Filed under: green jobs
Miller Hull's Design Vision for the Bullitt Center, Seattle's Living Building Pilot Program
A Living Building is a Learning Building
Thanks to an invite by the Seattle AIA and its COTE, I learned firsthand about the inspiring, work-in-progress Bullitt Center. The presentation and hard-hat tour was an amazing opportunity to learn about this six-story, commercial building located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood – an area of Seattle known for its arts, culture, unique shops and dense urban living.
The building is named for its benefactor – the Bullitt Foundation – whose vision states, “A future that safeguards the vitality of natural ecosystems while accommodating a sustainable human population in healthy, vibrant, equitable, and prosperous communities.” It seems appropriate that the project was selected to participate in Seattle’s Living Building Pilot Program.
BACKGROUND
The Living Building Pilot Program assists projects attempting to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge. This Challenge is an innovative global green building rating system created by the International Living Building Institute to recognize buildings meeting the highest level of sustainability. The Living Building Challenge requires buildings to meet a series of prerequisites relating to site, energy, materials, water, indoor air quality, and beauty and inspiration.
FEATURES
It will take a full year after occupancy to meet the rigorous Living Building certification and ensure that the building is performing at, or in excess of, its net zero energy and water use goals. Here’s a partial list of the building’s leading-edge features:
• Water – Harvested rainwater will be use throughout the building, and treated using a dual filtration system, conservation methods include waterless urinals and composting toilets
• Solar – Over 400 PV panels will generate an estimated 242 KW of renewable energy and feed excess capacity back into the local grid
• Geothermal – Over 25 geothermal wells will heat and cool the building moving hot or cold water through the building, as needed
• Windows – State-of-the-art, German-designed and US manufactured, they provide both day lighting, ventilation and triple-paned insulation and are operated by a smart, real-time control system
• Materials and Finishes – Broke new ground in sourcing materials and avoiding Red List items; built a knowledge database to share with the industry. This proved to be one of the key challenges of the project.
• Human Scale – Designed to fit within the unique character of the surrounding area yet large enough to attract tenants, this mid-rise feels people scaled (vs. an imposing skyscraper)
• Green Community – Adding green space includes a transformed pocket park, McGilvra Place; installing a green roof with native plantings; a nearly perfect “walk score,” benefiting the local community.
Special thanks to presenters and tour hosts Brian Court, AIA, LEED AP, Miller Hull; and Casey Schuchart, Project Manager, Shuchart Construction Company.
Look for progress updates, as I plan on regularly checking in with the Design Team and reporting on this state-of-the-art Living and Learning building. – alex
March 13, 2012
Are you a member of a neighborhood business chamber or have experience with a regional Chamber of Commerce? Are you implementing corporate sustainability, environmental stewardship and systems thinking into your organization, committees or discussions?
Here are a few effective, chamber-level programs we recently uncovered:
• Consider membership in a green, mission-based business chamber – the Green Chamber of Commerce. Headquartered in San Francisco, with an aspirational tagline that challenges it’s members to “build an honest economy for all people and our planet.” This newly founded chamber is headquartered in the Bay Area home to many progressives like Smith and Hawken, The Gap, IDEO, Apple, Google, Intel, and Stanford University. Even the city’s Mayor, Gavin Newsom ran for Lt. Governor of California on a deep green platform.
• Surprisingly the Green Chamber’s second chapter is in Las Vegas! It’s the first and only eco-business chapter of its kind in Nevada. Although I’ve never been there, I’m pretty sure the only thing sustainable about Vegas is its 24/7, high-powered, entertainment industry. The rationale must be if you can affect change in a city that consumes enough energy to power the International Space Station, you can do it anywhere.
• Chambers of Commerce across the country have banned together to form an alliance called the Green Business Chamber,. It is one more tool chambers are using to help showcase members who are making an effort to go green. Since this is a cooperative effort among many chambers of Commerce, we are sure that this program will be evolving significantly over the next year. Benefits include: networking, education, advocacy, case studies and in many cases, marketing support for the member organization or its programs.
• An even broader reaching group is the EcoChamber, “the first global green chamber of commerce dedicated to helping organizations create and implement sustainable business practices while counseling them on how to make sound and profitable business decisions driven by the new Green Economy.”
• Among the thousands of Chambers of Commerce in the United States, many now have a Sustainability Committee. Forward thinking cities like Boulder, has a clean tech group; Seattle has a sustainability committee; and Boston offers an innovation forum among its many member benefits.
There are numerous organizations dedicated to green building, clean tech and local economies. By using our well-established chambers as a platform, we can quickly move the sustainability conversation forward by focusing on common issues across a variety of industries and sectors.
Become an active chamber member, consider chamber membership or start a chapter in your market. Then Go Green, and share your groups’ results and benefits with our readers. Keep up the commitment and the business of green! – alex
December 6, 2010
This weekend I had the privilege of participating in the 2010 Green Festival in Seattle. This event happens in five cities around the country and is jointly produced by Green America and Global Exchange. While several luminaries of the environmental and corporate mission-driven world were in attendance to provide keynotes and classes one of the things that brings me back to this annual event, is the cross-section of people. This grassroots event draws a wide-range of regional citizens and is part of what makes the experience so fulfilling. The Kids Zone features activities that the under 3’ set can really enjoy including musical performances.
After all, we are responsible for the current state of the economy, environment and education system and it is the next generation that will need to make significant transformational choices in how to live, work and play responsibly. Our Earth, is on the gurney moving towards the operating room, and we are still trying to identify and reach agreement on all that ails this patient before we move forward with drastic interventions. The Gulf Oil disaster is one more triage moment where our patient is bleeding but we can’t seem to suture quickly enough to stop it.
At the Festival, it seem there was much blame handed out between factions: vegans vs. meat eaters; independent journalists vs. national media empires, lefty politicos vs. the righty politicos and, enviros vs. Big Oil, Banks, and Food to site a few examples.
My goals in attending the Festival (also described on their website: we’re celebrating what’s working in our communities—for people, business and the environment.) included focusing on solutions, hope and inspiration: two speakers who helped me get there were Adora Svitak and Amory Lovins.
Adora, a local, 12-year old, child prodigy, conveyed the message that we need to learn to listen — to children who not only dream big and without constraints but are tomorrow’s leaders. She suggested that if parents are not changing their behaviors or expectations then children can push forward by greening their parents. Children were the ones who moved the recycling agenda forward as it started in the classroom, moved to individual homes where we made trips to a recycling station and now to jurisdictions contracting to have more recyclables picked up at your door. Adora is incredibly articulate and has even appeared on the TED circuit (catch her at http://www.ted.com/speakers/adora_svitak.html) where she received a standing ovation. She says that learning should be reciprocal and she is inspiring her generation and older ones too. She offered a few green examples eliminating vampire power by unplugging electronics and appliances when not in use or fully charged, walking or biking instead of always jumping in the car for short trips, and using water responsibly.
Amory has built a reputation as a well-respected leader within the environmental movement over the last few decades. He co-founded an organization along with his wife, Hunter, called the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado. He argues for business and policy remedies that capitalize on existing infrastructure and resources to be deployed in far more efficient productive ways. A few examples include super lightweight vehicles constructed with fewer parts and using carbon-fibers (ala Boeing 787 Dreamliner) that weigh significantly less, have less drag and, therefore require much less energy for propulsion. Another concept is for driving energy efficiency and productivity in the built arena, as new window technology, enhanced insulated building envelopes and super efficient HVAC systems will reduce the amount of energy a building uses. Buildings use 70% of the electricity generated in the USA. They require updating and maintaining every decade or so therefore schedule capital investments to incorporate the best materials and techniques at the time for a highly positive and quicker ROI. He states that energy efficiency is the cheapest source of energy and helps reduce our GHG. As for alternatives to energy sourcing, he believes large distributed renewables will be the way of the future, Amory suggested that by covering 3% of our existing structures (in lieu of using land for that purpose) with photovoltaics would eliminate our need for any new fossil fuels-based generation.
The Seattle Green Festival with over 25,000 attendees, 1,000 volunteers, 300 vendors, 100 speakers provides Seattle with a wonderful opportunity to share our passions, offer our insights, learn from others and move towards a new economy.
Next time someone wants to blame a person, group or company just take a step back and think about the underlying frustration this person might be feeling and offer him or her a calming tonic: “Wow! You really have a lot of energy and passion around that issue and let’s use it to move us towards some solutions.” And, remember young and wise, Adora, she asked that we include the younger generation, who tend to dream creatively and without constraints, in the conversation so consider starting there.
Back to the medical metaphor, if you have a hopeful intervention to share please feel free to add Comments and Links for those in our communities that are helping to take our patient, Earth from the operating room and into recovery for a long and thriving future for us all.
-– alex
June 7, 2010
Van Jones did not disappoint as the keynote at the Climate Solutions 2nd Annual Fundraiser breakfast in Seattle this morning. He evoked the oil spill disaster in the Gulf as a learning opportunity and catalyst for moving us away from fossil fuels and towards a national climate policy. Jones stated that we are now paying the price on the back-end for fuels that are cheap at the front end. The fact is that we pay artificially low prices for our energy, as industry has been “allowed” to pollute our environment without a penalty, thereby subsidizing the real cost of fossil energy production. With a cap-and-trade or a carbon tax policy, he argues, we would begin to pay the “real” price for these resources and presumably change our behaviors as a result.
In addition to climate benefits, Jones is focused on economic development. As a co-founder of Green Jobs For All, he reminded us that we could build wind turbines in Detroit utilizing the smart talent already available with great skills developed in the automotive industry. He sees green jobs not only in economic terms but also in social dividends paid to undirected youth. He states, “Let’s have kids put down handguns and pick up caulking guns, instead.”
Jones sang the praises of our Seattle green culture, leadership, and applauded our use of governmental financial resources as part of the Recovery Act to help fund a better tomorrow. Paying for residential energy efficiency can lower energy demand and waste, create (green) jobs and enhance the health of our communities, as less pollution means improved health, as in lower asthma rates.
Van also sees how the Northwest is deploying new charging station infrastructure to support a move toward electric cars. The Honorable Dow Constantine, King County Executive, provided the opening remarks, including a reference to his own anticipation over the pending delivery of his all-electric Nissan “Leaf.”
While Jones sees the Northwest as committed to greener culture and driving eco-innovation, he views our leadership role as one where we cannot get complacent but must push through any cynicism if the planet as a whole has a fighting chance.
While most people would find it incredibly hard to follow in the footsteps of a Van Jones speech, Martha Kongsgaard of Puget Sound Partnership was an outstanding “closer.” She literally sang a call-to-action tune encouraging us to get out our checkbooks to help Climate Solutions on their mission.
Checks are necessary in supporting the great works of Climate Solutions but additionally please share with our readers how the disaster in the Gulf has informed or altered your views or driven you to make a positive change.
Van Jones, you are inspiring as one of North America’s Green Heroes!
–alex
May 27, 2010
It seems that April was my Clean Tech learning month. Last week I rounded out the trend by attending an area breakfast and program on the subject hosted by The Economic Development Council of Snohomish County.
The program included several keynotes, with three panelists who focused on clean tech in the state, in Tri-Cities and in Snohomish County. Mark Cummings, Director of Public Affairs for Battelle, the local arm of the US Dept of Energy’s Pacific Northwest Laboratory, informed us of a Governor-appointed public / private taskforce, Clean Energy Leadership Council (CELC). Its mission is “to create a clean energy leadership initiative that will set the path to leverage Washington’s energy infrastructure and make Washington a hub for clean energy technology and a leader in the creation of green jobs and the development, deployment, and export of clean energy technologies and services.” One of the many interesting perspectives that he offered was our state’s potential role as the best second- or third-tier supplier of components such as PV inverter manufacturing, versus trying to chase after, in this case, China’s lead on panel production.
Diahann Howard, Director of Economic Development and Government Affairs for the Port of Benton, provided her insights on the Tri-Cities Research District. As part of a rebranding effort, they have a great tagline: “what’s next starts here.” The region is evolving from its nuclear power-based history (as site of the Hanford Nuclear Plant) into a world-class center for research and development around key sectors: clean energy, biosciences, environmental technology, computation and software. They are channeling their efforts to grow tomorrow’s workforce in both blue- and white-collar jobs, from field technicians to scientists.
Steve Klein, GM, Snohomish County Public Utility District, offered the local perspective. This utility is working on some innovative approaches in greening up their portfolios and those of their customers. He stated that they have had a long history and strong emphasis on conservation within their traditional customer base. The PUD is making investments in advancing a broad range of smart grid technologies. They are also developing a tidal energy demonstration project off the coast of Whidbey Island in partnership with tidal energy systems company, OpenHydro.
A half dozen key green leaders were identified in his talk and I’ll focus on one that intrigued me, Micro Green Polymers. This company was highlighted as one of the start-ups to watch in a recent Bloomberg Business Week article. According to their website, Ad-air™ clean technology creates lightweight, cost-efficient plastics through solid-state microcellular expansion in other words, by blowing air into plastic they can expand its size but not the proportional density or weight. Benefits include: lower material costs, more sustainable plastics, reduction in source materials use, up to 100% recycled material and with a process that can utilize much of your existing production line. Their markets include: consumer packaged goods, appliance manufacturers, transportation, packaging, and building materials.
Other local clean tech companies mentioned were Silicon Energy, Applied Filter Technology, Qualco Energy, and Cathcart Biodiesel. These Snohomish County companies are only a handful in our state that are innovating solutions to provide cost-effective, smarter and more sustainable options for business.
My takeaway from the content as well as the number and breadth of attendees at this event was that clean tech is an economic development play that benefits people through new jobs or retooling of existing jobs. These greener jobs directly bring value to our economy and create ripples through the multiplier effect. The stronger economy provides an opportunity to continue investment in products, processes, and education that propels our country while keeping a vested eye on our natural resources, environment and planet.
A special note of thanks to Ryan Crowther, Communications Manager, EDC Snohomish, who invited me to experience this valuable conference.
Now, go learn about those local green players that are right in your own backyard and consider alliances to grow our region’s cleaner economy.
–alex
May 3, 2010
