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Can you tell a building is "green" or "sustainable" just by looking at it?

Usually not!

Green is a method of building that uses subtle techniques such as sourcing local materials, using non-toxic materials, including space for water conserving landscaping, and using solar heat, natural light, and natural ventilation effectively.

Those strategies don't look very different.  Buildings have used bits and pieces of these smart building design and construction techniques for many centuries.  Today's "green" building not only uses these techniques on the outside of the building skins, but internally.  Energy efficient equipment reduces energy use.  Low water flow plumbing reduces water consumption.  Low energy lighting reduces energy  use.  Non toxic and recycled materials are selected for paints and carpets.  Modular  construction such as carpet tiles  vs. wall to wall carpets reduce the need to fill landfills with old materials when they wear only in traffic patterns.

Most green buildings can't  be identified from the street!  So you might like to search online for green buildings in your community and identify some of them.  They make great outings for visiting family and friends!   Taking a tour will give you wonderful insights into local materials, technology innovations, and just smart living!

Jason McCormick with Conscientious Innovation, wrote the following in response to a recent blog story:

We’ve done the research (including a super recent 5,000 people study of what people think of this thing called ’sustainability’ - April, 2008), we know that people rate Global Warming and Pollution as important sustainability issues. But it didn’t top the list. Personal and social sustainability issues such as connecting with community and leading balanced life leapfrog environmental issues.

As one of the respondent from an early round of focus groups said’ How can i look after the environment, if i can’t look after myself??’.

His company focuses on brand development for a wider range of issues than "green" or "environment."

What we’re seeing right now is a lot of what we call “knee-jerk green marketing” and it’s a big mistake. Companies are jumping on the green bandwagon because they think that’s the only way to get on the sustainability wave. What’s dangerous is that it’s leading to a lack of authenticity because it’s often done indiscriminately and without rigor. When brands make vague, philosophical claims about their pro-environment values, but don’t support them with specific, observable actions, it diminishes the eco story for everyone and begins to spark a backlash.

He's right...what we're seeing is a lot of concerned parents who are also business people getting concerned and seeing both the opportunity for healthier community for themselves and their families...and the greening of their bottom line to keep up with the highly publicized shift toward greener products and processes.

Many people think "green" is simple.  The consumer media makes it look that way.  "Just change your lightbulbs and convert to biodiesel."  And all will be better.  "Don't get overwhelmed.  Keep it simple. Think green."  But business greening is more complicated and like Jason says, it must be a metamorphosis of core competency  -- much like the caterpillar turns into a butterfly.

Greening a business involves training the employees; changing the products from gas-guzzlers and energy-hogs to ever greater efficiency in design and production; optimizing operations; optimizing the fleet of transportation used both by the company and the employees...and more.  Saving water.  Saving the air.  Saving natural resources.  We rely on nature's bounty for the source of everything that keeps us alive and busy at work -- and greening is that integrated into how we do business.

So if you want to do the green thing...think green, educate yourself, and take it a step at a time.  But get started because the future will leave you in a dusty barren wasteland if you don't.  That's the growing future for much of the earth.  (That's not meant to be an exaggeration.  Desertification of arable lands is a growing problem for many nations...)

New York's Renewable Energy Task Force recently announced 16 recommendations as part of a roadmap to significantly increase renewable energy generation in New York. These recommendations include more solar energy production, funding the state's program to get 25 percent of New York's electricity from renewable energy by 2013, and new business incentives targeted to attract renewable energy producers and expand the state's "green collar" workforce.

The Renewable Energy Task Force was charged with identifying barriers to increased production of renewable energy, recommending policies and financial incentives to overcome those barriers, and identifying future market areas where additional research and development investment is necessary.

Recommendations Highlights

Significant recommendations of the task force's first report include:

• Developing eight times more solar photovoltaic energy generation in New York--more than 100 megawatts by 2011;
• Increasing the renewable energy supply in New York State to meet 25 percent of electricity demand by 2013, and fully funding the Renewable Portfolio Standard to make it happen;
• Developing new business incentives to attract renewable energy technology companies to New York in order to build industry clusters in solar, wind, biomass and other technical areas;
• Changing the law to allow and encourage New York companies to produce their own renewable energy "on site" and deliver excess power back to the energy grid known as "net metering;"
• Developing and supporting a "green collar" workforce of skilled labor to support renewable energy technology companies by coordinating training programs, expanding and enhancing those programs as necessary, and making training opportunities available to residents of disadvantaged communities, minority- and women-owned companies, and other small businesses.

Renewables Create Jobs

The task force set forth key data throughout the report demonstrating that investment in renewable energy creates jobs and increases tax revenues. Some examples include:

• Up to 43,000 new jobs in New York could be created by the renewable energy production needed to meet the requirement that 25 percent of New York's electricity come from renewable sources.
• Renewable energy and energy efficiency industries could create up to 40 million jobs and generate up to $4.5 trillion in revenue in the United States by 2030-a four-fold increase over current revenues.
• Over the next 20 years, $1 billion in economic benefits are expected to result from the roughly $500 million that New York has so far committed in renewable energy funding through the Renewable Portfolio Standard-a 100 percent return on investment, not counting economic spillover, multiplier effects, and environmental quality-of-life gains from renewable energy production.

Taking immediate action on the task force's recommendations, Paul Tonko, President and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), indicated that NYSERDA would immediately invest $4 million in green collar workforce initiatives, on top of the $2 million in this year's Executive Budget and would also establish a Wind Energy Research and Testing Center to develop new technologies and provide workforce training.

DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said: "Clean energy is crucial on so many fronts: energy conservation, pollution reduction, combating climate change, and developing green businesses and jobs, just for starters. The task force's recommendations will continue our leadership on those issues. And, importantly, they will establish a roadmap to stimulate renewable energy development in a way that is real and tangible."

About the Renewable Energy Task Force

Composed of 20 members, the Renewable Energy Task Force represents a diverse array of stakeholders in the renewable energy field, including the renewable energy and alternative fuel industries, environmental and agricultural communities, academia, public utilities, local and state government entities, and experts in energy policy, green building construction and economic development.

In September 2007, the task force held a public meeting in New York City to release its preliminary findings. The findings were based on recommendations developed by numerous task force subcommittees and vetted using the following criteria: what would generate the most renewable energy; what would have the most environmental benefit; and what would least impact ratepayers, taxpayers and consumers financially.

The details of the task force's first report were reached by a consensus of all of its members. Its final report is due in December 2008.

Sustainable communities are sometimes billed as "smart communities" and they face the new reality that the majority of people now live in urban areas.  That is a change as recent as 2006!  Along with that change, the US is now a consumer-based economy, with 70% of the economy dependent on consumers. That affects our balance of living spaces to work spaces.  Sustainable community design is thriving as urban in-fill reclaims used spaces and upgrades crumbling buildings.  Green building is part of this shift, but social concerns are also part of making communities more livable.

One example of the new vision of sustainable community development is VMWP, a San Francisco, CA based architecture and community design firm.

The driving mission behind Van Meter Williams Pollack LLP (VMWP) is community development. Their goal is to enhance the physical nature and identity of buildings, neighborhoods and cities, mending communities and creating memorable places in an environmentally responsible way. They achieve this by focusing their architecture and urban design practice on affordable housing, urban design, town planning and mixed-use development.

This sustainability-focused design firm chooses to serve clients who have a similar focus. They are committed to going the extra mile to create quality, both in the creative designs they put forth, and in the quality of service they offer to like-minded organizations and individuals.

One VMWP project that exemplifies their services is the  California Avenue Overlay District. You can download a PDF presentation with details about this development to savor the sustainable details for balancing resident concerns with community density challenges.

Involving the nearby residents in the design criteria phase of community development leads to a better end result that maintains livability standards, property values and neighborly feelings. The concerns identified in the California Avenue project are somewhat typical of resident concerns whenever a large development is inserted into a community.

Resident Concerns

Residents are concerned that high density development adjacent to their property will decrease their property values and lower their standard of living.

Transitions to existing low density neighborhoods cause political tension. Regulating transitional zones to higher densities can ease community concerns

Large site developments often cause community stress. (No one wants a large development in their
backyard) Requiring multiple housing types for large sites creates the sense of finer grain development and provides opportunities for transitional densities.

Regulation of building façade elements creates a positive public realm and pedestrian experience.

Early identification of  design criteria that are sorted and shaped to meet the local situation are part of the architect and developer's job before design of buildings and landscapes begins:

Context Based Design Criteria

1. Pedestrian and Bicycle Environment - promote walkability and connectivity.
2. Street Building Facades - promote a strong relationship with sidewalk and street.
3. Massing and Articulation - minimize massing and provide articulation.
4. Low-Density Residential Transitions - respect scale and privacy of adjacent properties.
5. Project Open Space - provide usable open space.
6. Parking Design - design parking subordinate to the character of building.
7. Large (multi-acre) Sites - building patterns consistent with surrounding neighborhood.
8. Sustainability - sustainability and green building design should be incorporated

Site-Specific Design Guidelines for this project included…

• Maintain View Corridors
• Restrict Mass along Tracks with daylight plane
• Require Landscaping
• Limit length of mass along tracks

VMWP  includes  some general development guidelines in their downloadable presentation to help other communities start the sustainable community process.

Making Zoning and Design Guidelines work for your community:

• Develop Regulations which support your Community’s greater Comprehensive Plan Policies.
• Work closely with your community to educate as well as demonstrate the positive aspects of TOD and higher densities.
• Promote Design Guidelines which support quality development and insure appropriate context based design responses.
• Develop Regulations which are clear for the Development Community and provide for feasible developments.
• Create a Review Process which is clear concise and does not require to great up-front cost to development while allowing appropriate community review.

VMWP Partners

Tim Van Meter, Architect | Partner

Mr. Van Meter’s experience has ranged widely from buildings, to landscape designs, to urban designs for districts and neighborhoods. As a partner in Van Meter Williams Pollack, Tim has focused on mixed use developments, urban infill projects and affordable housing.

Rick Williams, Architect | Partner

Mr. Williams’ work has been on the forefront of mixed use pedestrian and transit-oriented planning and urban design. The scale of projects range from residential developments, mixed-use neighborhoods and urban infill to community plans and new town proposals.

Fred Pollack, Architect | Partner

As a partner in Van Meter Williams Pollack, Mr. Pollack has focused on affordable housing, and mixed-use developments. Fred has been the Partner in Charge of VMWP’s larger projects, guiding the projects from design through construction and post occupancy.

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