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Remaking the Built Environment in by 2030
Patrick Rollens, WorldChanging
By 2030, about half of the buildings in America will have been built after 2000. This statistic, courtesy of Professor Arthur C. Nelson’s report for the Brookings Institution, means that over the next 25 years, we will be responsible for re-creating half the volume of our built environment.
The report has been around since 2004, but Nelson re-examined his own findings last year to see if the housing market’s downturn impacted the forecast. The sheer volume was essentially unchanged, and the mainstreaming of the green movement that’s occurred in the last two years presents a colossal challenge–and a magnificent opportunity–for the burgeoning sustainable building industry.
Nelson’s report states that the country will need about 427 billion square feet of space (up from 2000’s total volume of just 300 billion). Moreover, only a small portion of this space can be acquired by renovating existing real estate. We’re already well on our way; the U.S. Green Building Council estimates that we’re developing about twice times as fast as the associated population growth. Every new building built between now and 2030 should be seen as an opportunity to push the envelope and transform our structured world.
(29 October 2007)
Cities see benefits of going green
Cynthia Sewell, Idaho Statesman
Boise mayor among those at statewide conference on environmentally sensitive construction.
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One building at a time, one city at a time, one state at a time – that’s the way to increase energy efficiency, reduce fossil-fuel dependency and raise environmental awareness nationwide, according to leaders and experts attending a statewide green building conference in Garden City this week.
In Boise, leaders are hoping to make it easier for people and businesses to go green at home or in the office.
The city has convened committees of construction, transportation and urban forestry experts to craft recommendations to increase energy efficiency and environmental friendliness.
The construction-focused committee submitted its first round of recommendations, including:
- Requiring all new homes to meet Energy Star requirements or better.
- Providing financial assistance for residential and commercial retrofits that reduce energy use and water consumption.
- Requiring new commercial buildings to exceed energy conservation code by 20 percent.
- Amending city code to allow solar panels, outdoor clotheslines, waterwise landscaping and permeable paving.
The recommendations are causing quite a buzz, Boise Mayor Dave Bieter said.
(26 October 2007)
Inventing a sustainable city
Kathleen Olp, The Daily Iowan
Fred Meyer is concerned about the fate of Iowa City.
This concern has spurred the Iowa City resident to create a sustainable city, dependent only on local resources.
“People are going to look at this group and think we’re crazy,” the 37-year-old said. “No town has ever done it, but there is lots of genius in Iowa City.”
Meyer started the Abundant Iowa City campaign, which, he said, seeks to create a self-reliant, permanent community that enhances the health of its people and environment. The group has had three meetings, which are breeding ground for further outside discussion with other activist groups.
“You can either wait to react, which gets messy, or you can plan,” Meyer said, referring to the many environmental issues currently affecting the world.
Three main challenges exist with the environment: climate change and energy and resource depletion, he said. He isn’t looking to start something new but rather looking to align groups in Iowa City to start a movement, he said.
(30 October 2007)
Report takes aim at smog-causing speed bumps
Kathryn Young, Vancouver Sun
CMHC calls for changes in street planning to create cleaner, safer neighbourhoods
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Speed bumps — a Band-Aid solution for bad street planning — not only fuel drivers’ tempers and create noise pollution, they add greenhouse gases to the air we breathe, says a new federal housing agency report.
When vehicles slow down to approach a speed bump, then speed up, then slow down for another one, they use more gasoline, emitting more carbon and other noxious gases than they would if travelling at a constant speed, said Fanis Grammenos, senior researcher for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
CMHC has released a report calling for a fused-grid street layout to avoid the problems in both the winding streets of typical suburbia and traditional grid patterns in city centres.
(29 October 2007)
Philly CarShare becomes well-traveled
With 30,000 members in 5 years, it’s a success story in its field
Melissa Dribben, Philadelphia Inquirer
You’ve seen them everywhere. In prime parking territory on Center City streets, in Ikea parking lots, at the Wegman’s in Cherry Hill. Hybrids, Mini Coopers, trucks emblazoned Philly CarShare. “Our wheels. Your freedom.”
Where do they come from?
Go back to March 2002. Five people meet in the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel in Philadelphia.
Tanya Seaman, 35 and Clayton Lane, 26, both city planners; Larry Shaeffer, a community activist; Eli Massar, who works for the Mural Arts Project; and Nate Robinson, an investment banker.
They are planning a kind of communal rental system for Philadelphia that will allow a single car to be used by multiple drivers every day. People who need the keys for just a couple of hours to get to a child’s baseball game or meet a client for lunch or haul home a new microwave.
The efficiency, they hope, will result in fewer cars clogging streets and lungs.
The idea isn’t original. (It grew out of an informal arrangement among some thrifty Swiss in 1947.) But it is still cutting-edge.
(29 October 2007)
