San Francisco Green Building

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is really taking off in San Francisco because construction has to do it (which is awesome). San Fran is definitely LEEDing the way and a great opportunity once I'm finished with the next six months of interning... hooray!

Here is the first paragraph to just give you an idea of the new policy adoption:

"Ordinance amending the San Francisco Building Code by adding Chapter 13C to impose green building requirements on newly constructed residential buildings, newly constructed commercial buildings that are 5,000 gross square feet or more, alterations to new or existing commercial interiors that are 25,000 gross square feet or more in area, and major alterations to existing buildings that are 25,000 gross square feet or more in area, where interior finishes are removed and significant upgrades to structural and mechanical, electrical and/or plumbing systems are proposed; exempting City projects, which are covered by Chapter 7 of the San Francisco Environment Code; providing that the requirements become effective 90 days after enactment of the ordinance and increase over the following five-year period; adopting findings, including environmental findings and findings required by California Health and Safety Code Section 17958.5."

Read the rest here. Building codes can be interesting!

Deconstruction

This 7 page New York Times article is very informative of the situation occurring now. It's about the battle between actual deconstructing and demolition. Here are the important parts I want to remember:

“Guy estimates that maybe as few as 300 homes were fully deconstructed in America last year.”

"A quarter of a million homes are demolished annually, according to the E.P.A., liberating some 1.2 billion board feet of reusable lumber alone. For the most part, this wood has been trucked out to a landfill and buried. Remodeling actually ends up generating more than one and a half times the amount of debris every year that demolishing homes does. (America generates a total of 160 million tons of construction and demolition debris every year, 60 percent of which is landfilled.) The Stanford archaeologist William Rathje, who spent decades excavating landfills, has estimated that construction and demolition debris, together with paper, account for “well over half” of what America throws out. He called it one of a few “big-ticket items” in the waste stream actually worthy of the debates we have over merely “symbolic targets” like disposable diapers."

"At the same time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, new construction consumes 60 percent of all materials used in the nation’s economy every year, excluding food and fuel."

"Building owners who choose deconstruction can, however, very regularly make up the difference in costs by donating the salvaged materials to one of more than 900 nonprofit, secondhand building-supply stores across the country, like Habitat for Humanity’s ReStores. Owners then take a federal tax deduction for their value. One of Guy’s first projects showed that after that tax deduction the average cost of deconstructing six homes around Gainesville, Fla., was 37 percent less than the average cost of demolition. On one house, deconstruction beat demolition by $8,000."

"The demolition industry has identified 14 recyclable building materials, he told me, but it only recycles three in any real volume: concrete, metal and wood."

"Jeff Byles notes that up to this point there was a lucrative-enough salvage market in place that wreckers regularly paid building owners, not the other way around. By 1930, however, the industry titan Albert Volk’s men no longer had the time for cleaning and reselling bricks. Bathtubs that used to resell for $25 each, Volk said, were now being smashed up and sent “sail[ing] out through the Narrows on Father Knickerbocker’s trash-carrying scows to find a well-earned rest at the bottom of the sea.”

"Two changes had happened simultaneously: wreckers were replaced by machines, and builders were reduced to cogs in one. The modern house is now made of stuff less worth saving and torn down in a way that makes saving it a hassle."

“The only constant is change,” Guy told me. Cities sprawl and contract. Old structures are torn down to clear space for modern ones. The average American moves more than 11 times in a lifetime. The average American house is only 32 years old, Guy said. “Clearly there are a whole bunch of things we should be doing better,” he said. “The bottom line is, we demolish the hell out of our country.”

"hand-disassembling 60 percent of a typical house cost virtually the same amount as dumping that same portion of it into a landfill. The value of the salvaged goods you ended up with would be almost pure profit."

“Deconstruction is the right way to go. It does, however, have to become more efficient and cost-effective” if it is going to join demolition as “the way we do business.” And there, really, was deconstruction’s quandary: things that don’t work yet rarely get institutionalized.

How to Save Energy for Free

Browsing today something really hit me when I read this article. The implications of this program really have me thinking more and more. This really is a win-win situation, which is the goal.

Building in Europe

This article goes to show the next wave once we get through the financial housing woes. This also leads me to thinking about the countries mentioned in it... and the opportunities there (especially in the window industry).

Europe has the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive
Maybe my dream of moving to Europe and having a career do not seem as far fetched...

Britain has a Code for Sustainable Homes as well.

California is paving the way with their Green Building Initiative as well.

Germany is leading the way with Passivhaus or Passive House.

This is only a glimpse at the world phenomenon happening and these are very exciting times. Hope more articles like this come my way!

The Big Carrot

My favorite definition of economics is that it is the study of incentives. I'm fascinated by incentives that go beyond money, but reading this Economist article about the X Prize had me thinking about the subject. A prize of 10 million for a car that runs 100 miles a gallon and road friendly is quite the task. Just to show the magnitude of one question, maybe the biggest is asked and pondered here. One great thing that's happening with social networking sites is a site like BigCarrot can come about and anyone can make up the prize money for certain questions. Think about it. What is your big question? How much money would you give if someone could answer it?

The Solar Decathlon

The Solar Decathlon 2007 in three parts.

The next one is 2009 with 20 college teams competing. Very, very interesting.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:

Striving for Excellence

Here is the essay I worked on and submitted for the Southface Internship. This is just part of my commitment and focus. Enjoy:

Striving for Excellence

For as long as I can remember, I always knew I belong in the construction industry. Living in a house that I could call home did not happen until I was seventeen and I am still grateful for that. Volunteering for Habitat for Humanity was not possible in my district, so when I finished college, I decided that learning to build a house in Jacksonville, FL would be a dream come true. The experience of helping a family build their own house, getting to know them, and seeing progress each and every day truly inspired me along with all the hundreds of volunteers I came to know. All of this took place in Jacksonville as a member of the Americorps, a highly valuable government program that makes a difference in communities throughout all of America.

A natural transition for me from this was teaching, and what better way to begin than moving to another country because I love to travel. I was off to Seoul, South Korea teaching pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school students involving twenty-six classes requiring much adaptation and learning quickly. As with my fellow volunteers, I did my best to keep students happy by teaching them something new to share with others. Watching a child comprehend new information and discover themselves under my guidance was priceless.

Being an intern with Southface will require every skill I have learned and practiced so far, plus I will learn a new area of education involving sustainable building science, research, and design. Southface is the perfect opportunity for me to balance the field of constructing houses with educating myself and the community.

The shift for people toward building smaller, but much more efficient homes is slowly overtaking us. The volunteers required information tailored to their needs, as much as the young kids I taught in Korea needed this. Information matters when it is presented as relevant to our times and conditions. I hope and dream each and every day to become part of the solution and inspire people to build homes that are creative, interdependent, and off-the-grid.

I believe that my experience with Southface will benefit both of us. I will apply diligence, open-eyed confidence, and determination on my quest to become a leader in energy and environmental design (LEED). Southface generously provides the opportunity to start my career as a Home Energy Rater (HERS) with all the expertise possible while being an intern. I have searched for teachers, mentors, and an institute to make this dream happen. I have come a long way tailoring my current work to my future work and continuing to challenge myself and other people along the way because the good thing about this life is the journey, not the destination.

Architecture for Humanity

Architecture for Humanity is simply amazing. Designers can volunteer their work and share information with the world. This website came about because of a TED Prize Wish.

What a wish to see actually come true! Love it.

Links to Love

The following is going to be a compilation of links for me to save and check on a regular basis, just in case anything happens to my "bookmarks."

Home Power Magazine

The Ultimate Trade Show Directory (HVAC Comfortech is coming very soon - air conditioning is awesome) Whoa baby! There's a "Green + Design Conference" happening in early October - it's a must go! I'll try and have cards made up with this blog listed on them by then. This is just actually the beginning. I must start keeping a better calendar or I'll miss some of these! Coming across this website is amazing... hope you like it.

Twine is very, very cool and I must keep up with my account more! There are tons of information to sort and sift through on there and I've only been through the green side of the site. There's tons and eventually they'll start recommending news... Here are a list of the items I've kept on the site. Maybe I should start my own twine soon.

This is only the beginning of the stuff I've kept. I'll find other things and post them as regularly as I can.

Southface On My Mind

I just checked and yes, Southface Energy Institute is listed as a part of the National Registry of Accredited Energy Auditor Trainers.

What else is cool about the opportunity is the "Home Building School." I have three weeks to start and I'm hoping I get this training free as well.

Look forward to helping prep that class as well. It's going to be cool to learning all this new awesome information. One day I'll teach you how to build your own home and I'll do it with you. Building Science is the only thing I'd ever go to Grad School for and this internship might inspire that in me... looking forward to seeing what's out there.

This would be a good time to say that I've worked for Habitat for Humanity before through Americorps. Thank goodness for the education stipend I can use for learning some of this new stuff that Southface can't guarantee (energy auditing is for me). Research and plenty of hands-on information is what I'm expecting to learn. I'll chronicle as much as I can through this blog of course.