March 12th, 2009
Preservation: The Greenest Building is the One That’s Already Built
Stumble it!
Tearing down our homes seems to be almost a national pastime. Americans have always viewed anything old with suspicion, and that makes sense when we’re talking about outdated concepts of governing such as having an inbred, pinky finger-wagging king tell us what to do. But when it comes to the architectural legacy left to us by preceding generations of Americans, this approach not only robs us of unique neighborhoods and our history, but also is insanely destructive to the environment.
According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, rehabbing old buildings is the ultimate form of recycling. The Trust’s president, Richard Moe, says, “The greenest building is one that’s already built.”
Think about it: when a building’s torn down, where does all that rubbish go? Maybe the bricks are recycled along with a few architectural elements, but where do the dumpsters full of the rest of the refuse go? Why to a landfill, of course. According to Preservation Magazine, 136 million tons of waste are created from teardowns—annually. Even a brain as agile as Einstein’s would have a difficult time comprehending just how much garbage that is. In addition, existing buildings represent an investment in energy of around 5 to 15 gallons of gasoline per square foot.
And then there’s all the waste associated with the construction of a new building which can easily fill an additional dumpster. The Trust cites figures showing that an average 2,000 square foot home generates the following waste: 3,000 pounds of wood, 2,000 pounds of drywall and 600 pounds of cardboard. That’s a hell of a lot of garbage.
Ignoring the dire environmental affect of our profligate ways in this area is akin to the elder Hiltons sending their wayward, party-happy daughter Paris to dry out on Bourbon Street with a case of booze, a clutch of friends, and a film crew from Girls Gone Wild. Seriously, we can do better and we should.
Some might argue that rehabbing old buildings isn’t a good investment, but there are plenty of examples of the opposite being true. In Charleston, S.C., it’s the quaint antebellum quarters that attract millionaires, while in Boston, the Federalist townhome-studded Beacon Hill remains the city’s most desirable neighborhood.
Moreover, older buildings are, by and large, built to endure. And while it might seem counterintuitive, most aged buildings are actually better poised to withstand a fire.
According to Matt Picard, a Delavan, WI, firefighter and Chicago carpenter, new construction typically utilizes petite, lighter wood that catches fire more easily and burns faster. Moreover, the toxic glues, particle board and trusses seem to nearly dissolve during a fire, rendering newer buildings much more susceptible to fire. An older, masonry building with plaster walls, lathe, old-growth beams and individual floor and ceiling joists can burn for hours and still be salvageable.
Older buildings certainly are not the most energy efficient, but they can be brought up to date and made green with far less waste and damage to the environment than tearing them down and starting over. To make an old or historic building eco-friendly, check out our guide to green architects here, or you can also find a green builder or remodeler here.
Our country’s older structures, often constructed by highly-skilled craftsmen who built exactingly and to last, will likely survive another century (if they can avoid the wrecking ball). And saving and rehabbing them is one of the greenest – not to mention patriotic - things we can do.
Popularity: 5% [?]
March 3rd, 2009
EPA Announces Top 10 Cities for Energy Star Buildings
Many people think of energy-efficient appliances when they hear Energy Star, but they also rate buildings. The EPA today is announcing the top 10 US cities with the most Energy Star-rated commercial buildings.
Why is this important? Well energy use in commercial buildings and plants accounts for nearly half of the total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 50 percent of energy consumption nationwide. In 2008 alone, more than 3,300 commercial buildings and manufacturing plants earned the Energy Star rating for excellent energy performance. These energy-efficient buildings saved more than $1.1 billion in energy costs and reduced more than 7 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2008, which is a savings equal to the emissions from electricity use of more than 1 million homes for a year.
The Top 10 cities announced today are, not surprisingly, led by two California cities– Los Angeles at number 1 and San Francisco at number 2. Los Angeles weighs in with around 250 Energy Star buildings, and San Francisco has around 200. Quite surprisingly Houston, Texas is number 3, with 150 buildings. (They prove once again, Don’t Mess with Texas.) Also on the list are Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, and Washington DC. You can see the full list of the Top 10 and learn more about their green buildings here.
What makes a building an Energy Star building? To qualify for EPA’s ENERGY STAR, a building or manufacturing plant must score in the top 25 percent using EPA’s National Energy Performance Rating System. Buildings can be rated on an energy performance on a scale of 1-100 relative to similar buildings nationwide using the EPA’s Portfolio Manager tool. Buildings that earn a rating of 75 or greater may qualify for the Energy Star designation. Buildings are rated on such factors size, location, number of occupants, number of PCs, heating and cooling systems, etc. You can learn more about the Energy Star building system here.
Popularity: 4% [?]
February 24th, 2009
The 10 Dumbest Green Buildings on Earth
Written by Alex Felsinger, courtesy of Green Building Elements.com
While any structure built in a way that lessens its footprint is welcomed, some of the buildings that people try to turn green simply make no sense.
LEED certification, in all its greatness, does not take the building’s intended purpose into account; this leaves us with some hilarious, unabashedly self-contradicting buildings. Here are the ten of the most laughable green buildings:
1. BP’s Helios House Gas Station - Los Angeles, Cal.
Yes, there is an LEED-certified gas station. It’s actually a nice building, complete with rainwater collection, solar panels, recycled building materials, and LED lighting. However, don’t think you’ll be able to refuel with biodiesel or charge up your electric car—they’re only in the petroleum-dealing business. How green of them, right?
2. Justin Timberlake’s Golf Course/Lodge - Woodstock, Tenn.
So Justin Timberlake decided that he wants to buy a golf course and fix it up with an LEED-certified lodge. While it’s an improvement compared to most other golf courses, the fact remains that maintaining a golf course takes chemicals and lots of water. In the United States alone, golf courses total more than 1.7 million acres and consume around 4 billion gallons of water every day. How does a green lodge counteract the water used to maintain the course? Justin, if you really want to be green, you should have turned it into a wildlife sanctuary instead.
3. Nestle Pure Life Water Bottling Plant - Boiling Springs, Tenn.
While this isn’t the only LEED-certified water bottling plant, it’s listed for having the most greenwashed name. Ozarka, Arrowhead, Ice Mountain, and Deer Park water bottling plants also have LEED certifications of some sort, but they couldn’t compete with Pure Life in the name department. If anyone needs a reminder of why bottling water is a bad idea, here are five reasons to ditch the bottle. Oh, and Nestle as a whole won’t be getting an award for their treatment of the planet and its people any time soon.
4. Logan Airport Terminal A - Boston, Mass.
Activists in England have put their freedom on the line protesting against a third runway at the enormous Heathrow Airport; do you think they’d be more satisfied with the runway if the airport terminal was LEED certified, with solar panels and the whole bit? You’d be right to assume they wouldn’t, because whether they take off from a green building or not, airplanes are still one of the top causes of global warming.
5. Toyota Car Dealership - Rockwall, Tex.
While Toyota is almost synonymous with green when it comes to cars, in reality they’re not much better than any other car company. They have a full line of vehicles, including four-wheel-drive SUV’s, some of which are 8-cylinder. In fact, their entire fleet’s average gas mileage is worse than Chevrolet’s. Perhaps they should clean up their cars before trying to green their dealerships?
6. Antilia Tower - Mumbai, India
While this probably will not be LEED certified, it has been often mentioned as being one of the greenest building concepts on the planet. While it does look beautiful and will act as a giant carbon sink in the middle of the city, there’s a major problem: it will be the home of one family. No matter how green this building is, that is a complete waste of space in a city known for its overcrowding.
7. Civic Center Parking Garage - Santa Monica, Cal.
The only green parking garage I want to see would be located at a train or bus station for people to drop off their cars to finish their commute on mass transit. To quote every politician involved in the 2008 campaign, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”
8. Vacation Home Development - Las Vegas, Nev.
You only need one house, people! Granted that seven of these eight homes are 1/12 shares, these homes are being built in a desert (Las Vegas) and if anyone needs a water-capture system, it’s people who live there year-around. Simply due to their excess, vacation homes may be the least environmentally-friendly structures on earth.
9. Spaceport America - New Mexico
Another case of the rich attempting to make the rest of us think they’re doing the world a favor. Recreational space travel, at least with the current technology, is a huge and unnecessary carbon polluter. But hey, the spaceport will be LEED certified, so everything’s going to be fine, right?
10. Every Fancy New Building - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
I know, I know — I cheated on this one. I couldn’t pick just one since they’re all ridiculous for the same reason. The government is intent on making Dubai one of the biggest, most gaudy places on earth. Perhaps to compensate for unending excess, they’ve mandated that all new buildings must have specific eco-minded properties, but when you take all of it in at once, you know it’s nothing but a giant waste of resources.
Image Credits: (All Flickr under CC License) Top from J. Phil on Flickr. 1. danperry.com on Flickr 2. BP 3. Macon County, TN 4. MileageNYC on Flickr 5. Dushaun on Flickr 6. Concept illustration 7. City of Santa Monica 8. Emre Ersahin 9. Spaceport America 10. utpal. on FlickrPopularity: 7% [?]
February 20th, 2009
Build Your Own Free Tiny House with Shipping Pallets
Written by Brian Liloia, courtesy of Green Building Elements.com
Last week I talked about how to live simply and decrease your carbon footprint living in a tiny house. Even better than buying a tiny house is making your own, and Michael Janzen is blazing a trail with his free tiny pallet house. Not only is his house made out of recycled shipping pallets, it isn’t costing him anything to build. And lucky for us, he’s sharing his plans so you too can build your own tiny free house.
You can save money, sharpen your DIY skills, and further decrease your environmental impact by following Janzen’s example of building a free pallet house.
Keep pallets out of landfills
Here are some disturbing statistics about shipping pallets:
- Approximately 40% of all hardwood harvested in the U.S. is for making shipping pallets
- About two-thirds of pallets are used only once before being thrown out
- 1/4 of all wood in landfills is from used pallets
You can help prevent deforestation and keep pallets out of landfills by finding creative alternative uses for them, like building a house. Pallets can be found everywhere. Once you start looking for them, you’ll see them scattered all over your town or city.
Contact a local warehouse, supermarket, or any business that receives large shipments, and get permission to pick up their used pallets. Most companies are happy to give their pallets away.
Plans for a free pallet house
Janzen has made plans for building a free pallet house available on his website. These plans are a guide for building what he calls a disaster preparedness and emergency shelter. Janzen says:
As hurricane Gustav plowed across Cuba headed for the gulf coast of the United States memories of Katrina and the potential displacement of thousands got me thinking. I wanted to do something to help. It occurred to me that someone else might find what I now about building with shipping pallets useful in the coming weeks and months.
With some creativity, you may find that shipping pallets can be reappropriated in other ways to build your own free tiny house. For example, I have a friend that has disassembled shipping pallets and used the wood to build roof trusses for his straw bale building.
Ultimately, you can help prevent deforestation and keep pallets out of landfills by using them to build creative housing.
Think tiny and free!
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Popularity: 9% [?]
February 14th, 2009
GreenPods: Small, Lovely Eco-Homes
If you are interested in green architecture then please spend a moment welcoming GreenPods on to the market. These are wonderful, small, highly eco-smart dwellings.
GreenPod Developmentis based in Washington and they seek to design and construct affordable, sustainable, modular homes. At right you see one of their “SoloPods”, but the also have other designs that are equally compelling. Below you see the model called the “Floating Pod.”
The Pod designs range from 300 to 800 square feet. But if you need additional square footage, the Pods can be joined or stacked. Pod designer Ann Raab uses movable walls, multi-use furnishings, lighting, and windows to visually enlarge the Pod’s living spaces.
The Pods boast many environmentally-savvy features. All Pods utilize passive-solar design principles to cut energy use. Every Pod features low air infiltration design,energy-efficient windows, energy saving appliances, low-flow plumbing and LED lighting. They also make extensive use of daylighting.
The uber-green can go beyond these elements and opt for such additions as greywater recycling, rain water storage, roof gardens or green roofs.
Currently GreenPods is working on projects in Washington and California, and they can also service Oregon. Founder Ann Raab told me that they hope to be able to serve more parts of the country next year. I also asked her about costs and she said that depending on the size and features one selects for the their Pod, the cost would range between $150-$250 per square foot.
In case you are in Washington, you can stop by the GreenPod showroom. It’s at Artisans on Taylor, which is located at 236 Taylor Street, Port Townsend, WA, 98368 (across from the Rose Theater).
Popularity: 24% [?]
