More stuff about buildings and food

As I was putting some jelly on bread the other day, I got to thinking about how we get our food. Industrial farms use petroleum based fertilizer, harvest their crops with either huge machinery or often exploited migrant workers, process and store the food in refrigerated containers, ship it across the country to distribution centers, then it is trucked to stores to which we drive our cars (sometimes many miles away) to buy this “fresh” food. Even if what we are buying would naturally grow in our local environment, usually it is produced somewhere else and shipped to us. In most places, fresh, local food is hard to find except in local farmer’s markets. When in season, we are often lucky enough to get fruits and vegetables that actually taste like what they are supposed to. But we get so used to eating them all the time that we continue to buy them when they are out of season, usually bearing only a vague resemblance to the in-season product. Personally I am not a big tomato eater, but I certainly wouldn’t bother with those pale red balls available in the winter. I definitely avoid overpaying for tasteless berries in the off season, even though I miss them. We should be eating more naturally “processed” foods- jellies, nut butters, canned tomatoes, beans, etc. when they are not in season instead of paying too much for bad imitations that have been shipped half way around the world to our supermarkets. Hopefully these foods will someday be grown locally in large enough supplies so we can all taste them when they are perfectly fresh, then eat them out of jars and cans in the off season, or just remember how they tasted until they reappear next year. We want the real thing, but we just can’t get it, so we settle for a pale imitation of the fruit we remember.

How does this relate to buildings, and in particular, building green? Think back to how buildings were built in generations and millennia past – passive solar cave dwellings in the southwestern US that stay cool in the blistering sun and warm over cold nights; southern bungalows with wide porches to shade from the summer sun, open hallways for ventilation, and high ceilings to keep the living areas cooler. Examples of appropriate regional architecture can be found everywhere, but building professionals have ignored them for years, recreating English castles in the bayou, Mediterranean villas in the north, Cape Cods in the Pacific Northwest, and the list goes on. We build homes with flat roofs and no overhangs where there are torrential rains, practically guaranteeing building failure. We take homes out of their natural environment, ship them (theoretically) across the country to another climate and, poof, they start underperforming, just like the out of season fruit shipped across the country. Think of these incorrectly located buildings like out of season strawberries – they are pale imitations of buildings. We need to get back to the basics by working to keep both our food and our buildings in their natural environments. We will be happier and healthier as a result.

Green or Wrong

Build it green or build it wrong. Yep, I said it. Green is right. If you don’t build green, you are doing at least some of your work wrong. Not all of it, but certainly some of it. If you are building everything the right way, then you are probably building green, or very close. I am totally over the nay-sayers who don’t believe that you can seal a crawlspace or build a house very tight. I gave a presentation on Green Building last year in Michigan and there were two old-school builders who consistently argued with me, insisting that they could never do the things I was suggesting - all of which were fairly standard high performance building techniques. During this exchange, another builder stood up and asked the group if their business was slow. Almost the entire room raised their hands, agreeing that business was off. The builder said that he built green, did most of the things I was talking about, and he had a one year backlog of work. After hearing that, the two old codgers left the room and let me get back to my presentation. Unfortunately for them, they could not deal with the idea of so much change and had to move to the denial stage. My sincere hope is that they are the minority in the industry. Practicing building professionals need to make the transition to green building sooner rather than later. If they don't, they need consider getting out of the business. Maybe look at selling used cars.

What is Really Green?

I recently read an incredible book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. He writes about the food industry - industrialized farming, huge cattle feedlots, how corn is a prevalent ingredient in almost everything we consume, and other delightful subjects. It is enough to make you stop eating altogether. One subject he addresses is the idea of organic food. While its origins go back to JJ Rodale’s magazine Organic Gardening and Farming, first published in the 1940’s, the organic movement began to take off in the 1970’s fueled by an idealistic generation looking for change. We have recently seen an incredible resurgence in interest in organic food, but, interestingly, much of the food labeled organic is now produced on enormous factory farms rather than by the independent, local farmers that we see displayed in the pastoral pictures on the walls of Whole Foods. This is not to say that organic food is not better than regular food, but the requirements for "official" organic certification are costly enough that many small, natural, sustainable farmers are unable to have their food certified to meet the legal standards of “organic”.

That was a rather long way of getting to my point, which is, how are we to define “green” buildings? There is in the range of 100 different green building programs in operation today. These are run by utilities, HBA’s, cities, states, counties, non-profit and for-profit organizations, and the US government. They all have different, though similar, criteria, and varying levels of testing, from none to extensive, to certify a project as “green”. So where does that leave us? Like the natural farmers, there are likely contractors out there who are building green homes that meet or exceed the highest levels in the industry, but because they may not have the ability or money to certify through an official green building program, they may not get the recognition they deserve. On the other hand, there are some programs that have a low entry level and require no independent verification of the work, thereby allowing homes to be labeled “green” that may not even meet the building and energy code, and certainly do not perform as well as other unlabeled homes.

I don’t have an answer to this, although we may see one, or many, forthcoming in the next few years as green building programs start the big shake out and various governments start providing incentives and requirements for buildings to be built and remodeled green. Stay tuned – it will be a fun ride.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Walking Tall

Made it until Saturday before I drove again, and the only reason I did get in my car was to drive out to the local bike trail and do a long training ride. I plan to go close to another week without driving. The last week was interesting, took mass transit several times, bicycled to some stores, walked more. Feeling better, sleeping better, and maybe even losing some weight. The reason this is working is because the weather is great. I will have trouble avoiding my car when the temperature and humidity are both in the 90's in the summer and during our occassional cold winter days.
In any case, it is an interesting experiment, one I will do my best to keep up with.

Weird man walking (and riding) redux

Out of the blue, partially inspired by the insane gas crisis in Atlanta, I decided to see how long I could go without driving. Today is Wednesday, and the last time I was in my car was Saturday. Granted, I work out of my house, so it isn’t as difficult as it is for many, but I have made some big changes in the way I operate to accomplish this.

Sunday I rode about 3 miles to do some shopping, then rode to play Ultimate (my last gasp at retaining what little youth I have left)– the ride there was fine, the ride back less so. Monday I worked out of my home office all day, then rode about 8 miles to a meeting, and back home afterwards. I slept well. Tuesday I took MARTA, the local mass transit system, to a doctor’s appointment. A short (1/2 Mile) walk to the train station, read the paper on the ride, then about 2 blocks to the office. Nice weather, and it only took me about a half hour longer than if I had driven, and the cost was about the same as what I would have paid for parking. Later that day, another 3 mile (6 round trip) bike ride for some shopping, and walked to a local watering hole for a drink with a friend after dinner. Wednesday morning, I rode a few miles to a yoga class (man, am I a stereotype or what?), then back home. Went downtown by train to a meeting, then rode my bike to the local organic farmer’s market for some vegetables for dinner. Tomorrow, I plan to do another bike ride to go buy a new refrigerator – Energy Star tax holiday in Georgia – and no, I won’t take it home on the bicycle. Later that night, I am really excited, I am going to see my idol, Lewis Black, in concert. Need to figure out the arrangements, but I will either ride or take MARTA to a friend’s house. I have dinner plans Friday night with friends, they are figuring out how to accomodate my new religion. My plan is to not use my car for at least a week. Stay tuned.