Green Central Blog

By Lucia Athens

Every time I turn on the TV or radio, or read the paper, I am disturbed at how big our sustainability challenges loom, and how we don’t seem to be doing things differently enough or fast enough to fix them. It seems that we are spending a lot of time doing workarounds and patching over many of our pressing design problems. Maybe we need to start fresh and think about things in a whole new and perhaps zany way. If you were “king for a day,” which new rules and ways of approaching the built environment would you institute? If you could not just think outside the box but throw the box entirely away, what would you do?

Here are my top ten WAY outside the box ideas:

• Reclaim all underutilized urban sites, especially the “holes in the ground” which represent cancelled development projects, as urban agriculture sites
• No new impervious surfaces
• Reinvest all nuclear and coal funding in a massive solar roof program
• No new building materials; anything new must be built out of reclaimed or recycled materials
• All buildings must provide a portion of their power and water needs on-site
• Sin tax for buildings that use more than a baseline allocation of energy
• Building skins re-envisioned as plant cell structures that use photosynthesis to convert solar energy
• All new highway and car-oriented funding redirected to public transit
• All buildings have visible signage with continuous data display of their greenhouse gas footprint
• All car parking in urban areas is converted to car stackers (as shown in this photo I took in NYC)

by Paul Spivey

The 40th anniversary for Earth Day is April 22, 2010.  As recognized by most countries, the focus of Earth Day is all about building environmental awareness.  It’s unfortunate so few people celebrate this only once a year, or worse yet, not at all.  What if we called it Chocolate Chunk Earth Day?  or Earth Day Monster Truck Madness!

Earth Day might not be a virtual party explosion, but it’s also not a means for quiet contemplation as we somberly consider the extent of clear cutting, unregulated commercial fishing, and oil dependency.  No, Earth Day is about taking responsibility; it’s a call for action and planning for change in behavior and policies. 

Read the rest of this entry »

By Elsa Perez Dean

One of my most vivid childhood memories takes me back…way back, to a time when playing outdoors meant running free for hours on end knowing you’d be rewarded at the end of a long day with an incredible home-cooked meal.   The moment I am talking about takes me back to a summer day spent in Mexico, visiting family on their modest ranch.  The memory is so vivid I can recall the smell of the animals, the sound of the breeze brushing the corn stalks and the taste of a freshly picked tomato, sprinkled with salt and lime for our afternoon snack.  My mouth waters even as I think of it now. Read the rest of this entry »

by Paul Spivey

Over the past three months, I’ve been planning a much needed vacation and decided to go to Las Vegas for a few days.  My selected destination had nothing to do with gambling, but luck really wasn’t on my side - I had to cancel the trip just a few hours before my departure.  To cheer myself up, I ate a bucket of licorice and tried to see how NOT going could actually be a good thing.  It didn’t take me long; I really don’t enjoy flying.  But aside from my personal experiences with flying, I’ve also learned how significant an impact air travel has on our environment. Read the rest of this entry »

by Sean Keithly

In recent years, colleges and university campuses have emerged as a market with high potential for integrated, leading-edge sustainable development.  It’s no coincidence that some of the most encouraging trends in sustainability and green building are taking place on college campuses, and that much more fertile ground exists for campus sustainability initiatives. With large land areas, single-ownership, and centralized utility systems, the physical sites of college campuses provide the necessary raw materials for creating innovation in sustainability.  Added to this is the intellectual capital of the campus population and the potential for inter-departmental research, pilot projects, and meaningful relationships with off-campus entities. A surprising number of schools have hired full-time sustainability coordinators who, among other things, provide the link between the intellectual resources of the institution with campus operations, capital projects, and planning. Read the rest of this entry »

The United Nations Climate Change Conference began yesterday. The world is watching to see if this meeting will be more fruitful than some of those past, and to see what President Obama is prepared to say. One thing he did say on Sept. 22nd, 2009 was: “Our generation’s response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it – boldly, swiftly, and together – we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe.” You can follow the US participation in the conference at http://www.cop15.state.gov/

An exciting announcement, made during the Phoenix Greenbuild conference last month, should be a lively topic of discussion. The world’s leading green building organizations have teamed together to adopt a common global language for the measurement of the carbon footprint of buildings. These organizations are the UN Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative (UNEP SBCI), the World Green Building Council, and the Sustainable Building Alliance, which includes USGBC, BREEAM (UK), UNESCO, and several others.

Today there is a side event hosted by the International Union of Architects called “Sustainability by Design” which focuses on architectural strategies to reduce the man-made carbon footrprint. Other side events include permaculture, smart grid, sustainable and low carbon development, renewable energy, bridging the water and climate change agenda, sustainable living, food security, climate neutral cities, and “place-based” decarbonization strategies. The conference runs through Dec. 18th. You can follow the full conference at http://en.cop15.dk

by Paul Spivey

With winter approaching and the flu season upon us, you may find yourself sneezing or coughing.  But don’t be too hasty!  Even though swine flu is pretty exciting, it’s far more likely these symptoms are actually attributed to indoor air pollution, especially during the winter.  And here’s why:

The leading cause of indoor air pollution is insufficient ventilation - Fact.  While the technological trend for construction assemblies is constantly advancing our ability to create tightly sealed and well insulated exterior envelopes, the interior environment consequently sees fewer air exchanges.  And considering most of us spend an average of 85% of our day indoors, even more time is spent inside during the colder winter months – with the windows shut of all things!  Read the rest of this entry »