Lennox voiced how the Green movement is about equality and existence not just organic foods and Prius cars. He talked about how the only green that took center stage this year came in the form of dollars from the Wall St one percent.

It remains an important aspect to connect the dots of environmental and economic justice. People who often lack economically often have little environmentally. It would benefit the Green movement to rally around the new found economic justice push and tie them together. Using this Green mojo will only allow the playing field of the Green movement to become more level and allow everyone to take part.

San Francisco Mint

For some builders and architects the challenge to even consider building Green from scratch remains daunting and monetarily off the radar but taking a structure like San Francisco’s Old U.S. Mint built in the 19th century and transforming it into a 21st century Green mixed-use cultural center would be even more challenging. San Francisco new goal is to create the most sustainability innovative National Historic Landmark in the United States. Like they say is Swingers, “That is so money.”

Back in the day, the US Mint used to print the green stuff now it will encompass Green thinking.

Some of the ideas that the building will incorporate include:
Natural Daylight – The redesign will include an alteration to the ground floor, which will allow daylight to reach the ground floor.
Natural Ventilation – Currently sealed windows will be redesigned to create natural ventilation.
Water Use – A new canopy drainage system will allow rainwater to be harvested, treated and stored for uses throughout the building. The water, among other benefits, will be used to feed vegetation on the roof.

Now if we can do something about the Bank Of Italy building.

Photo by Mike Hofmann

The festivities brought together their field representatives from all over the globe including: Belize, Fiji, Mexico, Indonesia, Honduras, almost anywhere coral reefs have become an endangered species. Over locally produced and multilayered Lagunitas IPA and tasty hors d’oeuvres the crowd mingled and discussed the state of coral reefs worldwide. Talking to the various field reps, we got the idea that they create awareness and educate many locals and tourists with little resources. It was as if the field reps paraphrased a quote from the film The Grapes of Wrath, “Wherever there’s a fight about coral reefs, I’ll be there.”

The party highlighted not only food and connecting but educating as well. For those not familiar with the Coral Reef Alliance, they effectively manage protection areas like national underwater parks. Although the focus remains mostly environmental, the field representatives also offer social justice programs where locals also benefit from community initiatives.

Many people claim that the coral reefs will be gone in 40 years or so, unless we act quickly. As always, money looms as the key to conservation with many divers supporting and donating to the organization and the continuing coral reef education. Several speakers mentioned recent successes including the poaching patrols in Honduras and the enacting of the first anchor free zone in Fiji where the boaters use a user fee system that also benefits the local communities.

Leaving the event, we couldn’t help from being inspired the their plan of action tied together with their pull one’s self up by the bootstraps (or in this case scuba fins) mentality to save the worldwide coral reefs.

While some film fans may be psyched to see the Matt Damon’s newest role as Mark Whitacre, and others queue up too see director Steven Soderbergh do something other than an “Ocean’s” film, my friend and I liked the whole corn based aspect of the film. What other film maybe except for documentary flicks like King Corn, or Food Inc. open with such info about how corn exists in a ridiculous amount of food and even non food items.  The Informant! delves right into the world of the corn based lysine and even high fructose corn syrup (the photo depicts a scene where one of the FBI agents spies yet another product containing high fructose corn syrup).

While most people might be excited to see this film, the people at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), probably won’t be lining up anytime soon to see it. As Whitacre mentions in the film that most people haven’t heard about ADM but they have their hand in an outrageous number of processed foods. The film cleverly follows and comedic/dramatic line to show how ADM got caught price fixing lysine in the 90s. What’s another five cents for the liter of soda among friends?

Even though The Informant isn’t a “food film” per se, it gives us a peak behind the corporate food world curtain. Movies like The Informant! normally have the intent to entertain first (which it does) but it also educates as well which in its subtle ways creates a small glimpse behind that man (or in the case agri-giant) behind the curtain.

In a Cliff’s Notes version of the myriad incentives, rebates, and tax incentives GREENandSAVE has created a Federal Tax Incentive Decoder and condensed the material to 11 bite sized pages. Best of all, this resource does not cost a dime and can be downloaded at: http://www.greenandsave.com/homecheckup/free_federal_tax_incentive_decoder

We ploughed through some of the well organized and highly useful guide and discovered that beyond the tax credits, homeowners can save even more money through rebates as well as a breakdown to many money and environment friendly loans for energy efficient home improvements. One loan that we like is the Energy Star Loan which homeowners can use for installation of qualifying improvements that are Energy Star rated or meet program standards.

Here are some of the details:
The Loan Amount: $1,000-$15,000
Rate and Term: 6.99%
Fixed Rate; 3, 5, or 10 year term.
ii. Unsecured, no lien.
iii. No Fees or closing costs.
iv. No pre-payment penalty.

Not too shabby.

Finally, the politicians have created some far reaching incentives to truly get on us on the Green road to recovery. This downloadable decoder makes it easy to navigate down that Green road.

That mammoth amount of cash that the state provided to steer buyers to the dormant new construction market has dwindled to only $12 million. May proved to be a boon for buyers taking advantage of the tax credit as buyers claimed approximately $30 million. The California Franchise Tax Board speculates that the $100 million fund will be “wiped out by August 2009 and the incentive will not be extended.”

Buildings such as San Francisco’s Arterra (which is on target to receive a LEED Silver up from LEED-NC which we previously had been informed) does offer some unique Green attributes.

Don’t get too bent out of shape if the tax credit disappears as a good agent should be able to negotiate more than a $10K credit (and maybe more sustainable offerings) if you play your cards right.

It’s not like we haven’t seen coupon books like this before in other cities (like Portland and Austin) but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be tickled green by San Francisco’s own Green Savings coupon book.

Green Zebra – San Fran’s Green version of those Entertainment coupon books recently hit the stands. You don’t have to be too bashful about using these coupons because the book only contains local green business (sorry Whole Foods) with a slew of restaurants, spas, shops and the like. Aside from the myriad coupons the book offers ideas about how create a Green Wedding, a list of Dirty Dozen produce, and our fave, a neurotic recycler quiz. Maybe it won’t hit the NY Times Top 100 Book List but who really cares when you can sip a free Green Zebra tomato martini at Bacar.

We actually feel sorry for the owner for the owner of the Green house in Bernal Heights. That same property (338 Holladay Ave.) has been languishing on the market for almost three months. That’s the same residence where the house’s owner wrote a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle several weeks back, which practically exclaimed a rebuttal to the paper’s articles saying that Green houses are all the rage and will sell like hotcakes.

The owner can’t be a happy camper as he and his agent continually drop the asking price from $1,279,000 to $1,195,000 to $1,049,000 to $994,000. The owner claims that location sells houses, as evidenced by the Green house in Noe Valley.  True the Noe Valley Green house location represents a superior addy to the one in Bernal Heights. Also, that Noe Green house sale occurred in a slightly warmer market.

There may be a degree of truth in the owner’s statement but instead of location, location, location the seller and his agent should be more concerned with marketing, marketing, marketing. And education.

In this market you can’t expect a green house to sell that when people don’t know what it is, or its environmental, health and economic benefits. The real estate agent selling the Green house appears to have little idea of how to market the place. To him it’s just a cute eco-home for the warm and fuzzy eco-family. That’s sweet. From the marketing flyers and listings you almost couldn’t tell this house from any other one in Bernal Heights.

Is a house a house? Is a car a car? Would you want a Yugo salesman selling you a Ferrari? But they’re both cars aren’t they? Tires, engine, seats. What’s the difference? Same with the house. Roof, stairs, kitchen what’s the difference?

Green houses, like Ferraris can rate high as far as technology so if you want to build, buy sell, or make a dwelling more green then find someone who knows about what’s under the engine. Need a referral than contact us and we’ll find you someone who knows their Green stuff. Now please take that Yugo out of our driveway.

Think a paint job makes your house look better, so it would see for more? Think that a no VOC paint job would go one step further? Energy rebates exist as well as short term benefits but mostly long term benefits can be found in Green building. Stop looking at the now and the short term rewards and look at Green additions like how runners complete a marathon – it’s not just about the first mile or the tenth mile but the whole enchilada.

Think long term.