Redefining the Ritual of Groundbreaking

I have been thinking about ritual this past week, probably because of Easter. I love the rituals of the church, especially during Easter and Advent. But whatever the time, the constant of ritual is grounding. I also thought about ritual in relation to building the other day, after having an interesting lunch discussion with someone. There is a ritual for building -it's a groundbreaking ceremony. But as we talked it occured to me that the groundbreaking focuses soley on what is TO BE built, that is an object, versus the action of building and creating a new environment upon a site.

Building is a profound act. It is the point where the built environment –our creation, man’s creation, meet’s the natural environment, God’s creation, Earth. In the age of creating a more sustainable environment however, is a groundbreaking enough? What if a more in-depth ritual were to become a part of each building site? An example of a ritual associated with Earth, and which could be transferred to building, are Rogation Days, a ritual blessing rarely used today. Initially a Christian substitute for the Pagan celebration of Robigalia (see endnote), Rogation Days were observed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day, and were days set aside to bless the fields, crops, plantings, and livestock and to ask for God’s blessing on Creation and the upcoming growing season. In many ways, it was an annual celebration and reconnection with Earth, God’s gift to us, as well as a reminder of the interdependency all creation shares.

Transfer this to a groundbreaking ceremony. What a wondrous groundbreaking ceremony it would be, to traverse the building site, glorifying its flora and fauna, its creatures, and its waters. What too, would it be like to say thanksgivings to all the same that would be removed to make way for the new building, recognizing what they have given the land and us. In effect, we would know and become more deeply connected to the site and to the land upon which we are about to build. It would no longer be just the building site. In addition, a similar ritual would be held for the completed building, giving thanks for the resources being used by both the building and its inhabitants, and also recognizing how the building sustains and nurtures its inhabitants as well as flora, fauna and creatures residing on the building site. The building would no longer just be an object either. Rather, it would begin to become a true manifestation of our experience and establish a deeper connection to Earth.

Maybe it's me, but a golden handled shovel just doesn't seem to be enough anymore.

Endnote: In Roman mythology, Robiga (meaning green or life) along with her brother, Robigus, were the fertility gods of the Romans. Her festival is the Robigalia and is on April 25. (From Wikipedia).

Image: University of Wyoming groundbreaking ceremony, October 5th, 2007

The Value of Value Engineering - Part 5

Recap - Parts 1-4
Alright, this is the end of the Value Engineering series. For those who've been reading all along, I hope you've enjoyed the series. If you didn't, please let me know. This approach was an experiment on my part anyway, and in truth, I'm not 100 percent sure how it's worked either!

Anyway, to recap the past four posts, I've talked about paradigm shifts, easy buttons, LEED, sites & place, water and last week energy. Materials & Resources is the next category, followed by the last one in the Rating System, Envrionmental Quality. And then the "big" finish.

How many gallons of gas does it take to build a building?
With respect to materials, LEED is most focused on recycled content and local and regional availability. Little attention is paid to durability and overall longevity of a building. Yet how durable and maintainable a building -or even a material, is, is paramount when considering a building sustainable. It is also important to consider the impact raw material extraction has on our environment. Or how about materials which contain what are known as "Red List" materials and chemicals, because of health and toxicity concerns, materials such as poly-vinyl chloride –used in clothing, upholstery, membrane roofing, Chlorinated Polyethylene and Chlorosulfonated Polyethlene –used in rigid vinyl products, and Chloroprene which is Neoprene, and more; there are 13 Red List items.

Further, with respect to any toxic materials, the list is endless, and can cause both short and long term health issues. Wood products used for cabinetry containing urea formaldehyde in the resin products, often in schools where our children spend a good portion of their lives. Or flooring materials containing high levels of toxins or VOC’s or both. And more.

For the most part, we are not building for longevity nor are we mindful of the materials going into our buildings. With respect to longevity, at best, some of our "modern-day" and "technologically advanced" buildings have a life-span of 25 years before they just look old and tired. Granted, you can refurbish them, even completely gut and renovate them, but at a cost.

Each building also has an embodied energy factor, that being the total amount of energy embodied in any material in the building, from its point of extraction as a raw material, through its manufacturing process, through its shipment to and installation at the site, through its required maintenance/upkeep throughout its lifetime in a building (think carpet cleaning, VCT floor polishing, re-painting walls and etc), through to its end demise, if it is removed and disposed of at any point. To give you an idea of embodied energy in square foot terms, a new building’s embodied energy runs around 15 gallons of gas per square foot; an existing building anywhere from 5 to 15 gallons per square foot. Put in these terms, we waste a lot of gas on building.

What is the value in any of this?

You want VOC's with that? You sure? They're free.
Indoor environmental quality encompasses a lot of what is embedded in the other four categories. It is directly affected by how beautiful –or not beautiful, a site is –that is, the views you see out the windows, can you open the windows for fresh air. It is effected by air quality and thermal comfort –we feel better, are healthier and more energetic in buildings with adequate fresh air and thermal comfort, i.e.: we are not too hot or too cold, but just right (that is all of us, not just a certain portion of a building population). It is also affected by the material choices –color, how they hold up, the toxins they release or don’t release, which can cause us to feel just not right. And believe it or not, as comfort decreases, environmental impact often increases, as we find inefficient and wasteful solutions to improve our physical environment.

What is the value in any of this?

The next LEED category
Beauty, inspiration and spirit is not a LEED category -yet. But each is the culmination of what our built environment can be. Our built environment is us. It is our legacy, it is a direct reflection of who we are, a snapshot of us at any given moment. Unfortunately, we are more often than not right now surrounded by ugly and inhumane environments. Vast parking lots, strip malls, vacant lots in cities, billboards, huge freeway interchanges, sprawling suburbs with no place, and more. In reality, do we really find any of these aesthetically acceptable? And, if these things are needed in our modern society, is there a way to make them aesthetically pleasing? I believe there is.

Building sustainably has the power to inspire change, to effect well being, to strengthen values, to connect us locally and globally, to connect us to Earth, and to change how we live, work, play and feel.

Will the real Value Engineering please stand up!
LEED is a step towards integrated design. And integrated design does cost more in some respects, but the value is longer lasting. Beauty, inspiration and spirit cost more, but again, the value is longer lasting. We cannot continue to build as we have been. We must not continue to build as we have been.

No longer can we build with little disregard for the site, only building to required codes, and not considering how our site is part of a larger whole. No longer can we build with little regard for water use, depleting lakes, rivers, aquifers and reservoirs. No longer can we build inefficient buildings requiring far more energy to operate than necessary were climatic and other factors taken into consideration. No longer can we build without durability in mind, or without thought to where materials come from and the potential environmental destruction caused. No longer can we build without indoor environmental quality in mind –we are humans, we are soulful beings and we have an inherent connection to each other, to place, to light, to views. No longer can we use materials made from toxins which are harmful to those who make the material, to those who install the material, and to those who then live each day with the material, breathing in VOC’s, formaldehydes, and particulates. No longer can we sacrifice quality, longevity and legacy for first cost. No longer can we operate under the pretense that if it’s good for the environment, it’s bad for the bottom line. And no longer can building be primarily about making money. It must also be about making meaning.

What is the value in all of this? Priceless. This is true value engineering.

The Value of Value Engineering - Part 4

Recap - Parts 1-3

So to date, I've talked about paradigm shifts, easy buttons, LEED, sites & place and water. This week, energy. Generally it's a hot topic –no pun intended. And I am not talking only about our need for energy and its effect on climate change, although indeed, our energy needs are responsible for a good amount of what’s causing our climate to shift perhaps much quicker then it would were Nature left to her own devices. I am talking about more than this, the fact that how we’ve designed and built buildings has contributed to it, as well as other environmental degradation, in a disproportionate manner than were we to have designed and built better.

Who needs energy efficiency when you've got AC?
For the most part, our buildings are not energy efficient. Granted, they are better then they used to be in some respects, but still, they are nowhere near where they could be. In spite of our knowledge of dwindling resources -we’ve reached peak oil, we only have about 300 years of coal left, if that, we still prefer to build only to code, versus increasing efficiency to various percentage points above code, as the LEED rating system requires. At minimum, LEED requires that a building be 15 percent better then code –ASHRAE 90.1-2004. But even reaching this level can be a stretch for many, as the cost seems prohibitive.

We also seem to have convinced ourselves that high tech is better than low tech. By that I mean our buildings have little relationship to climatic factors like sun, wind, and climatic regions –there are four distinct ones, cool, temperate, hot-arid, and hot-humid. Instead, we design with little to no regard for how these factors can help reduce energy use, and the building is an object in the field. After all, we can heat and cool the building with HVAC equipment.

High-tech does not an efficient envelope make
Take Philadelphia’s newest tower as an example. The Comcast Tower, the most recent pride of Philadelphia. It is a beautiful building, and is in fact, a LEED Core & Shell Certified building. But it’s all curtain wall –glass and aluminum frame. At best, the entire building is an R-value of R-6 to R-9 –if they used one of the highest quality aluminum curtain wall systems available today, which would of course be, very expensive. If not, the value would hover around R-4, at best. And how about its response to its orientation to N S E W. Is there any difference? None. The glass is the same, the shape is the same. The result of all of this? A heating and cooling nightmare. In fact, in any fully glazed building, the southern and western exposures often require a certain amount of air conditioning even on cold sunny days, to maintain a comfortable temperature.

Accept our repentance

In reality, any building must balance thermal comfort, energy efficiency, and light quality with views, daylight and connectivity to the outdoors. As lovely as it is, think about all of the energy required to heat and cool the Comcast Tower. No matter how efficient, it is still requiring way more energy than would be needed had the building been designed to respond to different orientations, and had properly modulated window area with wall area, thus achieving light quality, daylight, views and connectivity with thermal comfort and energy efficiency.

In addition, buildings are also directly related to one of the most environmentally destructive mining operations today, mountaintop removal, which is most prevalent in the Appalachians. Now it is called mountaintop removal because literally, the tops of mountains are blown off to extract the veins of coal (you can read more about energy and mountaintop removal in this post). And a great majority of the coal used at our power generating stations comes from mountaintop removal, the power that generates our HVAC systems and provides lighting for our massive stock of inefficient buildings.

And where, where is the value in any of this? Where is the value in seemingly endlessly scarring the landscape for resource extraction because we can't seem to design more efficient buildings, even with LEED? Where is the value in blowing apart mountaintops, beautifully and lovingly (and yes, sometimes tumultuously), crafted over millions of years, to generate power for these inefficient buildings? What will we say after the last vein of coal is extracted, the last drop of oil and natural gas is extracted and we turn and look at our built environment, our legacy?

Accept our repentance, Lord.

The Value of Value Engineering - Part 3

Recap - Parts 1 & 2

So to date, I've talked about paradigm shifts, easy buttons, LEED and sites. This week, it's water. I've written about water before in this blog -see my Water Follies post. But I don't think you can ever talk too much about water, especially our increasing lack of it. And water use is the second LEED category -Water Efficiency that is.

Water, Water Everywhere...??

Each day, we in the United States use an estimated 340 billion gallons of water to support our daily lives, from sewage conveyance, to water for drinking and cooking and washing, to irrigation, to manufacturing and more. We view water as an abundant resource and are used to turning on the tap or shower and having clean, fresh water at our disposal. We need water –we cannot live without it. It quenches, cleanses, nourishes and cultivates. But where does all this water come from? Generally, from lakes, rivers, and aquifers, whose health and balance, if you remember from Part 2 of this series, are tied directly to how much water infiltrates into the ground on site and how much runs off. And we are currently running at a deficit, using about 10 billion gallons more each day than what is really available to us.

Now you might think that 10 billion gallons a day over what we have isn’t really a lot. But that is based on the current population, estimated at around 304,000,000; predictions for 2050 hover around 402 million, with some predictions of US population topping 1 billion by 2100. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the water deficit will continue to rise. In fact we are already starting to see hints of water wars, a significant one occurring in late summer of 2007.

Our Use and Misuse
So how do we use water?

Landscaping. We love manicured, landscaped lawns, whether it be our house, a campus, or an office park. But often we have landscaped with non-native species, inappropriate grasses, trees, shrubs and flowers all which require more water for irrigation, because we like the look or wish to win an award for best landscaped office park.

But what if we value engineered the landscaping to be a more natural landscape, like grasses and wildflowers, native species only. It would require less water –if any at all beyond natural rainfall. It would also reduce the need for lawn maintenance, and support restoration of ecosystems on site.

Then there’s toilets, sinks, urinals. There are quality low-flow fixtures out there, yet so often I hear people complain that they don’t flush –that you need two or three flushes, waterless urinals smell or plumbers fight their installation because they’ll lose work. Often however, the toilets which don’t flush correctly are the cheaper low flush toilets –because believe me, there are good toilets and there are bad toilets. Or waterless urinals aren’t maintained properly –you need to pour very hot, almost boiling water down into the pipes to help melt the calcified stuff. Or the cheaper sensor operated toilet or faucet is installed, because again, there are quality sensors and well, really bad sensors.

So in all of this, you save money in first costs on installation, but you spend more money in maintenance and to boot your water bills are higher. And with our water supplies dwindling, the cost of water will only rise.

And where is the value in any of this?

Water Reflections During Lent

I think during this time, Lent, it is especially important to consider water, and what it means. In the Episcopal church today, the readings all centered around water. Genesis 9:8-17, God's covenant with mankind after the devastating flood that wiped out all of humanity, creation really, save Noah and his family and the animals on the Ark. Never again, God promises, will a flood destroy all of humanity, of creation. Then 1 Peter 3:18-22, which talks about baptism and water, "...not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for good conscience..." And finally, the Gospel According to Matthew, 1:9-15, which talks about Jesus' baptism by John. It might be a good time for us to reflect on our use of -and abuse of, water. Are we destroying ourselves, our own humanity, by our misuse of water? Are we acting in good conscience in our use of water, no matter your faith or spritual belief? And, do we need 40 days of being in the wilderness to reflect on this, to emerge anew?

The Value of Value Engineering - Part 2

Recap Part 1

Last week, in Part 1 of The Value of Value Engineering, I talked about easy buttons and paradigm shifts. This week I am going to start to look at value engineering with a different spin, that is, not just through the lens of first costs. And for the sake of clarity, I am going to follow the credit categories of the LEED Rating System, which is divided into five categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources and Indoor Environmental Quality.

When LEED® emerged in the late 1990’s, it filled a huge void. The building industry in this country was trying to understand how to effectively define ‘green building’ and measure it in a consistent way. To date, LEED has done more for the national green building movement than anything previously conceived, its main focus of to make green building mainstream and to move the bulk of buildings being built towards higher standards.

It's Not Easy Being Green
But there is still hesitation with green building in any form, that is LEED or not LEED. Some arguments you may be familiar with are “it costs too much money” or “the process is cumbersome” or “the payback isn’t viable.” There of course papers and responses to these arguments, showing that green does cost the same as conventional building and that it increases productivity, saves energy, but I feel we must go beyond these arguments; in my view, they are often too focused on the economic viability of changing the marketplace, that is, baby steps. And I agree that baby steps are needed. However, I also contend that bold strides are needed.

The Value of Value Engineering Place
So let me jump in and look at Sustainable Sites. Generally when we start a project, we don’t think much about the site beyond it’s this sq footage or acreage, here are the utilities, these are the zoning issues, what environmental permits are needed, the buildable area, and so forth. We may go out and look at the site for a bit, take some pictures, but it is rare to really spend time there, walking the site, learning about the site, being with the site. So we view the site as an isolated entity, more an object in a field persay than something connected to a much larger whole.

But let’s look at a typical site for a minute. Any site is a part of a greater watershed, the watershed itself being a critical component of a healthy hydrologic cycle. Within any watershed there is infiltration of water back into the groundwater, which in turn replenishes underground streams and aquifers, runoff which replenishes above ground creeks, streams, lakes, rivers and so forth, and a healthy cycle of evapo-transpiration that occurs from grass and trees and other plant life.

There is also a flourishing ecosystem –or systems, above and below ground, water-based and non-water-based, consisting of plants, animals and micro-organisms and more. All of them work in concert to maintain a balance –both at night and during the day; nocturnal animals are just as important as non-nocturnal.

Each site is also a unique and distinct place, place not being a destination, as in “we are going to that place” but place as in each place having a spirit “symbolizing the living ecological relationship between a particular location and the persons who have derived from it and added to it the various aspects of their humanness over time” (the latter eloquently stated by René Dubos). Being a part of place though, is necessary to being human and indeed, we all have a place or places which we connect to.

But of all of these, the watershed or the ecosystems or the place, how much do we generally know? Usually nothing. And so for years and years we have been developing land, divorced from a connection with it. We have filled in streams, viewed wetlands as a nuisance, cut down mature trees and replaced them with saplings –a token measure almost in comparison, introduced non-native and invasive species, forced animals from their natural habitats, built unattractive, inaccessible and artificially aerated retention basins, lit up sites at night so that nocturnal environments are severely impacted, allowed water to run off sites into storm systems, instead of re-infiltrating it on site, thought little about who and what might have been on the site before, and so much more.

Now, some of you might say to me, these things must happen for progress to occur. Perhaps this is true in the conventional sense. But I also know that we have drastically changed watersheds, eroded and destroyed habitats, developed sites in inappropriate ways, created large heat islands with our cities and freeways, to list a few examples. We have also increased insurance rates, changed flood plain patterns, caused litigation and lawsuits, and more.

Where is the value in any of this?

Next week, water, our most precious resource.

The Value of Value Engineering - Part 1

Over the next few posts I’d like to talk about value engineering, but not in the typical understanding and use of this term and action in the design and construction industry today. Value engineering means taking a project and slicing and dicing it to be within budget. This is done generally through changing materials, or systems (building envelope –floors, walls, roof and/or mechanical), or in more “severe” cases, reducing square footage, and so forth.

Instead, I’d like to talk about value engineering in relation to sustainable design, and the creation of our built environment.

But first, I’d like to talk a bit about paradigm shifts.

Where’s the Easy Button?
We are in the midst of a paradigm shift with respect to how we connect to Earth. For the past several decades, we have seen a rise in environmentalism and environmental responsibility. Indeed, whereas before an environmentalist might be labeled a tree hugger, today it is probably more un-cool to NOT be green, no matter what shade you are; today, green is everywhere. And more and more we are thinking beyond our current wants and needs to ever greater extents -or in some cases, at least starting to. But essentially, we are beginning to truly see that we are not separate from Earth, and are in fact part of Earth, and what we do effects it, just as what Earth does effects us. We are moving from a very linear way of thinking and being, one which is divorced from connection to Earth, to a much more grounded and holistic way of thinking and being.

How we design and build is in no way divorced from this paradigm shift. The thing about paradigm shifts though, is that they’re tough. And I have two examples for you, to help you understand just how tough a paradigm shift is.

The World is Flat. Dammit.
The first one is, flat world / round world. For a very long time, we thought the world was flat. If you sailed past the horizon, supposedly you were toast. But there were those who also thought, hmm, this doesn’t make sense. Let’s test this. So one day someone kept sailing past the horizon and discovered that in fact, it didn’t end, and that by following the stars, the sun, the moon, which are the same everywhere, just positioned differently depending on longitude and latitude, they could in fact arrive back in the place where they started.

Imagine the turmoil this caused. Everything that probably a majority of the population thought was true was no longer true. It changed all the rules.

The next one is humors (also called vapors) and germs. For a very long time, we thought that disease was caused by vapors -essentially, the air itself. But there were those who also thought, hmm, this doesn’t make sense. So they tested and researched and questioned until one day they discovered these dastardly microscopic things called germs.

Imagine the turmoil this caused. Everything that physicians of the time knew, from how they treated sickness, to what sickness was, to even training physicians, was no longer true. It changed all the rules.

It’s Not Easy Being Green
Now we are in the shift between conventional building and green building.

Our conventional way of designing and building is a very economically driven industry, one built primarily on first costs. Now, granted, what isn’t economically driven, but for the sake of this talk, we’ll focus on the design and construction industry. And, to boot, for all we know, perhaps building has been a very economically driven industry since we began building. Picture a Roman Emperor for example, building a building, one which probably still stands today, saying to his builder “yes, yes, I do want the Senate chambers to last and be reflective of our empire, but I don’t want to pay a lot for it; find the cheapest stone you can and build with that.”

Now, however, we are moving to a more holistic way of building, one which also considers the economic impacts of NOT building responsibly. This way of building is nicknamed green building. Believe it or not however, with respect to green building we still have a ways to go -like I said, paradigm shifts are tough and they take time. We are saying in some respects that everything we thought to be true about how we design and build may not be as true any longer. We are also still focused in large part on first costs, rather than long term costs, in spite of new evidence each day that thinking long term makes economic sense. Still though, and in spite of good intentions, the value of the dollar in hand today speaks volumes over the dollar in hand down the road.

Part of this is due in large part to a misunderstanding of what green design is. Green isn’t an add-on. It isn’t merely following the LEED Rating System either -although LEED is an excellent tool and a great place to start. It is also not a linear process, which is how we’ve designed and built for so long.

Turning the Tables
So this is where I want to begin looking at value engineering with respect to green building. But again, I am putting a different spin on the term. Instead of looking at value engineering in the standard light of getting a project within a set budget, which is for the most part, about first costs –which granted, strives to achieve the best possible building, I instead want to look at value engineering in terms of long-term impacts and costs to us, to our legacy, to Earth. Now, I am going to add a caveat to this. In spite of the rise of green building, there are also those who still argue that it is not economically viable. There are others who just aren’t ready to move in the green building direction. This however, is all in the spirit of a paradigm shift, just as someone like me, advancing and challenging our conventional ways of thinking is part of a paradigm shift.

End Part 1.
Next week, I'll start to look at value engineering through the lens of the LEED rating system

Image: Circa 1531 map of the world, from Google Images

Afraid of the Dark

Face it folks, we are afraid of the dark. And I am not talking about being-in-your-bedroom-and-being-afraid-of-the-dark afraid, I am talking about being outside, in your community, whether it be rural, suburban or urban and being afraid of the dark. At night anymore, it’s often as bright as it is during the day.

Up until about 100 years ago, you could see the stars at night, even in the city, because back then, the lamps –which were gas-fired or simply candles, weren’t near as bright or as frequently placed as today, nor was there as much light escaping from buildings as there is today. Imagine what that must have been like, to stand in the streets of any major city, from New York, to London (the most populated city in 1800), to Moscow, to Hong Kong and still look up and see the stars, perhaps even the Milky Way. Now however, our communities are lit up in the name of security, and from interior light escaping from our buildings through windows. Then there’s decorative and accent lighting, to show off features of buildings and bridges. And more. And to boot, all this light is reflected, refracted and scattered above us, creating an even brighter halo over top the community.

Bright Lights. City Nights.
All this light is wonderful and beautiful in some respects –it’s quite something to fly over cities at night, the glowing network of roads and buildings below, but what is the cost to nocturnal environments? Because remember, even though we are diurnal creatures, the world doesn’t exist just for us, and just as much activity goes on at night as during the day. And indeed, migration, reproduction, and feeding patterns and habits of other creatures we share Earth with have been adversely affected. Birds get trapped and disoriented in our glowing cities, often colliding with buildings, killing up to 100 million birds each year, (click here to learn more about FLAP), turtles who’ve just laid eggs on the beach can sometimes be led off course, following the glow of a city beyond, instead of the natural glow of the horizon, and frogs and toads who live near brightly lit areas are thrown completely out of kilter, to name a scant few examples. Our built environment, our imprint and legacy, has drastically altered the natural environment, whether we want to admit it or not.

Regaining Transcendence
The first time I saw the number of stars in the sky was on the Big Island in Hawai’i. Over my head were millions of lights of various size and brightness. I had never seen such a sight and can still remember it today, as well as exactly that, the feeling of transcendence and awe. There is also a sense of deep humility that accompanies this experience. And I think humility is something we need right now.

We are also working towards reducing light pollution, and that’s a good thing, although admittedly we doubtfully will ever return our night skies to what they once were. Today, however, light fixtures have cutoff design, and the LEED rating system requires that specific requirements be met for both interior and exterior building lighting, so as to reduce light trespass and overall lighting power density. It's a start.

But there is something else to be gained by reducing light pollution, that being a reconnection with the stars and the galaxy beyond, and the transcendence and awe associated. Imagine what it might be like to stand in your community, whether small town USA to Times Square, New York City, and look up and see more stars than you have ever seen up to this day in your lifetime. Imagine too, what it might be like to proclaim as the Psalmist does in Psalm 8 “O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the Earth! You have set your glory above the heavens!"

Green Sprouts

Introducing a fellow Fellow's new blog

My fellow Fellow, Deacon Betsy Blake Bennett, launched her new blog Green Spouts on the Feast of Ephiphany, January 6th, 2009. Her blog is: "...the name for creation care ministry in the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska. The name suggests the newness of the ministry, as well as the ability of plants to sprout up wherever there are cracks or openings, no matter how tiny. Like the spring violets that sprout up in sidewalks in my town, or like the trees that grow out of cracks in the rocks in the Wildcat Hills in the western part of Nebraska, this work is meant to take root wherever there is an opening to it, no matter how small...."

Creation Care isn't bound by borders

Although Deacon Betsy's blog is focused on her corner of Nebraska, she also states that "...environmental issues aren't bound by state or diocesan borders..." and her posts are meant to start conversation about creation care. I have no doubt her blog will cross boundaries, as well as oceans. Please check her blog out when you have a chance -and, check back often!

Tutu's take on building green

If you didn't attend the United States Green Build Council's annual GreenBuild in Boston this past November 2008, you missed an amazing keynote address by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I also missed GreenBuild, but thankfully, the USGBC now has GreenBuild365, where you can watch webcasts of master speakers. Tutu's keynote was eloquent, witty, nutty, inspiring and necessary. Tutu never minces words -he tells it like it is, being the extremely important common sense, moral voice that he is. And in this talk, he speaks about God's most magnificent creation, Earth, and the responsibility we in the design and construction industry have towards caring for it.

This important keynote may not be accessible permanently

Even more importantly though, his keynote address I recently found out, may not remain a permanent part of GreenBuild365, as Tutu owns the rights to the webcast. So please take 30-40 minutes and listen now, while you can.

Note: you need to create an account to login to the USGBC site to listen, but it is an easy registration process. USGBC does not sell or give your name/email away either.

Around the United States in 40 Days

Why a mandatory field trip for Obama to assess the effects of climate change is in order

Note: this post has nothing to do with green buildings directly…

We are 17 days away from inauguration day. Personally, I can’t wait. And I think polar bears –not to mention a host of other species, feel the same. Barack Obama has many challenges to tackle after he takes office of course, ranging from the Israel-Palestinian conflict, to Afghanistan, to our economic “crisis” (in quotes because I think we are all learning a great deal about ourselves and money because of this, so maybe not so much a crisis as a much needed whack upside the head from a much wiser elder), to our changing climate. On the latter, Barack Obama has spoken often of a “planet in peril,” and seems ready, willing and able to face the challenges ahead of him on this front; he gets it.

Dear Barack and Michelle…

Dr. James Hansen, the NASA scientist who woke us up to our changing climate, wrote an open letter about just that to the Obama’s just before the new year, a cover letter to a document he authored titled “Tell Barack the Truth – The Whole Truth.” As I read Hansen’s letter and the document, I thought about all the good intentions, and also, all the politicking that is bound to go on. Believe me, I am extremely hopeful and am watching in excitement as I see the tide shifting. But I also recognize that we are more often than not, a reactive society. We tend to talk and talk and talk… and talk some more, and then when something happens, we react. When it comes to Earth, we don’t have time to talk anymore. We’ve talked enough.

The Field Trip

This is when I got my idea for a mandatory field trip for the Obama’s, his entire cabinet, all of Congress, executives from the coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear sectors, climate scientists (from both the climate change proponent and non-proponent camps), and some key environmentalists (like NRDC as an example). I’ll stop there –you get the idea. It would be a 40 day field trip –the government can be run remotely and at most, Obama is 12 hours by plane from DC. They would all travel the United States together, and see first-hand, the impacts of our actions and how we are affecting our climate, our land, our water, our wildlife, and more, in a myriad of ways. They would talk to people of all ages and backgrounds. They would also be required to come to table, together, each evening (in smaller groups of course, with mediators perhaps), to discuss what they saw, how they feel, what can be done, and how we start.

Christ went into the desert for 40 days after being baptized. He returned, further transformed by what he saw and experienced, ready to undertake the enormous task which lay before Him. I can only see the same happening for all participants during the course of this 40 day field trip across the US.

The Last One

National Geographic has an excellent article in the January 2009 issue titled ‘Countdown to Extinction.’ It was a difficult to see the pictures of mammals, insects and more, who are either threatened or endangered or worst of all, already extinct, a reminder of the negative side of our human impact. And although it’s true some species might become extinct on rare occasion from natural causes (think dinosaurs), for the most part species today –and let’s just be honest, are becoming extinct or endangered due to human impact. Our built environment is in large part responsible for this impact.

We humans tend to think that we can build wherever and whenever we want, that land is for taking and making something from, versus caring for and tending to. We don’t often think about who else might be residing there, whether flora or fauna. And then we are surprised when a coyote is seen walking down the street of a new subdivision.

Every time we build is an impact on someone else’s home, someone else’s ecosystem, whether mammal, bird, amphibian, tree, wetland and so on. Of course, we will continue to build, we need to build, if nothing else, to provide the basic need of shelter. Most animals after all, build some form of shelter as well, beavers being perhaps some of the greatest architects of the animal kingdom. But we humans need to be especially mindful as we build new and retrofit existing buildings, both now and in the future. We need to begin to work in harmony with the natural world, supporting it versus destroying it. What does this mean?

For new construction, this means beginning each project with an ecosystem survey of the site. Who lives there already? How will the new building impact these inhabitants and how can it support them? For existing buildings, it means understanding what once existed and working to restore it as fully as feasible. It also requires thinking beyond the confines of the site to the larger community. For example, if a development project will have some negative impacts on a wetland 50 miles away, how can these impacts be fully negated and/or balanced out in some way?

Sure, all of this will take time and require thoughtfulness. The process might even change designs and approach. But the reward is a deeper connection to the natural world, a chance for us to be more fully human, and a built environment that supports and nurtures ecosystems, which in turn we must always remember support and nurture us. That’s how God intended Earth to work anyway, that all of it, all inhabitants work together, supporting, nurturing, in community.

Green Buildings = Green Mountains

One of my fellow GreenFaith Fellows, Sr. Kathleen Denigan, traveled to W. Va. after our last retreat in early November. As she said, “…I am going to Appalachia to do "the great work" with people who are watching their mountains be massacred to make a bit of energy that will probably be transported to China…” More than likely however, coal being extracted by blasting mountaintops away will stay right here in the US.

Mountaintop removal is the new and improved, fast, cheap way coal companies are extracting veins of coal from Earth –new in that it started in the 1970’s, improved in that it reduces manpower needs and takes less time than digging tunnels and mining by more ‘traditional’ means would, all resulting in less labor costs and increased profit.

The environmental destruction occurring because of mountaintop removal is heart wrenching, not to mention the overall impact on general human community, i.e.: looking to take care of one another versus increasing profit. But so too, is our need for power, more and more of it each year. Just like with water (http://greenbuildingtheology.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-thought-lot-about-water-thanksgiving.html), we expect to plug a device in or flip a switch, and have the device work, or a light go on. Our lives run on electricity. And although we have the ability to purchase wind energy, or install PV –which in all honesty, remains too cost prohibitive for most at present, the fact remains that for the most part, we are all still pretty connected to coal, in some way, however large or small (save for those completely off the grid).

I don’t mean to belittle any of us who are doing what we can to reduce our energy needs. But no matter how hard we try to remove ourselves from coal generating power, the fact remains that we are in some way connected to it. We cannot control –always, who generates power for our office space, nor can we control who generates power for our grocery store, doctor’s office, school, and etc. So in some way, we are probably all connected to mountaintop removal –in fact, you can indeed find out if you are or not by visiting http://www.ilovemountains.org/myconnection/. You can also watch some videos on mountaintop removal at that site, as well as here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPixjCneseE.

More than likely, we will continue to have coal generated power for many years into the future. This saddens me, because of the destructive environmental impacts we now know coal has, from mining to burning it –it’s not only environmental destruction either, its impacts to general health and well-being of Appalachian communities, as well as those living near the generating stations. But the reality is we won’t be able to make a switch from one form of generation to another in say, a year. And in fairness, we cannot lay blame entirely on coal companies either –although some may feel otherwise. When coal was “discovered” back in the 1700’s and started to be used to create our modern world during the Industrial Revolution, no one thought we’d wind up where we are today with respect to emissions to our air, environmental destruction, and the potential for man-made contributions to climate changes. In addition, the coal industry over many centuries has built an entire industry which supports and sustains families and local economies; relatives from both sides of my family, immigrants, worked in Pennsylvania coal mines in the early part of the 20th century.

However, I am also hopeful that coal companies are looking at ways not just to generate ‘clean coal’ (which I am sorry to those clean coal proponents, I’ve looked at both sides, weighed the facts, discerned about it, and rendered my opinion -there is no such thing as clean coal; you are welcome to yours), but ways to restructure and innovate their companies to focus on and provide renewable and cleaner forms of energy such as wind, solar and geothermal (although the latter does have some environmental impacts as well, and gives off a nasty odor of sulfur). The Saudi’s are hedging bets and investing heavily in solar –even with 18 billion barrels of oil left. Will we be buying power generated by the sun (which provides power for free) from them too in 100 years, via a global grid? They hope so.

So what do green buildings have to do with mountaintop removal? A lot. Buildings require a lot of power. Electricity powers the obvious like lights, computers and servers, vending machines, phone systems but also runs HVAC equipment, pumps, refrigeration equipment and much, much more. Don’t even get me started on what must be needed to operate Google’s servers, and who today, could exist without Google (I ask, tongue in cheek)?

Reducing the amount of power needed for a building overall reduces the need for power in general, which reduces the draw required from the grid, which reduces the amount of power a generating station must generate, which reduces the need for coal, which means, that maybe, just maybe, we won’t need as much coal as fast as we think, which means more time to shift over to newer, renewable forms of power generation to provide power for buildings.

Reducing need can be accomplished many ways: orienting a new building properly on the site to maximize natural daylight penetration, thereby reducing the need for electric light, combining mechanical and natural ventilation, thereby reducing power needed to run heating and cooling equipment, installing the most efficient lamp available for lights, thereby reducing the power needed to keep the light on, providing daylight harvesting, and much more. Much of what I’ve listed can also be implemented during retrofits of existing buildings as well. This all combined with installing renewable forms on the building itself or on the building site, when taking all buildings into account all over the country –new and existing, residential, commercial and industrial, could mean a drastic reduction in the need for coal generated power. That means that maybe more mountaintops won’t be sacrificed to quench our need for electricity.

Psalm 24 says “The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it…” so in theory, the coal, natural gas and oil within Earth is His, and one could argue, for us to use. But Genesis also requires that we humans, made in *God’s image, exercise dominion over Earth, that is, act responsibly, in compassion and care for all of Earth, all its creatures and vegetation, all its glory, which God created. I think God challenges us way more often than we think -and in ways we would never think *He might challenge us either. Maybe, just maybe, we really need to be looking at what we want, and asking ourselves in reality, what do we need? Maybe taking the coal, every last vein of it, is like taking the last chocolate in the box when you know you’ve had way too many already, and perhaps leaving it for someone else, say, a few generations from now, might be the better thing to do.

I don’t believe God is particularly happy about seeing the beautiful mountaintops He created decimated for some veins of coal, even if they are reclaimed afterwards. But somehow sticking a few baseball fields on a now flat mountaintop, as I saw in one case, doesn’t seem to equal what was taken and what was sacrificed. There are better ways. Let’s keep working together, at table, in community, to find them. Building green is a great way to start.

*Please always feel free to insert the God of your choice (Mohammed, Buddha, etc.), as well as your perceived gender of God.

Image from www.ILoveMountains.org website.

Water Follies

I thought a lot about water Thanksgiving week. I spent it in Scottsdale, AZ, which is, basically, in the desert. I do my best to be conscious of how much water I use at home (Collingswood, NJ), though I’m far from perfect and could do better. And although I inherently understand the increased challenges cities in arid climates face with respect to getting water, actually “living” in the desert for a week made me to think about water much differently. Out there I felt a heightened awareness to how much I was using each time I turned on the tap or shower or flushed the toilet. Even more so, I felt a heightened sensitivity to the lack of water. So I thought a lot about water.

We are used to turning on the tap and having clean, fresh water at our disposal. Humans –as well as every other creature on Earth, need water to survive. It quenches, cleanses, purifies, nourishes, and cultivates, to name a few. And we actually have a finite amount on Earth –precipitation aside. We can’t make water easily either -from scratch that is (okay, actually we can, but it isn’t easy http://science.howstuffworks.com/manufacture-water.htm), although there are some interesting experiments for turning water vapor back into liquid water in large quantities (http://www.waterunlimited.com.au/index.html).

Not to knock Phoenix and Scottsdale, but I spent some time last week reading their 2005 Water Resources Plan (http://phoenix.gov/WATER/wtrpln05.html). The report states that Phoenix has enough to meet current demands for the next 50 years and beyond –although how long beyond equates to isn’t stipulated. They are approaching this very responsibly too, but 50 years is hardly a generation. What about a plan that looks at minimum, say, 500 years into the future? How would this change the approach to and thinking about the plan, as well as future growth for the city?

Thinking about all this also got me musing about resources we use to produce energy. Our current priorities are focused on having enough oil, coal and natural gas. However, we can actually live without these (and although it would require adaptation and change, it wouldn’t mean a return to the Dark Ages). Rarely though, do we hear enough about water and dwindling supplies in the news. We cannot live without water.

The giving of water by one person to another in need is often seen as one of the most charitable acts of humanity. We are taking vast quantities of water from Earth, and even changing the very ecology and hydrology of Earth’s waterways and groundwater sources to meet current demand without replacing in kind. Most of our sources are dwindling. Many are polluted. Do we see the provision of water by Earth as a charitable act? Taking this a step further, are there moral questions around water we as a collective global society need to be asking and answering? Such as, how much growth for a city is too much and what does it need to be limited to or, how does the taking of water for City X deprive flora and fauna both near and far and what steps are we going to take now to ensure that there is enough water for all living things, not just humans, or, what is the long term, i.e.: 500 year, environmental impact of any new commercial or residential building which conducts business as usual with respect to water usage, i.e.: merely meeting minimum standards?

The next version of the LEED rating system, LEED 2009, calls for a mandatory 20 percent water use reduction. That’s a step in the right direction, but we can do better. In reality, we must do better to even consider having water 500 years from now, and beyond. For buildings, this means moving towards a closed loop system, striving to capture and recycle every molecule of water which can possibly be so, for both new and existing buildings. We also need to continue to think outside the box, challenging current accepted standards, codes and practices as well as repairing and restoring our waterways and groundwater supplies. Finally, we need to see water as a gift from Earth for us and for all living things, one to be used with the utmost judiciousness, and the giving of it by Earth understood to be one of the most benevolent acts bestowed upon humankind.

Welcome!

Welcome to the inaugural post of A Green Building Theology! My name is Sara Sweeney and I am a registered architect, LEED AP, GreenFaith Fellow (in religious/spiritual environmental leadership), self-professed building science geek and committed environmentalist. I am also founder and principal of EcoVision Green Solutions Services LLC, a sustainable design & construction research, education and consulting firm.

We are in the midst of a huge paradigm shift, with respect to how we design and build, and how we connect our world –the built environment, with the natural world –a world not of our making yet with which we are inherently connected and bound to at a deeply spiritual level. But we don’t always recognize this. Even with all the tremendous good being done through the green building revolution, in many respects we still view building (as a verb) as merely an action and an activity, and buildings (as a noun) as commodities. Yet the built environment -what we build and how we build, is a direct reflection of our values, a snapshot of who we are and what we believe as humans at any given moment.

This blog seeks to look at green building from the spiritual perspective and create and pose a theology around green building. It is based on the belief that building green has the power to inspire change, affect well-being, strengthen values, foster and build community and most important, connect us back to Earth and Spirit; we are already seeing evidence of this. I’ll draw from all sorts of religious and spiritual traditions, practices, teachings and writings as much as Thoreau or Leopold or Hawken. I’ll also look at all aspects of building, from process to site to materials to energy and resource use (and abuse).

I hope you will find this blog interesting, thought-provoking and informative. Thanks for reading!

Peace –
Sara