Green Building Elements

San Francisco’s Union Square may be noted for its abundance of shopping, hotels, tourist joints, and even outside movies; but, a Green Home? Don’t call your Green Real Estate agent quite yet. The temporary green home occupied the prime real estate last week as part of the Better Homes and Gardens & Green Works Living Green exhibit.

The green traveling exhibit offered surprisingly educational and eye-catching examples of various water savings devices, energy star appliances, sustainable countertops, flooring, and furniture. Even though I didn’t stick around to hear the speakers (some of whom I know) the lineup offered an impressive array of green builders, designers and other knowledgeable types in the green industry.
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Harvard University has achieved several firsts with the recent renovation of an old power plant into an office building. It is the first LEED Platinum certified university building renovation, as well as Harvard’s first Platinum building. More interestingly though, it is the first Platinum building built before the turn of the the century–last century, that is.  Further, the university was able to complete this building without an increase in the up-front construction costs.

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It is possible to learn something in school. It’s even more possible to learn about sustainable building if you happen to be a student at Stanford or walk through the campus. In another push toward collegiate sustainability Stanford University proudly unveiled the Y2E2 (or for those less technical, the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building). Yes, the same Jerry Yang of Yahoo! fame.

The design engineers project the Y2E2 to use 56 percent less energy and 90 percent less potable water for fixtures than a comparable “dirty building.” How will it do that? From foundation to rooftop, the building offers various energy recovery and on-site power generation, as well as passive and active systems.

From top to bottom, Y2E2 has an array of sustainable features that fall under five categories: load reduction, passive systems, active systems, energy recovery and on-site generation. These five approaches are expected to slash the building’s power consumption by more than half. The four large atriums which serve as central light wells made us and the interior bask in the glow of natural light. Although not as glamorous, the nifty light shelves catch additional light and reflect it into the building.

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There are a number of regional blogs about green building that I follow, more or less, regularly.   Some of them are already in our blogroll (at the right), and we’re working to expand that list.   One of the best, in my opinion, is Green Bean, which covers green building in Chicago and the surrounding counties.  It’s tight in its focus because it deals only with the Chicago region, and it is focused on building projects that have been built or are under construction.  Each article is a case study of a green building in a few paragraphs.

Right now, its founder and editor, Erik, is looking for someone (or, more likely, several people)  to take over the blog for him.  Green Bean is clearly a labor of love but Erik has announced that he has some big changes coming up that are going to take him away and he is not going to be able to keep GreenBean going by himself.  He writes, that, because of a new job,  he is “…relocating to Stuttgart, Germany for 6-12 months, then to New York City.   In addition to this, we’re expecting our first child in April.”

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Daahling you look fab and Green. That’s what people may be saying after experiencing treatments in San Francisco’s eco-chic Epi Center MedSpa. Yes, the whole concept sounds soooo Los Angeles to me, too. Some of us don’t even get the whole mani-pedi thing so it might take a little coaxing to have some lipo or botox thing, even at this truly green spa. A facial might not be for all of us but we’re positively glowing when it comes to the soon to be certified LEED interior.

The Epi Center MedSpa will open its doors in April to commemorate both its 10th anniversary and Earth Day. We’re impressed with the project and the creative Green help, namely SF-based Organic Architect, Eric Corey Freed, (who’s now part of the literati with the recently released Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies), Eco-Fabulous founder and style guru Zem Joaquin who served as the “green style police,” and lead architect Justin Martinkovic.

Even though the spa isn’t quite finished we can see the Greenness with evidenced by the fact that the construction team lacks the surgeon-looking masks that can be seen on many construction jobs to protect from toxic substances and dust. Why? The air scrubber being used (see photo) maintains the healthy air quality on the site and keeps dusts and dangerous particles, the HEPA filter for tiny particles, and a charcoal filter for fumes and odors. Enough filters for ya?

Besides the whole clean air thing, the spa includes eco-creativity. I like that instead of using wood or bamboo panels the crew utilized recycled newspaper panels that they stained, sanded and cut into the ceiling panels. They went cradle to cradle by using carpet from Bentley Prints and natural tapped rubber for the cushions, which do not offgas and biodegrade. And even though they used marble, the fact they used recycled marble flooring and countertops, gave me reason to smile. Thank goodness that the powers that be decided on water filters versus those annoying unsustainable small plastic water bottles that so many spas offer.

Maybe now I’ll feel a little better about that tuck.

Here in the Bay Area, it’s not just Berkeley who’s showing Green Big Brother mentality. Green home building will be required from all new homes built in the unincorporated region of San Mateo County. The county supes this week voted to add sweeping green regulations to green construction requirements to take effect later this year.

The new regulations will cover homes and industrial projects. The Green commercial and industrial buildings can pass under the LEED system while residential properties can be gauged under Build it Green’s “Green Point Rated” system. Green Point Rated, a residential, Green rating system created by the Berkeley-based non profit, uses various point categories to achieve certification. For example, installing a range of Energy Star appliances is worth nine points and using low VOC paints and wood-coatings can garner six points. Homeowners can combine various point categories, as long as they add up to the magic 50 point total.

To be fair, this program does have its costs. Homeowners will have to pay a specialized green building inspector to verify their project for the county which will set them back about $800 to $1000, and for commercial owners it will cost from $2500 to $3500. Applicants will also be required to post a $5,000 bond prior to receiving a building permit, which will be released when the 50 points are verified.

Although I like this program, it does have shortcomings, however, such as not affording homeowners the incentive to obtain more than 50 points. Many people find the same issues with LEED rating system. People may think, “Why should I try for 60 points if it’s just going to cost more?” Home and commercial building owners may try for more points without considering the up-front cost, but it wouldn’t be a bad scenario if the County of San Mateo offered further incentives for higher points.

With little fanfare, Kimball Office opened their new San Francisco FiDi showroom with a quiet, green splash. Although they haven’t achieved LEED-CI status yet, they hope to gain gold certification soon. The architectural and design team over at Huntsman Architectural Group created a green space that we noticed as we stepped in. The design team reused stair posts to create the dramatic floor and 100% of the architectural wood elements are FSC certified. We even like the fact that they baked the oak instead of using chemical stain to achieve the deep, rich color.

It’s not often that we’re giddy about stepping into a bathroom but theirs has a gray (recycled) water system that reuses used sink water for the low-flow toilet. Kimball SF’s low-flow fixtures reduce their water consumption by a whopping 75%.

As Kimball sells office furniture it only makes sense for them to sell low or non-toxic furniture. About half of their display represents green furnishings. We would like to see this figure closer to 100%.

Even so, the SF Kimball office represents just another in a growing line of green Kimball Office showrooms as their Jasper, Indiana office rated Gold while the Chicago office earned a silver certification. Hopefully, their New York location will garner a gold certification.

The Pacific Northwest has a reputation for being progressive when it comes to green building, with Washington and Oregon setting the pace. But where does Alaska fit into the picture, and how do its green building efforts measure up?

With regard to the LEED program, Washington and Oregon each have certified or registered projects numbering in the hundreds. By comparison, Alaska has only three LEED certified buildings (A National Weather Service facility, a visitor’s center at Denali Park, and the Homer City Library) and less than 20 projects currently registered. Read the rest of this entry »

The city of Greensburg KS was nearly obliterated by an F5 tornado in May 2007. But turning the devestation into an opportunity, the city is looking to make its mark by rebuilding as a green community. The city has mandated that all city buildings larger than 4,000 sq. ft. must be built to LEED-Platinum level and must have an energy performance level at least 42% better than current building code requirements.

“The city of Greensburg has taken the extraordinary step of committing to rebuild their community to a new vision, not settling for simply recreating what had gone before,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “By committing to a recovery plan based on green building, the community’s leadership has set a path that will result in a healthier, more livable city for its citizens, turning a crisis into an opportunity that is an example for us all.”

After a disaster, it is difficult to take the time and effort to try to build something better than what had been present before. This mandate only applies to city buildings. But hopefully, the wider city itself will embrace this direction, and not only will city buildings, but the stores, offices, homes, and other buildings will likewise be built better, and greener, than what they are replacing.

We had heard a lot about the LEED Gold Gaia hotel in American Canyon (even we had to look up American Canyon and we live in San Fran) but we hadn’t actually visited it. Yes, we can only tell so much from a press release. The hotel, rather unassuming, sits right off busy Highway 29 just a short hop to both Napa and Sonoma Valley but once in the lobby or the rooms it’s not easy to hear any of the traffic. But onto the Green stuff. When checking in, it’s hard not to notice the kiosks with “green touch screens” which display how much water, electricity savings and how much CO2 the hotel emits. The overhead Solatube Tubular skylights represented an even more impressive aspect. Even on the cloudy day, the lobby had no artificial lighting, but you wouldn’t know it but the amount of natural light.

We got one of the choice rooms overlooking the man made lagoon which plays home to koi, frogs, various plant life and Artemis and Apollo (two impressive swans that live in the lagoon and strut their way around most of the hotel). By the way, the koi pond uses recycled water from the site which they clean and filter prior to entering the pond.

The sparten yet comfortable rooms offer lots of Green aspects. Small things like offering fair trade, organic coffee and not having those tiny shampoo bottles littering the bathroom made a big difference. Here they provide shampoo, lotion in bulk dispensers. We also like that all restrooms use recycled tiles and granite. While in the bathroom, we give wet kudos to the water saving low flow showerhead, which offer plenty of water pressure for one person (but not two, if you catch our drift).

We slept easy not only with a comfy, firm mattress but breathing easy with the low VOC paints were used throughout the rooms and rest of the hotel. It also helped us to know that solar panels provide 12% of the hotel’s electricity.

We know that a boutique type hotel needs a relaxing but unsustainable hot tub (yes, we partook and didn’t feel guilty) but we didn’t feel too keen about the microwave that inhabited our room but even with the little monster we felt pretty energized about our stay. It sure beats a stay in an unsustainable Motel 6.

We could very well come all the way to wine country without visiting some organic, sustainable and do we dare say biodynamic wineries. Stay tuned.