CEO Panelists Set for Wall Street Journal Chicago Insight Exchange

Readers in the midwest might find this upcoming conference of interest to high-performance workplace designers and others interested in improving their space and operations. The keynote address that kicks off the conference, by Rackspace Chairman Graham Weston, might be of special interest. Graham will undoubtedly discuss the company’s ongoing move into an old San Antonio mall they now call “the castle” (see his blog), and the innovations they’re undertaking in the space to make it an attractive place to work and boost productivity. There are videos worth watching telling the story in a couple of parts. How do you take really vanilla unwanted industrial space and turn it into something innovative? Check out the videos and check out the Insight Exchange Breakfast hosted by the Wall St. Journal at the ROI of Great Workplaces Conference hosted by Winning Workplaces in Chicago in early October.

This tip came from Winning Workplace's Blog Author Mark Harbeke. You can read more about this and other interesting innovation focused writing there for the high performance workplace. Thanks Mark!

The New Energy Economy, Vermont and Colorado Parallels

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter at the 6th Annual American Renewable Energy Day (AREDAY) in Aspene last weekend recounted how he helped Barack Obama last year on the campaign trail to see the possibilities of a 'New Energy Economy' based on Colorado's success with it. Apparently it is due to 'marriage of sorts' between environmental and economic policy. He went on to discuss various success stories in the public and private sector since attaining office in 2006. His main focus was how to use the 'transition to clean energy as an economic engine'.

Last week Bernie Sanders chaired a Green Jobs Hearing in Montpelier, at the statehouse where he asked experts from private green oriented industry and similar Vermont public entities to speak about their work and vision integrating energy efficiency, sustainable energy and green jobs development together under the Green Collar economy umbrella. Sanders goal was to collect testimony to spread the word about clean energy job development policies happening in Vermont and how what we're doing is applicable for others nationwide.

Between Colorado and Vermont as green 'new energy economy' leaders there is a lot to learn other states can take away. The one thing that's hard to replicate however is the unique synergy of green thinking into the DNA of those who live and work in each State. This is partly due to long-held environmentally focused values, a culture awareness of the finitude of natural resources and willingness to have hard discussions together. Whether it's the lack of water for example in Colorado and rampant growth issues in metropolitan areas or stormwater versus acid rain in Vermont, aesthetic and visual impacts of Wind Energy vs. the Merits as renewable energy source and permitting reform, both States have a vital dialogue about these issues which spurs other conversations and intiatives such as the 'New Energy Economy' or 'Green Jobs' discussions.

This synergy of activism, involvement and innovation takes generations to develop. But with Colorado and Vermont's examples to follow among others, perhaps it might be easier for others to join in the conversation.

Interested in learning more? 

You can find us now at www.arocordisdesign.com, the website of our Montpelier, Vermont-based residential architecture firm practice Arocordis Design. If you want to contact us there, click on this link. 

#netzero #homedesign #arocordisdesign #vermont #vermontarchitect #architecture #climateaction

A Green Walgreens in the Chicago Area - Logan Square

I'm excited about this Walgreens store in the Chicago area pursuing LEED Certification. Apparently it's their second Green store in the country and more are planned in the pipeline. It's awaiting certification at some advanced level which is likely to happen in 4-6 months. I know its mass market retail but if corporations like this don't take sustainability issues seriouusly how will we get the massive change to happen we all need, to achieve the kind of goals organizations like www.350.org or www.2030.0rg aspire to?

It's such a wonderfully odd thing to consider doing business at a green Walgreen's where it is addressing numerous energy efficiency, sustainable sites, materials, water resources and indoor environmental quality issues in the design. I hope that the feedback and performance for the store is positive over the long haul and Walgreen's learns from this one, it's first in a colder climate, and builds more across the nation.

Obviously the stores are only part of the problem. It's the environments they're located in around the country which also needs alot of help. I'm talking about the suburban strip centers, mall parking lots and corner stores along major aterials where these retailers are often located. Sure, it's a complex auto based lifestyle puzzle but we've got to start tipping the scale in the other direction. Perhaps by companies like Walgreens initiating leadership such as this one store at a time, other retailers will catch on and postive effects will collectively be felt in time.

As someone who cares about high design and equitable design I also care about democratizing the green architecture movement and helping bring it into the mainstream. Doing so gives me hope for my children and the generations to follow.

Blog Feedback and the Importance of Adsense

Give me your feedback! Put it on the line!

I've been blogging for a while now and wonder if I could ask for some feedback from you, my loyal readers.

so here goes....

Ads.... how important, useful are the Ad-sense ads by Google on my blog? Are they helpful to you? Do you like clicking on them? Wish they weren't there? Are the Ad topics of interest to you?

From a content stand-point, are there other topics you'd like to see me write about or return back to which I haven't posted on recently?

In regards to ease of use, does this blog operate effectively for you when you navigate it? Is it easy or challenging? Fun, Annoying?

Are there any things I can do differently to make your time spent more engaging, interesting?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Steve

Does being or becoming Sustainable or Green benefit my business and bottom line?

Clients, Contractors and Business Partners often ask if becoming a more sustainable or green oriented organization is truly beneficial or just another buzzword which will fade in a year or so? It's a terrific question not be shied away from asking or answering. Based upon working with lots of public, private, for profit, non-profit customers I know the answer is evolving and relative to the situation of the business or organization asking. There is not one answer. First, do you have a set of core company values, a mission statement encompassing more than financial profits and success? If not, examine some Vermont examples where I live.

Working and growing up in Vermont I have luckily been exposed to some extraordinary companies with truly remarkable sustainable visions who have been models for others to follow over the last generation and mentors now for those following in their footsteps. Companies such as Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream, King Arthur Flour, Seventh Generation, NRG Systems, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, National Life of Vermont, Small Dog Electronics, Efficiency Vermont...the list goes on an on. Year after year they show remarkable performance and a large part of their success lies in the different way they run their businesses. Their success is driven by their focus on a triple bottom lined approach to seeing the world, of focusing on "People, Profits and Planet". They are active members of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, a non-profit focusing on how businesses can accumulate social and environmental capital along with economic prosperity in Vermont.

Each one of these companies believes strongly in a socially responsible vision and are leaders in their industries. As successful as they are as businesses they also are often voted best places to work in Vermont, with lots of economic data supporting or reinforcing why it's beneficial to embrace sustainability. They have extremely dynamic and vibrant work cultures or communities with a strong sense of corporate identity and shared goals. In the cases where these companies publish Corporate Responsibility Reports, they measure among many factors worker productivity, quality and types of benefits, workplace comfort, relative health and wellness, absentism, community volunteerism. These measures go beyond the ordinary business performance factors often measured in traditional end of the year financial reports.

Secondly, to support the organizational aspects of the high performance workplace a critical physical step is to provide to employees a green, sustainably oriented building or office fit-out. To be a sustainable business I feel also means embracing green building fundamentals which directly impact worker comfort and well-being and indirectly help the environment, lower organizational exposure to fluctuating energy costs. Many companies and organizations over the last five or ten years have dramatically embraced the Green Movement and are no longer beginners but rather moving on to the second or third generation of integrating green building ideas into their workplaces. Seeing what works and what does not. In the process many have facilities which are LEED certified and are walking their talk in a very open and visible way.

Here is some information from the USGBC:

Benefits of Green Building & Sustainbility in Business (adapted from the
US Green Building Council [USGBC] website, See below

Environmental benefits:
1. Enhance and protect ecosystems and biodiversity
2. Improve air and water quality
3. Reduce solid waste
4. Conserve natural resources

Economic benefits:
1. Reduce operating costs
2. Enhance asset value and profits
3. Improve employee productivity and satisfaction
4. Optimize life-cycle economic performance

Health and community benefits:
1. Improve air, thermal, and acoustic environments
2. Enhance occupant comfort and health
3. Minimize strain on local infrastructure
4. Contribute to overall quality of life

Links:

Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility

Winning Workplaces - Helping to create the High Performance Workplace

US Green Building Council - Facts for Businesses

(Disclosure, as a long term team member of Maclay Architects I have had the good fortune of working with NRG Systems, Seventh Generation and Efficiency Vermont, VBSR among others in various capacities, you can learn more about that work at our website)

Travel Sketches_Rome

Here's a few memorable sketches from a trip I took to Rome while traveling in the summer of 1991 with fellow graduate school students and instructors from the University of Colorado at Denver, College of Architecture and Planning where I graduated in 1992 with a Master's of Architecture. Examining these early sketches done almost 20 years ago I smile and hope they inspire others young and old alike to dust of the sketch books and passports and get out of dodge.

My current sketchbooks lack drawings and have many words whether from meetings, project observations or notes from conferences. It's encouraging to me see once again how powerful the acts of hand-sketching and synthetic thinking truly are. To inspire creativity and innovation, drawing is an essential act and should not be forgotten amidst our laptops, i-phones, android phones, smart phones and screens in general. Remember we're architects which is a mix of artist, scientist, engineer and anthropologist.... among a few. We must sketch to think!

An Earth Sheltered Net Zero House Sketch, an unbuilt project

An Earth-sheltered Modern Home Design

So often we’re inspired by nature and the earth. Here’s a watercolor, pen, and pencil sketch from years ago where firm principal Stephen M. Frey, AIA explored an earth-sheltered, nature-near home design on a south-facing hillside site with a lifted and separated curving green roof.

On an ideal site, the house would be a two to three-bedroom, two-bath residence with an open and interconnected kitchen, dining, and living space with three distinct zones with a great room feel. It would be a net zero home, a residence that produces the same or more energy than it consumes. We organized key bedrooms on the ends of the rectangular home volume with view windows to the outside.

A nearby garage and or barn space would supplement the home a short distance away. It could supply parking for vehicles, workshop and craft areas, accessory dwelling units, and long-term storage. To complete the integration with exterior design, a vegetable and flower garden would be nearby as well as other landscaping would be installed.  

Highlights of the Home Design and Space Layout:

The living areas front the building volume with easy exterior access to the continuous arbor-covered terrace and ample views of the surroundings. In a later design step, we will study the amount of glazing through energy modeling. Overglazing might cause overheating of the house and having to size up the air-conditioning system at a higher cost and energy use.

Biomorphic Structural System

The wooden glue-lam ribs of the home are akin to bones that spring from the earth! The residence transitions from the solidity and darkness found within the earth to the lightness of a forest canopy along the continuous south-facing porch and terrace area. An overhead wood timber frame arbor with solar control helps minimize summer glare while supplying a place for vines to grow. Timber frame posts and supplemental beams would abound in and out.

Solar Systems and Energy Independence

We imagine photovoltaic ground-mounted solar trackers in a nearby solar orchard a short walk away. They would tie into a nearby independent standalone timber frame structure that houses the whole house battery system and inverters. The building would bring power safely to the semi-underground home.

Daylighting, The Sun, and Nature Near

The south-facing window wall area and short ends would connect to near and far views of the site and beyond. We would tailor the home and site design to frame near and far views with window and door openings.

Dynamic top lighting from skylights and roof monitors activates interior spaces such as bathrooms, kitchens, and internal areas. Overhead, top daylighting from triple-insulated prismatic skylights lights these spaces during the day. At night, architectural LED lighting will highlight the underside of the curving structure. This will bring a day and night difference to the spaces within, activating them in unique ways at each time of day.

The Building Enclosure and Performance

The building enclosure would be super-insulated, suitable for the local climate and building traditions and regional preferences. It would follow at a minimum (R5/R15/R20/R45/R80) for windows, below slabs, walls in below-grade foundation conditions, walls above grade, and the ceiling as recommended by Joe Lstiburek, Ph.D., P. Eng. of Building Science Corporation. Windows of this home would have triple-insulated high-performance glazing with low-e argon-filled units with thermal spacers set within fiberglass and wood frames. Operable awning and casement windows would act in tandem with ceiling-mounted fans to circulate healthy fresh air in warmer times.

We envision the doors as made from fiberglass frames with thermally broken edges. The nature near Green Roof could be extensive or intensive depending on the client’s desires and structural capabilities, cost, care preferences for the plantings, etc. It would help with stormwater management capturing and filtering rainfall. Construction would follow aggressive air-sealing standards to further reduce energy loads by minimizing energy loss through cracks, corners, and joints.

The exterior rain screen siding could be cement-plank, cedar, or metal siding such as metal panels, corrugated metal, or 12-inch ribbed siding. Depending on the preferences of the client, we could mix and match artistically, connecting the home to the earth. Site-harvested flagstone, if available, could enclose lower portions of the exterior walls and site terracing.  

Interior Systems, Mood, and Character

A radiant polished concrete slab with decorative insets would supply heating. Air-air wall-mounted heat pumps would supply cooling and supplemental heating.

We would choose simple and restrained interior finishes, using local milled rough-sawn lumber or, if a client wants a more modern interior design, we will use finished hardwood standing and running trim with a contemporary design. Hand plastering or drywall would complement the interior. The doors and kitchen would have simply rubbed bronze hardware and pulls. Paints would be no or low-volatile organic compounds. (VOC).

Appliances would be high-performance Energy Star models to reduce energy use. We recommend all-electric, but it is important to have backup generators onsite in case of power failures and depletion of any home batteries. With Vermont’s increasingly warmer winters with wet snows damaging power lines, it pays to be prepared for anything and to keep climate resiliency in mind when planning and constructing this home.

Lighting

High-performance LED lighting would like the interior and exterior of this house and its site. We would specify a mix of dimmable low-voltage architectural lighting emphasizing the ceiling and exposed Glue-lam and timber-frame structure, as well as downlights, wall-washers decorative pendant fixtures, and sconces. A thoroughly thought-out lighting design like this would amplify the enjoyment of this home for years to come.

Local Materials

We envision focused areas that would have locally sourced stone areas using Vermont slate, granite, or marble. One could specify soapstone counters for the kitchen and bathroom vanity counters. Another area to plan is to use solar color shades and blinds from nearby manufacturers on the south and west-facing windows to control overheating and glare. We advocate the use of local milled lumber as well.

Next Steps

In our design for this unbuilt Vermont net-zero home, we seek to capture nature’s beauty with our sustainable and artful living mindset. From the curved green roof to renewable energy, and interior and exterior site connections, every detail supports living in harmony with the environment. 

If you’re intrigued, let’s discuss adapting this design or aspects of it to create your dream home. Let’s design and build a place and space that reflects your style and values while honoring Vermont’s landscapes and sustainable living ethos. Contact us to begin this journey! 

You can find us at Arocordis Design, our residential architecture firm's website. Our home studio is located in Montpelier, Vermont. Happy to connect.  

Samsung Reclaim & Sprint_Greening the Wireless Experience

Samsung is coming out with an innovative new ecologically inspired qwerty keyboard phone at a low price point. Of course it's green or ocean blue colored to inspire eco-friendly allegience and has striking styling along with it. The phones will be available through Sprint which is also offering some unique choices for consumers with it's wireless phone recycling programs, upgrading both new stores and retrofitting existing retail stores to align with LEED standards. A recent press release from Sprint details the phone release and their various sustainability efforts on a wide variety of fronts.

Sprint with Samsung is focusing on greening the wireless experience of using, maintaining, purchasing and recycling their phone products. This type of comprehensive program sets an example to other retailers in related products and services industries who are looking to be leaders and innovators while embracing green and ecologically postive values. Whether it's using the end product, interacting on a web-site or at a physcial store transmitting a consistent and committed message, it is vital to convince consumers of the integrity of the efforts while enriching the overall brand.

Apparently the retail store sustainbility upgrading and redesigns will begin to take effect in September of this year. It will be interesting how widely felt this conversion will be and what regions of the country will recieve these revamped more ecologically friendly stores. The press release outlined a fairly typical design approach of responding to LEED criteria by appropriately designing interior finishes, fixtures and equipment as well as shifting retail store operational behavior to align with these values. I wonder how different or similar these stores will be as compared to earlier ones?

What's inspired here is Sprint and Samsung's efforts are just yet another example of the traction of the green / sustainability movement in the retail consumer oriented sector. As design professionals we live and breath this way of thinking (hopefully every day) but these shifts in thinking underscore the penetration and carrying capacity of the green movement. National level retailers and service providers are taking notice and beginning to act accordingly. By embeding these goals directly into various core areas of their businesses through committed actions and programs, these two companies are leading the way for others to follow.

Their efforts offer a snapshot for other companies to examine how to express similar values outwardly to consumers. I'm sure these programs didn't develop overnight but likely took years of careful comprehensive building and planning to get where they are today. My question is how will this look in five or ten years? Will efforts like Sprint's be mere anomolies or evidence of an industry waking up to a responsibility and oppourtunity to do act proactively. In what ways will the bar be risen to incoporate even higher standards or expectations? What would they be? I don't know. In the meanwhile, I hope these efforts pay off for Sprint and Samsung.

Hey imagine dialing up on your fancy Sprint / Samsung Reclaim phone your GooglePower meter mentioned in the last post to monitor your home or businesses energy use on your regional "Smart Grid" while bicycling or walking to work, school or on errands. Wouldn't that be a vision!

Google's PowerMeter Gadget - Take Control of Your Energy Use

When Dan Reicher was lecturing at Yestermorrow School in Warren, VT a few weeks ago he shared with us details of the Google's new PowerMeter gadget, freely available online. It is in the pilot program phase working in coordination with select utility partners. The PowerMeter hooks up to your electrical service fuse box in your home via a small reader which apparently costs $150 or so. It allows homeowners or business owners to monitor energy use in real time wirelessly within the home or by mobile phone.

Doing so enables energy consumers to monitor their energy use behaviors, what kinds of spikes happen when appliances turn on and off. It helps you understand how much your TV, computer or various plugged in appliances cost you. Conversely it shows you what happens when you shift your behavior. As Dan said in the lecture with one of his slides, "If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it - Lord Kelvin"

This will be hopefully but one of many examples of collaborations between the energy industries and outside partners like Google. Similar to other viral, collaborative efforts perhaps behavior changing gadgets or add-ons will make a difference in our energy usage combined together with shifts to mainstream adoption of green building and energy efficiency practices.

There is strength in numbers. I just hope all of these efforts can reach a consensus of sorts on energy measurement integration standards so this is easy, transparent and effective. Not creation again of another set of closed or propietary systems which don't talk with each other all attempting to beat each other at the same energy use modification game. This also the kind of equipment which would be really cool for public and private buildings to have so building occupants, facility managers and the general public could see energy use on its own terms. It would be great for LEED buildings to be up on the Web hooked into the Google Gadget and kids could see how their Dorm building, classroom building etc. is doing and talk about it in class or work together in energy nerd conservation competitions to see who could reduce their energy use the most. In the process, kids and all involved would learn game changing behaviors to take into life beyond the campus, elementary, middle, or high school.

Gee whiz!

Sunday Poem

The sounds of the cello vibrate

loosening the chords of memory

bringing painful moments gingerly

to the open air

With gladness I greet them

finally able to see what I was missing

the darkness so obscured

the simple answers overlooked

Now what to do but to move on

with a knowing, tired smile

a warmer heart for sure

the music strenghthens dampened spirit

The dawn beckons with its light

here in the quiet darkness of night

oh, what to do but to write

bringing forth insights long dulled

Fingers on the bow poised for flight

Social Media and Cultivating Relationships

Today, I am in a grateful mood. I am thankful for all of the dynamic and inspiring relationships with friends, family, co-workers and business associates over the years. It's really important to cultivate them over time. I will use a metaphor here which is a little obvious and blog related. Cultivating relationships is a life long journey. It's never complete nor fully realized. Especially now in these challenging times, sometimes all we have are these relationships and not much else. What's interesting is the word relationship means in one sense to relate to one another, or between entities or things, thus communicate. The ability to communicate and interact then is the glue which connects people, organizations into relationships, be they personal, business, philantrophic, or something in between.

From a marketing and business development view, relationships are essential. Where we would be without them? I find the need to cultivate and nurture relationships an essential part of daily life regardless of the area. Plus, with today's work culture our personal life is blending into our worklife and vice versa. It's unavoidable. I know I have a lot to learn about being in relationships, and often realize I have friends I haven't said hello to in years or the last six-months. Using social/professional media elements such as LinkedIN, Plaxo, Facebook or Twitter to stay in touch is very fruitful. One simple thing I really like is wishing people happy birtday when I remember to do it and say a quick hello usually via email. Our social media services are very good at telling us about birthdays. It's an easy step to take once a week and send well wishes to a handful of people you care about now. And, it has secondary benefits beyond the primary one of being in communication with one another, relating to each other. It shows you are present in someone's life so they know they can reach out to you, whether for personal, professional or other reasons.

So, cultivate those relationships today. They really matter!

(image is from a walk I took with my family near Southwest Harbor, ME in Acadia a few years ago)

The Ten Faces of Innovation, Tom Kelley and IDEO

AN INFLUENTIAL BOOK

About a year ago I found this book. It was after I had read The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley, an earlier book published in 2001. The first book took me a year to finish. The Ten Faces of Innovation, published in 2005, took me a month. Tom Kelley wrote it over a period of many years while working within IDEO, a unique and transformative, multi-faceted internaltional design consultancy.

The book opens by reviewing how damaging the devil's advocate process or activity is to innovation and suggests offers alternatives to the dreaded devil's advocate. What I like about the book is it sketches Ten very useful character traits helpful, no essential, for innovation. The motivation for this is the fact no organization can rest on its laurels of past successes but keep aspiring to capture or embody innovative concepts or ideas or work processes which might propell their business forward. The ten faces are organized into three rich categories: Learning Personas, Organizing Personas, Building Personas.

• LEARNING PERSONAS - Organizations need to constantly grow and develop their knowledge base and enrich their informational context to serve their customers, thus learning personas are super critical:

  The Anthropologist -

  The Experimenter -

  The Cross Pollinator -

• ORGANIZAING PERSONAS - Individuals in organizations who like to pull together information, factors influencing a design or operational challenge and enjoy helping to orchestrate strategic and/or tactical interactions to achieve results and stay focused.

  The Collaborator -

  The Hurdler -

  The Director -

• BUILDING PERSONAS - They pull together insights gained from the Learning Personas and Organizing Personas into a rich tapestry of experience in innovative combination together and unlikely, unique value added outcomes.

  The Experience Architect -

  The Set Designer -

  The Storyteller -

  The Caregiver -

WHY YOU & YOUR ORGANIZATION MIGHT NEED THIS:

Innovation is a collective, collaborative activity. The character traits or personas identified in the book taken independently, while still valuable, are no match for their power in combination together. Think about your work teams and your role(s). You wear many hats over the course of an average work week don't you? Tom Kelley renames the hats we wear. The personas are poignant descriptors of activities essential to building innovative processes within your workplace. What would happen if you read together this book as a team, discussed the various personas together and reflected on your work process together and asked how could it be redesigned or incorporate these ideas. You might quickly identify yourself with a number of the personas, but also realize you are a collection of personas which at various times rise to the surface to meet a specific need. It really helps to see the proverbial hats you wear through these characterizations. So often we try to be everything to everyone. The next time someone speaks up in a meeting and says, "Let me be the devil's advocate here", you'll have a shared background together and say, "Hey, rather than trying to burst the bubble on the idea right now, let's look at this like we're an anthropologist, or experimenter and try this out for a bit in conversation and see where it goes, it might lead someplace unexpected for us."

SOME INNOVATION APPLICATIONS

Fact finding / Data Collection Activities

Brainstorming / Design Charettes

Strategic Development Meetings

Connecting Values & Brand Inseperably

Workplace Design and Interaction Between Work groups

Product & Services Development

Enriching Your Customer Experience

Public Relations and Marketing your Business and Your Story (I really like that)

The book's website has reader stories sharing how the book influenced their worklife. It's really provacative reading to see how the book inspired other readers interested in further developing their worklife design strategies and work culture.

SO WHAT'S NEXT:

Transform your creative practice by exploring ideas such as one's in this book. Add value to the clients or customers you serve by growing your abilities to think strategically about their needs, how they operate and how they could be better, much better, perhaps even astound and amaze in the arena they operate. Explore and expand your strategic thinking abilities and alternate ways to see the big picture while knowing how to dig deep and really understand what motivates your customer, their stakeholders and move things forward. Most of all enjoy the process of trying new things and learning from what works and what does not!