Green Options

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Economics may be the strongest Green Building Element. As much as we would all like to believe that people will somehow decide to reduce consumption…the power of the purse is more dependable than good intentions.

Stanford students protest new water-saving showers (via Jetson Green) (pic at right not from Stanford, but from Kohler, see after the jump.)

Forgive the massive generalization from another part of the country, but aren’t college students, and particularly California college students, supposed to care a whole lot about environmental good intentions? Guess they’re just as partial to their habits as the rest of us, and unable to remember the big picture when it comes to hot water. Yes, if everyone did the small things, they would add up, and make a difference…but everyone won’t, and we should plan for that.

The clever design strategy is to provide solutions that steer the market into good decisions overall.

The greenness of a building element isn’t always clearly defined. Garbage disposals are one example. Florida Green Building Coalition gives points in their new home plan for not installing one (See Section 2). Others say, in comparison to landfilling your banana peels, a bit of power and water is an efficient way to deal with non-meat food wastes. However, it seems that those ‘bits’ of power and water do add up:

“Hilton San Francisco, the largest hotel on the West Coast, removed all of its garbage disposal units in 2002, and Jo Licata, community projects manager, says it has made a big difference in mechanical and water expense.” (SF Chronicle)

So what are the alternatives? Can a single user without the ability to compost in the traditional pile way still do the ultimate recycling - turn food waste back into food?

For quite some time now, everyone’s been wondering if “green building” techniques will pay on the real estate market. These days, with the housing market in submarine status, the notion that some sort of green designation might help move empty houses is particularly attractive. This successful local realtor asks a national board:

The builder plans on offering variations of a design depending on the buyer’s price point. We are actively discussing what the buyer will pay for certain green features in this price range. Green has not become big in my Emerald Coast market yet. Suggestions as to what can be recouped and what will sell and what the buyers will pay?

We’re finally starting to get some data.

LEED-H. FGBC. Energy Star. HERS. Fortified Home. EarthCraft. These are all names of green building standards used around the country for homes. And now NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) is due to unveil its own Green Building Standard at the upcoming International Building Show in Orlando, Feb. 13-16.

Recently I found in my mail a press release about the bird-safe glass specified in Santiago Calatrava’s new Chicago Spire, and it reminded me that skyscrapers are not the only architectural threats to our avian cohabitants.

While major cities located along migratory flyways get a lot of attention, they account for a comparatively small percentage of kills. The crucial next step, says New York City Audubon Society executive director Glenn Phillips, is “getting to the big designers of suburban and exurban buildings.”

I live in a one-story suburban house, cheek by jowl with other houses, but I’ve still been startled by a SMACK! on my window and had to check outside for a small feathered body. And I design similar houses and their additions. Clearly I’m someone who should Do Something. But what? One answer came from the Birdchick Blog.

Today is a cold, wet dreary day. Which inspired me to dig the Kandle Heeter out of the garage.

Parked next to my mouse, this little device brings the temperature of my 8×12 office up from shivery to cozy - not quite enough to take my lovely handknit wool socks off, but a great antidote against a dreary January, and a definite cat magnet.

I’m not a huge fan of paper magazines. They’re hard to recycle in my area (they’re no good for sheet mulching), and generally I want more in-depth discussion of a particular subject than a monthly can spare.

But I might make an exception for one that is new to me, GreenBuilder. I’m impressed. Not only by the coverage, which actually explains concepts for an ordinary thinking person instead of that annoying bizspeak that many industry mags fall into, the vocabulary that doesn’t inform you at all.

Most of the country is paying for heat right now. Being on the Gulf Coast, I wasn’t until this week - but with temps dropping into the twenties Fahrenheit, I’m starting to rethink the location of my home office.

You see, my house is like the one shown (from a real estate ad). Mine was also originally built with a porch, which was later enclosed with walls and permanent windows. When I open the real front door, now ‘interior’, and a French door to the dining room, I get heat or air conditioning from the rest of the house. (Don’t worry, my HVAC system is sadly oversized, like most in the country - that’s another post.)

I have used that porch as my home office for several years now. But I’m starting to think about moving the office to another part of the house - and giving this room back to the elements.

I’m celebrating Boxing Day in a new way this year - I’m putting all the cardboard boxes saved up from Shipping Month, aka December, to use in my Permaculture garden, by making sheet mulch.

Google sheet mulch and Permaculture. (For those not in the know, Permaculture is a fairly recent term for cultivating an edible landscape that establishes positively reinforcing relationships between water, soil, insects, microbes, sun, etc…for the purpose of sustainably and organically feeding its designing human.)

Sheet mulches are an easy way to ‘compost in place’, delivering all the water-borne yummies to the plants instead of under the compost pile. Design-wise, sheet mulching also avoids the not-so-Neighborhood-Association-Friendly look of compost piles, so it’s a tricky way to subvert the negative effects of suburban sprawl - grow a food landscape!

In last week’s post, I challenged readers’ knowledge about coastal construction, and what basic, easy design decisions can be made to radically improve the latest designs promoted by Brad Pitt for the 9th Ward in New Orleans. (Incidentally, you could take advantage of them, too.) Here are the answers.