Climate Scoreboard

We score everything.....I thought this was interesting.

What If We're All Wrong?

With the Copenhagen Climate Conference wrapping up, and as we head into another Montana winter, a colleague sent out this cartoon from Joel Pett in the Lexington Herald-Leader and it couldn't be more timely.



It happens every year as we dip below zero here in Montana and snow starts to fall (like today.) I'll inevitably have a few jabs to the tune of "Hey, where's your global warming, now!" I'm going to carry a copy of this around with me so I don't have to endlessly debate anymore. What if we are all wrong? What if we do create a better world for nothing? I could live with that.

Green Salad Dressing???

I just saw a great video post from author and psychologist Barry Schwartz on the Paradox of Choice, and how in our western society the sheer number of choices we have are more paralyzing then they are liberating. When he talked about the fact that we have 175 different kinds of salad dressing available at the grocery store and the dilemma this causes for some people in making a choice I couldn’t help but think about the sheer number of different green building choices and programs that are available today.

It’s not 175 yet, but herein lies what I think is one of the greatest challenges in the green building movement to date. Now that green building is no longer a niche market in our industry how do we tell what’s real and what’s greenwash? More importantly, how does our consumer? I did a quick search for green building certification programs and just on the first two pages I came up with a pretty long list… NAHB Green Home Building Guidelines, LEED for Homes, The ANSI ICC National Green Building Standard, Energy Star, Northwest Energy Star, Earthcraft Homes, Builder’s Challenge, Earth Advantage…and this doesn’t even start to take into account the number of local and regional programs that add an even greater number of programs and choices for builders and consumers.

I can see it in the eyes of some of the builders I talk with and with many of the clients as well. They’re paralyzed with choice and in their inability to make what they perceive to be the absolute right decision they make none at all. The guiding principles of green building are pretty concrete. When I look at the criteria of all of the different green home certification programs the same principles; Lot Design, Resource Conservation, Energy Efficiency, Water Conservation, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Operation and Maintenance are the core of all of them. Even the Chinese Ministry of Construction recently released their own green building evaluation standard and their categories…yep…you guessed it, the same six basic criteria areas.

The differences lie only in what is considered to be the right amount of energy, resource and water savings, which air quality standard must be followed for a product to be considered low-VOC, what the acceptable percentage of permeable pavement should be installed and other hair splitting that only seems to undermine the whole process. I find so many people firmly entrenched in the belief that the program they use is the best and all others are unacceptable that they refuse to even look at another program.

So how do we keep from becoming salad dressing and putting so many different products out there that we effectively paralyze our consumer? I see great signs of moving toward a consensus on what green building is and how to talk about it, but the competing programs keep moving further and further apart in the battle for supremacy.

For those of us who've been around long enough, I know you can remember the early 1990's when we had multiple, competing building codes. Groups including Building Code Administrators International (BOCA), The International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO), The Council of American Building Officials (CABO) and the Southern Building Code
Congress International (SBCCI) all had developed their own set of building codes. It took over four years, but these legacy groups worked to form what we now know as the International Codes Council (ICC) and develop the International Building Code (IBC). The IBC includes what homeowners know as the International Residential Code (IRC,) and this code has now been adopted in 48 states and continues to be THE benchmark for building safety, structure and fire protection.

When will we have only one green building standard and what will it look like? Sorry did I say all of this out loud?

Fireworks and Carbon Output.

"What better way to celebrate your country's Independence by blowing up a small part of it."- Apu from The Simpsons circa 1994


I really tried to find some good data on the carbon and pollution emissions from fireworks, I thought it would be neat to find one of those "equal to this many cars off the road" comparisons. Like, not lighting off 1,000 Whistling Moon Travelers would be equal to removing 10 cars from the road for one year, .................. but I couldn't find any.

The only real empirical data I could find was an abstract on the atmospheric pollution release caused by the burning of fireworks during the Beijing Lantern Festival. As interesting as it was for a short time it didn't have the catchy analogy that I was hoping for.

In any case, have a safe and happy holiday and make a point to offset all of those carbon, sulfate and nitrate emissions from your fireworks this weekend in any way you can. Walk...don't drive, choose local produce and foods for your BBQ, guzzle lots of organic beer, use cups, plates, and utensils that are recyclable or are made from recycled content, use a woodless stove, and perhaps my favorite suggestion, make your margaritas with your own pedal powered blender!

Enjoy!!!

How's Your Global Warming Now?

I recently had the fortune (misfortune?) to be seated on a flight next to a very chatty and opinionated traveler for a 2 1/2 hour flight. Before we even left the ground he had already grilled me for where I was going and what I was doing.

When I told him I was traveling to teach a class on Green Building I got both barrels on what he thought about Green and everything involved. A little back story for those of you not blessed with living in Montana like me, this year winter started sometime shortly after Halloween and aside from a few nice days in April it lasted clean into May, ending sometime after 2PM on May 23rd to be precise.

Armed with this, he laughed and said, "Where's your Global Warming now? There's no way you can claim it's happening, I even saw where the glaciers are getting bigger in Argentina," he continued, "How can you even think that Green Building is a good idea now?"

I was at that fork in the road where I could have smiled, shrugged and not bothered to fight it but all I had to read was the skymall catalog and I knew I couldn't fain enough interest in it to just ignore him and start reading. Besides, I thought, if I let him have it back it might just upset him enough to dislike me and then he won't talk to me for the rest of the flight, either way should work.

I think my first line was something like, "Wow you really have no idea what green building is do you?" It froze him and I started in to tell him that no matter what's happening with global warming green building is still a good idea. Forget about carbon emissions, glacial ice melt, rising sea levels and all the associated fears of rising earth temperatures. Green building is about much more than that.

Conserving the finite resources we have, including water, natural gas, all of the fossil fuels. Building a home that is designed to last longer, require less maintenance, and maintain a healthier quality of air. This is what green building is all about. Global warming be damned green building is nothing more than building better and building smarter and anybody who thinks that doesn't make sense just doesn't get it.

As it turned out we spent the next 2 1/2 hours talking about what green building is, but more importantly much more about what green building is NOT. I keep hearing the same themed, recurring myths of green building..."It's expensive."..."It's too hard to figure out."......."It's straw bales, solar panels and wind power."......."It's ugly."....."It's just a fad."......"It's just about global warming."...Etc., Etc. Etc. They're all wrong and they're all bred from the same misinformation or total lack of information that many great myths come from and we still have a long way to go to dispel them. (The earth IS round by the way, despite what Friedman says)

We parted ways and both learned a lot in the time we spent together. He learned a lot about the guiding principles of green building and definitely had a small change of view, and I learned that we still have a long way to go in the education process before the consumer, builder, and everyone else understands and are on the same wavelength on what green is and is not. On the return flight by the way, I had an empty seat next to me and was quite happy for the peace and quiet.

Windows in Short

I recently started doing a Green Building question and answer "advertorial" series for a local newspaper and sponsors. It's already clear with the first round of solicited consumer questions that many people want the answers to green building questions to be as black and white as the newsprint. Sorry, it just doesn't happen that way.

I thought it would be good to repost the questions and the answer here. Believe me I also realize that it saves me a tremendous amount of time and with just a little cut and paste I have posts in two places. Efficiency at its' best!


Question: I am going to do a large addition to my home. What the best window is to use? From F.N., Missoula, MT.

John: The simple answer to the question is to use the best and most efficient window that your budget will allow. All windows are rated for energy performance by the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC.) They are rated in five different categories, but the U-value (the amount of heat loss through the window) and Air Leakage rating numbers mean the most to me. A window with a low U-Value (The current minimum for Energy Star and also available tax credits is .35 and the lower the better here.) and also a low Air leakage rate will keep the warm air in and the cold air out in the winter, and the reverse in the summer.

Windows with low U-value and low air leakage rates are available from a number of quality manufacturers in several types; wood clad, vinyl and other composites and all can perform very well. Once you’ve identified a window type and several manufacturers within your budget, ensure that the window you select has Low-E reflective coating to keep winter heat in, durable construction and hardware, and that the manufacturer has a solid warranty backing their window.

After selecting the best window that you can within your budget, it is equally important to make sure that the window is installed properly. For greatest efficiency and moisture protection, the window needs to have proper flashing and a good air sealant on the exterior and adequate insulation around the interior of the window. Following these simple guidelines will give you the best performance and most return on your investment no matter which type or brand of high performance window you choose.

Water, Water, Every Where

“Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink.” Taken from The Rime of The Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, surely everyone’s heard one form or another of this old verse. Looking at this recent picture of the Bitterroot River outside of Hamilton Montana, and with many of the rivers in Montana running near or over flood stage, it’s hard to imagine that we could ever be in a position with out enough water for all of our needs.

In fact, looking at the earth itself and the incredible amount of water we see, someone might wonder why we even care about conserving water and place so much weight to it when talking about green building today.

The fact is that even though over 70% of the earths’ surface is covered by water, 97.5% of it is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water. Further, of the remaining fresh water, over 70% of it is locked in icecaps, more is located deep within the earth in unreachable aquifers and even more is in the form of soil moisture, leaving only what amounts to having less than 1% of all the earths’ fresh water available for direct human uses.

The amount of usable fresh water, the stuff found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and the aquifers that are shallow enough to be effectively tapped into, makes up less than .007% of all the water on earth. It’s hard to really understand how little that is, but if you think of all the water available on the planet in a full 55 gallon drum, the amount that we can access for use is less than three teaspoons full. This is the only water that we have available on a sustainable basis that is regularly renewed and regenerated by rain and snowfall, and this amount will not increase.

Considering this, it’s easy to see why one of the key guiding principles in green building focuses on conserving the water we have and protecting it from runoff, sedimentation and all other contaminants. If we don’t, the fight over those last three teaspoons could be devastating, and the words from the old mariner in the tale will ring true for us all.

National Geographic Green Tip of the Week

NAHB Green Build Conference

I just got back from the National Green Building Conference in Dallas. I think this as about my fifth or sixth trip to Dallas, and no offense Lone Star State, but I know why I come home to Montana. It was definitely a great time, I got to see some old friends, make some new ones and talk with many of the folks from across the country who are just as passionate about green building. We also had a great time picking up some hardware at the National Green Building Awards, congratulations to everybody who has worked so hard to put Montana on the green map!!

With all of the educational programs, keynote speakers, and social networking (they do have some good tequila in Dallas) there's a lot of information and pontification about green, what it means, what are the most important principles, what's the best green program, and on and on and on. There's a new/old theme that's gaining more steam in these conversations and I'm thrilled to say that I've been saying this for some time. Are you ready? If you know me you've heard it before, but Green Building is not rocket science, it's simple stuff and even you can do it. (yes, you.)

This nascent back to basics shift has the potential to become a groundswell. I see many long time, knowledgeable green proponents who are spending less time discussing the size of carbon footprints or the embodied energy in one siding versus another and actually focusing on the basic principals of building a smaller, better designed, more durable home that uses less water, less energy and works as a complete system.

Remember that at the heart of Green Building are a few very important but simple principles; save energy, save resources, save water, keep the air healthy, and minimize impact from site work to finish. Don't worry if you haven't read the latest book on cradle to cradle concepts or the energy revolution, remember the basic principles, apply them to your buildings and keep moving forward.

National Green Building Conference

I'm off for Dallas tomorrow for the National Green Building Conference, a program of NAHB with the latest and greatest in products, presentations, educational seminars and some of the biggest green building advocates in the country. If you've never had the chance to go I would suggest putting it on your calendar for next year. From the first event over ten years ago in Denver the conference has grown tenfold and I'll be sure to share all that I can for those of you stuck here in what looks to be a wet Montana weekend coming up! (90 degress in Dallas this weekend)

The Future Is Green

A recent article sent to me by a colleague on density and design got me to think a little bit more about where we are headed in the building and development industry in Montana. It's a given to know that things will never be the same, and today I was catching a little bit of a glimpse into our future. I liked it!

Let me start by saying that, fortunately in Montana we haven't seen the drastic fall of home prices like in some markets, but we haven't had much appreciable gain in value either. In conversations with many Montana builders, cautious optimism is the mood and the recent sales activity has most feeling like it is the start of the long slow climb back to normalcy. While it's still predicted that starts in 2009 will still be down significantly from last year, even nationally builder confidence had it's largest one month increase last month since 2002.

Does this mean we will soon be back to the same old game and we can dust off our current house plans and site plans and get back after it? Probably not. Coming out the other side of this downturn experts predict a real shift in the way we build homes and develop communities in the Rocky Mountain West. For homes the trend will be for smaller, more efficient homes closer to communities and services. Not only has the tightening of the credit market reduced the amount buyers can spend on a new home, the home buyer is realizing the expense and operational cost of that home and becoming more savvy in looking for energy efficiency and low operational costs.

In community development, with the continued rising cost of infrastructure and the trends established by our new breed of home buyers, things are changing as well. It's anticipated that we will have to see a much higher level of density in our new developments and it won't be economically feasible to build lots of large homes on large lots.

I was in Billings today for a conference and when I was done I took some time to see a couple of local builder friends that were showcasing homes in their Spring Parade of Homes. Both had projects that they were developing and building in that utilized high density small lot homes. These homes were not only well designed, but extremely energy efficient and built green. The part I really liked was the excitement from the potential buyers and the sales. Yes, sales!! Both of these builders were excited about their product(a high density, high performance home) and excited about their potential. Good work guys!

While we all won't be living in condos over a coffee house, and we will still have homes on 5,10, 20 acres or more, it's at least good to see some of the inherent green principles becoming driving forces in todays' market. Smaller, more efficient floorplans and homes with higher energy efficiency built utilizing less consumptive development practices. I like it.

Earth Day Ahead

I found this picture of Billings,MT from space....I'll take their word for it. Just thought it would be fitting for a picture of the earth with Earth Day coming up. Activities are happening across the state this weekend and hopefully if you're not at one of the events promoting green building (like I know all the Missoula crowd will be at Caras park on Sunday) hopefully you'll at least be out doing something that will enhance you're appreciation for the earth.

Green Student Built

Congratulations to the Missoula Building Industry Association, The University of Montana College of Technology, and the Flagship Program for their partnership and on the groundbreaking for the first student built house in Missoula!! The three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home will be completed and sold in 2010 to provide funding for future student homes and for scholarship funds. Last and most importantly, the home will be Certified Green under the National Green Building Standard and with the help of the Montana Green Building Program!! See the video and full article here

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/04/09/news/mtregional/news06.txt

Help!

With Spring on the way and the myriad of other events and projects on my plate it's hard to keep active in writing here. I need your help. Share your ideas, send me your pictures, whatever you've got I'm ready for it.

Here's a great picture that i did get from one of our readers who is just a llittle too shy to go public. Isn't it amazing how you look at things the same way for a long time and then someone comes up with an idea or change that makes you say, "Of, Course!!" We've been getting our milk this way for as long as I can remember.

With the talk of BPA leaching from some reusable water bottles and the 38 million plastic bottles that make their way into the landfill each year it's definitely something I wish I had thought of.

Green For The Greater Good

I just got off the phone with a builder friend of mine from the East Coast. We hadn't talked for several months and we caught up on kids, family, dogs, weather and all the normal chit chat, then we of course drifted in to the industry talk. He is a green builder and has been for quite some time. He was telling me about his latest project and that's where the fun began.

He's working on a rather large addition to an existing home that sits within 200' of the Atlantic Ocean. He went on to tell me how frustrated he was because his clients wouldn't pay any attention to him when he reviewed the intricate sill pan and flashing details that they were employing to ensure that hurricane driven rain would not penetrate their building envelope.

He was equally frustrated that they could care less about the new zoned heating system with the aerosol sealed duct system, remote programmable controls and the super high efficiency heating and cooling unit. After that he went on to rant that the homeowner took a cell phone call right in the middle of him explaining why they had strategically located the new tank less hot water heater inside the new master closet, close to the master bath rather than down on the main level.

"I don't know why in the H@#$ these people even decided to build green!" he finally said. Now you have to know him to truly appreciate how passionate he is about his craft and green building, but I had to laugh and I replied, "Who cares!!" After a dramatic pause, at which point I thought he might jump through the phone at me, I went on, "What difference does it make WHY they decided to build green, isn't it great that people will now build green even without a reason!"

He conceded that was probably right, after all, not everyone is building green to save the environment, stop global warming, or because they know it's the right thing to do. Not everyone has to build green for the greater good, whatever their reason, just be thankful that they are!

Flat, Hot and Crowded

I've been reading the book Flat, Hot and Crowded by Thomas Friedman, and can't help but keep talking about it lately with anyone that will listen. Not so much do I think that the book is exceptionally well written, and quite frankly the message didn't really need to take 438 pages, but the message is worth hearing.

Friedman's mantra is that with a world so technologically connected, the global playing field is becoming level.=(Flat) Global warming continues at a rate that can no longer be ignored.=(Hot) And finally, the global population will reach over 9 billion by 2040.=(Crowded) These factors combine to paint a pretty scary picture.

What Friedman calls for is a radical change in energy use that will represent an opportunity for the US to preserve its global economic leadership. By creating clean energy ideas that will sell, we can not only stem the outgoing tide of the flat, hot and crowded world, but do it while creating a renewed American focus and national purpose.

Agree or disagree with all of Friedman's facts, predictions and prognostications it will certainly make you think a little.

Creativity and Climate Change

As we all look at new ways to market ourselves and our businesses in the new green age, I thought this was very interesting:

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/407

Free Online Green Building Training Videos

I'm excited to share a new benefit for all Montana Green Building Program Members. In conjunction with the GBI we have set up a training page for the Montana Green Building Program. The site contains over sixty videos with over thirty hours demonstrating Green Building Best Practices based on the NAHB Green Building Guidelines. It also has a Learning management System (LMS) that allows each user to follow his or her own progress. This is a great addition to existing member benefits, and a great opportunity to help each local energize their green build programs. It is a great resource and we are grateful to the GBI for their help and support in setting it up.

The website address is: www.greenbuildertraining.org/mt

The registration code is GREENMT

Once you enter the site, all you need to do is click on “register for an account”, use the code and you will have access and we will be able to track use.

National Green Building Standards

I just got back from spending three days in Washington DC at NAHB. I was fortunate enough to spend this time with some of the most knowledgeable green builders from around the country, as well as much of the staff responsible for managing NAHB's incredible green program.

By far the most talked about and celebrated topic was the recent approval of the National Green Building Standard. NAHB spearheaded the development of the standard in conjunction with the International Codes Council and in January of this year it was approved by the American National Standards Institute. The ANSI approved standard sets the green baseline for all new residential construction including multifamily, renovations and additions. Setting a quantifiable definition for what green is has been the challenge of the green building movement for a long time. This ANSI approved scoring sytem may be the real start to creating national industry concensus and get us all speaking the same language...GREEN!

Check out the standard at www.NAHBGreen.org if you haven't already.

Welcome to the Montana Green building Program Blog. After an exciting year and the launch of the Montana Green Building Program the real work has begun. Use this site to help other members throughout the state stay informed on what you're doing, share ideas, ask questions, or just share your success stories. Enjoy!!