Posts Tagged ‘LEED’
A Non-profit that LEEDs
December 16th, 2009 | 
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The debate over climate change and energy independence is often divisive and polarizing. First we must confront the apathetic and the nay-sayers, which has not been easy in the USA with the purported "Climate-gate" bruhaha and our concern over 10% unemployment. The Obama Administration has not been very helpful with its "green jobs" rhetoric--I think every week we have heard of the push for "home weatherization" schemes, which leaves me with the image of former Avon salespeople tapping our walls to make sure they are properly insulated (is this really the best Obama & Co. can do?). Then you've got the debate over who should lead . . . corporations, or government? Well, what about non-profits? One organization with a stellar "green" record is the American Jewish Committee (AJC), a 103-year-old advocacy group with 32 chapters in the United States. (more...)A Current Green Building in Ottawa
As Ottawa's population grows, districts once in decline are making a huge comeback. Wellington Village, on Ottawa's west end, was considered gritty and lacked shops and services earlier this decade. Now, this neighborhood, where I've been staying the past week, is thriving. Shops and restaurants have moved in, homeowners have purchased homes and beautifully refurbished them, and buildings once vacant are now full of lofts and condos. On Holland and Wellington is one stellar example of high density building using green construction standards: The Currents. (more...)
Don’t LEED Astray
Recently a friend and I attended a day-long LEED workshop in Santa Monica. The instructor was enthusiastic and knowledgeable (in fact, he stayed an extra hour to cover the material with us); the class small, providing a great opportunity to cram in more information; and the venue was a LEED-certified silver showroom, giving us live examples of more sustainable building and interior design.
In a nutshell, LEED and the US Green Building Council provides a suite of standards for the green building industry. The Bank of America Tower in New York City is the first Platinum LEED skyscraper; the University of Minnesota’s football stadium opened this year, this first such venue meeting LEED standards. (more...)
Bleed Dodger Blue. Feel Sustainably Green.
Rooting for the Los Angeles Dodgers is almost like begging for physical abuse in the Bay Area, where I grew up. Well, now that my favorite adopted baseball team (I'm not abandoning the Oakland A's, despite their recent sad performance), is the Dodgers, let me rave about this organization. After all, with all the debate over energy efficiency and global warming, I need some light-hearted fare once in a while. Plus the Dodgers just won their division after a late-season scare, so let's celebrate! (more...)
Posted in art and culture, construction and architecture, energy, transportation, water | 
Tags: Dodger Stadium, LEED, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Dodgers, native plants, vegetarian | 
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Don’t Just be LEED; LEAD!
Dear Pasadena Convention Center,
Thank you for being a great conference venue during a recent event I had attended. You are located right in the middle of what’s fantastic about Pasadena, and I love the fact that you are walking distance from two Gold Line Stations. During the conference, however, I noticed some slips that you should sort out if you really want to be a “green” facility:
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Economies of Scale
The problem with many renewable energy products is that they are just too expensive. It’s not PC to say this, but in the end, market forces to matter. Customers rule the market: and like your economics professor would mention, get those two supply and demand curves to align, and then you’ve got a market.
Take the case of the Canadian wartime homes. Many of these homes have seen better days, but there are still a million of these homes throughout Canada. Built quickly to house Canadian manufacturing workers during World War II, they offer a huge opportunity for green-friendly retrofitting.
There’s a problem, however–in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detriot, the average price of these homes are well under CAD$100,000. The price to remodel a home and make it carbon-neutral is . . . CAD$85,000.
Ouch.
But as the news report states . . . go back to what your economics professor said . . . the cost could be brought down significantly if there were economies of scale. Translation: volume! The more solar panels, insulation, LEED-certified building materials, etc., are produced, the more the cost goes down.
Second, government incentives help. We pay energy taxes . . . why not get those back and even more by having a house that doesn’t sap from the electrical grid–but actually could even ADD to it?
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