Green Central Blog

The third annual Living Futures Unconference was held recently in Portland. It’s the annual gathering organized by the Cascadia chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). I headed down on Amtrak to catch a couple days of “deep green” workshops and lectures. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch the opening keynote by Janine Benyus on the topic of biomimicry, “an emerging discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s designs and processes.” The DJC’s Green Building Blog has a summary of her keynote here. (more…)

By Steve Moddemeyer

If I were a developer and owned 20 square miles of dense urban land, nearly one out of every three acres in town, you can bet I would have some sort of strategy about what I might do with it.  But if I were a city, in fact, almost any city in the world, I would also own about a third of all the land in the city, but I would let each city department own a slice of it, and battle it out, project by project over who gets to build what, when, and where.  Maybe the Transportation folks would have the upper hand, as the vast majority of this land is street rights-of-way.  But even they would still have to negotiate with the energy company for energy corridors, the drainage and sewer utilities for their needs.  But who holds the integrated view?  Who thinks about how this land should balance our needs for mobility, utility, open space, habitat, and urban beauty?

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By Steve Moddemeyer

Here’s what we need to do now to get going in this direction:

1. All rain should evaporate, soak into the ground, or be collected for use.
   1. Green roofs everywhere possible
   2. Rain gardens everywhere needed
   3. Rainwater harvesting systems wherever possible
   4. Permeable paving wherever possible
   5. Wetland treatment systems wherever needed
2. As much as possible, human waste should be collected and treated on site - or if conveyed, conveyed in pressurized pipes for high level treatment and reuse.
   1. Stop building huge wasteful centralized sewer facilities
   2. Take one half of the money now budgeted for centralized sewage plants and instead separate combined systems and repair separated systems to minimize inflow and infiltration.
   3. Create incentives for onsite treatment
3. The majority of the energy needed for heating and cooling buildings should come from active solar, passive solar and geothermal systems. Additional energy needs should be met with tidal, solar and wind systems.
4. The skins of buildings should act as permeable membranes letting in fresh air, releasing moisture, moderating temperature not only within the buildings but the neighborhood surrounding them.
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by Steve Moddemeyer

Here’s where we need to go:

• Pathway 1. All rain in the city should evaporate, soak into the ground, or be collected for use.
• Pathway 2. The majority of the energy needed for heating and cooling buildings should come from active solar, passive solar and geothermal systems. Additional energy needs should be met with tidal, solar and wind systems.
• Pathway 3. The skins of buildings should act as permeable membranes letting in fresh air, releasing moisture, moderating temperature not only within the buildings but the neighborhood surrounding them.
• Pathway 4. Mobility choices should prioritize walking first, biking second, mass transit systems third and automobiles last. If we follow this approach, transportation can be safe and abundant while decreasing air pollution, increasing human health, and increasing convenience.
• Pathway 5. Great urban design is a powerful sustainability tool. If places people want to go are in walking and biking distance, then they will walk and bike. If people live where the amenities and jobs are provided, then they will be able to walk and bike to their preferred destinations. This makes cities more livable and protects acres of rural areas from sprawl.
• Pathway 6. Natural habitat is human habitat. Native species are welcomed into public open spaces and natural systems.
• Pathway 7. As much as possible, human waste should be collected and treated on site - or if conveyed, conveyed in pressurized pipes for high level treatment and reuse.

Why?

Rainwater in the city drives costs in sewers, drainage systems, and negatively impacts urban creeks and waterways.  If we have a superior alternative that is cost effective, why not do it?  The tools include the use of green roofs, rain gardens, permeable paving, rainwater collection, and constructed wetlands.  These are proven technologies in wide use throughout the world.

We have a sewer system that works well at base flow conditions.  However, many times a year this system is overwhelmed by storm water that is piped in or leaks into it.  If we adopt Principle 1, then we have a citywide network of pipes that could be used to retrofit a geothermal heating/cooling system

According to scientific studies presented at a recent American Geophysical Union session organized by the authors, “the construction of buildings, parking lots, houses, urban areas dramatically change the:

• smoothness of a surface
• thermal conductivity (the ability of a material to transmit heat)
• hydraulic conductivity (measure of the ability of soil to transmit water)
• albedo (reflectivity off of Earth’s surfaces)
• emissivity (the ratio of radiation emitted by a body or surface) and
• vegetation cover.”

[1] Union Session of AGU Fall 2003
Human-induced Climate Variations Linked with Urbanization: From Observations to Modeling
J. Marshall Shepherd and Menglin Jin
December 12, 2003
San Francisco, USA

by Steve Moddemeyer

Imagine the soft city.

• Rain is absorbed into the ground.  There is no storm runoff.
• Leaves and needles intercept the rain before it hits the ground.  They hold it and release it back to the atmosphere as water vapor.
• The city comes alive when it rains.  Water features fill and shally as expressive elements of the true urban renewal.  There are fountains that only operate in the rain.  And some features on the fountain only operate if the rain exceeds a 100-year storm. These “century” fountains are beautiful even when empty – like Death Valley is beautiful.
• The new soft city is quiet.  Porous paving absorbs rain and sound.  Soft vegetated walls absorb sound and don’t bounce it back  Electric cars are quiet with only the sound of wheel slap and pedestrian tones affecting the sound of wind through the trees.
• Soft city is habitat.  Returned are the blue butterflies of lowland prairies. Nesting birds raise their young in sight of dense urban dwellings.
• Rooftops absorb water and emanate green to surrounding forms.
• It is cool in the soft city in the summer and buffered from the cold in the winter

from April 3rd
by Lucia Athens
Milan

One of my hosts in Italy was Mr. Mario Zocattelli, the President of GBC Italy. Mr. Zocatelli is a physically commanding personage, very tall, with a deep authoritative voice and friendly, personable style. We immediately hit it off. I was lucky enough to get to spend quite a bit of time with him. Mario drove me from Roverto to Milan, to attend a meeting of the Milan Chapter of the GBC. First I had a nice lunch with other important representatives of GBC and Mr. Lorenzo Orsenigo, Director of ICMQ, a well-established building certification organization. After feasting on pasta and tiramisu, my hosts showed me around a massive sustainable development site (in the Northern part of Milan.) The project, being done by Heinz, is called Porta Nuova. See www.hines.com/property/detail.aspx?id=2179

The 34.3 acre site will eventually have 24.7 million square feet of mixed use space for a hotel, office, retail, a museum, and fashion exhibition hall. Cesar Pelli and Kohn Pederson and Fox are a few of the stellar architects on hand to help with the design. The project is currently under construction with foundation work, but stay tuned. This project is all set to be LEED certified, and will likely become one of the most important green developments in the world.

We went back to Lorenzo’s offices for the meeting. I gave a presentation in English, without Italian translation. Most Italians speak English quite well. Then there was a presentation by Mr. Zocatelli on their progress with USGBC and creating a LEED Italy tool adapted to their building standards. Towards the end of the meeting, volunteers were recruited to help with their efforts. Mario joked that it would only require a little bit of bloodletting in order to make a contribution. I could relate! Creating LEED is a lot of work, but well worth the effort. Someone asked who in the room were the newest LEED AP. Hands went up and applause followed. The meeting broke up and I was introduced to some interesting people, including the mechanical engineers for the Porta Nuova project, who are with Hilson Moran See www.hilsonmoran.com

After 20 years of involvement in green building in the US, it was exciting to see how things were catching on in this part of Europe.

from April 1st, 2009

by Lucia Athens
Rovereto, Italy (near Verona)

Jeremy Rifkin is a name I have been familiar with since way back in the 80’s when I read WorldWatch papers. These have always been an authoritative source of sustainability information. He now heads the Foundation on Economic Trends which has created campaigns including “Beyond Beef,” “Civil Society Education,” Biotech genetic commerce, and now a campaign called “Hydrogen Economy.” Rifkin’s name has now taken on an almost mythic quality as a green economic guru.  He has written 17 books, including one called The European Dream. The book description from his website reads: The American Dream is becoming ever more elusive. Americans are increasingly overworked, underpaid, squeezed for time, and unsure about their prospects for a better life. One third of all Americans say they no longer even believe in the American Dream.

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from March 31st
by Lucia Athens
Rovereto, Italy (near Verona)

The headquarters of the Italian GBC and Distretto Technologico are located in the upper floors of a modern building in this northern Italian city. My host Alberto Ballardini is with Distretto Technologico, a consortium of 30 businesses all focused on green issues. Their themes relate to Renewable Energy, Sustainable Materials, and Smart Technology. The “C” in GBC is pronounced with a “ch” sound. I just love saying G-B-CHee. Everything always sounds better in Italian.

I grabbed a hoteling office spot to catch up on some email, and found myself right in the heart of their business operations. They are in the process of creating an Italian version of LEED, and at the same time providing technical assistance to projects that desire to pilot the tool. Everywhere I went, at every desk, there were LEED reference guides, a familiar reminder of home. As I sat surfing the net, I overheard two of the staff discussing in Italian some of the LEED Site credits, trying to interpret what the requirements mean. They were chatting animatedly about some of the Site credits, which I had written years ago when I chaired the LEED Site and Water TAG (Technical Assistance Group). It was a profound moment for me, realizing how broad-reaching LEED now is as a green building benchmark. It was now almost ten years after the early days of LEED and my first involvement with it, and I was half way around the world. Nice to see how far things have come.

from March 29th
by Lucia Athens
Venice, Italy

I just arrived today in Venice, on my way to speak at the Innovate to Beat the Crisis conference. See http://www.festivaldellecittaimpresa.it/ At this time of year, they have high tide, or “aqua alta” as they call it. There is a siren that goes off about 2 hours before the tide starts to rise. This city has been sinking for centuries, with foundations on top of foundations on top of foundations. When the tide is particularly high, there are special raised walkways that are laid down in the most flooded areas. There are even maps that show circulation routes that avoid the flooding. Not having been to Venice in 25 years, and being a bit jet lagged, I was not quite tuned in to the perils that high tide might hold for me that very night. I walked about 20 minutes from my hotel, in the old Jewish ghetto, to the Rialto bridge. My journey was rewarded with a wonderful meal at the Trattoria dellal Madonna, a place where the locals go to dine. I was introduced to the restaurant by my Italian architecture professor, Paolo Baruchieri, when I was studying landscape architecture in a studies abroad program. The place had not changed one jot. Still the wonderful cubist paintings on the walls, the white jacketed waiters, and the delicious spaghetti alla vongole (with fresh clams in the shell).

By the time I left the restaurant it was near 11 pm. After turning out of the alley onto the main canal, I was surprised to find water lapping over the edges of the canal and up against the building foundations. I slogged through water up to well over my ankles, and then along the temporary walkways back the way I had come. I quickly realized the route that had brought me there was now impassable. Luckily, I hopped on a water taxi, or vaporetto which ferried me back to the area of my hotel. Between the vaporetto landing and my hotel was another slog through about 9 inches of water. With my short ankle boots completely filled up with the (not very clean) canal water, I finally got back to the hotel, dry socks, and towels. Over the next few days, I began to notice that shops sell huge rubber galoshes and plastic booties. I began to notice how many women wear flat, high topped boots. Fashionable, but practical for walking all over the city and tromping through high tide. Venice was a city inundated by the tides already, and with the rising sea level threat brought by global climate disruption, this would accelerate. Even now, the lower floors of many buildings are not used as living areas. The upper piano nobiles of the grand casas stayed well above the lower floors which tend to flood. How would Venice deal with rising sea levels? My friends in Venice did not seem to have much confidence that the huge multi-billion euro floodgate project, aka Project Moses, would ever be finished due to cost overruns and impracticality. The project intends to construct 78 huge steel gates across tidal inlets to the Venice lagoon. The highest sea levels in 22 years were experienced back in December after massive rainfall, resulting in water levels 5 feet above normal. For footage, see http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=95431

As climate change accelerates, Venetians and others living in coastal areas can expect increased flooding, unpredictable extreme storm events, and ever rising water levels. We as design professionals must explore not only how to lower our climate impact with new development, but also how to adapt to the changing conditions of climate. How will cities manage increased flooding and disasters? How can we create greener infrastructure strategies such as natural drainage systems to provide increased resiliency in the face of more extreme and unpredictable conditions? In the UK, they are required to place all electrical service and outlets several feet off the ground, an interesting code response that anticipates rising sea levels and floods. The need to stay nimble with our building codes and design of the built environment is not something we can wait to deal with until later. We must act now