Monica Treadway Funston | April 30th, 2012
According to Inform, the average American uses about 663 pounds of paper in a year. When you consider that a ream of paper weighs 5 pounds, that’s 132 pounds – over 13 boxes of paper.
About 30% of that is recycled, but it’s still a significant paper footprint. And, if you’re in construction, it’s time for a diet. It’s easier than ever to view documents and drawings paper-free; Napoleon’s army may have traveled on its stomach, but our industry travels on a sea of paper, most of which isn’t necessary.
Construction jobsites are notorious for their paper volume. We’ve got billings, drawings, purchase orders, and quotes. Meeting minutes. Notes. Then there are the RFIs, submittals, and sketches. It’s a different kind of waste flow, and we can do something about it.
Read the rest of The Paperless Diet for Your Construction Jobsite »
Alicia Livitt | April 23rd, 2012
Green building is achieving mainstream awareness. It won’t be long before influential factors like legislation, escalating energy costs, and incentives usher in the tipping point to widespread acceptance and adoption. In fact, here in California, recent changes to Title 24, the state’s building energy efficiency standards, mandate that all new residential construction in California will be zero net energy by 2020, an ambitious goal to say the least.
With the support of incentive programs like Energy Upgrade California, which provides rebates for qualifying “whole-house” energy efficiency retrofits, greater numbers of homeowners have been motivated to pursue comprehensive green remodeling.
Read the rest of Show Me the Green – The Green MLS Tool Kit »
Jana Chamales | April 17th, 2012
Professionals in the building industry wanting to stay competitive can now earn the Certified Sustainable Building Advisor credential in just four months.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – The 4-month format of the Sustainable Building Advisor (SBA) Program in San Francisco will be taught by a network of over 25 subject experts and include site visits to exemplary projects throughout the Bay Area. The SBA Program trains professionals on green building tools, strategies, and principles used to achieve buildings that are resource efficient, environmentally responsible, cost effective, and healthy for occupants.
A 2011 national Green Outlook study published by McGraw-Hill shows that in 2005, green building projects had a 2% market share ($3 billion), by 2010 despite the spending drop in the building sector, the green building market rose to 35% ($54 billion) and is expected to be at 48% by 2015.
Read the rest of San Francisco Sustainable Building Advisor Program Offered in New 4-Month Format »
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Jana Chamales | April 6th, 2012
The Sustainable Building Advisor (SBA) Program is a 100 hour certification course designed for professionals in the building industry. Unified Systems LLC and Lifelong Education Institute are the providers of the SBA Program in San Francisco, which has been hosted at the Pacific Energy Center since 2007. We are looking for an exceptional Program Coordinator who is experienced in the sustainable building industry. Working as a Program Coordinator for the SBA Program provides the opportunity to meet professionals active in sustainable development, interact with 25 expert instructors and gain exposure to green building projects and events, both locally and around the world.
Program Coordinator Criteria: Read the rest of We’re Hiring a Program Coordinator »
Frank Bergamaschi | April 2nd, 2012
If you’re like me, you’ve heard a lot of buzz around California Assembly Bill 32, the State’s revolutionary legislation that sets an absolute limit on the State’s greenhouse gas emissions. But until recently, I never took a close look. Now I have, and I thought some of you might also be interested.
Called the Global Warming Solutions Act AB 32 was passed in 2006 by the California Legislature, and signed into law by then Governor Arnold Swartzenegger. The legislation requires California to cut its greenhouse gas emission to 1990 levels—a benchmark established the Kyoto protocol—by 2020, the equivalent of retiring more that 10 percent of the U.S passenger vehicle fleet.
Read the rest of Taking a Close Look at California Greenhouse Gas Legislation »
Frank Bergamaschi | March 20th, 2012
We’ve all heard of “vampire loads,” those insidious background energy drains that contribute so much to overall electricity consumption because they run 24/7. The news has been out for decades, so it really amazes me is that we seem to be continually adding to our vampire loads without consideration to the effects on overall energy consumption.
Take for instance my wife’s recent ordering of security-camera system for our home. After the fact, she asked my opinion. I asked if she had considered the energy consumption of the system. She hadn’t, and I was tasked with an energy evaluation.
Read the rest of Vampire Creep – what you don’t see can hurt you »
Alicia Livitt | February 28th, 2012
Earlier last summer, a working group was convened by the SF Department of Environment (SFE) and the Business Council on Climate Change (BC3), to collaborate on a guide for green leasing. The result of their efforts, the Green Tenant Toolkit was released as a free online resource available to owners and tenants alike.
Based upon the recommendation of the Mayor’s Task Force on Existing Commercial Buildings, the toolkit is intended to be “an online resource to enhance the energy efficiency and sustainability of commercial buildings by empowering collaboration between owners, property managers, tenants, and occupants in San Francisco”. Though the toolkit was designed with San Francisco buildings in mind, it is adaptable for use in any location and in any stage of the leasing process.
Read the rest of Building Sustainable Partnerships through the Green Tenant Toolkit »
Frank Bergamaschi | February 20th, 2012
Anyone who is a student of environmental issues knows that fossil-fueled vehicles are a major contributor to our present predicament, and are unsustainable both from an emissions standpoint, and because the worldwide resource pool used to power them is in decline. The answer is often touted to be electric cars. But how “green” are electric cars? If a recent study is to be believed, greener than you might think.
There are two basic lines of thought about the negative impact electric vehicles have. The first is that all the mining, refining, manufacturing and disposal associated with the required batteries comes with significant environmental costs, with special worries associated with the necessary lithium. The bigger issue argues that charging an electric car from a dirty, inefficient grid doesn’t reduce emissions, but rather simply shifts them to a new outlet, the power plant. That’s the “long-tailpipe” argument, and there are claims that under certain scenarios driving an electric car can be more environmentally detrimental than driving a fossil-fuel car.
Read the rest of Electric Cars and Sustainability »
Monica Treadway Funston | February 15th, 2012
In the Bay Area, many of us recycle, compost, turn off lights when they’re not needed, turn off the faucet as we brush our teeth, but what about the outside part of the house?
StopWaste.org has an Alameda-County-based program called Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening that’s applicable anywhere in the Bay Area. It focuses on encouraging an environmental approach to landscapes, whether that landscape is as simple as a container garden or as a complex as a massive commercial project.
Read the rest of How Green Is Your Garden? »
Alicia Livitt | February 13th, 2012
An exciting exhibition is making an appearance in San Francisco over February 17-26 at the Fort Mason Center. Spotlighting the famous German penchant for innovation, Das Haus is a “traveling pavilion, a North American tour and an ongoing international dialogue about advanced technologies for home construction and solar energy use.” The event, jointly hosted by the German American Chambers of Commerce (GACCs) and Canadian German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, kicked off in Atlanta, GA last October and will have visited 12 North American cities by the time of its October 2012 conclusion in Denver.
Read the rest of Das Haus is Da House »
