Think/Stop

I just finished reading two things. The first is my latest issue of Eco-Structure Magazine, a perky piece of work with smart looking commercial buildings all with seemingly the same message “green building is great with daylight, recycled materials and some energy savings.” A lot of ‘what’ but not enough ‘how’, all in all not particularly helpful for my pursuit of new information, but I like the projects.

The one small article that caught my eye is about a study by the International Facility Management Association and Johnson Controls into the disconnect between people wanting to be green and not doing it at all. The study shows that in the past 12 months 71% of all respondents said that they were paying attention to energy efficiency, but the studies research shows that this is the second year in a row that energy efficiency investments are sliding and that many respondents reported they are actually did nothing to save energy. This is a national study, but it certainly cuts close to home. Energy efficiency may be the talk of the town but not on today’s to do list.

This brings me to the second thing I just finished which is the popular book by Thomas Friedman, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. If you haven’t read it, it is basically an accounting of our environmental train wreck, and America’s self absorption. He also gives us a glimpse into a sustainable future, but no bones about it, this is tough love. Friedman hits it on the mark when he proclaims that the political class is still “in their dumb-as-we-wanna-to-be, where we’re always No. one” in his latest NYT opinion piece. We are in fact just slipping further into the swamp of inefficiency and ineffectiveness. We seem to have convinced ourselves that we are becoming greener when in fact we are pointed in the opposite direction. Just because all the magazines, products, events, and politicians have green as their poster child doesn’t mean that that child isn’t going to bed hungry every night.

Don’t believe me. A recent report shows that America’s carbon output shrank this last year due to the recession by one percent, except that our buildings emissions grew by two. Bottom line: green thinking has not led to green action. The above mentioned report says that uncertainty in the economy, in policy and simply anticipation of more incentives are leading to this backslide. All fine excuses if one ignores the immediate and substantive gains from energy savings. Like money.

Hot Summer, Cool House

This post was originally written for GenGreen, but you can never be too prepared for next years heat wave.

Not much is worse than a stuffy, over heated house in the summer time. You can’t sleep, you can’t move, you can’t think. Modern cities exist just as much because of air conditioning as they do because of the automobile. With A/C you can build the same house from coast to coast, from the Mexican border to a Canadian crossing—all you have to do is press a button and, presto, no more heat! It is easy and the equipment is relatively cheap, at least until the electric bill arrives.

A/C takes a lot of power. When I mean a lot, I mean that your utility is desperate to make enough energy with all those A/C units humming all afternoon. Your utility is paying dollars per kilowatt hour even though you are paying maybe a dime. They are cranking out a lot of carbon to boot. (Wind energy is at its lowest in the summer so “buying” wind power is not the solution.)

This is called the long tail pipe, when what you do at your home affects what goes into the air hundreds of miles away. With this in mind, not to mention the endless drone of an A/C and the monthly bill, let‘s look at other ways to keep cool.

First off, don’t build or buy a “stupid” house. In this case, a “stupid” house is one with BIG windows facing east and west (read Dude, tune your windows). Even with air conditioning you won’t keep cool, and indoor shades are like locking the doors when the burglar is already inside.

Keeping lights, computers and other heat producing products off can help keep your home cooler.

Ceiling fans are an obvious choice, just remember that they cool not by pushing hot air up but creating a breeze across your skin.

Next is investigating overhangs for the outside of your windows. This can get more involved but can make a big difference on the southern side.

Skylights are a big culprit so shading them also helps.

Think about shade plants for the east and west sides and a big tree or two on the south side, just don’t block all that sunshine in the winter time.

If you still need a button to press, here are a few options:

Evaporative coolers are very cost effective in low humidity areas. Coolerado is a new generation of evaporative coolers that uses a heat exchanger. (Night cooling works in low humidity areas too.)

A well sealed whole house fan gets rid of the built up hot air from the day and replaces it with cool evening air.

Take a peek into your attic and see if the insulation is at least 12 inches thick and uniform.

Air infiltration in the summer can take its toll too so hire an energy rater to test your house for air leaks.

If you are in a muggy climate and need air conditioning, look for a high SEER (seasonal energy efficiency rating) and, just as importantly, do not over size the unit for the space. The AC will never get enough air across its coil to remove the humidity.

Have an older unit checked for its refrigerant charge and condition. Your local utility may even do this for free.

Really cool, eco friendly stuff is out there (pun intended) like green roofs, ground source heat pumps, reflective barriers, low SRI (solar reflective index) roofing, and thermal mass implementation.

Last, but not least, relax and cool down with your favorite beer knowing that your long tail pipe just got a lot smaller.

Three Green Failures

(Editor's note: At the advice of Andrew's attorney he has deleted the names of the involved parties in this blog posting. They will be referred to as a fruit.)

This is why I think we are failing as a society at developing a more environmentally benign infrastructure. We don’t know what we are doing wrong because we can’t see it. We can’t see it because it too complex. It is too complex because we are limited by our experience.

When I recommended a high efficiency furnace to a friend she was willing to invest a thousand dollars more for the upgrade. When I said that she needs to seal her crawlspace too, so that the duct work was effectively not outside the thermal envelope she said everything is fine as it is. The cost for do the sealing: $60. Even though it was just as important as the furnace upgrade she did not see the value. This happens all the time, everywhere. Her limited experience in building science kept her from not only making the right choices, but kept others from helping her too.

A year or so ago I approached the owner of the very famous, hyper green brewer Pomegranate with a proposal. They should work with their two neighbors who are interested in installing solar electricity and create a small energy district. He told me that they were not interested in installing solar panels at their facility. I was disappointed but understood. Nine months later Pomegranate announced that they were receiving grant money from the DOE to install solar panels in their parking lot. Now whether the owner of Pomegranate was lying to me or not is not the point. Their go it alone and not work with their neighbors is disastrous for creating a better energy infrastructure. They shamefully leverage the government’s money to look better, and hence market more beer. Why share in the accolades when they can be yours alone. They also the missed the true green movement- collaboration. They have developed an intense reputation in town for not communicating.

I recently had an awkward meeting with a woman from Guava, the group Star Fruit put together before he arrived in Washington. She invited me to meet with her, and at the designated time we sat down and talked for all of eight minutes. She started off by asking what I wanted (a little odd actually), when I was only seeking information and looking at potential collaborations with my non-profit and theirs. She was unwilling to tell me what she does, and surprisingly unable to talk about what was happening in her own community, but also expressing little interest in mine. Guava is all about green job training for youth of color around the built environment. When I left I knew she knew close to nothing about buildings, and worse did not care. Her focus was a narrow interpretation of her job description, project coordinator. I had no hope. I was not within her narrow parameter, and hence not a candidate for working with.

I have many happy stories about the green building thing too, please do not misunderstand me. I have long list of people that I consider friends as a result of working at this. I only tell these stories to present the dramatic departure from the wonderful rhetoric we all hear and the shear obvious nonsense that comes from within. Pomegranate is a disgrace when it comes to collaboration, which is real green building. The Guava’s project manager was ignorant of her community and the basics of what green collar work is, but worst of all she was not curious. Their blind spot is bred from a lack of experience, but I am willing to bet that their pride will not allow them to gain that vital experience without a lot of screw ups.

Want Less

Selling the Green Shark

By this time many of us have seen about as much green as we can handle. As a marketing point the word “green” is getting close to jumping the shark. Just in time I suspect. If “green” ceases to be a word of distinction then it no longer provides us with a better way to distinguish the environmental degradation of our consumption from what is less so. We will still see the word around for quite a while, maybe as a verb. There is a large segment of the population that will respond to environmentally proven products and services only when they have exhausted most everything else, or succumb to group think, or peer pressure, or regulations.

I for one have no qualms seeing the word “green” take a vacation. I have always been suspicious of its vagueness because I work in the world of building, which can be very precise. In my infinite wisdom I use the word “sustainable”, instead, to describe my company. My website shot to the top of GOOGLE when you typed in “sustainable building consultant”. This is good news only if other people use the same words. So the search continues in bridging the gap between talking about the precision of what environmental design, products and services mean and the warm fuzzy “green” has promised.

Environmentally proven products and services only matter if people can find them, understand them, and can afford them. Each of these aspects requires a specific skill, and in the building world, each of these skills needs to also have a deep understanding of buildings. Your marketer is really a building professional who can reach out to the public. The designer is a building professional who can put together a functional and clear building that is intuitively better. Your developer is a building professional who can create value. They can be one in the same person, but without these three aspects working together we will not achieve a marketable “sustainable” built environment anytime soon.

I find the biggest hurdle to be that a lot of people already think they know what green building is. The Problem is that they do. They know about solar panels, low-e, voc, natural plaster, etc. That is green building. Sustainable building is really the whole project, and that project is merely part of a much larger cloth, a living, breathing civilization. This is something that precious few understand and aspire to but something you need to consider for your next home.

So for this months the sustainable line I flipped a coin on whether to publish Selling the Green Shark (a little curmudgeon) or The First Step on Sustainable Building: Siting/Location (more informative). Well you know how the coin fell, but now you know what to expect for next month too, so stay tuned.

On the more practical side, I had a conversation with my local Home Depot guy and he said that although building is slow, fences and roofing is selling well. That reminded me of a little trick that can vastly improve your energy bills. If you are getting a new roof, stop! First check to see if you have roof joist, i.e. no attic. If you do, tear off your old roof and apply foam board and new OSB sheathing onto the roof deck before you put your new roof up. Upgrading your insulation now on your roof is the most affordable and effective way to improve you efficiency on top.

“Green Building with the Naked Eye” is a presentation that I offer which provides perspective and insight into what sustainable building really is. If your company, organization, conference, or neighborhood group is interested in learning about how sustainable building works, contact me for a presentation. Learn to see sustainable building clearly.

My friend Jim Tolstrup, the Executive Director of the High Plains Environmental Center has written a great article on sustainability and the mind called Inner Sustainability.

I have very much enjoyed your email responses to the sustainable line, so go ahead and share with others by posting a comment on the blog. They would really enjoy reading what you have to say too. “Share and Enjoy!” (The first person who can name the source of this quote will get a free Nautica Polo Shirt. It is very green (color #382) and still has the original price tag of $49.50. Your choice of large or extra large. Sponsored by The Frank Stanly.)