Small Steps to an Energy Independent World, Montpelier's Electric Vehicle Charging Station

All-Electric Vehicle Charging Station in Montpelier, VT

     Yesterday while downtown in Montpelier, I walked behind City Hall and literally ran into something I've never seen before and which given April 22nd and Earth Day is just around the corner it's definitely worth sharing. It's also just another reason why I think Montpelier is the best place to live in Vermont. We do stuff.  Seriously good stuff.  

     In February, the City and Green Mountain Power teamed up to install a free solar powered electric vehicle charging station behind city hall.  It's the third one for GMP so far, with one installed in South Burlington and Colchester.  Last week I pumped over $4.00/ gallon gas into my cars for the second time in my life, the last being in 2008.  I read yesterday how hybrids and all electric vehicles had there best month ever in the Burlington Free Press and here as described in the March 2012 Hybrid Dashboard.  I believe it.  While the current percentage of the total vehicle sales pie is small at 3.5% or so it's a rapidly growing segment of the market fed by high prices at the gas pumps.  

Mindmapping Vermont's Energy Planning, a Beginning

Brainstorming Vermont's Energy Planning c.Steve Frey 2011

I missed the VT Energy Plan June 1st workshop and information gathering session held at National Life last week. So I thought I'd contribute a mind map or visual brainstorm of my recent thoughts about the planning effort and areas of focus I see as important to ensuring a sustainable and bright future for generations to come.  Check out a link to Renewable Energy Vermont's recent interview on VPR for other perspectives.  

So often in our overwhelming information overloaded world it's helpful to find ways to distill the issues quickly.  Visual thinking offers a quick pictorial way to lay it all out there and show connections and relationships not easy to make easily in writing or speaking.  Thus I offer these two brainstorming sketches which while inherently incomplete offer a "take" on the issues and opportunities before us in our great state.

We have precious natural resources here in Vermont with first and foremost the bright passionate and well educated people in Vermont.  I wonder if there's a way to crowd source feedback to the public service board in parallel to helpful meetings being held across the state?  By using Twitter and LinkedIn and other social media sites perhaps we can collect together perspectives and ideas not easily obtained otherwise.  Last night on Twitter I started a hashtage called #vermontenergyplan to help track the conversation.  I also used the hashtag #vermont as well.  Put either of these tags into Twitter's search function and you will see this growing conversation!

By tackling this effort with an integrated and systematic planning, public and private partnerships and ultimately actions we take, we can build a more sustainable visionary Vermont. 

Community Energy Guidebook Released for Vermonters

     Earlier this month the Vermont Natural Resources Council released its long awaited Energy Planning Guidebook to help Vermont communities become more sustainable and energy independent.  Whether you live here or elsewhere but care about how your community evolves and fights climate change on a grass-roots level check out this manual and video to learn more.
     Whether involving weatherization, installing more insulation, air-sealing, replacing aging heating and cooling infrastructure in your public buildings, schools, churches and housing this information is a helpful starting point.  Many Vermont towns and cities have Energy Committees working independently of each other yet collaborating together to make a difference state-wide.  There's a statewide organization unifying all of the individual energy committees and large and small stakeholders called VECAN (VT Energy Climate Action Network.  It's an exciting group who has held numerous statewide conferences.
     This document is full of best practices culled for years of experience you and others in your community can learn from and extend forward! The guidebook covers why to do it in the first place, how to generally go about it, engaging the public in energy planning, organizing the plan, assessing community needs and opportunities among other areas.  It also shares the latest information about Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Development focusing on existing programs, planning for energy efficiency and adding renewable energy along with barriers impeding progress.
     Let me know what you think of the guidebook and if it is helpful to you and your community?

Green Infrastructure_Fixed Solar Arrays at Logan Airport Economy Lot 2

22 Panel fixed solar arrays sitting atop Economy Lot 2 Parking Structure (20 of them
at 3-4 kw each )  Not sure what they're tied into yet but what a great way to use a
parking surface!

It's been a while since I've flown out of Logan airport and the first time I've parked at the new 3000 space economy lot 2 which recently opened last November.  I'm always on the lookout for signs of hope, however small or large in this case.   I know I drove to park here but at least I smiled when I drove atop of this structure.  (of course there was barely any parking on this new economy lot...with cars parked intruding into drive lanes allover)

This urban solar orchard is impressive and can serve as an example for others around the country and world looking for ways to bring solar into widespread use.  A lonely piece of infrastructure like this garage is a perfect location for adding such renewable energy sources.  Like rooftops in many urban locations parking structure upper decks can provide ample solar exposure with minimal sun shading to reduce panel efficiency and output.  The twenty fixed 22 panel solar arrays produce approximately 60+ KW of electricity (my visual estimate) about 12 percent of the garage's energy needs.  Ultra low energy use LED lighting is installed throughout the parking structure further reducing the energy footprint of the new structure.

I understand from my research into MassPort's overall sustainability efforts they use an award winning Sustainable Design Standards and Guidelines on all of their projects.  The (SDSG) is an authority-wide strategy initiated at the direction of soon to retire Executive Director and CEO Thomas J. Kinton, Jr. "to integrate sustainable technologies and practices into all of Massport’s capital projects, reflecting Massport’s long history of achievements in sustainability."  I called Massport's Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing and they were happy to send me a link to a press release about the project.

It was apparently built to provide a centralized economy parking option at ($18/day and $108/week) relieving pressure on numerous nearby over capacity surface parking lots.  However, given how this lot was over capacity during a normal non-holiday midweek I have to ask whether the vision for this lot falls short, ie not enough parking deck levels in the first place?  I hope MassPort and its design team had the foresight to build into the structure the ability to expand upwards with enhancements in structural design to allow future additions.  

Another visible potential green measures was the addition of four story tall screens which someday may hold vegetation and act as living walls buffering the heat-island effect of the sun beating down on the massive concrete parking structure.   These screens were installed on the corners of the garage facing the heaviest traveled roads, likely more of a signpost of "green-ness" than really being effective.  I say may someday hold vegetation as there was no visual evidence of planters and irrigation systems installed (yet I hope!). They are usually installed in planters on the ground level and given the height at midpoints up the structure. The living wall panels could also be lit up a night from hidden LED light sources installed in the ground below the frames to accentuate the green message and enhance visibility.   (MassPort, if you need help in designing these additional green upgrades please give me a shout out.  The structure needs it!)

Doing so would be extremely functional and by using the cooling albedo effect of plants (climbing ivy's and such) the area parking area immediately near the green living wall would be more cool and comfortable.  The bottom line, adding these screens can help reduce the global warming impact of this structure by dampening the heat island effects.  However, the lack of green vegetative ground cover around the base of the structure reduces the opportunity to make a difference.  The monotonous expanse of 3" stone rubble rip rap is alienating from a pedestrian scale however productive it might be from a storm-water filtration standpoint.  I hope MassPort installs some kind of green ground cover there down the road.  Hopefully this is a work in progress!

Maybe that's asking too much of such a back of house building.  The challenge is this element needs cultivating and stewardship over time and access to water.  Storm water run-off from the parking garage roof deck (which must be considerable!) could be stored in cisterns below and pumped up and provide an easy grey water source to nurture the living wall growth which could potentially climb the wire screens.  Those cisterns could also be installed near the upper decks and grey water could gravity feed down the screen. The Solar panels likely could also power the pumps as well as the lighting, elevators and other electrical systems in the building.  

Of course the greater issue is I drove by myself to the parking garage rather than taking the T (Boston's subway and above ground train system)  I called my sister in law who told me there wasn't really a great way to catch a ride to the T off of Interstate 93 north of Boston with adequate long-term parking at the T station.  I could have planned a little more in advance and maybe I could of made this happen.  I'm sure I missed a golden opportunity to do so but I ran out time.  What I wish for is next time I come down, I can park at the Anderson Transportation Center off of 93 and ride a train in to Logan.  I can do this so easily in Chicago with the L and their larger regional trains out of the city core to O'Hare airport.  By riding the train from 15 miles outside the city I would have not added my car's exhaust to the mix of downtown drivers, diverting my ugly CO2 from the mix over the city.  

But, I'm psyched about seeing the roof top solar trackers though! However, if there is a next time for designing and building additional structures like this at Mass Port or other locations around the world I recommend:

• Ensuring flexibility for later deck additions by building into the design beefier structure and footings.
• Build actual living wall screening systems watered by gray water retention from roof top storm water run-off.  Not just on a few corners, but over substantial wall surface areas, imagine a "green ivy covered" parking structure?  Talk about branding and messaging green measures!
• Beef up the solar array coverage on the roof structure.  Why stop at 12% renewable needs?  
• Invest in more robust green ground cover at the base of structure rather than easy to maintain hard to look at stone rip rap.  Or at least up the ground cover plantings near parking structure corners and entry / exit locations where pedestrians and visitors frequent.
• Its unclear from the press release whether fly-ash was used in the concrete parking structure but it's certainly an option and resonates with the LEED System.

However, Great job in general and may this be just a beginning for MassPort's journey towards deeper sustainability efforts!  But, consider hardy travelers next time you fly in and out of Logan seek alternatives such as taking the train or buses into the airport rather than even parking here.  

Collaborative Consumption, A third way out of over consumption?

Watch Rachel speak about Collaborative Consumption and the potential power to transform our everyday excess capacity of the stuff which surrounds us, our skills laying dormant with the powerful forces of sharing and trust building.  My family and I are ideal candidates for this game changing shift in thinking...  "What's mine is yours, what's yours is mine".  You probably are too!  Take 15 minutes, watch and shift your thinking!

I first heard about this on Treehugger radio on a podcast a few months ago and have enjoyed replaying it often.  The concept stuck in my head so solidly I mentally noted to check out www.collaborativeconsumption.org later and learn more.  Go there and see for your self.  It's genuinely heartwarming stuff.

There's a book you can buy or seek out in your community to read about Collaborative Consumption movement in detail.  It operates like a library book.  There's a library card in it which shows the path of those who've read it and passed it on to others to read.  If there's anyone in central Vermont who has a copy to lend please let me know.  I would like to read it and pass it on.  Meanwhile, enjoy Rachel's presentation!

After you've watched tell me what do you think?  Have you read the book yet? Do you have anything you'd like to share in your garage?  Would you do this in your community?  Share your thoughts with dc and other readers.  Don't be bashful.  It would be delightful to hear from you.

Reusing Keurig Single Serve K-Cups, A solution at last! And an innovation opportunity for GMCR!

Intrepid design innovators check out Kbrewlids a company which can help us all love coffee and the Keurig single brew system that much more.  Thanks Plasticless.com for blogging about this first.  See their blog post. Check out the end of this post for a crazy innovative idea I have about bringing a lifecycle process and mentality to the K-Cup Single Brewing System and the customer user experience.

Over Three Billion K-Cups in the Environment Next Year?  
At this point you've seen them used in offices, grocery stores and at home.  Next year Green Mountain Coffee Roasters will make another gazillion of them, actually about three (3) billion K-Cups.  Based on 4th quarter sales of +/- 800 million units.  which are responsible for 90% of GMCR's profits. You know you can't recycle plastic K-cups don't you? At least most of them.  For the plastic ones there's not a recycling solution  as of yet. Presently this is not good for landfills and our environment.

Maybe you use the Keurig system at home.  (over 6% of you do these days in the US!) The food matter and plastic material used after a brew aren't compatible with recycling centers apparently, nor are they fully and truly compostable (yet!).  At least as a stop-gap measure, now you can take matters in your own hands literally and repack your k-cups yourself with the coffee you love most using the reusable metal foil lid.  One very bright spot is the debut of paper based delivery cups for the Celestial Seasooning GPublish Postreen Tea released earlier this fall.  Perhaps it's the shape of things to come.  But for now the vast majority of their product is made of plastic which is why reusing them with lids from companies like Krewlids is an interesting alternative to tossing them in the garbage.

It's an interesting idea.  However, you can also use the Keurig reusable cup as well, it's called My K-Cup and it's available for $17.95 from Keurig.  The reality of packing your own is you actually have to handle coffee.  Remember when you used to pour coffee grounds into white coffee filters after you ground up your coffee beans?

You can go down memory lane and recreate that experience every day and get a little closer to your food and its production.  Nothing is better than the smell of fresh ground coffee beans.  It's what I remember most fondly about the original Green Mountain Coffee Roasters retail coffee shops around Vermont where I grew up as a kid.  The sounds and smell of freshly roasted and ground coffee.  Wow!  It was dark and majestic in its olfactory wonder! But maybe not realistic to fully return to.  But it was a lot of work and it took time.

The Challenges of Convenience
Perhaps what's most unique about the Keurig Single cup brewing systems is how easy it is to use them and their overall convenience.   Like anything in life there's something gained and something lost with the onset of technological progress and convenience.  In our time starved world your  schedule wins in the ease of how well you make coffee one cup at a time.  You lose with not seeing, feeling the reality of interacting with your food and the time it takes to make a good cup of joe.  Losing sight of where your food comes from lessens ultimately our humanity I think.  Our environment ultimately loses with the burden of all that plastic sitting in landfills.

Inventing a Lifecycle Process
I wonder if GMCR could buy Kbrewlids.com or companies like this and bring this sort of idea into their product lifecycle?  Building on that, I have a design and production challenge for GMCR product development specialists and marketers, why not borrow from the Netflix DVD play and return "playbook" and enhance the Keurig Single Serve user experience by designing a continuous loop into the buying, recycling and reusing process?  Customer loyalty and excitement is a key ingredient of why GMCR is so successful already and this would build upon that sustainability platform reinforcing positive good for the environment behavior.

If you want to pull those three billion plus K-cups out of the waste stream, why not develop a system developing beautiful and durable reusable k-cup box packaging with return shipping paid for by GMCR to make it easy to send your empty K-cups back to a regional manufacturing facility?  There they could be reprocessed and sent to factories for reuse in the manufacturing process with the K-cups given a second, third and even more lease on life?  Maybe if landfills charged for K-Cup disposal this would add incentive to shifting consumer and corporate behavior towards reuse.

Implementation of a Lifecycle Process
It could be built into the pricing.  Already, we're paying a premium for our pre-packaged K-cups.  Trust me you don't want to compare the cost per serving of traditional coffee brewed from a pot and K-cups.  K-cups are maybe competitive with buying coffee at coffee houses on the way to and from work, but not with brewing coffee at home.

While, you're paying a lot for the convenience already, the hidden costs are the elephant in the room.  The hidden environmental costs of having all of that waste plastic around afterwards for generations and the petroleum it takes to make them in the beginning is an aspect not often discussed.  Imagine trying to calculate the physical volume of the 3 billion estimated K-Cups to be produced next year and the impact on the environment, landfills and the amount of Oil?  Given how much air there would be between each piled K-Cup a cubic foot of them wouldn't contain as many as you might think.  It can't be good.

I know this lifecyle idea would add tons of complication to manufacturing and processing, reprocessing and maybe it's an impossible business idea.  But why not try?  We would only all benefit?  Not only now but for generations to come.  We're used to sending our DVD's back to Netflix or at least we did until we jumped onto the streaming Netflix bandwagon.  You can't stream coffee like you can video....at least not yet.  Another example is Toner exchange at your place of business.  It was inconceivable a generation ago but here we are doing this.

With all challenges there are opportunities to innovate  
Here it would be inventing and investing into an reuse and recycling infrastructure.  But given the market strength of Coffee Roasters I bet there would be any number of smaller companies and vendors willing to develop and provide these kind of services and help move along this reuse process.  I think GMCR has everything thing to gain and nothing really to lose in the trying.  It's either this sort of idea or figuring out how to make the cups fully compost-able and/ or recyclable.  I'm not sure which is easier.

Even if this kind of idea didn't work out I bet some other user experience innovations would result we can't even imagine!  I know it's a well overused cliche but we've figured out how to go to the moon, we can figure out to create an effective and competitive K-Cup lifecycle loop and make it a win win for all!  I want to continue to love GMCR for what it does best, make great sustainable coffee products.

In the meanwhile, using reusable lids seems like a great first step.  If I were GMCR I would figure out how to do this well and bring it into the product family.  Or other outside companies will on their behalf.  That would be a lot of coffee and market share not made by Coffeeroasters and their affiliated companies in the not to distant future.  Simultaneously I'd suggest working really hard  to roll-out the paper based (hopefully) compostable K-Cups.  It's great to start with Green Tea but let's see them used with Coffee.

I think it's a better business choice to innovate and create new markets and services while strengthening sales and reinforcing sustainable behaviors.

Harder Working Homes - Some 2011 Home Design Trends

What does next year hold for homeowners, residential building and design professionals? Well there's good news for the remodeling side of the equation.  Not so good news yet for new residential construction of various kinds. However, in general, smaller is better with a strong focus on green and sustainable design features with better organized , downsized spaces.  Excessive square footages and volumes are diminishiing in importance, replaced with a focus on pragmatism and quality.

In a press release sent out today, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Joint Center for Housing Studies (www.jchs.harvard.edu) predicts "substantive growth in remodeling spending, coming off of a three decline, seems likely according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released today by the Remodeling Futures Program."

The indicator "estimates current quarterly and future home expenditures by homeowners."  Kermit Baker, the JCHS program director is also the AIA Chief Economist who assembles quarterly reports on the residential design and construction industry.  The AIA's recent reports also reinforce the growth in remodeling.  See the referenced AIA graph indicating how remodeling in general is strongest  out of all the residential categories tracked.  Among them remodeling kitchens and baths outpace other aspects of remodeling and alterations while other types of new residential construction countrywide remain in the negative.

Harder working homes

Homes are working harder than ever before.  With so many people going through work/life transitions, going back to school, the home office has become the most important special space followed by outdoor areas like porches, terraces and outdoor rooms, then mudrooms.  Home offices and expanded flexible use outdoor

Green Innovation - Look to Existing Technologies, Products & Services

Innovating Green

Stream - Rumney, Vermont. 2010

I was reading the HBR blog, The Conversation this morning and found a great post, "A New Approach to Green Tech Opportunities".  The authors Marc Gruber, James Thompson, and Ian MacMillan offer a surprisingly simple yet powerful suggestion for companies and entrepreneurs seeking to come into the "Green Space".  They suggest instead of spending untold resources on R&D on innovating new ideas, products services look first at what your company is already doing for kernels of possibilities.  "Our studies of several hundred technological innovations tell us that we can benefit hugely if we stop equating innovation with new R&D effort, and instead revisit the buried potential of already existing technologies. "

So examine fallow technologies that perhaps dormant now could with a little brainstorming and outside-the-box thinking, be reapplied in an environmentally beneficial manner, helping both your bottom line and be a positive contribution to the sustainability conversation. If you think about it, following this course also conserves resources beyond the time and money already invested in past offerings.  

Cape Wind Gets Approval from the Federal Government

I read today in my local paper the Cape Wind Project gained approval from the Feds to proceed off Cape Cod. I understand there was immediate threats of lawsuits and further action. I hope this gets sorted out and this project can proceed. My guess, if this can happen, it will be helpful for other projects where clean energy, aesthetics, passion and a myriad of other issues come together. Of course, as they say in tight competitons, it's not over until it's over. Read more about it at CNET. Let me know what you think about this decision. See also the newscast found on YouTube.

It resonates close to home for me as I live in Vermont amidst a beautiful, scenic landscape with many oppourtunities for wind and solar energy and lots of challenges as well. All I want is to retain the historic, quirky character of this wonderful state while keeping our eyes and minds open to the realities of needing to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels and see alternatives in the clean energy economy. I'm not sure how to get it done but examples like Cape Wind at least offers hope the conversation is continuing to the next step. This I believe benefits us all.

Getting to Zero: Aspiring to the Zero Energy Home

Going into the new year I'm naturally in a reflective mood. What can I do to impact the greater world as we head into the unknown promise and potential of a new year? Sharing ideas which matter is a place to start!

What if more Zero Energy Homes became more prevalent in the coming year? What's a Zero Energy Home you ask? It is a home which produces the same or more energy than it uses over the course of a year. The specific design and make up of the Zero Energy Home adapts to its regional and micro-climate, siting and the needs and budget of individual homeowners. There is no single solution but rather a common approach to design which starts with shifting behaviors and motivations of all those involved.

A Zero Energy Home is valuable for a number of reasons. It can be an extremely comfortable, healthy and pleasant place to live. It can be carbon-neutral and good for the environment. It also can deliver future energy cost predictability by committing to upfront investments in a super-insulated building envelope, high performance internal heating / cooling systems, renewable energy sources, energy star appliances, lighting and healthy interior materials/ furnishings. As we head into the new year we don't know what our energy costs will be going forward but know intuitively they will continue to escalate with fossil fuel scarcity and growing demand. (See IHS Data, DOE calculator). There will be no magic energy solution I believe. Just hard slogging...

Thus, Zero Energy Homes can form part of the solution going forward, reshaping how we think about our homes into long-term investments which steady-state our energy costs into the future. Their lighter footprint on the earth and in our communities can only be an asset to strengthening them.

How and where does one start?

Read as much as you can: Visit informative web-sites such as....

• Building Science Corporation and it's information on Low-Energy Buildings.
• The Dept. of Energy's Building America website and it's Building Technologies Program has superb and accessible Builder's Guides which are organized by regional climatic zones.
• National Home Builders Toolbase site and it's Seven Steps to a Zero Energy Home.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory and it's insulation fact sheet. It's a little clunky but useful.

Hire and Organize a Great Integrated Design Team: Contact your local American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Homebuilder's Organizations and look for standout professionals who have experience designing and building low-energy use and/or zero energy homes. They can assist you in early stages of site selection, construction strategies and project delivery methods which best adapt to your needs, budget and schedule. Depending on your project's complexity and your goals your Architect may suggest hiring an Energy Consultant and other specialized sub-consultants/ team-mates to really look at your needs and help optimize building envelope, heating-cooling systems, lighting, building controls and interior design.

Be Prepared to Learn and Grow Over the Course of Your Project: It's a journey with lots of learning along the way and exposure to new ideas and concepts. With the right team, it will be an enjoyable and never dull experience!

Investing in the Future: Remember, you're doing something which will benefit generations to come by looking beyond the present!

Happy New Year!

What I want for the New Year: "The Green Workplace", Leigh Stringer's new book

Two Greenbuild's ago in Boston in November 2008, I saw Leigh Stringer, the Author of "The Green Workplace: Sustainable Strategies that benefit employees, The Environment, and the Bottom Line." who participated in a social media oriented seminar with other green luminaries of the blogosphere. I blogged about it in November of 2008. It was a fascinating session.

Last August her book named after the blog she originated and oversees became available. It's what I want going into the New Year. Apparently The Green Workplace Blog provides much of the material she and others cultivated there into a transformative book about the ins and outs of greening your workplace. Reading reviews of it on Amazon indicates usefulness to workplace sustainability managers, human resource personnel, designers of all kinds among others.

I'm going to sample some of the review words and phrases I saw there to tantalize.

------------

"alternative work options"

"replacing destructive behaviors"

"a good compilation of the issues facing corporations today"

"help(s) businesses improve their ecological footprints"

"(the book) informs, educates and inspires..."

"illuminating, accessible, and comprehensive"

What I'd like to know is how others who have read the book used it in their workplace design and sustainability efforts in the last couple of months? What effects do resources like this have on workplace culture and facilities management, design process, materials selections and operational effects, user satisfaction etc.? What kinds of changes has this inspired for others? Do people who bought the book use the blog and vice versa? At Maclay Architects we're always on the look out for inspiring ideas to help us with our work with our environmentally and socially conscious clients and partners.

Of course, I've got to go read the book and I'll let you know how it folds into our work and design process as well.

In the meantime, tell me how this book has affected you. Or, if you have other books or articles you suggest I take a look at and perhaps share with others, please let me know. I'm happy to take a look. 

Interested in learning more? 

You can find us 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

Green Headquarters Delivers 375% ROI for SAS Canada

I read today in the second digital edition of HQ, a collaboration between McGraw-Hill and Architectural Record some interesting articles. One article on HQ was about how SAS Canada's headquarters which turned four recently has been a very good financial investment and on other levels too.

Please see the link to the article originally published on Canada Newswire. Please comment!

I'm always on the hunt for information about the effectiveness of green building and sustainability on workplace design / business performance.

Here's also a link to a digital version of the first inaugural issue as well.

Dan Reicher from Google Spoke at Yestermorrow

Last night I attended Dan Reicher's illuminating lecture at the Yestermorrow Design Build School in Warren. He spoke to a overflow crowd of summer program students, area professionals and interested public. He was there as part of Yestermorrow's weekly lecture series.

As director of Energy and Climate Initiatives at Google, former Assistant Secretary of Energy under the Clinton Administration and team member on the Obama transition team he offered a wide ranging yet extremely well-informed discussion of global energy issues, how they're connected to our local context in Vermont (He used to live in the Mad River Valley) and how Google intersects with them. He participated on helping originate key ideas in the Economic Stimulus Package pertaining to Energy and spoke also about the Climate legislation before congress right now.

He had some interesting quotes for slides, one of them from Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel who said, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste". He spoke to the potential for rapid transformation and change given our current systemic economic problems and how the economic stimulus package provides dramatic opportunities and funding sources to drive energy conservation and efficiency R&D to examine alternative and promising energy fuel options. What's interesting I think is how subtle and imperceptible stimulus related change is to us in Vermont. What we see is heightened activity on our local roads and highways and read about awards of grants and programs to non-profits in affordable housing, agricultural economy and health centers among a few examples. Dan spoke how the arrival of the Obama Administration really is changing the energy policy game in Washington. Their arrival and focus on these issues has released eight years of pent-up demand where alternative energy sources, energy efficiency and other key factors were routinely level funded and poorly supported by the former administration. Things really are different now and it's evident from where he sits.

As Director of energy and climate initiatives at Google, Dan is participating and shepherding some interesting projects along. One project relates to plug-in electric hybrids. He discussed Google's plug-in electric car initiatives where they modified Toyota Prius' aftermarket with additional batteries and installed plug in stations at 'Googleplex'. They made the cars readily available to staff to use as they wish. The gas mileage results were astounding for typical everyday driving at 93 MPG (Done by professionally trained drivers to model typical behavior) Googlers got 73 MPG in average googleplex short trips of 1-2 miles per day. Google envisions in 10 to 15 years possibly millions of such vehicles on the roads. Along the way, battery and electric charging technologies will in his mind no doubt improve.

He also spoke about Enhanced Geothermal Systems which I'd never heard of before. This is the kind of system which takes advantage of the earth's natural heat well below the earth's crust, kilometers below the surface. Water is pumped into the wells and run into the hot areas below and channeled back to the surface to produce electricity. He showed slides displaying the Geothermal energy potential in the U.S. at 3KM, 5KM and 10 KM below the surface. It's a promising technology getting lots of publicity and funding right now. Some issues though were enhanced seismicity (meaning prevalence for earthquakes) related to drilling deep wells although he said this is similar to oil and natural gas drilling where similar issues exist.

An over-arching theme emerged from this where he said virtually in any emerging and existing energy technology there are environmental and societal downsides which must be carefully considered. This is a pervasive theme and it's up to society and political systems to debate together the cost-benefit equations to determine the contingent 'right' answers. He did argue which ever alternative technologies are successful they would be working together and there was no magic new single transformation technology out there. No matter if it's wind, solar, enhanced geothermal, wave energy, traditional oil and gas extraction, bio-mass or cellulose fuel sources there are down-sides in to all of them. He share an anecdote about how public opinion is fickle in regards to this. He reminded us about the recent devastation near a coal plant where coal sludge literally despoiled an entire valley down south last summer and how public opinion didn't seem to get ruffled. This is in comparison to the passionate debate about Nuclear Energy and nuclear power plants and fear of plant accidents. You have two kinds of technologies both effecting the environment and people potentially disastrously with inconsistent concern and fears.

He spoke about the promise and obstacles facing deployment of industrial scale renew ables and plugging them into the smart grid. The biggest issue he said the smart grid effort faces is getting power lines to hook into future and existing generation sites. The permitting and entitlement process for power-lines is lengthy and potentially slowing of the roll-out of large scale generation. The other side to the equation is in the meanwhile, micro-grid power generation such as residential and small scale wind, solar, geothermal are very easy to deploy and likely will find success in the market place simultaneously to the slower development of the smart-grid and power transmission. Thus for all of us here in Vermont and elsewhere committed to small scale projects this is a great sign of promising times ahead.

The last thing I want to mention which was important I think to me and perhaps most importantly is Energy use of Google search at data centers behind our everyday searches. Dan mentioned how the search marketplace is extremely competitive and aware of its energy footprint and that great strides have been made to dramatically reduce power usage levels at Data Centers both at Google and with other search providers. He emphasized how Google really is focused here and as well, more importantly he hopes, on the bigger energy picture. He tried to convey how Google is committed to being involved in large scale energy related projects going forward. I think he did that very well.

Thanks Dan and Yestermorrow for a fascinating looking into global and local energy issues!

(I included an image from Google's 2006 Earthday logo to spice up the post)

World 2.0 - Emerging Work Strategies Changing the Workplace

How to cope in today's changed marketplace? What kinds of choices may company executives make in today's harsh economic climate to help lower business costs? Can green and sustainability principles be of help for companies seeking to regenerate themselves? Steelcase's Workplace Futures Group headquartered in Grand Rapids just recently produced a fascinating Deep Dive 360 for June, How Emerging Work Strategies are Changing the Workplace: Telecommuting was just the beginning.

Here's are two lists from the Study. They summarize data gained from a joint Steelcase and CoreNet Global 2009 Sate of the Industry Report, March 31, 2009. So the data is fairly fresh and perhaps helpful. It certainly identifies the kinds of choices and behaviors organizations have made in the last year or so as the economy melted down. However, many are short sighted stop gap measures, and do not offer healthy sustainable long-term choices.

HOW COMPANIES ARE CUTTING PROPERTY COSTS

1. Redesign office space to increase density


2. Deferment of capital projects / Expansion plans


3. Implement telework programs


4. Accelerate projects that reduce ongoing expenses


5. Restructure leases


6. Shift work to lower cost locations


7. Move to lower cost facilities


8. Cancel capital projects / expansion plans


9. Reduce / Defer maintenance


10. Sale of owned properties


11. Exercise early termination options in leases
    

ALTERNATIVE WORK STRATEGIES IN USE, RANKED BY POPULARITY OF USE.

1. Telework or telecommuting in which an employee works from home, substituting telecommunications for the commute to work.


2. Mobile work, a work style in which a person consistently uses multiple spaces, both inside and out of the office, to accomplish his/her work.


3. Hotelling temporary workspaces assigned through a reservation system; typically used by mobile workers but also used by any worker not near his/her assigned workstation.


4. Home office used as an alternative location to the primary office. Employees may work from home on a set schedule or on an as-needed basis.


5. Satellite offices which are smaller spaces located in areas closer to employee’s homes for greater convenience.

Does any of this help you and your company? Are you and your team exploring other strategies which are working for you? What are they? Largely absent are longer term Green Workplace Strategies and a Triple Bottom Lined approaches putting People, Planet and Profits into the overall space strategy equation.

Greening Fast Food Resturants

GREEN FAST FOOD!

Sometimes reading and thinking about one subject leads into more articles and helpful information. Ecostructure a leading magazine on ecologically oriented design and sustainability has an article about trends in greening fast food restaurants around the nation. It was written by KJ Fields, titled a New Order: Fast Food Restaurants offer a range of sustainable features. It covers a trend among national fast food chain operations to move to greening the stores and operations. It's a beginning perhaps of a sea-change I hope. Imagine the energy savings and reduction of green house gases and positive effect on consumers if more retailers followed suit.

There are USGBC programs such as LEED for Retail which might also be of interest for others. See the links above.

Learning from the Gecko's Tail_Nature & Biomimicry

I was driving in today and was listening to this fascinating Podcast by Richard Full: Learning from the Gecko's Tail featured recently on Ted Talks. It offers a great example of applying the power of nature and natural approaches to design thinking to challenges we face, such as how to climb up walls like Gecko's. Can we do it? We sure can. Watch and see how.

Another site which is relevant is Ask Nature.Org which is a more general site tapping into this which offers a broad range of tools and resources to pursue further.

What lies beyond Corporate Responsibility

I was reading Jeffery Hollendar's Inspired Protagonist which I've been following for a while now and he was speaking about what's "Beyond Corporate Responsibility". The business world as we knew it a year ago has dramatically shifted. Different values have become apparent as old ways fall away replaced by new understandings and recognition of their inadequacy. There is an urgency to really take care of People and the Planet. They're both hurting. By helping to make a difference in those two areas it becomes Profitable, albeit broadly interpreted as so.

My take on what he was sharing was it's critical to embed corporate responsibility into the DNA of your organization not because it's a trendy idea but it truly offers a path to positively impact your consumers, customers, stakeholders and world at large. He shares examples of the business case for doing so which seem pretty clear and grounded in performance data.

I also believe as he does and others like him it's better to conduct business based on a corporate responsible values driven model with utmost sincerity and a view to the impact on generations to follow. Doing so comforts my anxiety about the kind of world I'm helping to create in my business interactions in architectural design and planning and what legacy I'm leaving behind for my children and theirs to follow.

On Father's Day Barack Obama so eloquently described the importance of setting high expectations as parents for our children by being role models of that excellence. So goes the idea Jeffery discusses in his blog post. We have so much more to do and so far to go with our efforts in corporate responsibility and the idea of doing well by doing good. This goodness is difficult; this thinking of the greater good rather than the needs of the individual. While it's hard, it's also very mature. In a way, maybe that's what he's speaking to. The corporate responsibility movement on one hand is maturing, plateauing even, in transition into something else.

Perhaps as a younger person, I am part of the crew of folks who need to work on their actions and behaviors of goodness and build this philosophy as insperably as possible into the DNA of doing business. We must aspire to better our fathers and mothers, our elders who paved the way in corporate responsibility and social and envrionmental activism. It's a hard act to follow.

In his post, Jeffery describes ten steps to take which provide some very clear strategies to stay on target to serve the needs of the greater good and help mature our business processes and impact on our world. Consider them for your business. They may or may not all resonate with you, but some likely will. If you have others that do, please share with me. I'd like to learn about other approaches.

Helping Vermonters Get Ahead, Notes from the Stimulus Workshop

Design Cultivation sometimes needs to look at broader issues effecting the health and well being of the Design Professions. For my profession and the building industry in general this is the worst business cycle I have ever seen in my life.   Therefore writing about our current situation and highlighting areas of hope is essential.  I'm looking for information as much as anyone.  Here's a little bit of what I know and where to find it.

One such place to look was last Friday’s 3/6/9 (ARRA) Stimulus workshop at Champlain College in Burlington, VT.  For those of you whom couldn't attend I've included some information for you.  Please read one.  The half day long workshop reinforced how crucial cultivating strong relationships and networks really are.     

700 plus people from all areas of Vermont gathered to hear the latest information about the stimulus package and its implementation. The energy in the room was electric, filled with expectation, hope and confusion.  Senator Leahy, Governor Douglas and the President of Champlain Collage, Dave Finney all spoke.  Go to Leahy's site to see and hear his remarks. Ted Brady from Leahy's Vermont Office introduced everyone and kept the opening ceremony going.  As always, Vermont was out of the gate first in the nation, in true independent Yankee spirit, holding the first in the nation  workshop bringing together stakeholders to learn about the opportunities the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act presents to our beleaguered state.

All three joked in a positive way about the unlikely gathering of democrats, republicans and others together in one place.  They stressed the importance of reaching across the aisle and working together to improve Vermont's economic situation.  Leahy stated this is the worst economic crisis in a generation and possibly since the Great Depression.  He quoted the latest 8.2% US unemployment figures were the lowest in a generation, not seen since the dark days of 1983.  Of course, I was a Junior in High School in 1983.  I don't remember much except Reaganomics, freeing hostages from Iran and something called high inflation.  I think my parents were much more worried about all of that than I.  Now it's my turn!  

Strong state level coordination is absolutely necessary to leverage this short term infusions of funding for the benefit of generations to come.   Governor Douglas has appointed Tom Evslin to coordinate the Office of Economic Recovery for Vermont.  Perhaps he can pull together a talented team of Vermonters to keep all of these efforts on track.  They plus the team of non-partisan professionals heading the Joint Fiscal Committee working on behalf of the State Legislature have produced assessments and information I think very directly helpful to Vermonters.  I've linked their names to the web pages summarizing recently available information.  There's a summary of Vermont Fiscal Impacts which is especially useful.  Peter Welch's office also has some great summary information as well.  The User's Guide to Economic Recovery Resources is another important first step.  He and his staff have produced an interactive site helping Vermonters understand specific benefits of the program in a little bit more detail.  

For those unable to attend, Senator Leahy's Webpage Conference page has a direct links to pdf summary handouts identifying the key effects of the stimulus package (ARRA) both locally and federally.  These handouts also identify the names and phone numbers of the breakout session participants.  Please contact them with your questions.  While they may not have immediate answers. (regulations and procedures in many cases are being written as I write)  They will get back to you.  I've had good luck already with mine.

To see a list of all of the proposed projects on the table from Vermont's Municipalities you can see it at t'wo places which I recommend checking if you're curious.  Go to the Vermont League of Cities and Towns website for their information.  It was updated early last week.  The other location is found on the Office of Economic Stimulus and Recovery site under the Reports and Documents section. 

There are a variety of events listed on the their calendar which some appear to be web based while others are not.

I don't know if my firm will benefit directly and immediately from all of this activity but I am certain over the long term the people I'm meeting and programs I'm learning about will make a difference not only to the architectural office I work in but more importantly Montpelier where I live and the greater community of Central Vermont and beyond.    

I've already started to see evidence of funding happening in the affordable housing area and energy efficiency , Children and Crime sectors.  I am seeking  information about possible oppourtunities to respond to potential requests for proposals and qualitifications generated by Stimulus Funding for Architectural and Planning services where an eye to Green Design and Sustainable Planning are important to project successes.

If you have any questions or need resources please don't hesitate to email me here at DC or at work at steve@wmap-aia.com.  My work phone is 802-496-4004.  Comments and new information are welcome!

 

Kermit the Frog_It's not easy being Green

I was talking with my wife and I couldn't resist posting this video courtesy of youtube.

I threw away a bottle today I could've recycled and my wife caught me.  She accused me of being a lazy green guy.  She's right. It's not easy being green.

Please enjoy!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpiIWMWWVco&eurl=http://www.kosmix.com/topic/Kermit_the_frog

Ethical Underpinning in Green Design

I was reading my Greensource weekly newsletter email and it connected me to this inspiring and telling blog post from Greenbuilding Elements, called the 10 dumbest green buildings on earth.   The author, Adam Felsinger really socks it to you with examples which on their face value appear green, are green in fact with LEED accreditation etc., but if you just think a wee bit critically these projects are indeed laughable examples of Green building.  They may or may not be "greenwashing".  What it's called doesn't matter actually.  It's the first princpals behind the projects or lack there of which interest me.

 Of course a few examples hit close to home.  The basic idea is how "Green" can something be if the  fossil fuel usage overall premise for the project can't stand up, ie in the Green BP gas station nary a electric charging station car, sharing drop off point, proximity to a bus stop to be found.  It's his number 1 example.  But it's very cool and has nice stand-alone green features.

Looking at the big picture is critical to helping to validate green intentions.  For me it starts further back with looking at the ethics behind green initiatives and seening if a triple bottom lined approach is present in the conversation and decision making of those involved.  In 1994, this approach was developed by John Elkington and perhaps others before.  This model represents the interconnected aspects of our economies, environment and societies.  It's a vital place to begin conversations, and it's also a great mechanism to evaluate the integrity of greening efforts.

What do you think about this model as a foundation underneath green decision-making and green design?  Are there ways this can be used or is being used to support design conversations in their beginning stages? Great examples?  It seems this is what is missing in the 10 examples found in Adam's blog post.  There appear other, less positive motivations in play behind the projects.  Regardless, while there may be great intentions behind many of these projects, it's totally worth the  self-examination and questionning.  

If we don't ask these tough questions while we do our work with our customers and partners we collaborate with what are we leaving for the generations to follow us?