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CASCADIA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRANSFORMATIVE PEOPLE + DESIGN 01 QUARTER 2009

issue 001cascadiagbc.org

TRANSFORMATIONAL THOUGHT:

CHALLENGING THE AMERICAN DREAM HOME

Dockside Green DOES IT ALL

TRANSFORMATIONAL DESIGN:

TRANSFORMATIONAL PEOPLE:

Dennis Wilde: an evangelist for change

First Quarter 20092

Editor in ChiEf Jason F. McLennan Jason@cascadiagbc.org

ExECutivE Editor David R. Macaulay dmacaulay@kc.rr.com

Managing Editor Jenny Seifert jenny@cascadiagcb.org

ProduCtion ChiEf Bob Potter bob@cascadiagbc.org

CrEativE dirECtor Erin Gehle

ering@softfirmstudios.net

advErtising Sarah Costello sarah@cascadiagbc.org

Contributors Thor Peterson, Bill Walsh

For editorial inquiries or freelance submissions, contact Jenny Seifert at jenny@cascadiagbc.org

For photography submissions, contact Bob Potter at bob@cascadiagbc.org For advertising, contact Sarah Costello at sarah@cascadiagbc.org

Back issues or reprints: Contact info@cascadiagbc.orgJanuary 2009, Issue 1 Trim Tab is a quarterly publication of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. Office locations: 721 NW 9th Ave Suite 280, Portland, OR 97209; 410 Occidental Ave South, Seattle, WA 98105; 1100-111 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 6A3.

Trim Tab is a trademarked publication of Cascadia. All rights reserved. Content may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission and is for informational purposes only.

TRANSFORMATIONAL DESIGN:

Dockside Green: A New Shade of Sustainabilityby DAVID R. MACAULAy

Representing Smart Growth, New Urbanism, a Model Carbon-Neutral Community and more

TRANSFORMATIONAL PEOPLE:

Dennis Wilde: An Evangelist for Change

by JENNy SEIFERT

A conversation with Gerding Edlen Development’s “Green Guy”

COLUMN:

Van Jones: Greenbuild Master Speaker On The Green Collar Economy by bILL WALSh

An advocate for greening our economy equitably

DEPARTMENTS05

TRANSFORMATIONAL DESIGN:

05

10

14

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FIRST QUARTER 2009

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contents

MOvING UPSTREAM: Progress in the Bioregion

BOOk REvIEw: Northwest Green Home Primer by KAThLEEN O’bRIEN AND KAThLEEN SMITh, REVIEWED by ThOR PETERSON

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Marmoleum Linoleum

Event Calendar

TRANSFORMATIONAL THOUGHT:

The Righteous Small House by JASON F. MCLENNAN

Waking America up from irresponsible living standards

FEATuRES

NuTS & BOLTS

05 TRANSFORMATIONAL THOUGHT:

10 TRANSFORMATIONAL PEOPLE:

17

14

25Moving Upstream

22

25

26

28

First Quarter 20094

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DOCkSIDE GREEN: A New Shade of Sustainability

STORy byDAVID R. MACAULAy

PhOTOS by bUSby PERKINS & WILLDRAWINGS by STANTEC

Does it represent Smart Growth, New Urbanism, a Model Carbon-Neutral Community? Yes, all that…and more.

First Quarter 20096

Victoria’s Dockside Lands, adjacent to the Inner Harbour, have long been an integral part of the city’s industrial roots. Ringed with shipyards, the 15-acre site was once dominated by transport and manufacturing operations: a rail line with freight buildings, propane and asphalt plants, a cedar shingle mill, iron and metal storage. Over time, it became a brownfield, the soil and ground water contaminated with metal, hydrocarbons and other waste by-products.

Dockside Green, today, has become a crown jewel for British Columbia’s capital city (population 80,000) and promises to be a model sustainable community for North America and the world. Remediation of the contaminated property makes it the largest redevelopment of city land in Victoria’s history. This harbor-front acreage, once owned by First Nations people, is also the first master-planned development to target LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification.

Reaching high, setting new standards, achieving the triple bottom line – it’s already taking shape for Phase One of this mixed-use residential/commercial real estate development. Completed in March 2008, Dockside Green’s “Synergy” high-rise (95 residential units, three commercial spaces) has received the highest LEED® rating ever – 63 points out of a possible 70 – at the Platinum level for new construction. The development’s goal, meanwhile, is to achieve LEED® Platinum certification for each subsequent building and for the community as a whole.

LEED® PLATINUM, AND bEyONDThis progressive approach to meeting, and exceeding, LEED® is critical to understanding the energy, water and wastewater goals at Dockside Green. The development and design team have defined these holistically, with many

of the LEED® credits based on site-wide initiatives and infrastructure.

Nowhere is this approach to site design better exemplified, perhaps, than with Dockside Green’s on-site sewage treatment system. Utilizing sophisticated ultra-filter membranes and bioreactor tanks, the system treats all blackwater to near drinking water quality for toilet flushing and landscape irrigation. In addition, storm water collection and storage systems will supplement wastewater from showers, washing machines and dishwashers to irrigate green roofs and feed landscaped water features, including ponds and a naturalized creek along a greenway running the length of the property. The result? Dockside Green will process 100 percent of its own sewage on site, reducing potable water consumption by 67 percent and saving an estimated 70 million gallons of water a year – more than the entire Victoria, British Columbia region uses on the driest day of the year.

Dockside Green also aims to be the first carbon-neutral community development in North America. Critical to achieving its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions goals is a biomass gasification plant (to be completed in the spring of 2009), utilizing wood-waste to supply heat and hot water to every building within the development. Excess heat will be sold to neighboring businesses. By design, this district energy system relies on clean energy gasification, a process that generates low cost heat using local waste wood for biofuel. Complementing this renewable energy source, all buildings at Dockside Green will be 48 to 52 percent more energy efficient than the Canadian Model National Energy Code. Its design approach focuses first on passive building design, such as shading and daylighting. Energy-efficient light fixtures, motion sensing light switches and Energy Star-rated appliances will also drastically reduce energy consumption.

“Dockside Green has created a value-shift proposition: it’s really opened up people’s hearts, really giving them a taste of what the future can be and how you can design communities differently.”

Joe Van BelleghemPartner, Windmill West and Developer, Dockside Green

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Through these combined energy strategies, Dockside Green is expected to produce an

extremely low per capita level of GHG emissions, possibly one of the lowest

levels (for residential buildings and personal transportation)

of any development in a mid- to large-size city

in Canada. This makes it an

ideal

addition for Victoria, one of more than 100 communities across British Columbia already committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2012.

IDEAS: INTEGRATED, EVOLVINGIn 1989, the City of Victoria purchased these blighted, forgotten brownfields from the Province of British Columbia for the sum of one dollar ($1.00). More than 13 years later, in 2002, it was announced the entire acreage would be available for urban redevelopment. Following a competitive bid process, Vancity and Windmill West were selected to lead the project. Vancity is Canada’s largest credit union, with $14.1 billion in assets. The principal

behind Windmill West was also responsible for Canada’s first LEED® certified project: the Vancouver Island Technology Park (VITP), a LEED® Gold high-tech park in Victoria. The city also became an important development partner, with several private and public entities working together to coordinate numerous changes for planning and zoning and to approve various infrastructure or mechanical choices.

A commitment to achieving the highest standard of LEED®, in fact, has been a priority since the project’s inception. Vancity, Windmill West and the rest of the

Dockside Green team have offered to pay a $1 million penalty to the city if they don’t achieve a

LEED® Platinum rating.

All buildings on the site are expected to be complete by 2014, at a price tag of $600 million. Joe Van Belleghem, the project’s

co-developer and prime mover, estimates construction costs are

only about 1 to 1.5 percent higher than a normal mixed-use development. He also notes that the large number

of sustainable design elements will actually minimize those

cost differences, particularly

as the

THE WATER STORY AT DOCKSIDE GREEN

First Quarter 20098

project’s wide consortium of contractors, subcontractors, engineers and other specialists continue to work in unison as an integrated design team. Ultimately, the difference in cost has been made up through marketing and entitlement savings.

Both the master plan and designs for its first two phases, “Synergy” and “Balance”, were led by architects at Busby Perkins + Will. In addition, Stantec’s Vancouver and Victoria offices (formerly Keen Engineering) have served as MEP consultants, with Farmer Construction acting as general contractor.

ThE REbIRTh OF COOLRising from Dockside’s newly-restored landscape, Synergy is a four-building residential/commercial cluster that combines contemporary urban design and a broad array of green features. Anchoring Phase One is a two-story townhouse, a three-story townhouse and two residential towers of five and eight stories that include three commercial spaces. Its energy-efficient design includes a 100 percent fresh air system with heat recovery ventilators, low-e double glazed/thermally isolated window systems, over-height ceilings in living areas for natural lighting, and external shading devices on south and west windows. In addition, most balconies will have a rainwater storage tank for watering. All living spaces feature efficient plumbing fixtures, low-flow faucets and

toilets, as well as water-saving washing machines and dishwashers to reduce waste and lower operating costs. Interior finishes emphasize environmentally-friendly materials and design elements that promote healthy living for residents.

Phase Two, ready for occupancy in March 2009, is known as Balance. Here, the one-and two-bedroom condominiums, townhomes and penthouses all benefit from dramatic city and harbor views. And again, all living spaces feature an innovative combination of high performance glazing and shading, abundant daylighting, advanced building insulation, energy- and water-efficient fixtures and appliances, and environmentally-healthy interiors. Balance will effectively complete Dockside Green’s first neighborhood, “Dockside Wharf”. The development’s first commercial building opened here in December 2008, with signed tenants for an organic bakery, coffee shop and restaurant on the main floor. The top two floors have been leased, the tenant aiming for LEED® Platinum CI. The office space is naturally ventilated with solar chimneys and no air conditioning and features photovoltaic shades over windows and building wind turbines. A second commercial building is also under construction.

A second neighborhood, “Dockside Commons”, will feature street-oriented townhouses surrounding courtyards and garden flats that face the development’s internal greenway. The “Harbour Road Industry” area

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nearby will mix light industry with loft-style housing. The final neighborhood, “Dockside Village”, at the southern end of the community, will feature a broad spectrum of homes, offices and locally-owned shops and services – all built around a central plaza.

TRIPLE bOTTOM LINEThe innovations at Dockside Green also reflect a conscious effort by members of the project team to make this pioneering development a place for people: socially vibrant, culturally rich, a just community. Among its goals, stated from the outset of master planning, are to accommodate a diverse mix of residents. As a result, this new community is hoping to attract residents who represent a wide range of ages and income brackets, a mix of household types (couples, families with and without children), and different ethnic backgrounds. In addition, up to 31 percent of the residential units (on city-owned land) will be developed as affordable housing, rental and market-affordable (owned) units – all integrated with market buildings.

Another goal of the development is to foster healthy

Dave Macaulay is author of Integrated Design: Mithun (Ecotone Publishing, 2008) and co-author of The Ecological Engineer: kEEN Engineering (Ecotone Publishing, 2005) and a contributor to AIA COTEnotes, GreenSource magazine, and other publications.

“When you achieve something like Dockside Green, you begin to see how carbon neutrality is in the realm of the real and possible, as differentiated from the idea that it’s an impossible dream. It is another powerful example of a commercial development that’s working.”

Blair McCarrySustainability Consultant, Stantec

lifestyles. A short distance away is a regional biking trail and waterfront walkway, a public wharf, and kayak and boat launch, all upgraded or built by the developer for the city. Community amenities on site will include public art, new parks, a village area, the greenway, and an amphitheatre. Its design also reinforces New Urbanism principles: with walkable neighborhoods, shops and services close by; the compact design of buildings and plaza areas providing opportunities for neighborhoods to meet and interact; and interconnectivity with surrounding neighborhoods. Residents will have access to a mini bus on site, a fleet of 10 smart cars as part of a car-share program, and transportation to Victoria’s downtown core and other hubs. And finally, Dockside Green is participating in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® for Neighborhood Development pilot.

For Joe Van Belleghem, the vision of Dockside Green continues to take shape with every passing week. With the project now well under way, it also continues to exemplify the “Triple Bottom Line” approach to sustainability:

“This thinking shouldn’t be isolated to real estate development or community building. It should be applied to everything. It’s how we should operate all over the world, in all our businesses. I’m convinced that if every country and every business around the world adopted the triple bottom line, we’d be making much different decisions and having much better outcomes – not just from an ecological and social perspective, but also from an economic perspective.”

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Dennis Wilde: An Evangelist for Change

Hard work and dedication to change – that’s what Dennis Wilde, principal of Portland-based Gerding Edlen Development, proclaims is critical to establishing a culture of sustainability in a business. Wilde has been instrumental in shaping the culture and praxis of sustainability for Gerding Edlen, a company that’s been lauded as a dauntless pioneer of the green building movement, responsible for many salient examples of sustainable urban development such as the Brewery Blocks of Portland’s Pearl District.

Wilde began his evolutionary journey in sustainable design and business while working at CH2M Hill in the late 1960s, and along the way has been largely influenced by the philosophies of landscape architect Ian McHarg and Karl-Heinrich Robert, the brain behind the Natural Step. Now he’s spreading his experience and enthusiasm even farther as one of the leaders of Gerding Edlen’s new division Gerding Edlen Sustainable Solutions, a consulting and infrastructure development firm that’s helping other organizations adopt sustainable design and business strategies.

Wilde took a moment to talk to Trim Tab about his experience as a transformational developer, the economy, and his forecast for the future of green building and development.

tt: What metrics does Gerding Edlen use to measure its progress in sustainability, both as a company and in your built portfolio?dW: In our built portfolio, it’s pretty easy: we use the LEED metric in all of our projects and have for the last eight years. Our target is LEED Platinum on pretty much all of our projects. To measure a company really

comes down more to the intangibles—the attitude of our employees, which is a little harder to measure. At the corporate level, the cultural changes are significant. In reality, we can build the greenest buildings in the world, but unless the people that occupy and use them embrace those same philosophies and work to reduce consumption, waste and carbon emissions, then you haven’t really achieved anything. I think it’s the whole human behavior aspect of the green building movement that has been greatly underappreciated and is ultimately the most critical.

tt: What strategies is Gerding Edlen exploring to create net-zero buildings, living buildings and infrastructure?dW: Everything imaginable, because I don’t think we know how to do it. We’re exploring new and modified structural systems, new materials, new methods of sourcing materials, ways to conserve materials and energy that go beyond anything we’ve done historically, new technologies where they’re appropriate, renewable energy systems, wastewater and solid waste treatment systems, and a building-neighborhood-and-district scale—I think there’s huge promise there. So much of it is trying to get away from siloed thinking: not just thinking about how you are going to build a really cool building, but really thinking about the overall, intrinsic design of the building. So it’s really taking a systems view of everything and going beyond the traditional ways of designing buildings. We’ve been doing that in part for a long time—we hold eco-charrettes and involve everybody to get people engaged in the idea. But I don’t think we’ve taken it far enough. We’ve been talking recently about how to extend that concept down to the level of the craft trades that actually build the building, to get them engaged from the very beginning. If you design a

BY JENNY SEIFERT

really cool building and reduce the systems, and then the plumber threatens not to install a waterless urinal because he or she thinks it’s taking jobs away, he or she is not going to be a collaborator. So we to have to educate them that it’s about creating more jobs, not less. We have to build that understanding and enthusiasm to participate all the way through the project.

tt: In light of the current weaknesses in our economy, are you noticing a change in business? dW: Well right now there is no business. So, yes, there’s been a significant change, and that’s going to continue for some time. Just because we pursue environmentally responsible strategies doesn’t mean we’re going to escape the credit crisis, because it’s affected everyone. Now coming out [of the crisis], is there going to be less or more emphasis on environmentally responsible buildings? I personally think there will be more, and we’ll see the movement increase rather than decrease. I’m optimistic for the potential for significant positive change. I also think we’ll see significant local and regional efforts that are going to portend major change, such as carbon cap and trade or code changes that mandate improvements in energy efficiency and carbon reduction strategies.

tt: How can sustainability practices help mitigate economic trouble?dW: Reducing operating costs and improving efficiency definitely drives to the bottom line, not just for the building owner, but for the tenants. If you improve productivity, reduce absenteeism, and promote employee retention by building better buildings, again that drives right to the bottom line, probably even more significantly than the energy conservation strategies, since labor is the biggest cost to business. I think the businesses that are employing those strategies are going to be more competitive coming out of this recession; they’re going to be in a position to be more successful. I personally think that companies that are helping to drive green industry are going to be on the forefront of the next great seismic change in our economic strategies, not just in this nation, but world-wide.

tt: What do you think are the most important issues for developers to be addressing now?dW: We have to get to net zero energy at the minimum; it would be fantastic if we could get to living buildings. [Gerding Edlen] is pursuing two living buildings right now. Frankly, unless it’s a very specialized, modest project, right now it’s almost impossible to do a living building. Just finding all the material resources within 500 miles – you can’t! We’re a long way from living

buildings. Setting that as a target to achieve is important; the ability to get there immediately is really a challenge. But we won’t know if we don’t try. And then there’s the question of what’s the appropriate density? With current technology, theoretically we could probably do a living building with a maximum five- or six-story building, but what about a twelve- or twenty-story building? How do you address the energy and water needs of high-rise development alone? Yet high-rise development supports a lot of urban infrastructure concepts that are consistent with living building ideals. So is there an appropriate cutoff in terms of height and density? Or do we have to find neighborhood and district solutions? There are a lot of big questions and no answers.

tt: Why aren’t more of your competitors still embracing a deeper ethos of green?dW: Because it’s a religious undertaking, if you really want to get down to it. I could give you all kinds of fluff answers, but you have to believe in your heart of hearts that this isn’t just a nice thing to do, but is absolutely imperative to do. If you don’t have that at the highest levels of your organization, then you’ll never push the frontiers. You’ll stop as soon as it gets a little bit difficult. You have to believe that it’s necessary and that it’s possible. If you believe both of those, then you can go out there and figure out the solutions. I frankly wish there were more of our peers that have the same passion that we do.

tt: What are some important lessons that you’re learned in how to transform an industry?dW: Don’t expect that people are going to follow just because you think it’s a cool idea. Everybody has their own time and decision-making process and you have to respect that. You have to be able to listen and craft a rationale that speaks to what’s important to people. You have to always look for common ground. And sometimes you have to be a bit of a pain in the ass, and I mean that in terms of being persistent. And just being an old fart has helped. I’m not so terrified with what people think anymore; I’m more willing to speak my mind. I think since I have a lot of experience and [Gerding Edlen] has demonstrated a lot of success, we have credibility. And then, most importantly, [Gerding Edlen] has tried really hard to walk our talk and be transparent about what we’re doing. I personally think without that, you don’t get anywhere.

tt: Looking ahead, what environmental trends have you most concerned?dW: What concerns me most is that, even after we make monumental, transformational change in this

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country, it will still be too late, because the majority of the world’s population is still in emergent economies that want the same standard of living that we have. I am pretty certain that the resource base just doesn’t exist to support that standard of living, and I don’t think the majority of people are willing to voluntarily engage in a lower standard of living. So, what are the long-term implications? We have a population that they say is going to double in the next 25 years, or at least get to 10 billion. How can 10 billion people exist on the planet? But that doesn’t dissuade me. We still have to change. We have to point out that there are positive changes that we can and need to make. We have to reduce our overall resource consumption, and I think we can do that without putting on a hairshirt and moving into a cave. But we have to move quickly and be really strategic about what we do.

tt: Looking ahead, what ideas or initiatives give you the most hope?dW: Overall, the amazing growing awareness of the predicament that we’re in. Across the planet you’re seeing it. There’s been an enormous sea change in the terms of just individuals’ awareness of the magnitude of problems, primarily driven by the growing awareness of global warming. Awareness and education are always going to be the major drivers of change; if people don’t have a sense of imperative, they aren’t going to be moved to change. And then there’s this amazing ground swell

of change that’s happening in our region; not just the emergence of Cascadia, but the emergence of all the various NGO, public and private efforts that are underway. The biggest challenge is understanding the collective net impact of these disparate movements. We’re just connected to one piece of it with green buildings.

tt: What’s next for Dennis Wilde? What gets you excited these days?dW: Whole new opportunities – We’ve created a new division of GED: Gerding Edlen Sustainable Solutions. We’re looking at creating new energy and waste management systems at the neighborhood district scale, and seeking the financing systems to make them cost effective. We’re spending more time these days as a company thinking seriously about the triple bottom line. We’ve created a metric we’re using internally called the Livable Place Index, which looks at the triple bottom line on all of our projects. We look at the economic impact of a project on the whole community in terms of job generation and over all economic benefit. We look at our CO2 emissions, our water consumption and reduction strategies. We look at our social indicators through an online tool called Walk Score, which looks at all of the community assets that are available within easy walking distance. Applying these metrics to all of our projects as upfront evaluation tools tells us if the project is going to make sense; it gives us a whole new way of assessing what we do.

NAvIGATING THE CODES David Eisenberg, Co-founder and Director of DCAT

UNDERSTANDING CARBON OFFSETS with Anja Kollmuss, Staff Scientist at Stockholm Environment Institute

COMFORT, PRODUCTIvITy + DELIGHT with Vivian Loftness, university Professor at Carnegie Mellon and Judith Heerwagen, PhD J.H. Heerwagen & Associates, Inc.

ENERGy SESSIONS with Mark Frankel, Technical Director of New Buildings Institute.

Anyplace. Anytime. Ecologicate your mind.

Living Building Leader cultivates thought and action influentials around the world.

A series of online sessions, the program provides the building industry a means to

develop the diverse and intensive skill set needed to effect transformative change.

www.livingbuildingleader.org

Check the website regularly for other offerings & the 2009 lineup.

Sessions available now!

Join fellow deep green building professionals | Register Today!

“[Living Future] is genuinely on the forefront of sustainability. There is a lot of determination to

make the next big leap.”

- Living Future ‘08 attendee

Kinetic dialogue and unbridled imagination to create transformative change.

Are you ready to revolutionize the conversation?www.cascadiagbc.org/living-future

2009 keynote SpeakersJanine benyus, • renowned author, innovation consultant, and co-founder of Biomimicry Guild

Rick Fedrizzi, • CEO and founding Chairman of uSGBC

Thomas Crum, • international speaker on conflict resolution

Jason F. McLennan, • CEO of Cascadia Region Green Building Council

Cultivating Leadership: Shift Global Consciousness. Begin with One.USGBC & CaGBC Chapter partNerS: California Central Coast, Idaho, Montana, Northern California, redwood empire, San Diego

GeNeroUSlY SpoNSoreD BY:

Stoel rives, llpMarketShift Strategiestorii Mor Winery

First Quarter 200914

Van Jones:Greenbuild Master Speaker On The Green Collar Economy

STORY BY BILL WALSH

Listen to the presentation Jones made on November 13, 2008 as part of Cascadia’s Transformational Lecture Series

[cl ick here]

Van Jones is an optimist. His new book, The Green Collar Economy, analyzes the twin crises of “rampant environmental destruction” and “radical socioeconomic inequality,” but is subtitled How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems. The book has been praised by the likes of Thomas Friedman, Al Gore and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for breaking through the “jobs vs. environment,” “economic growth vs. ecological preservation” and “eco populism vs. eco elitism” arguments that too often result in political stalemate.

You might call Jones an improbable candidate to be an environmental leader. Shortly after earning a law degree from Yale, he co-founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland to “document, challenge and expose” systemic human rights abuses in the criminal justice system. At the root of the problem, he discovered decades of disinvestment in cities that have led to despair and hopelessness, and a cycle of violence that makes everyone less safe. Looking for practical solutions to break this cycle, he found a “powerful source of hope in all things green.”

But Jones is no Pollyanna. Opening Chapter 3, entitled Eco-Equity, he writes: “Sadly, most of the economic power we need to green the Earth is still in the hands of people with a ‘pillage and pave’ mentality. And they have unleashed their lobbyists to further defend their prerogatives, extend their power and prop up their positions.”

Reading those lines, I could not help but think of the destructive role the lobbyists from the plastics, chemicals and timber industries have played in the USGBC, undermining efforts to address the disparate environmental impacts on people of color rooted in status quo industrial and forest management regimes.

Just this week, a new study confirmed the point Doug Pierce made in our October 23rd newsletter. He argued that the proposed revisions to the LEED FSC credit, driven by an industry trade group that certifies timber taken from forests subject to Indigenous land right claims, would “greatly reduce the standing that Indigenous Peoples currently enjoy in the FSC process” and “significantly reduce the social equity values as currently expressed by the LEED wood credit.”

Tania Bubela of the School of Public Health, University of Alberta (Canada), co-author of this new study by the International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property, said: “The dominant argument, internationally, has been that traditional knowledge can be protected by property rights. Our case studies have shown that, in practice, this is very hard to do. In our view, promoting autonomy and capacity for self-governance for indigenous communities rather than property is the key.”

Later in Chapter 3, Jones writes, “It is important that we wrestle with these questions consciously and openly — before the greening of the world’s economies proceeds irretrievably along the same lines as the unjust, unequal, gray economy.”

USGBC chapters continue to do just this — wrestle consciously and openly with important issues — from the Cascadia Region’s contributions to the LEED FSC credit revisions backing strong Indigenous rights, to the innovative collaborations supporting low-income communities that will be discussed at Greenbuild by representatives from the New York, Northern California and Arkansas chapters.

Jones’ address to Greenbuild looks to be the right message from the right man at the right time.

This article was previously published on November 17, 2008 in healthy building News. bill Walsh is the Executive Director of the healthy building Network.

Congratulationsto the Weber + Thompson Green Team,

winners of USGBC’s 2008 Natural Talent Design Competition!

The Seattle-based team captured the national prize after winning Cascadia’s regional competition in 2008.

Every year, the NTDC garners the best ideas from the region’s bright green young minds. In 2009, the competition challenges students and young professionals to consider the intersection of transportation, community and the environment in the design of a Living building.

Learn more and enter ...

Natural Talent Design Competition: www.cascadiagbc.org/emerging-green-builders/ntdc

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The Righteous Small houseChallenging House Size and the Irresponsible American Dream

a house must be built on solid foundations if it is to last. the same principle applies to man, otherwise he too will sink back into the soft ground and become swallowed up by the world of illusion. —Sai BaBa

STORy byJASON F. MCLENNAN

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I recently toured a residential subdivision whose grandiose homes were aggressively promoted as green. The developer and builder used a rating system to quantify the extent to which they had built sustainability into each structure. I was drawn to the project because of its claims of responsibility; I was repelled by it when I observed its inherent hypocrisy.

How, under any circumstances, can a 6,000-square-foot single family home be considered green? Something is terribly wrong with a system that ranks such a dwelling high on the green scale when it is intended to house only two to five people. Such oversized homes — with their three-car garages, bonus rooms, great rooms, etc. — are nothing less than mini-mansions (“starter castles,” as I call them) and have no business being associated with green building, even when they incorporate green features.

In my opinion, the existence of oxymoronic “green mansions” is symptomatic of a larger set of problems. Yes, the design and building communities need to establish universal guidelines to define truly green standards, and communicate the ecological notion that “less is more.” But perhaps more importantly, American society must realign its values when it comes to house size. With builders over-building, buyers being taught to embrace excess, lenders focusing more on size than value, each link in the chain weakens the one that follows. It is incumbent upon us as leaders in the green movement to educate consumers on how and why to seek saner, greener relationships with their homes.

This article explores two fundamental topics regarding the intersection between lifestyle and sustainability:

1. How big can a home get before it is simply too big to be called green, regardless of its design and materials?

2. From a sustainability standpoint, what size house should we seek? What guidelines should we follow when selecting a home? Should developers take responsibility for limiting the size of homes they build?

At What Point Does Size Cancel Out Sustainability?Green homes require more than the token placement of solar panels and the use of recycled-content materials. True sustainability must go beyond tangible design and construction and encompass a philosophical commitment to green living.

A larger structure can meet multiple green standards; it can even impose a smaller environmental footprint than smaller homes. But it is simply too easy to rationalize

The moderately sized Green Dirt Farmstead — a net zero energy home is an appropriately scaled residence for a family of 5. PHOTO BY BOB GREENSPAN

Featuring reclaimed materials throughout, the homes’ low-embodied energy and efficient space use make it a highly green home. PHOTO BY BOB GREENSPAN

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outsized homes and justify their excess by wrapping them in a loud green ribbon.

The industry must follow consistent guidelines and increase public awareness of this growing problem – that is also related to the housing and financial crisis the country is currently in. When all segments of the market work together, green building will evolve from a guilt-removing fashion to a far-reaching instrument of change.

Putting Things in Perspective.According to the National Association of Home Builders, the average size of a new single-family American residence in 1950 was 983 square feet. Today, it is nearly 2500 square feet. As home sizes ballooned over that time, family size shrank. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 1950, an average American family consisted of 3.8 people; today’s average family contains 2.6 people.

yEAR hOME SIZE FAMILy SIZE

SQ. FT.PER PERSON

1950 983 3.8 258.72008 2500 2.6 961.5

These figures prove how inefficiently we use our resources when we build homes with such drastically disproportionate size-to-occupant ratios. Instead, as we go forward, we must adhere to a stricter code of square-footage-per-person, particularly when we speak of green projects.

Does Size Really Matter?Plenty of people live in small houses and live what they like to think is an ideal eco-existence. But house size alone does not always relate to responsible resource use. When a childless couple or a one-child family lives in a relatively “small” house but their square-footage-per-person rates are high, they are not living as green as they might think. I am concerned less with total house size and more with relative resource use and quality green design.

I speak to this subject from personal experience as co-head of a blended family with four kids. As our family has grown, my wife and I have lived in homes of varying shapes and sizes – in apartments and single-family homes set in urban centers and rural areas. I’ve seen what does and doesn’t work for family residences, and I’ve learned that a well-designed home or apartment can be small and functional at the same time.

Monster homes like these for two or three people are a gross misuse of resources.

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Through her writing, Sarah Susanka has helped promote the desirability of living Not So Big. She has made the small house cool again, while calling into question what might be missing in the lives of those who settle into such massive physical spaces. Sarah’s work celebrates the idea of restraint, which is sorely lacking in our culture. When did our grandparents’ notion of “plenty” become “not enough” to 21st-century homeowners, her readers ask? When did the three-car garage, which more often serves as storage for unneeded junk than for vehicles, become a standard feature? When did we decide that we require separate rooms for living, reading, eating and recreation?

The Money Pit.The market-driven interest in size for the sake of size creates a vicious financial and resource-wasting cycle. Buyers spend more on their homes, more to heat and cool them, more to clean them and more to fill them with possessions. Worse yet, most oversized homes are built by cookie-cutter developers who meet the market demand for square footage by compromising on design and material quality. It is amazing how so few large ‘custom’ homes are conceived and built without architects. The results speak for themselves with subdivision after subdivision of poorly designed boxes with terrible site integration, badly designed interior spaces and awkward floor plans. People spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on flimsy dumb boxes with tacked on columns, stainless steel fronted appliances and badly-labeled ‘great rooms’ and think somehow they are getting value. The “builder-plan” trend has dumbed down the building profession and resulted in a scarcity of true craftsmanship.

Instead, both sides of the industry (buyers and builders alike) should focus on quality rather than quantity, reinvesting in healthier materials, more durable construction and alternative energy sources in tandem with quality design led by architects and designers. A home should be judged by the quality of its details and craftsmanship rather than the size of its shadow.

Changing the Perception of Value.There are so many things wrong with the model of building massive houses. Consumers usually have a finite amount of money with which to build a home, but societal rules – established, I believe, by developers, builders and lenders in conjunction with societal mores that view “more is better” – dictate that value relates to square footage. The larger the home, the greater the cost … so if a larger home costs the same as a smaller home, the former is supposedly a better deal. But it’s not, not by a long shot. In order to expand home size and keep costs down, builders cut corners and consumers lose. I’ve seen many residents who move into giant new houses and can’t figure out why they don’t feel comfortable inside – and they don’t understand that it’s the poorly designed spaces. Feng Shui does in fact matter. Buyers’ joy fades quickly and the reality of living in large, charmless boxes sets in.

A well-built house should far outlive its first owners. And all who dwell there through the years should be allowed to enjoy the comfort that comes with responsibility.

Unfortunately, these misaligned values are rife throughout the system. When buyers seek financing for a given property, lenders look for ‘comps’ in order to establish monetary value. Homes are valued based on a narrow range of shallow attributes, location and size. But the mortgage lending community doesn’t factor in design quality or sustainability when it assesses a home; it measures square footage primarily. People seeking to do something durable and innovative see their efforts valued less than if they simply built what everyone else was building – surely a perverse incentive if there ever was one. Not surprisingly, smaller homes are particularly undervalued and even though it is more likely that someone with lower energy bills and operating costs can afford to pay their mortgages - they are penalized.

The Green Square Foot Metric.If the industry embraced a national square-footage-per-resident standard, then designers, builders, buyers and lenders could quantify a home’s green quotient. 2008

1950

How House Sizes Have Changed in Almost 60 Years

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Such a system would provide a concrete method with which to determine whether a house is green or simply greenwashed. Smaller, well-built and well-designed houses could become a cornerstone of a new, more responsible lending institution that moved us back from the precipice of the crashing housing market.

First things first: I propose that the design/build community set a maximum house size. Homes exceeding a certain size just wouldn’t be built or purchased. Secondly, I recommend that the size-per-person should range from 200 to 800 square feet, depending on the depth of green design for the first three people in a household. When more than three people reside in a house, an additional 400 square-feet-per-person could be used.

This system mandates that no house exceed 4400 square feet — ever. Such a structure is still huge; but using the chart as a guide, it must provide shelter for eight or more people in order to meet sustainability guidelines.

As family size grows, home size does not necessarily have to increase to accommodate human comfort. (For example, you don’t add another kitchen or entryway every time a child is born, you simply make them slightly bigger) Siblings might share bedrooms, family members can share bathrooms, etc. Yes, a separate family room is appealing when multiple kids are involved, and an enclosed garage helps keep the rain off the car. But the greenest solution is what people choose NOT to build.

The Big Bottom Line.1. The average American family house or condominium,

which today is built for three people, should be no larger than 1600 square feet in order to be considered green. (This is more than 600 square feet larger than the house of the 1950s but approximately 900 square feet smaller than the average house today.) Houses need to shrink again. This would do a lot to avoid a future housing crisis.

2. If people have more money and are looking for a new place to live, the compelling message should not be to move into a larger home, but rather to invest in quality and design and to downsize or ‘rightsize’ based on your family size.

3. Working at home drastically reduces green house gas emissions as transportation impacts are avoided. Additional square footage can be justified if people are working at home a significant amount of time. In these cases, I would propose a maximum 200 square feet bonus allowance to accommodate telecommuting for each working adult.

4. The square-foot-per-person metric lessens as more people join a household. (Sharing is also green.) So house size shrinks from 600 square feet per person down to 450 square feet per person as an overall average.

As professionals leading the charge toward greener ways of living, we must challenge assumptions that hinder our progress. Responsibility naturally breeds sustainability.

Sizing GuidelinesThe chart below establishes a set of size-per-occupant guidelines for green homes.

NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS

GREEN SIZE (SF) YELLOW SIZE (SF) WHERE RED SIZE STARTS (SF)

1 200 - 600 600 - 800 800 +2 400 - 1200 1200 - 1600 1600 +3 600 - 1600 1600 - 2400 2400 +4 1000 - 2100 2100 - 2800 2800 +5 1200 - 2500 2500 - 3200 3200 +6 1500 - 2800 2800 - 3600 3600 +7 1800 - 3200 3200 - 4000 4000 +8 2200 - 3600 3600 - 4400 4400 +

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Such a system would provide a concrete method with which to determine whether a house is green or simply greenwashed. Smaller, well-built and well-designed houses could become a cornerstone of a new, more responsible lending institution that moved us back from the precipice of the crashing housing market.

First things first: I propose that the design/build community set a maximum house size. Homes exceeding a certain size just wouldn’t be built or purchased. Secondly, I recommend that the size-per-person should range from 200 to 800 square feet, depending on the depth of green design for the first three people in a household. When more than three people reside in a house, an additional 400 square-feet-per-person could be used.

This system mandates that no house exceed 4400 square feet — ever. Such a structure is still huge; but using the chart as a guide, it must provide shelter for eight or more people in order to meet sustainability guidelines.

As family size grows, home size does not necessarily have to increase to accommodate human comfort. (For example, you don’t add another kitchen or entryway every time a child is born, you simply make them slightly bigger) Siblings might share bedrooms, family members can share bathrooms, etc. Yes, a separate family room is appealing when multiple kids are involved, and an enclosed garage helps keep the rain off the car. But the

greenest solution is what people choose NOT to build.

The big bottom Line.1. The average American family house or condominium,

which today is built for three people, should be no larger than 1600 square feet in order to be considered green. (This is more than 600 square feet larger than the house of the 1950s but approximately 900 square feet smaller than the average house today.) Houses need to shrink again. This would do a lot to avoid a future housing crisis.

2. If people have more money and are looking for a new place to live, the compelling message should not be to move into a larger home, but rather to invest in quality and design and to downsize or ‘rightsize’ based on your family size.

3. Working at home drastically reduces green house gas emissions as transportation impacts are avoided. Additional square footage can be justified if people are working at home a significant amount of time. In these cases, I would propose a maximum 200 square feet bonus allowance to accommodate telecommuting for each working adult.

4. The square-foot-per-person metric lessens as more people join a household. (Sharing is also green.) So house size shrinks from 600 square feet per person down to 450 square feet per person as an overall average.

As professionals leading the charge toward greener ways of living, we must challenge assumptions that hinder our

Sizing GuidelinesThe chart below establishes a set of size-per-occupant guidelines for green homes.

NuMBER OF OCCuPANTS

GREEN SIZE (SF) YELLOW SIZE (SF) WHERE RED SIZE STARTS (SF)

1 200 - 600 600 - 800 800 +2 400 - 1200 1200 - 1600 1600 +3 600 - 1600 1600 - 2400 2400 +4 1000 - 2100 2100 - 2800 2800 +5 1200 - 2500 2500 - 3200 3200 +6 1500 - 2800 2800 - 3600 3600 +7 1800 - 3200 3200 - 4000 4000 +8 2200 - 3600 3600 - 4400 4400 +

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2030 ChALLENGE SITTING ON CAPITOL hILL

President-elect Obama has committed to economic recovery, energy independence, carbon-neutral buildings by 2030 and an 80% reduction in US greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Architecture 2030 has developed a groundbreaking economic stimulus plan that simultaneously addresses all of these issues with a single investment, which they recently presented to policymakers and industry leaders in the National’s Capitol. The 2030 Challenge Stimulus Plan ties stimulus funding to the 2030 Challenge targets, which both revitalizes the US economy and incentivizes the necessary shift to an energy-efficient, clean-energy economy. The new demand for energy efficiency upgrades and infusion of capital will create over 8 million new jobs, including a new $1.6 trillion renovation market that will put the construction industry back to work immediately. Learn More.

CURbING CARbON IN 2009

As of the end of 2008, the British Columbia government legally mandated the recommendations of the Climate Action Team (CAT) for interim greenhouse gas reduction (GHG) targets, which establish a GHG reduction target of six per cent below 2007 levels by 2012 and 18 per cent by 2016. These interim targets were set to ensure that BC meets their 2020 goal of 33% below 2007 levels, which was put into law in November 2007. These targets will also help to create more opportunities for the province to develop clean technology and green innovation.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski announced an aggressive climate change policy for the 2009 legislation, which aims

to reduce greenhouse gas levels to 10% less than 1990 levels by 2020. It addresses four key areas – Greenhouse Gas Reductions, Energy Conservation and Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Sustainable Transportation – with strategies that include developing net-zero energy use building codes, expanding the Business Energy Tax Credit to new more efficient vehicles, development of energy performance certificates for homebuyers and a regional cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Read the complete agenda.

The City of Portland opened its High Performance Green Building Policy draft for public comment in mid-November, which is part of City Council’s initiative to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. The proposed policy creates incentives and technical assistance to new construction and existing buildings that include advanced carbon reduction and green building measures. Read more or contact gbpolicy@ci.portland.or.us

The 2009 Washington State legislature has the opportunity to move the state toward a new generation of energy efficiency with the proposed Efficiency First! legislation. The legislation promotes the construction of super-efficient, low-energy-use buildings; provides tax incentives to maximize energy efficiency; requires energy use information on buildings offered for sale or lease; and makes public buildings models of energy efficiency. This policy will also help low-income consumers cope with rising energy costs through weatherization services. The legislation is based on two years of work by the Governor’s Climate Action Team and is one of the state environmental community’s four priority bills for 2009. Learn more.

Moving upstream: PROGRESS IN THE BIOREGION

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ThE NExT GENERATION OF LEED AP

Under the LEED 2009 initiative, the Green Building Certification Institute has made some significant changes to the LEED credential program. The program will now be tiered, creating a differentiation and specialization among accredited professionals – from the LEED Green Associate, who demonstrates a basic knowledge of LEED concepts and strategies, to the LEED AP Fellow, who possesses a healthy portfolio of LEED projects. Also, there will be biannual credentialing maintenance program and fee. Professionals who already have their LEED AP status must sign a disciplinary policy and agree to the credentialing maintenance program in order to maintain their AP status; upon doing so, one will be dubbed a Legacy LEED AP.

The retirement process of the current version of LEED begins in March, when the new LEED 2009 Reference Guides will be available. While the current version of the LEED AP exam will be available through the second quarter, all new versions of the exam will be in Beta Test status during the first half of 2009. By the end of the second quarter, all current versions of the exam will expire and the new exams will take over. For more information, visit www.gbci.org.

yOUR EyES ARE bIGGER ThAN yOUR LOT

In an effort to prevent an epidemic of megahomes, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed an ordinance in October 2008 that limits the size of homes built on smaller lots. Not only does the ruling appeal to residents’ complaints that megahomes disrupt the character and scale of the neighborhoods, it will also help to increase urban density and perhaps also help protect Seattle’s housing market from the current economic crisis. Read more.

SMOOThER SAILING FOR STORMWATER CONTROL IN WAShINGTON

The Washington State Pollution Control Hearings Board has determined that existing state stormwater regulations mandated by the state Department of Ecology are inadequate in helping to reduce pollution caused by stormwater. The PCHB, which reviews challenges to state environmental regulations, ordered Ecology to require the larger cities and counties of Western Washington to mandate a much wider use of methods to control stormwater. Though the ruling was made in August ’08, it is not yet widely known among the building community.

CREATING ThE FRAMEWORK FOR COLLECTIVE SUCCESS

The Cascadia bioregion boasts several municipalities that are leading the nation in building sustainable communities. In order to accelerate progress, the Cascadia Communities Coalition (CCC) was recently established, which will provide a way for these leading green municipalities to work together on policies and initiatives aimed at achieving sustainability targets, such as the Architecture 2030 Challenge. The idea for the CCC emerged from a set of dialogues called the Municipal Green Building Collaboration Summits, which were convened by Cascadia in 2008. Based on the Green Cities California model, the summits sparked action-oriented dialogue and collaboration among key government and NGO stakeholders of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. The Blackstone Foundation, the City of Vancouver, the City of Portland, and the City of Seattle funded the summits. In early November, the City of Langford, BC became the first official signatory of the CCC’s resolutions, and more are expected in 2009.

ThE TEN STEP PLAN

Climate Solutions recently released a report called Carbon-Free Prosperity 2050, which outlines the Northwest’s best opportunities to create jobs, enable energy independence and become a leader in clean technology. Their 10 steps to a prosperous future include two specific green building measures: aggressive green building codes and tax credits, similar to Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit. Read more.

LEED ON ThE TUNDRA

In October 2008, the Eielson Visitor Center of Denali National Park and Preserve became Alaska’s first LEED Platinum Certified building. Designed by RIM Architects, the building achieved 56 out of 69 points and features a green roof, solar panels, microhydroelectric generator, natural daylighting, earth-sheltered construction, and recycled and locally produced materials. Learn more about the Center.

CRACKING ThE bUILDING CODE

Cascadia will release a report on Code and Regulatory Barriers to the Living Building Challenge, which is a comprehensive examination at how existing building codes impede successful implementation of the goals outlined by the LBC, and includes recommendations for code changes. The report, authored by David Eisenberg of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology and

First Quarter 200924

making progress?

Cascadia is hiring!

Sonja Persram of Sustainable Alternatives Consulting, will be available online.

In a continuing effort to make water conservation easier for Oregonians, the Department of Consumer and Business Services’ Building Codes Division approved the use of wastewater conservation systems for commercial and industrial buildings in October 08. The systems, which reuse treated wastewater – from showers, tubs, bathroom sinks and washing machines – for the purpose of flushing toilets and urinals, could reduce potable water consumption in commercial buildings by as much as 30 percent. The Building Codes Division approved the systems as part of the governor’s agenda on climate change.

Do you have a lead on cutting-edge green building progress in the region? Contact jenny@cascadiagbc.org and put “Moving Upstream News Lead” in the subject line.

We’re seeking talented and motivated candidates to fill two positions:

ALASkA STATE DIRECTORLIvING BUILDING OUTREACH DIRECTOR

For the complete job descriptions, please visit the Cascadia Job Board

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Northwest Green Home Primerby Kathleen O’Brien and

Kathleen Smith

Book Review:

BY THOR PETERSON

As green building practitioners and proponents, many of us play an active role in advocating for the increased environmental and human health performance of our built environment. Yet we often behave in ways that are at odds with what we promote. We argue for shrinking our collective carbon footprint, but log thousands of air miles annually in the name spreading the good green word. We extol the virtues of local production, and yet we can’t quite resist the call of preposterously low prices at big-box or online retailers. And probably most commonly, we live in homes that don’t come close to even the intermediate 2010 goals of the 2030 Challenge, let alone the ambitious performance parameters of the Living Building Challenge.

The Northwest Green Home Primer is a road map for reducing the cognitive dissonance we face regarding our homes. Written by Kathleen O’Brien, president and founder of O’Brien and Company, and Kathleen Smith, former senior designer with Sim Van der Ryn’s architectural office and principal of EcoSmith Design and Consulting, the Primer benefits from decades of collective experience and applied knowledge. Organized to allow the reader to prioritize his or her thinking, the book sets the stage for action. While other books cover the general territory explored by O’Brien and Smith admirably in some respects (notably, Alex Wilson’s Your Green Home and David Johnston and Kim Master’s Green Remodeling), the inclusion of regionalism drives home the importance of climate responsive and local design.

From the start, O’Brien and Smith lay out the case for green building through the lens of Pacific Northwest priorities, such as preserving our dwindling salmon populations and old growth forest lands, as well as combating our region’s elevated childhood asthma rates. It quickly moves on to address the key to any journey: knowing one’s starting point and context. By framing the issue as a series of questions – Where is your home? How big is your home? What type of housing do you live in? – the authors deliver the essential information about the environmental impact of housing location, size and type without being condemnatory, allowing the reader to own any epiphanies along the way.

Also comforting (and practical) is the ample use of case studies. Supplied by homeowners, architects and builders, and the authors themselves, the case studies provide real-life and personal examples of the concepts presented in the text, while also imparting invaluable lessons learned. This approach brings both a kitchen table conversational tone and credibility to the concepts. Written this way, the book remains approachable, while delving into sufficient technical depth to help an individual ask the right questions of design and construction professionals.

Thor Peterson is principal of Synthesis Consultants, a Seattle green building consultancy. he can be reached at thor@synthesisconsultants.com

CERTI

FIED GREENBRO

KER

CERTIFIED GREEN BROKER©

B e c o m e a P a r t o f t h e G r e e n B u i l t u n i v e r s e

The Certified Green Broker program prepares brokers and other real estate professionals to take a leadership role in the burgeoning green building marketplace.

We’ve created ten three-hour online seminars, for a total of 30 hours of real estate CEUs. Become a Certified Green Broker by participating in ten sessions and taking a two-hour exam.

Certified Green Brokers stand out in a crowded field.

Our in-depth training sessions will give you all the tools and expertise you need to guide your clients through all aspects of the green building marketplace.

Topics include:

What sustainable building is and why it mattersThe business case for green buildingsThe green approach to property and portfolio management

Look for Certified Green Broker to launch early in 2009. Visit www.greenbrokereducation.com for more information.

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Several elements help even a novice navigate the choppy waters of green home building and remodeling. Practical tools such as a needs questionnaire and suggested project team interview questions help focus the reader’s attention on gathering key information. The Primer is peppered with “top green home picks,” on subjects ranging from building durability, to landscaping strategies, to selecting an HVAC system, providing valuable design, construction or operations advice. Attractive, information-rich graphics help this book stand out among existing residential green building resources. Sketches showing the effects of building orientation and landscaping, hot water and heat distribution systems, erosion control plans and more allow easy visualization of the concepts described in the narrative. The only thing missing is a glossary of terms for quick reference—an important feature in any book on a technical subject geared toward a lay audience.

As a proponent of a holistic green building approach, I was hoping to see more page space devoted to the oft-

Manufacturer: Forbo Flooring Systems Manufacturing location: Assendelft, the Netherlands Source location(s) for raw materials: Linseed oil - Canada (Manitoba/Saskatchewan); Limestone - Germany; Jute – India; woodflour – Germany & Scandinavia; Pigments – Germany; Tall oil - Germany & Scandinavia Completed a Life Cycle Assessment? yes: (www.leidenuniv.nl/cml/ssp/publications/lcalinoleum.pdf)

Any Persistent Organic Pollutants, Very High Hazard Chemicals, High Hazard Chemicals or Highly Acute Toxicants

Marmoleum Linoleum – Resilient Floor Covering

Read Forbo’s entire social equity policy and review other completed Building Materials Questionnaires by visiting www.livingbuildingchallenge.org: Living Building Resources.

Curious about building products’ social and ecological footprints?

use Cascadia’s Building Materials Questionnaire to start a dialogue about the potentially hidden impacts of prod-uct specification beyond typical metrics of cost, performance and aesthetics. In each issue of Trim Tab, we’ll select an excerpt from a completed survey to highlight a product of interest.

Product Spotlight:

(>0.1% by weight)? No

Any substances on the uS EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory released during production? No Biodegradable or recyclable with current available programs and technologies? yes, biodegradeable

Percentage of final product weight from: Post-consumer recycled content? 0% Post-industrial recycled content? 45%

Manufacturing practices consistent with Canadian and/or uS labor standards? yes

Company-wide stated social equity policy? yes.

neglected leg of the sustainability triad: community and social issues. Notably absent is discussion of Universal Design, creating spaces that work well for all ages and physical abilities. Given our aging population (according to the Northwest Area Foundation, Oregon’s median age increased from 30.2 in 1980 to 39.0 in 2007), this is an area of growing importance. Virtually all green building texts, programs and curricula give this arena short shrift; this book’s focus on regionalism opens a door to introducing these concepts as Cascadia priorities.

Overall, as an attempt at getting one’s arms around the huge subject that is residential green building, The Northwest Green Home Primer does an excellent job. The book provides a vehicle for getting us closer to our 2030 and Living Building Challenge goals, and acts as a reminder to “be the change we want to see in the world.” I look forward to future editions that will assist regions outside Cascadia green their homes as well.

Blank questionnaires can also be downloaded for use or distribution. All returned forms will be included in a public online database.

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CERTI

FIED GREENBRO

KER

CERTIFIED GREEN BROKER©

B E C O M E A P A R T O F T H E G R E E N B U I L T U N I V E R S E

The Certified Green Broker program prepares brokers and other real estate professionals to take a leadership role in the burgeoning green building marketplace.

We’ve created ten three-hour online seminars, for a total of 30 hours of real estate CEUs. Take individual classes for targeted learning and continuing education credits, or become a Certified Green Broker by participating in all ten sessions and taking a two-hour exam.

Certified Green Brokers stand out in a crowded field.

Our in-depth training sessions will give you all the tools and expertise you need to guide your clients through all aspects of the green building marketplace.

Topics include:

What sustainable building is and why it mattersThe business case for green buildingsThe green approach to property and portfolio management

Look for Certified Green Broker to launch early in 2009. Visit www.greenbrokereducation.com for more information.

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First Quarter 200928

Workshops, lectures and other opportunities throughout the bioregion

Event Calendar: January-April 2009

For complete details, please visit our calendar at www.cascadiagbc.org/calendar

Boot Camp for Design Firms: Greening Your Firm in 10 Easy Steps Vancouver, bc – 3/26

Build it LEED for Contractors bellevue, Wa – 4/17

TranSFormaTionaL LECTurE SEriES

robert Bateman Vancouver, bc - 2/04Jason F. mcLennan Tacoma, Wa – 2/26 bend, or - 4/16 anchorage, aK – 4/28David orr Portland, or – 2/26 Clark Brockman bellingham, Wa – 3/05 spokane, Wa – 4/23Barbra Batshalom Vancouver, bc – 3/25michelle Long ashland, or – 3/25 eugene, or – 3/26 ryan Scott Kelowna, bc – 4/29 Victoria, bc – 4/30

oThEr EvEnTS in ThE BiorEGion

oregon Sustainable Building Expo & Conference Portland, or – 1/28-29

Building Sustainable Communities 2009 Conference Kelowna, bc – 2/24-25

uSGBC anD CaGBC LEED WorkShopS, hoSTED BY CaSCaDia

LEED® CanaDa-nC 1.1 TEChniCaL rEviEW WorkShop Vancouver, bc – 2/03; Nelson, bc – 2/05; Victoria, bc – 3/25

LEED® CanaDa-Ci 1.0 TEChniCaL rEviEW WorkShop Vancouver, bc – 3/05

Green home Design & Construction: The LEED implemen-tation process Kirkland, Wa – 3/19; eugene, or 4/14 LEED Core Concepts and Strategies eugene, or – 4/03 Green Building Design & Construction: The LEED imple-mentation process bellingham, Wa – 4/24

WorkShopS prESEnTED BY CaSCaDia

LEED-nC v2.2 ap Exam prep seattle, Wa – 2/19-20; spokane, Wa 3/26-27

Green Building and the Building Code salem, or – 3/24; Medford, or – 3/31

Creating and implementing Green Building policies in Local Governments Vancouver, bc – 3/25

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www.cascadiagbc.orgCascadia promotes the design, construction and operation of buildings in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington

and Oregon that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live, work and learn.

A decade of transformational leadership. A future of infinite possibility.

Ankrom Moisan | ARC Architects | Avista Utilities | CDi Engineers | Coffman Engineers | Colliers InternationalDavid Evans and Associates | DLR Group | Downs Archambault & Partners | Glumac | GLY Construction | Gomberoff Bell Lyon

Green Building Services | Hargis Engineers | kpb architects | Laborers Northwest Cooperation | MCW Consultants Ltd.NAC|Architecture | NW Construction | O’Brien & Company | Opsis Architecture | Oregon Electric Group | OtakPBS Engineering and Environmental | Sellen Construction Company | ShoreBank Pacific | Swenson Say Faget

Thomas Hacker Architects | UniverCity | Urban Hardwoods | Wood Harbinger | WSI-BLJC | WSP Flack + KurtzZeck Butler Architects

SILVER

2020 Engineering | AHBL | AirAdvice | ARUP | Ashforth Pacific | Asset Strategics | Belt Collins | BLRB | BOMA Portland | Boora ArchitectsBricklin Newman Dold | Brightworks | CalPortland | Chislett Manson and Company | Fletcher Farr Ayotte | Forensic Building ConsultantsGroup Mackenzie | Iredale Group | KPFF | Lorig | Mahlum Architects | Marketshift Strategies | McLendon Hardware | MGH Associates

Miller Paint | Mission Group Properties | PACE Engineers | Paladino & Company | PCL Construction Services | R&H ConstructionRAFN Company | Read Jones Christoffersen | SMR Architects | Stoel Rives | Sunset Air | Sustainability Solutions Group | Unico

University of Washington | Willamette Print and Blueprint | Winkler Development

CERTIFIED

Cascadia thanks our Friends and asks you to

join us in creating a living future.

PLATINUM

GOLD

LIVING

City of Seattle

Department of Planning & Development

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First Quarter 200930

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