National Geographic’s The Green Guide

I served on the advisory board for National Geographic’s recently published book, Green Guide: The Complete Reference for Consuming Wisely. It’s filled with practical advice about greener living, from healthy eating to green remodeling to eco-friendly travel. Check it out on Amazon.com.

Multifamily Green Building Guidelines

Multifamily Green Building Guidelines

If you design, build, develop or own multifamily residential buildings in California, check out the 2008 edition of the Multifamily Green Building Guidelines. Just released by StopWaste.Org, the Guidelines provide comprehensive technical information about how to build and retrofit multifamily green buildings. The Guidelines were originally released in 2004; this new edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect advances in green building practices and products.

I served as the editor of this 242-page book, the nation’s most comprehensive source of information about multifamily green buildings. You can download an electronic copy for free at www.StopWaste.org  or you can buy a hard copy at www.BuildItGreen.org.

Green Rehab Guide available

If you own or manage multifamily residential buildings, you’ll benefit from the new resource guide, Green Rehabilitation of Multifamily Rental Properties. It’s available to download for free from Bay Area Local Initiative Support Corp. (LISC), or you can buy a hard copy for $20.

I served as the editor of this Green Rehab guide. It’s filled with cost-effective tips and strategies for making multifamily rental buildings more energy efficient and healthy.

GreenPoint Rated Condos by Lorax Development

Here’s a link to an article I wrote for ArchNewsNow about a GreenPoint Rated condo project built by Lorax Development in San Francisco. GreenPoint Rated is a seal of approval that grades new and existing homes based on their performance in five categories, including energy efficiency.

Recommended: Path to Freedom

Path to Freedom video brochure. In this 18-minute web video, meet Jules Dervaes and his three children, eco-pioneers who have turned their Pasadena, California, home into an integral urban homestead. Highlights include alternative energy systems, chickens, ducks and miniature goats, and an edible landscape that produces three tons of organic food each year on one-tenth of an acre. pathtofreedom.com

Recommended: The Return of the Solar Cat Book

The Return of the Solar Cat Book by Jim Augustyn. Greening your house doesn’t mean you have to check your sense of humor at the door. In this update to his 1979 solar energy classic, Augustyn mixes cat wisdom and humor with science and eco-politics. solarcat.com

Refrigerator Madness

As the average U.S. house size increases, refrigerators seem to be multiplying like rabbits.

Sun Frost’s RF16, a super-efficient refrigerator with a freezer on top, consumes a miserly 254 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Info: www.sunfrost.com

While it isn’t yet keeping me awake at night, I have to admit that I’m a tad alarmed by all the refrigerators popping up in American homes.

Convenience is king, and as the average house size continues to increase, refrigerators seem to be multiplying like rabbits to fill up all that space.

In luxury homes today, I often see several refrigerators in the kitchen: a large primary refrigerator, a smaller snack and beverage fridge for the kids, and maybe a wine cooler for the adults. If there’s a bar in the great room or living room, there’s likely a compact fridge underneath it. The master suite might have its own mini fridge holding milk for the morning cappuccino, or there might be a refrigerated drawer in the bathroom for medicine and cosmetics.

Peek in the garage or basement and you’re likely to find another full-size refrigerator or freezer.

Getting a Green Life: The 2030 ºChallenge

“We have ten years to get our act together.”
—Edward Mazria quoting James Hansen,
NASA’s leading authority on climate change

 I’m still charged up two months after hearing architect Edward Mazria’s keynote speech at the West Coast Green conference in San Francisco.

His topic? The role of the building community in contributing to global climate change and peak oil. Buildings account for 48 percent of all energy consumed in the United States. Clearly, we can’t reverse trends in greenhouse gas emissions without a revolution in design and construction practices. 

Mazria is the driving force behind the 2030 ºChallenge (architecture2030.org), a call to the architecture and building community to immediately cut fossil fuel energy use by 50% in all new buildings and major renovation projects. The goals escalate to a 90% reduction by 2025 and carbon-neutral by 2030.

While Mazria holds architects’ feet to the global-warming fire, I suggest we broaden the challenge. How low can each of us go with fossil fuel use in our homes? And an equally vital question—how can we accomplish this not in a spirit of fear and reactivity but in a spirit of joy and creativity?

Act now to cut winter energy bills

“Energy, like money, is much more easily saved than generated.”
—Bill Mollison, cofounder of the permaculture design system

UltraTouch insulation is made from 85% post-industrial recycled denim and other cotton textiles (bondedlogic.com).

Now that the crazy days of summer are winding down, it’s a good time to plan for how to manage energy costs this fall and winter. While the escalating price of energy may be out of our control, the amount of energy we use is up to us. Small and large steps to cut energy consumption around the home make a difference not just to our wallets and comfort but to global security and sustainability.

Schedule energy tune-up tasks for a couple of weekend mornings or afternoons over the next few months, and come winter you, your home and your bank account will be better prepared to ride out the chill. If you live in a warm-winter climate, keep in mind that many of these steps will cut cooling or lighting costs year round.

Did you know?

Amount of water an average household will save per year by not pre-rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher: 6,500 gallons

Increase in a refrigerator’s energy consumption if it has an ice-maker and through-the-door water/ice dispenser: 14 to 20%