Yes, we’ve discussed our feeling about the LEED label and how we would like seeing more money going toward sustainable aspects versus a LEED plaque but nonetheless they built an impressive structure, which currently hosts the international media for the Olympic games. When the Olympics pack-up Vancouver will still have the dazzling sustainable structure.

What we like most is the six-acre living roof (Canada’s largest) which contains 400,000 native plants and grasses, and the green roof acts as an insulator to mediate the exterior air temperature, as well as reduces the building’s storm water runoff and integrates with the waterfront landscape ecosystem. With Vancouver being such a water friendly city, we also applaud the on-site black water treatment and desalinization systems that are projected to reduce potable water use 60 to 70 percent over typical convention centers. On the energy side, the center includes a heat pump system that takes advantage of the constant temperature of the adjacent seawater to produce heating and cooling. Very cool.

The people of Sochi have their work cut out for them if they hope to continue the Green trend of Olympics venues and buildings.

During the Thursday morning breakfast, Zhang Yue, chairman and CEO of China-based Broad Air Conditioning woke the crowd up as he spoke through an interpreter. A few minutes before that, I found myself asking a colleague “Who is this guy?” After 10 minutes, I changed my mind. More people should listen to this guy. True, I haven’t done due diligence on his company but if his company does half the things that he says they do then I’m on board. Yue created China’s first “non-electric chiller” and insists on showing consumers how triple paned windows will reduce their need to use air conditioners. Consider that their business revolves around making air conditioners.

Even the fact that his sustainable company philosophy has dropped his income from the top five richest people in China to the top 500 doesn’t bother him. He’d rather save the planet and make slightly less. Although he became the first CEO to fly regularly on a private corporate jet, he soon realized how detrimental his private jet trips were on the environment, so he changed his corporate jet policy to use it only in special situations and now he normally flies commercial. Maybe the Big 3 (or is it Big 2?) CEOs can get a clue.

The conference not only offers big speeches but interactivity as well. One Thursday morning session tackled the topic of Sustainability of a Budget: Sharing Cost (and Risk) through Government Partnerships and included a diverse panel including Shari Berenbach of Calvert Social Investment Foundation, Sanjay Raman of Howcast Media and Michael de Soyza of Dialog Telekom. After some eye-opening discussion about how PPPs can combine with private companies can increase their impact on social and environmental issues, the attendees broke into groups. We then brainstormed in breakout groups (our group contained people from Visa, ESPN, USAid) about how to create a partnership with various issues and tasks. It’s surprising how many dynamic ideas can be created in 15 minutes.

Good start — as we walked in and registered the staff handed me a recyclable, biodegradable, compostable lanyard.

The theme for this year’s conference – Sustainability in a Reset World

After admiring our lanyards and breakfast we jumped into packed conversation with Pamela Passman of Microsoft. Of course we considered today’s launch of Windows 7.

The discussion centered on the sustainability of Microsoft. Now, most people will admit that the technology business isn’t the least sustainable or “dirtiest” business. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t press a heavy carbon footprint. Passman discussed that companies need software to track their own carbon footprint.Microsoft may have many ideas for other comanies but they need to look in the mirror as well.

She admitted the two most pressing issues that Microsoft needs to improve in so far as reducing their carbon footprint that includes:

1- Traveling (lots of it)

2 – Data centers — The data centers continue to be electric and water intensive.
Microsoft claims to be attempting reduce the footprint of these data centers.

Besides environmental sustainability the talk shifted to information and human rights. Besides the separate Gates Foundation, Microsoft creates technological literacy for various NGOs and donates much money to various create technological literacy for people who don’t have educational/technological access. However, when discussing human rights and technology Pressman seemed to get a little defensive when discussing China, privacy issues, and human rights in other counties where the masses often don’t get access to certain technology.

Like so much of the conference, often we need to read between the lines to determine who or what companies enact true sustainability controls or who just spin fancy greenwashing, or maybe a combination.

Being a green blogger, the location of the grand old Palace Hotel doesn’t exactly scream Green, and curiously the conference did offer actual glasses for the Blogger Connect but for the main conference downstairs the hotel dragged out the paper cups.

Lot’s of buzz surrounded the social media mix. Many different sites and start-ups will integrate things like social rental search, local community, and other forms of social networking, and company culture. Several  companies at the IC displayed how they treat people well (such as Zappos.com) which equates to social justice, something that many companies lack.

Some of the conference speakers actually brought ideas outside of the normal technology, real estate and economic gain realm. San Francisco’s own Craig Newmark (the Craig’s List founder and consumer service guru) started his presentation by showing a little bird in the back yard of his home near Sutro Forest. Craig mentioned, “I like nature when it is convenient.” He also mentioned that he Twitters a lot but that much of it is related to nature. Craig talked about his big push to help the returning veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who have been shortchanged on their education benefits. You can get the full scoop at the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, IAVA.org.

A lot of people, including us, learned that it isn’t about competetion. The words that stuck with many people and that other speakers referred to are the wise words of Craig Newmark, “If we don’t collaborate, we’re dead.”

The EcoMap gives San Franciscans the ability to see the collective results of their individual footprint but also offers up nifty comparison of other zip codes so we can all spy on how Pac Heights compares to Potrero Hill. How many of the Marina crowd pours CO2 into the air from transportation, energy and waste versus their Russian Hill neighbors? With this map it’s easy to check out the various carbon footprints of the various ‘hoods.

The EcoMap gives people incentives to improve as it displays progress toward meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals. It also serves up healthy does of useful, locally available tools and resources for anyone wishing to reduce their carbon footprint.

EcoMap amasses information on a neighborhood level, organized by zip codes through Discover Your City’s Neighborhoods and Take Climate Actions, both of which offer interesting and useful info to educate and motivate (not to mention how to spy on our neighbors’ carbon footprint.

This pilot project brings together the resources and efforts of Cisco and the City and County of San Francisco. And of course SF Mayor Gavin Newsom likes to mention that, “Cities are the world’s major source of greenhouse gas emissions, consuming 75 percent of the world’s energy,” so he’s practically beaming that SF represents the first city in the world to launch an EcoMap that can reverse that trend.

We pretty excited to see full blown release. And we’d like to eventually see more complete data for other cities and zip codes which squarely reside behind the green eight ball. I don’t know how sustainable the 90210 is but here’s hoping that the 94117 rocks the sustainable world.

Even in a Greencentric city like Berkeley, locals and Bay Area visitors would be Green with envy when they see the just opened David Brower Center. It feels healthy just to walk through the Green down-to-the-bones building which combines advanced technology along with simple recycled materials.

When entering for their housewarming party we had a difficult time not noticing the soaring concrete walls which made us think more dot com than gallery. The fact that in creating a building with an oh- so-feathery carbon footprint (when compared to most structures) Principal Architect, Daniel Solomon included up to 70 percent slag in those walls.

Just like people, what Green buildings have on the inside can be the key. Anyone (or any building) can have a great exterior but look at the Brower Center’s guts and soul. We love the radiant heating and cooling that runs through the floors, as well as the water catchment system and giant cistern that significantly reduce the building’s water use. The building even employs small aspects like the zinc siding and photovoltaic panels that double as sun-shades. The zinc siding will last numerous years without being treated.

The designers and builders designed the edifice be 40 percent more energy-efficient than conventional ones, which includes a day lighting program that uses high-efficiency lighting with automatic controls limit use when daylight is adequate. Normally we don’t get to excited heading to the restroom (no jokes please) but we definitely got giddy with the Icestone countertops, waterless urinals and high powered hand dryer. We’re talking ten seconds max to dry hands.

Besides the physical structure the Brower Center works on the social justice level as it houses various NGOs and ecologically minded companies such as: Center for Ecoliteracy, Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) and the Earth Island Institute. We can’t speak for all the staff and workers but having the Brower Center as your office would actually inspire someone to want to come to work.

With the economy in turmoil, a real estate prices dropping, green communities and green building will become more important. It’s easy to see how broken our current community model is in terms of the urban sprawl; the average American commute continues to grow longer. Between 1969 and 2001, the number of vehicle miles traveled for commuting jumped from 4,180 to 5,720.

The Sierra Club notes that today’s average American driver spends what amounts to 55 eight hour workdays behind the wheel every year. Gas won’t stay at the current level so we need to look at developing more sustainable communities.

San Francisco area architect Michelle Kaufmann & Kelly Melia-Teevan came up with a top 10 (sorry Letterman) EcoPrinciples for Communities.

1. Smart Design

Some architects play God-instead of working with nature they go against it. Building orientation remains a big, no cost key, as well as designing to use less, and to collaborate with the landscape.

2. Energy Efficiency

Kind of a no brainer here. Everyone from Obama on down seems to be talking about energy efficiency. While some aspects remain somewhat pricey such as photovoltaic systems, other energy saving methods such as passive solar layouts, sealing building envelopes with super efficient insulation and glass and harnessing alternative energy sources offer not only a decent ROI but save the Earth’s resources as well.

3. Water Conservation

Here in the Bay Area we are headed for a drought. Ideas for water savings include basic ideas such as xeriscaping. Who needs a lawn anyway? Sculpting bioswales into the land, irrigating with rainwater catchment systems and paving with only pervious ground surfaces can conserve gallons without much added cost.

4. Reduce Waste

As one of the Three R’s, Kauffman suggests designing easy to access, easy to use recycling centers. How smart can it be to drive with a plastic bag of aluminum cans to the faraway recycling center? Also, she offers ideas such as integrating on-site composting, and facilitating “living machines” (engineered waste treatment system designed to process a building’s sanitary drainage on-site).

5. Healthy Environment

Everyone seems to forget this area in terms of Green Building. It won’t do much good to maintain a clean environment but have sick people living in unhealthy homes. A sustainable neighborhood will offer easy access to exercise, encourage cooking classes and establishing on-site food production instead of driving to some fast food joint for a completely unsustainable meal.

6. Diversity

Cities such as San Francisco thrive because of the richness of diversity. A sustainable community will create an assortment of residents from different backgrounds, ages and cultures. The housing will offer both market rate and affordable rate housing options.

7. Smart Location

The name says it all. Kauffman suggests building and designing for environmental, social, and economic benefits. Might builders think about building near easy access to mass transit and choosing areas near sources of quality food? Is that too progressive?

8. Respect the Land

Something that seems to have disappeared from the vocabulary – r-e-s-p-e-c-t. That’s right just like Aretha. New green communities would protect the existing landscape and ecology by adopting functional, comfortable density, minimizing site disturbance and protecting biodiversity by maintaining native ecosystem.

9. Smart Auto Strategy

As much as we’d like to rid ourselves of cars completely it just isn’t going to happen. However, we can lessen the intrusion and impact of automobiles in communities by implementing smart parking requirements, and separating parking streets from pedestrian streets and bike lanes. Constructing more narrow streets in an effort to encourage walking and biking rather than driving isn’t rocket science.

10. Shared Resources

Create more community within the community (see how that works) by introducing resource sharing (bikes, cars, tools, garden equipment, child care), establish community victory gardens, and building playgrounds, parks, athletic fields, picnic areas, etc rather than just concrete jungles.

Let the greening begin.

With the Arterra, San Francisco’s first LEED certified San Francisco condos, just about ready to go into pre-sales it’s no surprise that some visitors in the sales office appear from curious to confused.

Some prospective buyers who drifted around the sales office came for the Green factor but others don’t know green from pink. The salesroom doesn’t exactly push the green aspect. Those who don’t have an attention to detail could easily miss the bamboo kitchen floors, and the dual flush toilets. Even so, one green product continually baffles potential buyers – the Trespa rainscreen system. It more than baffles, it disturbs some.

We’re not exactly fans of bedding down in high-end coffins, except maybe during Halloween, so people here should get over their fears of something new. The rainscreen system isn’t exactly the new green kid on the block. Builders have been using this overcladding technology since the 1940’s in Scandinavia.

For too many years America builders and engineers have sought to resist nature rather than embrace it. You can’t beat Mother Nature and why should we? Traditional thinking has been to prevent rainwater from entering buildings by use of barriers and sealants. However we don’t live in a vacuum so do to poor workmanship, material degradation and building movement (here in SF?) that system breaks down.

The beauty of rainscreen overcladding comes from the fact that the technology uses the effects of the wind to control rain water from entering the building.

The design uses simple pressure effects of the wind to dissipate the rain water energy. The specially designed drainage paths direct the water away from the opening.

The project manager at the Arterra describes the Trespa rainscreen system like a kind of Gore-tex as it actually allows moisture to flow in AND out. Most other buildings are hermetically sealed which don’t allow any evaporation which traps moisture in the walls and can lead to mold or other hazardous problems. ]]> http://greenerati.com/2006/09/21/who%e2%80%99ll-stop-the-rain/feed/ 0