Environmentally Friendly WorldGBC International Congress

WorldGBC International Congress
The WorldGBC International Congress in July was "an unbelievable execution of a world class event with less than two months to prepare," as noted by WorldGBC Chair Kevin Hydes.

Kevin Hydes’ and that of the Clinton Climate Initiative’s Rob Bennett were two of the many important presentations from the Congress that were reported in my recent www.iGreenBuild.com article.

Kevin Hydes later issued a call to action in his thank-you message to participants:
"These are unusual times as our earth suffers the stress of a century of abuse. Our organization needs to find unique solutions to meet our destiny and create the real impact on carbon reduction that the planet needs for its survival."

It is a call to action for us all.

Green Building Thought For The Weekend

Are you going green this weekend? Home improvement project? Yard work? Vacation? Whatever you do this Saturday and Sunday and whether you are eco friendly or not, pick up a piece of trash from your local park or beach, buy a green friendly product for your house improvement project or turn the lights off in the five star resort room you are sleeping in (before you grab a cool drink by the pool!).

I'm going surfing now and will no doubt have a handful of plastic and paper on my way back from the Pacific.

Cheers....Matt

What Will Create Positive Change In Green Building?

What are the weak signals that could spur momentous changes in the green building world? Here are a few that occur to Jerry Yudelson of Yudelson Consulting and iGreenBuild.com's Sr. Editor.

1. The trend in venture capital to focus on renewable energy, carbon mitigation and energy efficiency technologies (these grabbed almost 10 percent of all new venture money last year). This could mean that concept-busting innovations might be coming a lot sooner than you think. Consider solar powered roofing systems that deliver electricity at 10 cents or less per kilowatt-hour and what that could do to building design and zero-net-energy homes and buildings.


2. The availability of software, sensors and intelligent networks that make buildings so smart they can identify their problems and come up with fixes, so that we can achieve these 50 to 90 percent reductions in energy use that are part of every scenario for controlling global warming.


3. The continuing trend to cheapen and miniaturize communications technologies, along with an increasingly mobile workforce, means that we can make buildings half the size we think we need and still accommodate workforce and productivity needs.


4. LED lighting is moving rapidly to replace even compact fluorescents, with half the power consumption. This will allow the further downsizing of mechanical HVAC systems, opening the way for new HVAC technologies to serve buildings' needs.


5. Nano-technologies will revolutionize every aspect of building technology, from self-cleaning windows (no more guys suddenly materializing outside your windows ladies, watching you put on makeup at 10 a.m. in your office!), to self-cleaning façades, windows with R-10 values (instead of R-2 now), wall paints that insulate and so on.


6. Building information modeling that will enable integrated design to happen in real time, so that you could know the energy use of every possible building design change in minutes, instead of weeks.

New Issue Of The iGreenBuild.com Newsletter Is Published

We're done clicking, typing, copying and pasting and the latest issue of iGreenBuild.com has been published to our green building and eco friendly subscribers. if you haven't received it or simply don't have a subscription you can sign up for it here.

This issue covers a number of sustainable building and environmentally friendly living topics. We've published articles about Live Earth, the 2007 International Green Building Conference, building green for less, Project Frog high performance modular schools, green cleaning, news and more.

National Wildlife Federation Talks Global Warming With Students

ClimateClassroom.org helps educate children about global climate change in accurate, developmentally appropriate, and hopeful ways. Sections designed for parents and K-12 educators provide talking points, attractive visuals, instructional guidelines, and helpful resource links for investigating the topic with children. An additional section for school-age children offers quality learning experiences and realistic suggestions for becoming part of the global-warming solution.

Visit www.ClimateClassroom.org

Solar Legislation Needs Your Support

From Aaron Hall of Borrego Solar Systems

I sent out an email a couple of days ago encouraging you to support legislation that will increase the fuel economy standards and set a minimum target of renewable energy production.
This email is specifically for solar and deals with the most important legislation for solar in our country's history. Together our support brought on state legislation, now we can help the entire nation!

Specifically the bill contains the following provisions for solar:
Eight year extension of the 30% commercial solar tax credits (Section 48)
Removal of the $2,000 cap on the residential tax credits
Ability to take the tax credits against the alternative minimum tax

What I am urging you to do is to contact your congressional rep and let him or her know that you feel it is paramount that this legislation passes in order to ensure long term success of the solar industry in our country, which will result in solar power being competitive with fossil fuels, even when you don't take in to account all of the external costs of these conventional energies associated with wars, climate change, dependence on foreign energy, pollution, etc. If you are in the solar industry, let them know and remind them of the jobs that solar creates in their area.

To find contact info for your congressional rep, enter your zip code here. Then go ahead and call him/her. It helps! If you are so inclined, send them a fax as well. My congressman Duncan Hunter (East San Diego) currently is not on board so he especially needs some encouragement from his constituents.The vote will take place very soon, potentially today or tomorrow.
Thanks!

The bill# is HR2776

What's In The Latest GreenSage?

I just received the latest issue of GreenSage and recommend you do the same. GreenSage is one of the original online sources for 'Green' information, products and services and their eNewsletter is just a tease for the green building product information on their web site.

Here's what I found in this weeks issue:

1. Water water every where
2. Wind Power 2007
3. Fuelin' Woes
4. New Evidence in War on Toxins
5. Compare Green Vegetative Roofs With Conventional

Visit www.greensage.com and sign up for this publication today.

Green Building Experts Syndicate

iGreenBuild.com has a new way for green building enthusiasts, eco friendly people, architects, contractors and other professionals to receive timely information about sustainable building practices and environmentally conscious building products right on their desktop, within their browser or by email. Call it really simple syndication or RSS, click on a simple link and you are on your way to becoming really knowledgeable about environmentally friendly building.

"At first I was puzzled with the RSS concept but the further I read about this method of sending readers our content the easier the implementation on our web sites and blogs got, " said Matt Banes iGreenBuild's founder.

"It took me one minute to subscribe to our blog GreenCentric.com and now I can see any editorial updates to that blog right in my Google browser," commented Elizabeth Crane, one of iGreenBuild.com's editors.

Subscribing to an RSS feed involves very little. In fact, once you subscribe it's almost magic how the information you want starts appearing in a small window in your browser or, for those of you tech-savvy followers, right in your custom RSS reader. It's like having a ticker or small TV on your desktop.

Visit www.iGreenBuild.blogspot.com or www.GreenCentric.com and look to the upper right corner of these pages. You have an option to receive updates via email or enable the feed for your browser. iGreenBuild.com and its parent company GBM Marketing, Inc. plan on syndicating each of the firms twelve blogs and four web sites in the near future.

Green Building For Renovation Projects Is A Challenge

While it is increasingly true that buildings being built now are incorporating ecologically friendly aspects into their buildings, the problem of how to "green" existing buildings remains.

In Canada, 90 percent of buildings are existing properties (the other 10 percent are new construction). Given the enormous concerns about GHG emissions and energy consumption related to climate change, as well as the logic of using green building measures like daylighting to reduce employee costs via productivity gains, it is vital to find a way to green existing buildings which bypasses some of the major challenges.

Read the full article from Green Syndicated Columnist Sonja Persram here.

Hawaii Department Of Education Goes Green

The U.S. Green Building Council presented the Hawaii State Department of Education with its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification award for the DOE's innovative "green design" of the Waipahu Intermediate School cafeteria. The LEED award was presented at the school.

The cafeteria is only the sixth LEED-certified project in Hawaii and the first DOE project of its kind. The LEED rating system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council and is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings.

Primary sustainable achievements and design features of the cafeteria include: 100 percent daylighting of the dining area; 65 percent reduction in irrigation water consumption; and effective natural ventilation. The school saves $3,000 per year due to a 15 percent reduction in annual energy consumption. Construction used locally manufactured materials and materials with recycled content, and 88 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills.

"The Waipahu Intermediate cafeteria will be our LEED model for future public schools built in our state," said Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto. "Our department worked diligently to attain LEED certification and we are proud of this major facilities milestone."

Ferraro Choi and Associates, Ltd., designed the 19,175-square-foot cafeteria, and Okada Trucking Co., Ltd., was the general contractor. The facility was completed in April 2006 and can accommodate 750 students during each meal shift. Total design and construction costs were approximately $5.8 million.

New schools and facilities will follow Waipahu Intermediate's "LEED." House Bill 2175 HD2 SD1 CD1, passed by the 2006 Hawaii State Legislature and signed into law as Act 96, directs all state agencies to implement energy efficiency and environmental standards such as LEED for new state facilities. For example, upcoming schools such as Ewa Makai Middle and Wailuku II Elementary will be seeking LEED certification.