We stared out the first day in Houston at the Green Bank where we met with Mark Alan Robinson of Momentum Bay. This guy is a one man sustainability machine. To say that he has lots of irons in the fire is quite an understatement. He is involved in sustainability in all of its aspects. From his home garden to his local solar initiative, he is interested in it all.
He began about telling us about the Green Bank, where they were able to build to suit LEED Gold certification from the planning stage, and were able to see that idea through to completion. He told us that by using new and improved building materials and by entering a sustainability mindset and applying it to the entire overall design they were able to save 25% of their initial cost to construct the building. The entire time planning and translating a noticeable savings to the month to month operating expenses’ of the building as well. This shows that the idea of building sustainably is not a ideal that only works on paper. This man was able to get real world clients and show them in a real world application where they would benefit from building this way. Not just a “feel good” payback, but actual savings in utilities and operating expenses’ overall.
There was also an interesting story about how this idea of cost reduction through green practices while keeping an adherence to quality in his personal life. While planning their wedding they decided to ask themselves the questions “How can we make this step have a lessened environmental impact?” In doing so, they threw themselves an entirely green wedding that didn’t waste food or resources unduly and that reused as much of the “disposables” as possible. Also, and maybe just an important, they saved $18,000.00 on the overall cost of the wedding itself.
He also addressed the idea that sustainability needs a change of branding. Currently, the buzz words of this movement have been “cheap” “green” “responsible” with terms like “short ROI” “fiscal responsibility” taking the forefront. We talked about the idea that other words and ideas are more likely to illicit the desired result in people other than purely business. As an example: “Healthy” electricity showed a 44% positive response while “Green, Responsible” showed only a 4% positive response. The secret is in knowing that these two examples are the same thing, with a little different branding. In either case you would be talking about solar and wind generated power. In the first “Healthy” branded energy, you would talk about how this power is made in a way that will result in healthier customers with fewer cases of asthma and emphysema. While in the second example there are twenty year old catch phrases “Go Green” and “Save the Environment” that Americans have been hearing for the last 20 years and have not chosen to adopt in mass.
We also talked about how educating children being the most powerful tool in changing the minds and actions of the general populace. The Monarch School in the Houston area is a great success story. It was turned from an aging, wasteful private school into a flagship example of how good environmental design combined with diligent operating practices can have amazing results.
This school also took the idea of educational importance to heart by teaching its student body, and staff how to reduce energy requirements and utility bills through behavior alone. By changing their operating habits throughout the entire school and its surrounding grounds they were able to reduce their electrical bill by $16,000.00. This example alone illustrates the importance of educating kids, and how opening their minds early to sustainability can make a big change happen in the minds of adults around them. It also gets the idea of “doing right” and “saving money” are capable of going hand in hand and that they are not mutually exclusive, and that soon there will not be “Green” building standards. There will just be “Best Practices” that take advantage of the changes that we are making today.
The second and last sustainable visit of the day was the City of Houston Green Building Resource Center. This is a great public space that showcases the available green and energy saving upgrades that are currently available to the people of the Houston area. It has been in operation for two years and is located in a LEED Gold Certified commercial building.
The space is filled with furniture and other amenities that have been moved from other branches of the Houston government. The furniture is 85% repurposed from the Houston Library Department. The employees of the center also saved the cost of reviewing and accepting contractor bids to finish the construction by doing the build-out themselves. They have installed a working water retention system, complete with working cistern that feeds the onsite landscaping. The landscaping is even outfitted with water sensors that direct the watering system to be as conservative as possible. That was the water is not wasted by poor timing or lack or surplus of available rainwater.
The actual displays (50+) at the center were very informative and easy to understand. They covered a wide variety of home improvements and areas where homeowners could make green improvements to their property.
They had displays showing water saving toilets that used the tank receptacle to hold water used in hand washing. There was a display showing the insulative values of different roof treatments and how those treatments could influence the temperature of the attic space that they cover. This is important because the cooler you can keep your home attic space the less heated space insulates your home to require more heating energy.
I had never seen, but was very interested in the low diameter/ high volume air conditioning unit that they had on display. This system works on the principle that it takes less energy to change the temperature of air in a smaller space that moves at a higher volume than the traditional method.
They also had a extensive display of wall insulation options, from several varieties of sprayed-in closed cell foam to a system that uses the insulation power of trapped air in hay stalks to provide a straw-bale style wall with a high R-value.
All in all, this city provided center was very impressive, although a little vendor/retail heavy. Although, I guess you have to have easily accessible and understandable examples for the average consumer. Otherwise, you will only have people who already understand the existing technologies making changes to their homes and not your average Houstonian. This way it is more open and available to the public of Houston in general. I believe that once they move the center to its new location; where they plan to continue their mission to expose as many people as they can to the newly emerging technologies that can improve people’s homes in combination with a centralized location for all of the associated green building plans can be gathered and returned, they will be able to reach more people than ever and continue to spread the idea of green building to the people of Houston.
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