Green Central Blog

by Andy Fenstermacher

I love recycling. Composting is great too. So why are they so darn difficult to do in an urban setting?
I live in a new 100-unit building in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. It’s also a Built Green project no less. But recycling and composting in my building are an utter pain and it really comes down to one primary issue: The building was not designed nor equipped to adequately deal with modern waste disposal. The only thing the building has is a traditional garbage chute on each floor; recycling has to be carried by hand to the common waste room.

Well here is one way to deal with the recycling issue in high-density (especially high-rise) residential buildings.

Recycling Chute

It’s called the Wilkinson Hi-Rise Recycling Chute. You can watch a nifty demo of it here. I’d pay good money to have one of these in my building. So how do design professionals go about convincing developers that this type of technology is worthwhile?
Now, dealing with composting is an entirely different issue. Unlike most buildings, mine fortunately does have a shared compost container. But, just like with the recycling room, it’s inconveniently located for someone like me who lives on the 5th floor. Who wants to keep a jar of rotting vegetables in their apartment then carry it downstairs every few days?
There’s got to be a better way to compost in an urban setting, especially when space is limited and odor is a major concern. Here is one architect’s solution. But at $1,500 it’s pricey. Plus, I think a better approach would be to create something more fully integrated with the building and the rest of the waste system.

I’m going to ponder this issue with my CollinsWoerman colleagues and get back to you with some design ideas for tackling urban composting.

Check out the latest news from Neal Peirce on breaking down the boundaries of federal government silos, all geared towards increasing our sustainable communities options. Mayor Greg Nickels, who was just elected as president of the US Conference of Mayors, is also referenced.

http://citiwire.net/post/1023/

I just returned from Washington DC where the Finnish Embassy hosted a GBCI Board meeting. Ambassador Pekka Lintu of Finland welcomed us to the amazing, and very green, building. The space is filled with natural daylight and has amazing views to trees and nature that make you feel like you are in the middle of the forest, even though its right in the middle of embassy row and across from the Vice President’s home on Massachusetts Ave. The entry is flanked by two large living walls. The building was recently upgraded to meet Energy Star standards, and according to the ambassador, uses ½ the energy it did previously. The project is now also seeking LEED for Existing Buildings certification. Once achieved, Ambassador Pekka plans a social event with all the other ambassadors residing in DC, and will challenge all of them to do the same with their embassy buildings. Way to go, Finland! According to the embassy website, Finland ranks as the 4th cleanest country in the world. A tough act to follow, but if they can do it, why can’t we?

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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?

Read the rest of this entry »

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.
   Read the rest of this entry »

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