Bigger IS Better (at least for now)

I guess it is a sign of progress when our alternative energy solutions are being produced bigger. It suggests that the level of acceptance of these technologies has moved from the individual level (think hybrid cars and solar panels on homes) to a community-wide level. Municipalities are demonstrating willingness to utilize their capital and real estate to purchase and house technology such as the 100,000 sf mirror system in Tucson, Arizona (see link below).

Of course, much like the way of Don Johnson's first cell phone, as manufacturing processes and technological advances become more efficient, the solutions will retract in size. This will enable urban centers to employ certain technologies that are only feasibly employed in the middle of big swaths of land. (Right now most folks in NYC can't get the NFL network because the dishes outside our windows are too small, can't pick up signal, etc... finding space for a 100,000 sf mirror may be a long time coming.) But Arizona Public Service is appropriately using progressive technology.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/business/businessspecial2/07big.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Heat from the Street

Solar panels are big, black panels designed to absorb radiation from the sun... but as this engineer and author point out, aren't cities filled with things very similar to this already...?!

http://www.economist.com/search/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10202728

PlaNYC Greening NYC's Building Codes

When: December 17, 2007, 5:45-8:00pm
Where: The New School, Tishman Auditorium
66 W. 12th Street
What: NYC First in the new UTC Sustainable Cities Dialogue series, featuring Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and Dept. of Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster. USGBC-NY Executive Director Russell Unger moderates a respondent panel that includes William C. Rudin (President, Rudin Management Co.), Edward Ott (Executive Director, NYC Central Labor Council) and Ashok Gupta (Director, Air & Energy Program, NRDC).

http://usgbcny.org/events.htm#17

Martian Warming

The emerging Martian consumer market is definitely one I need to begin exploring... I should probably check the data before promulgating these kinds of stories, but the laugh factor is high.

Fred Thompson, Republican Presidential Candidate on Global Warming, "Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto. NASA says that the Martian South Pole's ice cap has been shrinking for three summers in a row. Maybe Mars got its fever from earth. If so, I guess Jupiter's caught the same cold, because it's warming up too, like Pluto. This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air-conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle. Silly, I know, but I wonder what all those planets, dwarf planets and moons in our solar system have in common. Hmmmm. Solar system. Hmmmm. Solar? I wonder. Nah, I guess we shouldn't even be talking about this. The science is absolutely decided. There's a consensus. Ask Galileo."
-- Paul Harvey Show, April 13, 2007

Einstein’s Greatest Mistake

http://www.siddeutsch.org/

Many thanks to an anonymous contributor for turning us on to Sid Deutsch, the newly annointed "King of Green". Make sure your mind is... in the right place before getting into Sid's theories on quantum physics and the aether.

From Sid's website... "Proof positive that there is an aether comes from Albert Einstein’s special relativity. Imagine a planet (THEM) that is receding from earth (US) at a speed of 100 million m/s. According to special relativity, light waves on US and THEM have a speed of 300 million m/s relative to each planet. If an imaginary beam of light, directed to THEM, leaves US at a velocity of 300 million m/s, it has to gradually speed up to 400 million m/s relative to US in order to land on THEM at a speed of 300 million m/s relative to THEM. Only an aether carrier can increase the velocity of light in this manner. The inhabitants of THEM receive the beam with its frequency shifted down by a factor of ¾-- the well-known “red shift.” iUniverse $15.95, $25.95"

No idea what this has to do with sustainable design actually... but it sure is fun!

Winter Better Watch It's Back

Just when I was starting to get used to cardigans and sweater vests...

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/fall_canceled_after_3_billion

"Engineering with Soul"

Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit, volunteer group. The group's objective is to provide affordable (or often free or nominally priced for the communitee), sustainable, holistic, engineered solutions to developing communities around the world. Often, but not always, these projects involve providing a source of clean drinking water for the local population. By providing communities these engineered solutions that they would otherwise not be able to have given their own resources, volunteers are often able to increase the public health of the community and and by extension economic, educational and overall standard of living conditions.

I was forwarded the article below by a colleague. The difference the group is making is growing and the recognition is coming with it.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1689197,00.html

Die Green

I have to admit that I have never contemplated the environmental impacts of cemeteries. I know that from a land usage standpoint... well, they often take up a lot of land and have a near zero shot of ever being utilized (at least in our lifetime, ha) for another purpose. But there are obviously some people that have thought the environmental impacts and taken steps to return the burial process to a more organic one. The article below is about a few individuals in various parts of the country who have established "green cemeteries", the benefits they see in them and how they see this trend continuing.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/monday/chi-green_burials_26nov26,0,3347144.story

One Bryant Park

Anyone who has walked around Bryant Park over the past year has seen the building skeleton being erected for this new highrise office building. The goal early on which was set by the developers, the Durst Organization, was to make this the first USGBC platinum-certified highrise in the country. According to reports, the project is still on track to acheive these goals. Durst even took the added measure of hiring an on-site LEED compliance supervisor, Amanda Klotz, to ensure materials used were in accordance with LEED guidlines. For an informative read on the project's progress, check out the New York Construction's latest cover story.

http://newyork.construction.com/features/archive/2007/11_cover.asp

Columbia's Manhattanville Expansion

On November 26 the City Planning Commission voted to approve with modifications the proposed rezoning of the old Manhattanville manufacturing zone in West Harlem for academic mixed-use. This expansion plan has been a long-brewing debate with many socio-economic and political implications that are way outside the scope of this blog. From the environmental perspective, Columbia has already selected their consultant, the London-based group, atelier ten. (http://www.atelierten.com/)

From Columbia's website, "Atelier Ten will help Columbia set environmental performance goals for the proposed campus. In addition to assisting the University with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) consulting services, Atelier Ten will develop strategies for management and conservation of energy and water, as well as maintaining high air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions." (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/07/08/atelier.html)

It will be interesting to see what kind of advances can (and should!) be made in sustainable design and construction on such a high-profile stage. The spotlight will certainly be on both atelier ten and the university to use the available resources in innovative ways. More to come...

Green = Sex(y)

Green is selling.

It's almost the new sex. ...Almost. (Okay. Not quite. But you get it.)

The other day I got a Barney's New York catalogue in the mail and opened its glossy pages to discover that I may now support the betterment of the environment by purchasing a $400 environmentally-friendly, 100% organic cardigan. (Thank you for this wonderful opportunity Barney's.)

So. Okay. People are lining up to get behind the idea. This is fabulous. It's the new thing! And it's a good new thing! Wouldn't it be more interesting if we actually knew the realities of what we were getting behind...?

In the weeks to come, navigate your way back to Before Green Was Gold to hear more from myself and others, both about the days before Green was a tangible movement and what's new and exciting in the field right now.


Have a story to share? Send your Green tale to Stephen and see your story published on Before Green Was Gold!