Originally posted at: KBB Collective

I spoke last week with Alex Wilson, founder of BuildingGreen and executive editor of the Environmental Building News.

Alex was just named the 2010 winner of the Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainable Housing, and will be speaking at the upcoming West Coast Green Conference in San Francisco.

BuildingGreen has been in my secret toolkit for many years and it is the first place I turn when needing information on a green material. Looking for a “green” cabinet manufacturer? Well, BuildingGreen lists 74 articles and product listings for you to review, as well as a detailed discussion of the issues in cabinet manufacturing, including formaldehyde and wood species. Think of it as the Consumer Reports of Green Building. Their unbiased (and often surprising) reviews don’t play any favorites or have blind faith in any company.

For nearly two decades, BuildingGreen has published their Environmental Building News (EBN) and has always been ahead of the curve on controversial topics in Green Building. They explained the good and bad side of the vinyl industry way back in 1993. EBN discussed the controversy surrounding waterless urinals in 2002. Any green building issues you’re grappling with now are ones they’ve likely dealt with years ago.

While Alex and his staff are inundated with new product information, he continues to be surprised with new innovations in materials. He is particularly excited to see the West Coast Green innovation pipeline.

When asked for a wish list of products he’d like to see, Alex immediately asked for an alternative to polystyrene (you may know it by the brand name Styrofoam™). This oil-based product raises many concerns over the chemicals, flame retardants and the blowing agents used to install polystyrene. He is currently obsessed with finding below-grade insulation alternatives to polystyrene, and has been featuring some on his weekly blog.

Recently, BuildingGreen revised their previous position on another controversial subject—the use of fly ash in building products.

Fly ash is the powdery soot byproduct from coal-fired electric power plants. Since the burning of coal provides up to 85% of our electricity (depending on where you live), a great deal of this waste product is produced. Some 71 million tons of fly ash were produced last year, resulting in 71 tons of mercury byproduct.

Depending upon the use of the concrete, fly ash can be substituted for 20%-50% of the Portland Cement in the concrete mix. There have been reports of some people using as high as 70% fly ash substitution.

“Like most people in the Green Building field, we used to think fly ash was great virtually all of the time, since it kept this waste material out of the waste stream,” Alex explained. “But concern about the leeching of heavy metals [mercury, for example] has caused us to modify our position somewhat. We are no only recommending fly ash in applications where 1) it’s locked up, as in concrete, and 2) the fly ash replaces the carbon emissions that would normally come from manufacturing Portland Cement.”

Officially, BuildingGreen no longer considers the use of fly ash in products to be beneficial unless it offsets greenhouse gas emissions.

Portland Cement, the key ingredient in the mixing of concrete, is one of the most carbon intensive industries. The processing and heating of the cement are responsible for 8%-12% of all carbon emissions. Since concrete is a required part of virtually every building, a substitute like fly ash could go a long way to cut carbon emissions.

I wrote about it back in 2006 and the logic of using fly ash to replace a portion of the Portland Cement still makes good sense. After all, cement manufacturers are already substituting up to 15 percent of the Portland Cement with fly ash to save money.

You can read more at BuildingGreen, download the latest issue of the Environmental Building News and read Alex’s weekly blog.

Originally posted at: KBB Collective

I met today with Jared Asch, the National Director of Efficiency First.

They are a nonprofit that connects together people seeking green jobs with product manufacturers to promote energy efficiency. Jared and I will both be speaking at the upcoming West Coast Green Conference at the end of September and I have have been talking with all of my fellow speakers about their efforts.

http://www.efficiencyfirst.org

For 30-plus years, the modern environmental movement has been preaching energy efficiency, but it has only been recently we’ve seen it being taken seriously. Why the change? Surely rising fuel prices, instability of oil imports and our growing dependance on those imports factors into it – but these issues have persisted for decades.

I asked Jared about what has changed recently. He pointed out how the business case for energy efficiency now has a proven track record of success. “We didn’t have that just ten years ago,” he added. Jared has worked for 6 Senators, 3 presidential campaigns and several Members of Congress, and understands how policy can affect positive change. He mentioned the power of simply having an Administration supportive of these ideas. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is an admitted “energy efficiency nut.”

Back in December, President Obama told a group of businesspeople at a Home Depot in Virginia that energy efficiency was a “win-win,” because it saves energy, helps our environment and create jobs. “Here’s what’s sexy about it,” the President added, “saving money.” Jared quotes this on the cover of their brochure.

Simple tasks, such as weatherstripping around your doors, caulking around your windows and insulating your attic can easily cut your home energy use by 30%. If American households saved just 10% of the energy used to heat and cool their homes, it would amount to 8.2 billion kW saved, equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from over a million passenger vehicles.

Not only do these things reduce energy use and cut your monthly utility bills, they do much more. As it turns out, energy efficiency retrofitting of our existing buildings is also a job creator.

Jared pointed to their Home Star Program, a piece of proposed legislation that would give homeowners rebates for energy efficiency retrofits. Home Star would create about 168,000 jobs, help homeowners save money and move us toward energy independence. He told me they are only a couple of votes shy of the 60 needed to pass it in the Senate.

Energy efficiency is at the core of every climate solution. We cannot reach the goals we need to reach (350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere) without an aggressive policy of energy efficiency retrofits for our existing buildings. Every Architect, Contractor and Designer needs to take notice and push this as part of their remodeling projects.

Just this week, the Center for American Progress released a report showing how a national energy efficiency program could create 625,000 sustained jobs over 10 years, ignite $500 billion in investment, and save people over $64 billion off their utility bills. Money in their pockets they could use to move the economy forward.

Originally posted: here

An open letter to the President, the 535 members of Congress and thousands of local politicians across the country

Dear Legislators:

Tell us the truth. We can handle it.

I’m willing to overlook your past ridiculous stunts like the Birther Bill or claims of Death Panels. After all, that’s just the game of politics. I would like to believe you don’t really believe some of these things you say. Politics is, after all, a form of theater, and in the world of a 24-hour news cycle, we need an endless supply of theater.

But lately there have been a series of sorely missed opportunities in regard to our survival. And your actions just don’t add up. So this leads me to think there must be something else at work, something you’re not telling us, and so I am asking for the truth. Honestly, we Americans can take it.

For example, take a look at the UN Climate Change Conference that took place this past December in Copenhagen, Denmark. When it was first announced the U.S. was going to participate, some of us optimistically referred to it as HOPEenhagen. This was a real chance at a global, comprehensive policy toward controlling climate change. But the lack of an adopted accord by the conference quickly had many referring to it instead as NOPEnhagen.

Or the continued drive for more natural gas at the expense of our health and safety. Gas companies control the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by pushing out the tired, old (and proven untrue) threat that regulations stifle competition and will eliminate jobs—so you better not hold us to any. Eighteen members of the Colorado State Legislature sent a letter (PDF) to the EPA demanding they ignore their own two-year study and stop regulating the hazardous drilling practice of “fracking.” I suggest you watch a new documentary entitled, Gasland, currently on HBO. One of the more vivid scenes in the film shows tap water lighting on fire due to poorly regulated nearby drilling. How do you think your constituents will feel about reelecting you if this happened to them?

Or the way Representative Joe Barton (R-TX) publicly apologized to BP (you know the company that dumped 5 millions barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico?).

This came as no surprise. Barton is the ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and one of the chief authors of the Cheney Oil Act that gave BP the exemptions to drill Deepwater Horizon without the required impact reports. Barton himself has received $14.4 million from oil and gas companies over his career. That’s why his committee is referred to as the “Honey Pot” on Capitol Hill, receiving $42 million in the 2010 Election Cycle alone.

Barton’s apology was echoing the real loyalties and feelings of Congress. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) labeled it a “shakedown” and a “redistribution-of-wealth fund,” with 100+ other House members just the day before.

Unfortunately, there is always a loser in these games you are playing. We cannot wait any longer for a substantive bill combating climate change.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), our planet has just finished the warmest decade, the warmest 12 months, the warmest six months and the April, May and June on record.

In response to this horrific news, the U.S. Senate decided… to do nothing. Seriously. They preserved 30 years of bipartisan inaction on what the Defense Department referred to as the “greatest threat facing our country.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) decided not to even bother to schedule a vote on legislation that would have capped carbon emissions. Both Democrats and Republicans continue to play these games while the American people are headed off a cliff. Some of you even invented a fun, new derogatory term to describe anyone who dare want to do something about climate change: “carbon taxer.”

Last month, the NOAA called climate change “unmistakable.” The IPCC issued their judgement back in 2007, calling climate change “undeniable” and “unequivocal.”

Even some of the politicians themselves are getting sick of the partisan games, as seen last week with a passionate Anthony Weiner (D-NY) venting his frustration over a partisan vote on a bill that would provide healthcare to 9/11 workers. “If there was ever a bill that I thought would be above partisan politics,” he said, “that was it.”

The explosion and subsequent oil spill aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig should be a wake up call. The thousands of miles of decimated shoreline and millions of destroyed families should shake you into action. Historically, disasters have always driven sweeping legislation.

The BP oil spill should have done for Climate Legislation what the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill did for the EPA; what the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire in Cleveland did for the Clean Water Act and what the 1979 Ixstock Gulf Oil Spill did for drilling regulations. This is a critical turning point and we are missing it.

President Obama’s address from the Oval Office on June 15th was another missed opportunity. He did not once mention the words “carbon,” “emissions” or “greenhouse.” This was his first speech from the Oval Office and he failed to provide one tangible idea on how to solve this problem. George Will called the speech “magnificently awful.” This is more confounding given the progress his administration has made in having the EPA regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act.

(Side note: For an incredible version of what Obama’s speech should have and could have been, watch Rachel Maddow’s take on it here.)

You may think that by doing nothing, you are playing it safe, but your inaction is having consequences. Private sector companies are stalled in their decisions by an uncertain future for the price of carbon. As Fred Krupp, President of the Environmental Defense Fund,
recently wrote, “U.S. utility companies today are sitting on billions of dollars in job-creating capital—but they will not invest in new energy projects until they have certainty on what their future carbon obligations will be…” Jobs, investments and private stimulus are waiting for you to do something.

This is why my fellow environmentalists are taking matters into their own hands. This is why the West Coast Green Conference, one of the largest green building conferences in the country, has changed its theme this year to “Innovation & Convergence.” Thousands of the most respected leaders in sustainability, planning, public policy and design will meet for three days in San Francisco to share ideas and determine the next course of action.

So, please, Legislators, please explain these crazy actions of yours. I am hoping you have a good reason. I am hoping it is more than mere ego and hubris and that you wouldn’t dare play a game of chicken with our future in the balance. Take advantage of this Gulf Oil Spill by leveraging it into some tangible and effective policies. We can’t wait any longer.

It’s ironic that the first half of 2010, the same year we removed all hope of having a true climate change bill, turned out to be the hottest year on record. I propose we turn off the air conditioning in the Capitol Building until you emerge with some real legislation.

Sincerely Yours,

Eric Corey Freed
Author, “Green$ense for the Home: Rating the Real Payoff from 50 Green Home Projects”

——————————-

MORE INFORMATION:

Fracking:
In The New York Times
In the Huffington Post

Gasland Documentary:
The website: http://gaslandthemovie.com/
Coverage in the Huffington Post

West Coast Green Conference
September 30 – October 1, 2010
www.westcoastgreen.com

One of my favorite books, Ecotopia, is being reissued by the publisher this month and the New York Times has a nice story about the book.

The story starts with the Pacific Northwest having seceded from the United States to form its’ own country named, Ecotopia. Washington, Oregon and Northern California make up the new country and base their economy on sustainable principles. The rest of the remaining US is thrust into a recession driven by partisan politics and old models of industry and energy.

Sound timely? Yes, except that it was written in 1974.

I had the prescient author, Ernest Callenbach, give a talk to a packed house at The Commonwealth Club in May 2005. He is the most charming and delightful man and lives just across the bay in Berkeley.

While you’re reading it, be sure to also read the follow up prequel he wrote, entitled, Ecotopia Emerging. In many ways, I like it so much better than the first book.

I am thrilled to announce Green Your Home for Dummies.

It is not an entirely new book, but a compilation of 7 green books in the For Dummies series. It contains several chapters of my bestselling book, “Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies”, and select chapters from:
* Green Living For Dummies
* Energy Efficiency For Dummies
* Green Cleaning For Dummies
* Sustainable Landscaping For Dummies
* Organic Gardening For Dummies
* Buying and Selling Green Homes For Dummies

It will be available in January 2009, but you can pre-order it now.

For those of you who haven’t heard of West Coast Green, it is the largest residential green building conference in the country and is held the last week of September. This years conference will be September 26, 27 & 28th in San Jose, California.

I have been on the Advisory Board of the conference since it’s inception, and watched it grow in size and scope each year. Each year brought new things to the conference as well.

For this years conference, one of the new features is the video section of the website, where you can watch recorded talks by this years speakers.

You must watch the talk by Van Jones, who brought the crowd of thousands to their feet with his take on green collar jobs.

Of the 40+ conferences I speak at each year, West Coast Green is by far my favorite. I urge you to attend the conference. Some discount passes are still available, so feel free to contact me directly if you’re going to attend.

The San Francisco Examiner did a profile on various women in the heart of the green movement.

One of those profiled was Jackie Barbe, one of my incredible project managers here at organicARCHITECT. The print version had a wonderful photo of her too, but you can read the online version here.

Luke at HowYouEco recently interviewed me with his patented list of 3 quick questions. Check out the site. It is beautifully done and provides some great information.

CalFinder is a site where you can find contractors to help you with a building project. They interviewed me to talk about the perceptions of green building and what is waiting for us in the future.

An excerpt:

The act of renovating your building is expensive, whether you’re green or not. Being green doesn’t cost you any more, in fact it’s an opportunity to save money.

via CalFinder

The lovely ladies of Inhabitat: Piper Kujac, Sarah Rich, Jill Fehrenbacher, Emily Pilloton

One of my favorite blogs, Inhabitat, shares office space with my favorite community organization, Architecture For Humanity, and my favorite design competition, Urban Re:Vision. Friday night was their collective holiday party.

This is why I love San Francisco: here you can find a room filled with the greatest people doing the most interesting things on the planet. In attendance: Michelle Kaufman, Allison Arrief, Cameron Sinclair, Sarah Rich, Jill Fehrenbacher, Emily Pilloton, Stacey Frost, Willem Maas, Bill Cahan, the gang from Ecolect, the gang from Branch and the gang from Worldchanging… plus so many friends and interesting people. (Google any names you don’t recognize!)

Perhaps the most interesting thing is how connected these various groups have become. They’re all friends, all working to change the world and all full of hope for our future. Hard to believe that the truly most influential people in design today are a handful of young, hip bloggers (like those pictured). Women seem to be leading the charge. There are noticably more women than men in this group. I don’t know what this indicates, but it’s something to consider.

Full story via Inhabitat

Flickr gallery of photos from the event