environmental technology as a Building Form generator.
Today, Mr. Crenshaw specializes in the design of ergonomic solar homes from quality component parts that allow accurate prediction of construction costs without loss of quality. He has teamed up with the Shelter Institute in Maine to offer a Solar Cottage Package to retirees who want to down-size or anyone who wants to live lightly on the land. This quality package, at a definitive price, includes a septic system, well, foundation, timber frame skeleton, structurally insulated panels, windows, Hardie siding, metal roofing, a 3KW-PV Solar Panel system for electricity, a Solar Hot water system, and landscaping. Also included in the package is a set of plans so the owner can finish off the beautiful timbered interior.
Mr. Crenshaw’s home in Maryland has been part of the ASES National Tour of Solar Homes for the last 10 years. He has written numerous papers on energy conservation and won the education award from Los Angeles American Planning Association for organizing and editing the book Sustainable Cities, published in 1993 and used by many universities as a textbook for sustainable design.
"A turtle has a shell and we have houses. A house can be a support system that sustains us both psychologically and physically. This is where my Architectural Practice begins. When you look around your house I want it to be a joy; when you put something away, I want you to have a place to put it; when you need something, I want you to be able to find it. My tools are carpenters, plumbers, electricians and other tradesmen. I want to take care of them and be closely connected to them in order to save time and money and still build a quality home. My practice is not about building the most space for the least money but about building good quality usable space at a reasonable cost."
