Want Less

I pity the fool who always needs more....

Earthday hangover

Ok we partied: yea we live on a planet that not only supports life but life that is intelligent enough to celebrate this fact once every revolution. Many green webblogs are bemoaning the commercial and short attention effect that has become Earth Day- I couldn’t agree more. Every year is going to be a little more alarming when it comes to environmental news so this reflection as far as an anniversary is important for no other reason than as a sharp reminder that it is not going to get any easier soon, so buck up.

Good news!

We’ll I am excited to announce that the website toponlineengineeringdegree.com named the sustainable line blog #15 in their top fifty green building blogs. Of course few have heard of them and frankly I don’t know why they heard of me but I think a hyperlink to the list is in order. A grateful thank you Top Online Engineering Degree.

Inhabitat asked it’s writers to say what they will do on Earth Day so I’ll share my contribution:

Over 422 planets have been discovered so far and not one of them has a day named for them (as far as we know). Earth is probably feeling a little smug. I’ll be spending Earth Day at a USGBC conference in Denver, CO and taking a tour of the first and only LEED state capital in the US. With notepad in hand I’ll get a report out to all of you on how they did it. I am grateful to see so much enthusiasm about sustainable living and building in the Rocky Mountain region, but it is certainly not enough. I want to see some real action, discipline, and cooperation to pull us out of this ditch. Time to get everyone on board, we are going to live more lightly on this enduring but fragile ride!

Are LED Fluorescent Tubes Ready for Prime Time?

Here is another great analysis by Houston Neil:

Light emitting diode (LED) fluorescent tubes are all the rage in the lighting market. The technology promises to be more energy efficient, less environmentally harmful and more economical than traditional fluorescent tube lighting. Regardless, there is a lot of debate over whether they are ready for widespread commercial use.

We recently came across this very debate being held in a LinkedIn electrical construction group. It was a heated thread with two electrical contractors hashing out the pros and cons of using LED fluorescent tubes. To continue our series of articles on “green” construction, we thought we’d tackle the issue ourselves. So here we present our findings on LED fluorescent tubes.

First, We Want to Hear from You
Before delving into the details, we want to hear from you. We’re hosting a short survey on LED fluorescent tubes vs traditional fluorescent tubes. We’ll be posting our results back here next week. Voice your opinion; take our survey here:

Take the survey here

Read more

It’s a (green) blog’s world

Don’t believe everything you read. We have heard that saying for a while now regarding the internet. Print media may be suffering but the irony is that there are more readers and things to read than ever. We are brimming with information, and ideas, and “mashups” beyond control.

Web 2.0 is figuring out how to get all those words, ideas, stories, images, and musings to the people who want them and ignore the rest. Kind of like a mob rule for messaging. If the media was the elitists then blogs and twitter are the agitators. What the heck does this have to do with green building? As it turns out the folks who design and build often have a lot of ideas too, and as the industry lunges forward a lot of those ideas are going to be put forward as fact. The filtering mechanism will be the “green building mob”. We’ll give those ideas thumbs up, thumbs down or maybe just a thumb in our collective mouth. This has a great effect on how building actually happens.

Here are two ground rules:

If you celebrate mediocre building, then your building efforts will remain mediocre.

“If you have to make compromises in your design then you have not asked the right questions” -Amory Lovins

My long held belief has been that unbiased and engaged information based on building science and smart design will be of invaluable benefit to the building industry. This begins with a clear and direct dialog which speaks directly to the why, what, and how of sustainable and adaptive building. Ok, you heard all this from me before, so what does this mean in the real world?

I will be a regular contributor to a couple of websites that have moved the conversation on good green design into the public with great success. Inhabitat for the last five years has aggressively addressed how important green design is. As much a celebration as exploration, Inhabitat is the leading voice on investigating the world of sustainable living. The architecture magazine eVolo is the other site to which I look forward to adding regular contributions. Their focus is on the future of sustainable architecture and development, from the very solid to the way out. (Thank you Michael, Grant, and Bruno for the support)

Pretty cool stuff and I am always excited to say that I can do this entirely powered by the sun. The real limit is not our budget, our technology, or our time- the true issue is our commitment. My contribution to this commitment is small, but with you, and an entire community things happen. For now I will write about what I believe is the real thing for what I know is a dapper readership, and forget to use commas.

FREE Green Building Seminar

My favorite non-profit, the Northern Colorado Renewable Energy Society, is hosting a free morning seminar on Sustainable Building. The agenda will include a discussion on the principals of sustainable design, presentations by two of Colorado’s premier green developers, a primer on solar power for homes, and the central role energy audits play in the housing industry.

The sustainable building movement may conjure images of green materials, solar panels, and exotic equipment. What green building really promises are buildings that are healthy, durable and adaptable, using nominal amounts of energy supplied by renewable resources, and are a harmonious contribution to a community. This engaging seminar will be focused on the viability and practicality of bringing these building practices to our region.

This FREE half day seminar will be held at the Pulliam Building, 545 N. Cleveland Ave, downtown Loveland on April 10^th , 8:30am-noon. Refreshments will be served in the morning. To RSVP, request the itinerary, and for any questions please contact info@ncres.org (me) or Scott Peters at (970)203-9456. Please consider coming to NCRES monthly presentation at Odell Brewery on the second Tuesday of the month 7pm.