Rachel Grossman on Tuesday, 12 April 2011 19:02
Building Green - Today and Tomorrow
On March 24th, the Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning hosted “Building Green, Today and Tomorrow” at the Googleplex, which showcased the advantages and benefits of green building. Josiah Raison of Design Ecology began his presentation by introducing the “funnel theory” of City planning. Per this concept, Cities are like funnels, they channel in natural resources like water, food, and energy, and channel out waste products. This system has worked until very recently, as nature has been able to provide and absorb all that humans need and produce. However, this system is now breaking down, and we need to make changes to address the impacts we are having on the ecosystem.
The statistics provided by Mr. Raison were staggering. For example, 39 percent of the fresh water utilized in the United States is used to cool power plants. Mr. Raison emphasized the need to build smarter and more sustainably in order to address this challenge. One innovative concept he discussed was using a vegetated outer “skin” for buildings composed of local flora, which enables rainwater harvesting and filtering, and then utilizing the water to cool the building. He closed by articulating that our development needs to be the solution. If we continue to build everything the way we currently do, we will fail. Ultimately, we need to make development ecologically net positive to ensure the health of our planet.
David Waldorf of Ferrari-Moe, focused on what improvements can be made to houses today to make them greener; including utilization of better insulation, increased natural lighting, passive solar, and maximization of energy efficiency. Mr. Waldorf shared photos and details about a number of retrofit projects that he has completed, and highlighted the importance of a skilled contractor who will do the job right. His take home message for the audience was that you don’t have to spend an exorbitant amount of money to convert houses from energy sinks to energy efficient machines that can make a net positive impact on the environment and our communities.