Viewing posts tagged "Green Building"

Eric Wesoff | May 20, 2009 at 9:22 AM

Top 12 Greenest Cities in the U.S.

All politics are local. So is the progress in greentech.

Federal and state Renewable Portfolio Standards, federal loans and stimulus packages are vitally important programs.

But progress in greening our cities is going to come from local efforts as much as from on high. We take a quick look at some city-based green initiatives.

San Jose, Calif. considers itself the capital of Silicon Valley, and wants to be the global center of greentech innovation. The city and its Mayor, Chuck Reed, have initiated one of the nation's most aggressive green initiatives – the Green Vision program with a 15-year goal that includes:

1. Creating 25,000 cleantech jobs

2. Reducing per capita energy use by 50 percent

3. Receiving 100 percent of its electrical power from clean renewable sources

4. Building or retrofitting 50 million square feet of green buildings

5. Diverting 100 percent of waste from landfills

6. Recycling or reusing 100 percent of its wastewater (100 million gallons per day)

7. Ensuring that 100 percent of its public fleet vehicles run on alternative fuels

8. Planting 100,000 new trees

9. Replacing 100 percent of its streetlights with smart, zero emission lighting

San Jose calls itself the capital of Silicon Valley but Palo Alto, Calif. could arguably assume the mantle of its' heart (against the protestations of Mountain View and Menlo Park). Palo Alto is the home of Stanford University, Packard's garage (of Hewlett Packard fame), Facebook, and a lot of Venture Capital firms. Steve Jobs of Apple and Sergey Brin of Google call it home.

Palo Alto can also lay claim to be one of the nation's greenest cities.

In June 2008, Palo Alto adopted mandatory green-building requirements for residential and commercial development -- one of the most stringent green building ordinances in the nation.

New buildings and remodels in Palo Alto must meet standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council or the Build It Green organization. Expect some public pushback since the green requirements can add from $2,000 to $10,000 to the cost of a home and 2 percent to 5 percent to the cost of a commercial project, according to a city report.

Palo Alto also has

• A climate protection plan addressing CO2 emissions and water
• A program for less-toxic pest control
• Proposed stringent ordinances on construction and demolition debris, a major source of landfill material, waste, and toxics.
• The "greenest" congressional office. Anna Eshoo, a high-powered Congressperson, recently unveiled the very first congressional office in the nation to go maximum green. Eshoo's office has installed a 1.6 kilowatts photovoltaic system and 100 percent of the electricity used by the office is obtained from renewable sources. The office has made profound green modifications to its' lighting, water, heating, cooling, materials, waste stream and the transit habits of its' employees.

Palo Alto has some competition from its neighbor/rival across the Bay – the Republic of Berkeley, Calif. 

Late last year, Berkeley's city council approved a program to provide city-backed loans to property owners who install photovoltaic systems. The loans, which could total up to $20,000 each, would be paid off over 20 years as part of the owners' property-tax bills. This type of program goes a long way to remove the biggest obstacle to solar installations – the large upfront cost.

If this program succeeds, it could be expanded to finance other energy-efficiency efforts such as installing double-glazed windows or thermal insulation.

How about tiny Greensburg, Kan.? After being decimated by an F-5 tornado that leveled the city and left few homes standing, the survivors launched a plan to resurrect their town as the greenest city in America. All public buildings are to conform to LEED platinum standards.

Now, two years after the disaster, Greensburg's new homes are almost 50 percent more energy-efficient due to energy-saving windows, improved insulation, efficient heating, etc.

The people of Greensburg are pioneering the greening of a municipality, in one of the reddest states, no less.

Gainesville, Fla. is the first U.S. city with Feed-in-Tariffs.

In the first such program in the country, The Gainesville City Commission has approved a solar feed-in tariff for residential and business customers served by the Gainesville Regional Utilities in Florida. Wrote Ucilia Wang:

"Under the program, owners of solar energy systems would sell the electricity to the utilities at $0.32 per kilowatt-hour under a 20-year contract. The rate, which is higher than the price for conventional power, will remain for the first two years of the program. ... The program is modeled after the successful one in Germany, which has become the largest solar market in the world."

Other cities with claims on "the greenest" include:

Austin, Texas: Austin Energy, the city's municipally owned utility, plans to grow the renewables' portion of Austin's energy portfolio to 30 percent by 2020 and to build solar power's share to 100MW by 2020.

Boulder, Colo.: The city has resolved to become a zero-waste community.

Burlington, Vt.: More than one-third of energy used in the city comes from renewable resources, an impressive figure for the frosty Northeast.

Madison, Wis.: A bike-friendly city with an extensive recycling program that claims more than 90 percent participation.

New York City: High-density populations like NYC use fewer resources per capita. New Yorkers use of public transport dwarfs that of any other city.

Portland, Ore.: Portland is bike friendly, has set an urban growth limit to protect 25 million acres of open space, and recycles more than half of the city's trash.

San Francisco: More than half the city's residents use public or alternative transportation to get to work.

Please forgive the slightly California-centric selection in this list. Feel free to comment and let us know your choice for greenest city.

Eric Wesoff | May 1, 2009 at 11:31 AM

A Solar Building Design Portfolio

Steven Strong and Luke McKneally of Solar Design Associates spoke at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) show in San Francisco this week about moving, “toward carbon neutral green design with renewable energy.”  Strong is a solar zealot and a pioneer in installing solar heating and power on homes and buildings as well as making these structures more energy efficient.

He began his career as an engineer working on the Trans Alaskan Pipeline from 1973 to 1974, which he likened to being, “like a kid in a candy store for a young engineer.”  But sobered by the oil scares precipitated by the Yom Kippur War, he went back to architecture school and started his solar design firm.

He has an absolutely impressive portfolio of solar installations to his credit.  Here is a quick tour of some of his work.

The Mountain Conservation Center in Northern New Hampshire

In a solar starved environment of 8,765 Degree Days (that’s not good) -- Strong helped design a 7,000 square foot carbon neutral facility, powered exclusively by solar with back up provided by a dead fall-fueled wood boiler.  The building is optimized for winter production and also uses solar thermal.  At the end of the year they are negative 490 kWh -- in other words, “The utility pays them.”  Strong adds, “If this can be accomplished in Northern New England -- it can be done most anywhere.”

The Lewis Environmental Center at Oberlin College

A net zero energy building built in partnership with William McDonough + Partners. The environmental studies building includes an organic water purifying system, a solar cell roof, and passive solar heating.

The Carlisle House

Strong’s firm helped build the first solar residence connected to the grid -- the Carlisle House in 1980.  Strong admits that “the house looks like a large solar array behind which a living space has been organized.”  Realize that this was done with solar panels with a conversion efficiency of 7 percent The building has super-insulated walls and ceilings.

Tiger Woods Learning Center, Anaheim Calif.

Incorporating thin-film curtain wall with varied transparency -- the structure is sloped and curved requiring BIPV modules of differing size and shape.

Discovery Center, Santa Ana, Calif.

Built in partnership with extreme architects, Arquitectonica, the entire South face of this big cube is thin film photovoltaics.  The installation crew was an all-volunteer-group and they did not miss a single electrical connection.

The Solaire, Battery Park City, NYC

Multi-family dwelling BIPV

Strong’s website shows many more of his award winning and trail-blazing installations.

I’ll leave you with a few more of his thoughts…

“Why aren’t we building PV arrays on freeway sound barriers? They are near the urban core, they have good foundations, the grid crosses the highway, and it’s is a very good use of land.”

And despite his solar zealotry, Strong insists that, “The building needs to be worthy of a solar investment.”  The dessert part is solar.  It’s hard to see designers getting excited about enhanced insulation levels or variable speed motor drives, low emissivity coatings on glazings. They can’t see these things and architects get very little direct credit for that.  But they can see solar.”

“Solar should be the last resort.  Why do architects want to go straight to the dessert?  There are hundreds of other strategies to make buildings perform.”

"The success formula for zero energy buildings is efficiency + efficiency + more efficiency + conservation and then adding renewables."