Greenbuild (http://www.greenbuildexpo.org/) is the premier annual event of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC); it is the world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. Over 26,000 building professionals from all over the world came together for three days of educational sessions, renowned speakers, green building tours, special seminars, networking events, and a huge exhibit hall showcasing green-build products.
Every year Greenbuild draws builders, government officials, engineers, architects, students, and concerned citizens to learn and discuss about environmentally friendly buildings, and to look at future trends in this field. Since its founding in 1993, USGBC has been at the forefront of green building, launching Greenbuild in 2002. In 2006, 13,000 people attended. Because of growing awareness of the man made destruction of earth's environment it was estimated that over 25,000 attended.
Some time ago it became obvious to a small group of concerned individuals that 20th century building practices were destroying our environment through poor resource use as well as stratifying our societies by helping to reduce the sense of community. USGBC's mission was and is to build more efficient buildings requiring less resources (during the entire life-cycle of the individual piece parts, assemble, and usage), as well as recycling to minimize the impacts to landfills. USGBC's program Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a program for new or existing buildings to earn points for positive environment effects. The program relies heavily on third party verifiable to assure that the results are real.
USGBC's President Rick Fedrizzi gave an overview of what is happening, pointing out that USGBC is working with Chinese builders, architects, and engineers. And that China recognized that they would have to build green buildings or their contributions to Global Warming will overwhelm all the efforts of other countries. Whether the Chinese government recognizes this was unclear. Mr. Fedrizzi awarded non-profit organizations for outstanding green buildings. One that really stood out to me was low cost housing that lowered power and water use by some 50%.
Autodesk's president spoke about efforts to develop software tools for design professionals to work and determine how much power a building will use and tie back into USGBC design examples and information. Despite saying that they had no software to presently doing, the presentation was very slick, designed for the wow factor, reminding one of the futuristic movie Minority Report. For more info, see http://greensource.construction.com/features/greenbuildblog.asp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=b3b5b500-831e-431a-a817-6402a3458f5b&plckPostId=Blog%3ab3b5b500-831e-431a-a817-6402a3458f5bPost%3a267951c2-e3d1-4622-bd43-b5fbebaf9e3f&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest.
Former President Bill Clinton took the podium before lunch. His organization, the Clinton Foundation, has raised five billion dollars which will be used to help retrofit existing buildings throughout the world to create greener housing through the Clinton Foundation Climate Initiative (http://www.clintonfoundation.org/cf-pgm-cci-home.htm) which addresses retrofitting schools and performance contracting. Many remember that President Clinton greened the White House (lowering its energy and water use) during his time in office and also sent Vice President Al Gore to participate in the Kyoto Accords. Bill said the Kyoto agreement was rejected by Congress before he had even sent the bill to them. Now, many of the nations who signed the accord are in danger of not meeting its goals by 2012.
Bill stressed that USGBC represents a definitive tool to answer that criticism about proven gains as these new building ideas, materials, techniques, and computer software are verified to save resources. (Third party validation through USGBC avoids green washing.) Probably the most advanced democratic country (social support, healthcare benefits, educational support), Denmark, is having no problem exceeding the Kyoto Accords. Sweden and the U.K. are also going to meet these goals. Bill pointed out that the U.K. and the U.S. systems were closest to one another. Today, U.K. worker wages and productivity is increasing as more work is being done in this field by green workers. On the other hand, U.S. wages have fallen with an ever increasing disparity between the rich and the middle and poor classes.
The former president didn't mince words when it comes to the regressive policies being pursued by President Bush's administration. The main criticism leveled by Republican critics was that meeting the Kyoto protocols to reduce pollution would cost America economically while China and other developing nations weren't required to do so too. Clinton said we have to get China and the others involved but we must pursue these policies no matter what is done politically. (Unfortunately, the former president failed to mention that the U.S. has long been the most significant polluter on the planet.) Bill also said that it was a problem that Kyoto didn't have broader support, and that an upcoming accord must be based on more upfront knowledge of all those involved, including politicians and the citizenry.
Another excellent speaker was Thom Mayne from Morphosis. Mayne is one of the world's premier architects, having a reputation for determining the real problems first and then creating cutting edge designs relying heavily on high end 3-D modeling tools to try out many different designs proving on the computer the success of the final design. His talk opened with a camel in the desert with solar panels keeping a small refrigerator going that provides for vaccines and other important medicines. In his session, he went into depth on a building that was just constructed in San Francisco. The building took into account that San Francisco's temperature is moderate for heat year round ranging in the 60s to 70s. Mayne used natural cooling versus separate A/C units to cool the building. (It remains to be seen whether changing weather patterns due to Global Warming will prove this a bad decision.) The resulting design cut power consumption to about 1/3 of a building its size, not to mention the many advancements of the design.
Thom Mayne ended his talk with a warning that their were many organizations that stood in the way of advancements in the U.S. Existing vested interests have a stake in maintaining the status quo and thwarting progress in the U.S. and world. Car makers that resist slight improvement in EPA mileage figures, and other business conglomerates and their supporters in government and news that argue against improvements. It is well known that cars in many parts of the world exceed even the new so-called tougher standards.
Solar Umbrella House: Responsible Living for the 21st century covered a real life building upgrade in L.A. where a redesign added a second floor (raising interior space from 700 ft2 to 1800 ft2) and totally revamped the interior, exterior, and grounds. The architects used a combination of passive (induces air flow through convection while allowing more daylight) and amorphous solar cell panels which has a seventeen year payback (assuming normal energy cost increases). The stairwells are open in between the stairs to allow more light to filter through. The ceilings are much taller making the house more open. Also, the use of homasote panels (recycled newspaper now available pre-sanded) makes for wood looking without the environmental impact of new wood products.
They also include a solar water heating panel (4x8 from real goods with a 6-8 yr. payback) that heats the pool and water heater. Newer type of solar water heater is a parabolic water heater (flash type) that is integrated Hot water panel dramatically lowered their power bill. They've found that water pumps are a real problem with low efficiencies. Another problem is that solar panel rebates Formaldehyde free MDF panels were used upstairs. The solar panels hang down such that it is slightly visible. They also shade the photovoltaic polycrystalline silicon cells would have been more efficient but they needed to cover all the top anyhow. (However, polycrystalline are going up in cost since it is based on waste from computer industry. Also, any shading cuts the performance of the panel whereas the amorphous panels simply back down the performance based on shading.)
Rain water storage in the 8 ft x 8 ft x 8 ft cistern. A conventional down-spot took 10% of water out to street to comply with existing laws. Cistern overflow feeds into the lawn for trees. LED lights they used in the interior and proved to be very dim, mainly slight ambient. Another problem was ignorance of pump installers for pools and such that over prescribed pumps, creating far greater power consumption; Lawrence Scarpa said the solution is to become experts and to directly dictate the proper capacity.
What is needed is net metering. Germany has better system since you will be paid $0.50 per kilowatt since they are more accurately cover the benefit since fossil fuel has so much more cost that is hidden in the U.S. (global warming, military, pollution). Buildings like these get $400/ft2. For more information, see http://www.pughscarpa.com/projects/solar.umbrella.
More Examples, including Green Source magazine (http://greensourcemag.com) covers Green Seneca Creek (http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/departments/facilities/greenschoolsfocus/pdf/GreatSenecaCreekES.pdf). The school has a white roof. Bottles and cans for bathroom stalls. Signs up about how to lower energy in school and at home. One of the school kids said that the air in the school is fresher and that she loves being taught to care about the earth.
USGBC is working in New Orleans (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/04/usgbc_working_t.php) that has been devastated. The original inclination was to rebuild what there was there. The new approach has been to work on housing that can handle the climate change we're experiencing. The other thing is that they are working in Kansas in areas that have no water. We are facing a perfect storm. We have to move from doing less damage to creating a better future, more social justice, and more meaning. Two examples are Charleston, North Carolina. Windmill is making a difference at Dockside Green Victoria, Canada.
Mayor Discussion: Susan Szenazy mentioned how our country's mayors have filled the vacuum of federal government and proceeded to critically question the following four mayors on their challenges and successes.
Chicago's Mayor Daily says the mayors need to walk the walk before they can tell others what they should do. All government construction is being done at LEED Silver rating. They are now transferring large amounts of water from roof runoff They are adding rain barrels for single family homes. Three million square feet of green roofs. TIFS (tax increment finance). Recycled 90% of materials. Requiring ultra low sulphur diesel vehicles. Waive fees if builder agree to build green. More green building than any city in the country. Christy Webby Landscaping was awarded Platinum. If they lower Chicago's temperature by 1 F they can save $150,000,000. Energy efficient traffic devices.
Albuquerque Mayor Martin J. Chávez said Albuquerque was voted the greenest city in the U.S. First, town hall format bringing in various political groups. ICLEI helped them. If you're not walking the talk. They are using LED lights. There is a lot of nay sayers but as 40% are alternative 30/20 plan adopted (all bldgs carbon neutral by 2030) adopted green building code. The federal government both the executive and representative branches have failed our country. Chavez believes that we should have a moratorium on coal power plants. For more information, see Alburququegreen.com.
Mayor Hartwell (Grand Rapids) 200,000 population, globalization has devastated their factories. GR is re-inventing itself. Regionally center for education in renewable energy by the U.N. Dozen public schools being build LEED. Support the U.S. conference of mayors. Everything they do must fit within substantability. Community substantability partnership balanced triple line, own substainability plan. Illinois state legislature has been unable to make a plan and is now working on a weak plan for future energy sources.
Austin, Texas, Mayor Willa Wind has an environmental design background. Austin was voted by USGBC as the number one greenbuilding plan. Austin Energy 1.2 billion dollars in resources. Meeting the increased population gain (doubling every 20 years) through efficiencies, conservation, etc. Needs technical expertise. Past month city council zero energy 2015 zero energy capable homes did this through the electric code rewrite in 2006. 21% reduction. Working with the HVAC manufacturers. Requiring radiant barriers, proven HVAC efficiency. Will save a huge amount in the coming years. (AMAZING!) They also passed an aggressive water conservation through landscape.
Green Homes: www.greenhomesguide.org: Helps individuals and families be able to choose a green building. Homes use 21% of energy. Newland is a co-signer of the Clinton Foundation Initiative in 2006 and a sponsor of the greenhome guide. Newland communities president spoke about producing homes that guarantee buyers that these homes will show a 40% reduction in power use versus existing technology.
ReGreen Program is to be announced by the USGBC for rennovations of existing homes.
Paul Hawken: The author of Ecology of Commerce, Natural Capitalism, and his latest book- Blessed Unrest. Paul was my favorite speaker for his compassion and commitment to this field.
Harper Collins taken over by Rupert Murdoch and killed Ecology of Commerce. Much of what we think of ourselves is in our heads. Liked Clinton's talking about metrics so that we really know what power has been saved. Hawken asked how many of us are there working to green the world. The number is larger than any movement ever taken in the human experience. He mentioned that 12 people (Thomas Clark, etc.) got together in England for the abolition of the slave trade. The white world had taken the simplistic Bible belief of the world until Emerson, Thoreau, Darwin and other transcendentalists. The rise of the movement related to the rise of biology as people became aware that we are part of the web of the existence of life. At one point, Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax and went to jail. Thoreau took Emerson at his word. This rise began a separation of social justice and the environmental movement but now it is coming back together.
This movement is identifying humane and inhumane in our society. And this is a social issue. We are saying no to systems that are destroying the planet, that are putting the environment, women, and children at risk. There comes a time. This world is broken and is weeping. Despite the violence, terror, 100 million refugees, disease there are breakthrus and ideas that have never been seen before. This is not an ism but innovation. There is a time when we cannot be driven by cars and oil. There comes a time when we will no longer be controlled by advertising. There comes a time when we will not be fooled by govenments that say it is okay to invade others. We need to set the bar high and not let this future be dicatated by others.
Online GreenBuild 365 asks why are you involved in this organization? Most of them said the future, our children. When the USGBC was created, it was in a cheap place that was cold. When are buildings are destroying the roots of the earth, they are uncivilized. We are creating our destinies. Nature really works. If you are not hopeful you do not have a heart. We are so exiquisetly stitched together. The delusion is separateness. The world comes into our house as it crumbles. We are homesick for community, for place, for god. The gift to unite us is more than anything we could have hoped for. That we can redesign everything so that civilization reaches a new level. Thank you all for what you are creating. This isn't about making money but about making meaning.
Is Green about Money or a Better Way of Life? Complaints leveled against the greening community often center on hype or excessive marketing. The truth is that being green is hip now and every company wants to give some example that they are greening their infrastructure. This is understandable (especially when real changes are taking place), but it is also misused as companies with little progress to show advertise one or two little projects.
Schuco.co is a German company that has been involved in energy efficient building envelope in saving and generating energy (energy squared). (Besides the marketing hype of a long glitzy television commercial where children were shown playing asking “why?” in many different languages, it was unclear what exactly they made or make.)
One of the funny items is that GM was one of the sponsors, although this company has consistently fought government regulations for increased car safety and raising of the CAFE mileage standards.
The convention was held in McCormick Place; a 4.5 million square foot building that is terribly inefficient with lighting that is left on without any reduction when no one is here, not to mention the lack of benches or chairs in which to sit down.
Also, when I left to take the bus and then train, thousands or others were waiting for cabs. Obviously, the city could have increased bus lines and more people could have walked or used mass transit.
Although the USGBC is doing its part. It is clear that a lot of work remains. The overwhelming number of buildings (residential and commercial) built today in the U.S. are resource hogs. And, government bodies, such as Orange County, do not require that higher standards be brought to bare. Resistance to this progression comes from many directions including a lazier faire attitude toward business, and perhaps a lack of vision to see what is possible if we apply ourselves.