Even at the peak of the hurricane season (which falls right now, as you read this), Florida is a wonderful place to live. The people are friendly and at no time are we far from the beach. The natural beauty which fills the Sunshine State comes with a price, however, high dew points and humidity during more than half the year. In addition to lots of perspiration and steady work for air conditioning repair technicians, Florida’s climate has another byproduct, mold.

In other parts of the United States which have 4 distinct seasons, mold is less of an issue and it usually affects clothing and luggage more than buildings. The solution can be as simple as storing those articles in the cellar until fall. For people like Nonnie Chrystal and her husband Mark, however, seaside Florida living can be moldy, just as it is for most every Floridian.

The warning signs which the 2007 hurricane season is sending us about the future have been all bad. The lessons of 2004 and 2005 went beyond the obvious such as horrible wind damage and loss of life to huge storm surges and the connection between Hurricane Katrina and mold. Even as the painful Gulf Coast reconstruction process continues at a pace which satisfies no one, those of us trying to warn the world of what is to come focus on the atmospheric side of those tragic years, too.

The record-setting storm known as Katrina, which killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more, accelerated from Category 1 to Category 5 in three days’ time. Such a pace of intensification had not been seen before. Well, Katrina’s pedal-to-the-metal record now has been broken, just two years later, by Felix, which accelerated from Category 1 to Category 5 in just over two days’ time. In short, North America must be ready for big storms.

When I was growing up in New England, I used to chuckle at neighbors and members of our church who wintered in Florida. These snow birds struck me as not being fully in tune with their surroundings. I was wrong! The opposite was true!

Simply put, living comfortably in Florida involves climate control technology about half the year, much as it does in New England. By alternating halves, people can reduce their energy consumption significantly. Recently, I told you about Nonnie Chrystal and her husband Mark, creators and builders of Florida's Showcase Green Envirohome. Nonnie and Mark seek to continue living in Florida year-round, just as my wife Catrin and I do.

The term megacity is defined as a metropolitan center with at least 10,000,000 people. In the year 1950, the world had a single megacity, New York. Today, we have 15 and are headed for a great many more. This is significant to the question of global warming because the average city dweller uses 3 units of energy for every 1 unit produced whereas your average farmer who does not use an excess of mechanized equipment lives at roughly a 1:1 average.

In the United States, the average city dweller consumes 5 units of energy for every unit produced! In other words, we Americans do not live efficiently and the world is following our lead – not a good trend! It is for this reason that environmentalists point to reforming city lifestyles as one of the best ways to begin reversing the climate crisis. I concur fully but we must do more than teach the people to live greener and retrofit buildings to use less energy. We must control urban heat islands, too.

Your wait is over! For roughly a month now, I’ve teased you with morsels of information about the Green Earth Expo and its significance not just for Florida but all of North America and beyond. If you want to skip my rambling and jump right to the event website, just have a look at the links section of the left navigation pane of this page and click on www.globalgreenalliance.com

The Green Earth Expo aims to be the ultimate green living show. Its intent is to promote green living and commerce – so that everyone who wants to live green possesses the necessary information and has access to vendors of green products and services. Since Florida is America’s front line in the battle against rising seas and other effects of global warming, the emphasis of the first annual event will be on Florida businesses and Floridians but by no means will any attendees be denied entry.

Green sustainable modular buildings can offer advantages over conventional construction through economies of scale and waste stream reduction because entire sections are prefabricated. The building industry is to be commended for its accomplishments in this regard. When designing Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome, though, Nonnie Chrystal sought to do more. She wanted the world’s greenest home which also was as resistant to hurricanes as any above-ground structure could be.

In achieving her goal, Nonnie employed a whole host of innovative technologies in order to make it happen. Last month, I brought Nonnie and her husband Mark to the offices of Global Green Alliance in Orlando to record a video series on the subject. The results of that video shoot now are live.

I have created a playlist of 10 segments on Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome and you are more than welcome to watch the whole thing at

The concept of a Clean Air Act impact on oriented strand board industry practices and profits may seem far-fetched but I ask that you bear with me. There is a crucial point here.

In the video series which I shot with Nonnie Chrystal regarding Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome, Nonnie gives several explanations about wood-frame construction and why she avoided it for her amazing project. One of the reasons stems from drawbacks of oriented strand board, such as particle board, which can be highly flammable and/or emit toxic gases which become a grave health concern during periods of long confinement.

Nonnie’s solution comprises multiple technologies which are explained in the video series and my favorite is Armoroc. Not only does it contribute tremendously to the home’s superb resistance to hurricanes but the ingredients used in the manufacturing of Armoroc can be assembled cleaner than with conventional materials. It’s a win-win!

Last week, I told you about the need to shift some of our attention toward reforestation projects in California now that recovery from the devastating series of brush, forest and wild fires has begun. This moment also presents an excellent opportunity to explore the practicality of green building vs. traditional building in California and elsewhere.

The conversations I have had with builders and people engaged in the green building movement have led to a single answer to the question of practicality: done wisely, the price differential of green building vs. traditional building need be only about 10%. Of course, that statistic only indicates raw construction cost and in no way reflects the immediate savings in energy expenses which will result as soon as occupancy begins.

If the difference in cost of green building vs. traditional building is so narrow, why has it not become more prevalent? The reasons are varied. Some development companies claim that their customers seldom ask about green building practices and options. In other places, there is a lack of experienced civil engineers who can guide the process of building structures to green standards such as L.E.E.D.

2008 has been an historic year yet it barely has begun. Given that 2007 was the second-warmest year on record, the alignment of environmental and market forces to move us toward a more sustainable future could not be needed more urgently. Green building plans are an excellent way to begin addressing the vast challenges of a changing climate and in recent weeks they received a warm embrace from factions within California’s construction industry.

In the United States, energy for buildings (cooling, electricity, heating, etc.) accounts for 40% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Of that, homes are a significant contributor. Anything we can do to reduce those numbers can produce a dramatic and immediate benefit. However, until this month, collaborations between builders, real estate managers and environmentalists were rare to say the least.

In short, environmental considerations and practices were determined in corporate board rooms and environmentalists seldom were offered a seat at the table. Fortunately, the situation has begun to change and California has taken up a leadership role, especially in the northern region.

What changed? How have we progressed to having not just a genuine dialog between opposing camps but collaboration and alliances? The simple fact is that some of the opponents to California’s green building plan realized that there are green backs to be made in green building and switched sides of the argument.

I’d like to remain with the California theme which I have embraced this month and give you a bit of follow-up coverage at the same time. Electronic waste is a serious problem and one which must be tackled by the business community and government in tandem. I recently shared with you a handy website maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency for recycling of electronic waste through the Plug-In To eCycling program. The URL is:

http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/plugin/partners.htm

Apple is not one of the companies listed. I found that surprising since it has a comprehensive program for recycling electronic waste as part of its larger environmental efforts. For that, Steve Jobs is to be commended, although there is almost always room to do more.

One example is in the design phase. At the risk of allowing this thread to become a commercial advertisement (I do not own Apple products), I would like to turn your attention to the recent announcement by Steve Jobs of the new MacBook Air.

As I explained in a recent posting here, about 40% of the energy used in the United States is for buildings and homes constitute a large portion of that. Since everyone needs a place to live and since one indication of a person’s socioeconomic status is the site of one’s dwelling, the aforementioned statistic should come as little surprise.

If we want to do something about wasted energy, we must approach the problem from every angle, including residential construction, including educating the public, mandating green building standards in new structures and encouraging the application of strict efficiency standards in remodeling projects.

That’s a tall order to fill. Fortunately, there are excellent websites such as www.HomeEnergy.org which provide us with oodles of material. In fact, so much good material can be found there that the site is worthy of use in any living green curriculum for classroom instruction. Likewise, for those of who no longer attend school but wish to go green in a house design or remodeling project, it is a superb place to go.

In recent posts, I have tiptoed around politically sensitive topics. Today’s thread will be no different. However, I ask that you strive to remain focused on the environmental theme at the core of the story. Folks in the United Arab Emirates are building a new metropolis, called Masdar City. Green sustainable modular buildings are a central theme and many topographic design principles borrow from mutualism in the desert.

At the following URL, you will find some interesting coverage of Masdar City. I ask that you pay particular attention to the 5½-minute video. It contains some exaggerations about carbon neutrality and the achievement of a zero waste stream. Nevertheless, Masdar City will be an impressive metropolis when complete (assuming that it lives up to its own hype).

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/solar-city-to-rise-in-persian-gulf-why-not-arizona

The National Home Builders Association (NAHB) is one of the loudest and most influential voices in residential construction in North America. I have been pleased to see NAHB take important steps toward embracing green home building requirements. In fact, they were included in the New American Home 2006 project just a 30-minute drive from my home in Orlando. The finished product is pictured above and at the end of this thread.

If you would like to learn more, I encourage you to watch the video clip linked below. It was the promotional piece shown in advance of the 2006 builders show but remains informative on the question of green home building requirements and the construction industry. In short, the message of green building has begun to permeate.

http://www.buildersshow.com/documents/newamericanhome/newamericanhomemid.wvx

As a zealous environmentalist, though, I can’t allow the discussion to stop with one commendable home project, especially since residences are a large contributor to global warming through inefficiencies in energy use - and because the New American Home 2006 falls into the popular culture definition of McMansion.

“Enough people think climate change is real to cause developers to change the way we do business.”

- Professor Steven Kellenberg, University of Southern California

Principal, EDAW Green Communities initiative

The 2008 International Solar Cities Congress was an amazing event. When it comes to the environment, I am a very tough audience and am delighted to report to you that I learned many exciting facts at the event in Adelaide. Having returned from it just a few short weeks ago, I did not think that I would attend a conference or forum which surpassed it but, lo and behold, I just did.

Mere hours ago, I returned home from the Urban Land Institute’s Sustainable Communities forum just a 20-minute drive from my home. A very prestigious event, the full name was Creating Sustainable Communities: Strategies for Succeeding in Florida’s Unique Environment. It was superb! Our keynote speaker traveled all the way from California to make the statement quoted at the beginning of this thread during his broader and truly fascinating slideshow presentation.

My friend, the 2007 landmark California green building plan represents a quantum leap in the green building movement!

Professor Kellenberg’s presentation was about much more, though, than how he and his colleagues have worked to convert opponents to California’s green building plan into true believers. He also shared with us the myriad economic and social benefits of green office building innovations and their residential counterparts and the fact that more and more developments around America and the whole world are adhering to green building plans.

Here are two quick statistics:

Guy Dauncey is an environmental pioneer. He’s one of the good guys. As president of the British Columbia Sustainable Energy Association, he continues to accomplish many great deeds for the cause of sustainability, such as the British Columbia provincial government’s Solar Hot Water Acceleration Project. Mr. Dauncey is quoted widely and one of his current recurring themes is that of the Triple Bottom Line.

Simply put, we sustainability experts know that businesses which go green and stay that way expose themselves to additional opportunities which conventional businesses could not seize. Capsulated into a single concept, this is the triple bottom line (TBL).

Born of green office building innovations, the TBL is the intersection of economic success, social equity and environmental sustainability. Think of it as holistic sustainability. Companies which excel at the TBL enter a market segment known as eco-luxury.

A distant cousin of eco-tourism, eco-luxury is a group of goods and services for clients who wish to engage in green commerce and for whom price is a secondary consideration. I will cover this growing trend in future posts but I wanted to make you aware of the scope of the movement today because it refers back quite nicely to its origins, green office building innovations.

The sprawling college town of Gainesville, Florida is situated about a 3-hour drive from my home in the heart of one of the most biodiverse wildlife corridors in North America. If the town of Gainesville is the heart, then the primary campus of the University of Florida is the left ventricle, for it keeps things flowing.

While it still has much work to do, I am proud to report that the University of Florida is among the growing list of schools working to go green. It has made a significant investment in sustainability and other environmental programs for students, alumni and the general public alike through its Solutions For Your Life initiative, among other efforts.

Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to hear a presentation by Dr. Pierce Jones who runs the school’s Program for Resource Efficient Communities, affectionately known as Build Green. Due to time constraints of a packed seminar roster, Dr. Jones limited his remarks to the subject of the efficient use of potable groundwater resources. He did a wonderful job!

In its January/February 2008 issue, Natural Home Magazine published an impressive list of the top 10 best green-built neighborhoods in America, including the Navy Yard at Noisette in South Carolina, which claims to be the most sustainable community in the United States.

I will allow the public relations departments of the other 9 featured projects to vie for the true definition of success and turn my focus to a recurring theme here in my section of Keyboard Culture, that of green sustainable modular buildings. They are very much a part of the Noisette project, as they no doubt are in the others.

Habitat for Humanity benefits greatly from the close association and visibility of Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States, and his beloved wife, Rosalynn. However, this fine organization, which addresses a key area of human need, affordable housing, does not operate without controversy, not of a political nature but an environmental one. Some of my allies in the environmental community maintain that all projects which Habitat for Humanity undertakes should employ green building practices. They have a point.

Habitat for Humanity does fine, commendable work but there's room for improvement on the environmental front.

Now, in the aftermath of the Midwest flooding of 2008, when Habitat for Humanity prepares to tackle yet another housing crisis, we have a duty to emphasize the green building practices used by Habitat for Humanity, especially their application of optimized value engineering (OVE).

Beginning with my next post, I will cover green building practices in greater depth than I have at any time in the 10 months I have been an expert here on KBC. The good news is that great strides have been made just in the last year or so, particularly in the area of optimized value engineering, the quest to strike a balance between erecting greener structures and keeping the cost of labor and materials in check.

Habitat for Humanity, of course, controls labor costs through altruism and community engagement which President and Mrs. Carter help to foment. Good for them! As a commercial enterprise, though, we must employ green building practices within the context of optimized value engineering at all times. Fortunately, the Habitat for Humanity standard can help there, too.

Last month, I told you about a green building project in South Carolina, the Navy Yard at Noisette. It was featured along with 9 other green building projects in the first issue of 2008 of Natural Home Magazine. In addition to shining the international spotlight on praiseworthy undertakings, the magazine article helps us address the practicality of green building vs. traditional building methods and the larger issue of triple bottom line sustainability.

One commendable real estate initiative which was not included in Natural Home Magazine’s coverage is Playa Vista in Los Angeles, California. In addition to being located in an area with an accelerating turn toward green building vs. traditional building methods, Los Angeles has a climate nearly ideal for demonstrating green builder homes in high desert surroundings.

Few places on the planet call for the use of green building methods more than the desert. Residents are under threat of death from exposure most every day of the year. Likewise, water shortages are chronic. However, desert climes also can be quite attractive. Where, then, do these seemingly contradictory forces meet? The triple bottom line of sustainability is the answer.

Air pollution has no long-term benefits. There are short-term economic benefits to some because they have learned to turn a profit from directly or indirectly spewing air pollution into the atmosphere. It is a well-documented fact which no credible person would dispute that air pollution is bad for people and wildlife. What, though, is the effect air pollution has on the Earth’s ecosystem and what can we do about it?

The effect is broad but can be summarized concisely: air pollution, as a component of global warming, disrupts the ability of the atmosphere to regulate itself, leading to erratic weather patterns. In turn, these patterns impinge upon natural systems and we wind up with a big mess, including insect species where they don’t belong, melting glaciers, widespread famines and the list goes on.

Last time, I told you that cost can be a downside to green building practices but that a proper calculation of the cost must include the question of infrastructure and the overall effect on natural systems. Since transportation is the greatest source of pollution when communities are established or expanded, our measurements must include the transportation infrastructure and the impact of such on natural systems.

Green builder homes can assist with both questions because they have a reduced impact on the environment in their construction and operation but also on infrastructure since they consume less energy. I maintain, however, that we must go much further, to include the triple bottom of sustainability, which I have covered here recently at KBC, as well as the even larger aspect of sustainability, the integrated design process.

Earlier this month, the world mourned and commemorated the 40th anniversary of a moment in global history, the soul-shattering assassination of the Reverend Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.

The occasion was marked by various public events and extensive coverage by the news media. I wouldn’t have it any other way. What was covered less, however, was the Dream Reborn Conference in Memphis, Tennessee. It took place in parallel with and in honor of Martin Luther King’s vision of national unity.

The vision of Van Jones and the Green For All Initiative is lovely. It focuses on bright futures, bright for the United States as we embrace the positive economic impact by using solar energy and bright because programs such as Solar Richmond help bring the long-term goal of color-blind economic opportunity which Dr. King helped foment to fruition.

In February of this year, my wife Catrin and I had the great pleasure and privilege of traveling to Adelaide, Australia for the third International Solar Cities Congress. Living in Florida as we do, we assumed that we could tolerate the arid summer weather which the state of South Australia had in store for us. We were wrong.

As it turned out, the damage to our planet’s ozone layer, which received so much attention during the 1980’s and was supposed to be ameliorated by the global ban on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), has left a lingering effect Down under, oppressive solar radiation. As a result, although we managed to arrange our schedule so that we saw many wonderful sites and sounds, we also spent much more time indoors than we originally had planned.

In the spring of 2007, a 2-mile-wide tornado sliced through the town of Greensburg, Kansas, leaving an unspeakable trail of destruction in its wake. If the survivors of that awful night had decided to pick of the pieces of what remained and move elsewhere, no one would have blamed them. Instead, they stayed put. In effect, they said that no tragedy, even the now-famous Kansas tornado, was enough to make them leave.

This tale of courage doesn’t end there, though. No, the survivors of the Kansas tornado of 2007 decided to do their part to reduce the frequency and strength of future killer storms. They drew a line in the fertile prairie soil and declared that Greensburg would be rebuilt green. The results have been impressive. Entirely new structures have been designed and erected to green building standards and the local John Deere dealership has embraced wind power.

The survivors of the Greensburg, Kansas tornado of 2007 know that global warming causes cyclones to form more frequently and achieve higher wind speeds. They also know that burning fossil fuels is a significant contributor to global warming. So, they made municipal recovery and atmospheric recovery part of the same plan.

I began this top 7 list series with an exhortation to choose a cause and apply it in your life. Since there are so very many humanitarian causes which are aided by the fight against global warming and its impacts, you really can’t go wrong in your selection, whether you believe in the science of global warming or not.

So, if my previous posts have driven you to choose a cause, great! Now, get on with it! Get going! If you haven’t chosen a cause, I will take an even stronger swing at you, citing a very specific example of an initiative which makes tree huggers like me smile and has very real humanitarian benefits.

When I’m done, you’ll see how wonderful it is and feel a bit intimidated, I hope, because with schools working to go green by aiding reforestation projects in conflict zones and with you sitting on the sidelines, the need for swift action should propel you off the couch.

Since becoming a professional environmentalist a few years ago, I have come to understand the profound ability to effect real change of the simple, 2-syllable question Why not?

Today, Spain is a world leader in encouraging its citizens to go solar because more than a decade ago, a newly-elected city councilman in the Mediterranean haven of Barcelona noted that few if any citizens harnessed the sun to heat their water. His response? Why not?

His question was answered with, “That’s not the way we do things.” yet he persisted. Over time, heating water with sunshine in a city with hundreds of sunny days per year simply made too much sense and it became standard procedure. Soon, it was the standard for the whole Spanish state of Cataluña and eventually, the whole country. Is there power in Why not? You betcha!

There are countless other examples in history. The Green Earth Expo, which just concluded its first event last month in Orlando, Florida, is a poignant one. The way it came into being began with the question Why not? and then morphed into a kernel of an idea when I asked Jim Griffin, Why don’t you have a global warming trade show?

The vast hall of the Orange County Convention Center which hosted the inaugural Green Earth Expo facilitated a heavy focus on solar power. It was a good thing, too! When Jim Griffin and I conceived the Green Earth Expo, we spoke at length about how silly it is that the Sunshine State does not lead the world in the adoption of solar.

At that moment (and during the countless planning meetings in which I participated with Jim and his staff), I failed to anticipate just how zealous the crowd at the Expo would be about the current status of solar power for residential use when the Expo finally occurred. The intensity was something to behold.

Jim and I were delighted that multiple solar contractors and installers from Florida participated as exhibitors, panelists and speakers at the Green Earth Expo. They did a very good job because the current state of solar power for residential use by far gathered the most interest at the event.

Wondering as to the extent? Well, allow me to give you a firsthand example.

Back in March, I told you about an amazingly green housing project in South Carolina, the Navy Yard at Noisette. The developers and everyone in the community can be very proud of the accomplishments but some of their fellow Carolinians took the Noisette project as a challenge to elevate the design of passive solar ranch homes to a whole new level.

Meet the Furman Cliffs Cottage. An impressive collaboration between Furman University, Johnston Design Group, Innocenti & Webel, Triangle Construction and others, the Furman Cliffs Cottage has set a new standard for passive solar ranch homes in a novel way.

"Okotoks can fairly call itself the greenest community in Canada, maybe the world."

– Stephen Harper

Prime Minister of Canada

The Drake Landing Solar Community, in Okotoks, Alberta has reached a highly commendable and very remarkable milestone in passive solar house design, blending geothermal heating in the summertime with year-round solar water heating. That may read like a mouthful but, in short, this 52-home solar community in Central Canada soaks up heat in the summer and uses it to keep families warm in the winter while using just the tiniest fraction of grid power and natural gas versus what it would through conventional design.

Now, we’re talking!

Last month, I told you about the Drake Landing Solar Community, which the Prime Minister of Canada dubbed the greenest community in Canada. It’s an impressive project and the fact that the 52-unit community sold out before construction was complete points us to an important question. What are the mortgage costs of a green home?

The answer is, the increase in the up-front costs (which affect the monthly payment) minus the amortized savings in the homeowners’ energy costs.

The formula may sound complex but its bottom line involves just two computations, both percentages. The rule of thumb within the green building industry is that a green home costs 10% more to build if the green attributes are included in the project from the outset. Hence, the mortgage costs of a green home will be about 10% higher when all is said and done. However, the average green home consumes well in excess of 10% less energy than its conventional counterpart.