Community Forum on Carbon Neutrality Hosted by Seattle City Council, Tuesday

Seattle City Councilmember Mike O'Brien invites citizens interested in Carbon Neutrality as a goal for Seattle to a Community Forum this Tuesday at 6pm in Bertha Knight-Landes Room.


This could be a great venue to emphasize the value that preserving existing trees and increasing the canopy would have in the carbon neutrality goal. The goals of carbon neutrality and tree canopy are not counter active, but should work in tandem to really balance community values and community character.


The Council is looking for input and ideas from citizens on how "Carbon Neutrality" can be implemented on policy, private sector, non-profit and personal levels.

The Council will hear from community members who will present their recommended actions Seattle can take over the next 1-3 years as we start down the path towards carbon neutrality.

I’ve reviewed drafts of many of these recommendations, and I am impressed with the thoughtfulness of these recommendations that are both grounded in reality but will challenge us to tackle bold issues. We are hosting a website for these efforts, which can provide helpful background on this effort here: 

http://m1e.net/c?124061708-hKkzbAe5R3yAY%405692292-X3Uju66bJNuKw

If you would like to RSVP to this event, please reply to mike.obrien@seattle.gov

I hope to see you there!

 Best,

 Councilmember Mike O'Brien
 Seattle City Council
 Po Box 34025
 Seattle, WA 98124-4025

"Greens"burg, Kansas - Out of Tragedy into a New Green Reality

Heard this wonderful story on NPR tonite about Greensburg, Kansas that was almost completely flattened in a 5 mile-wide tornado in 2007.

The originally very conservative residents adopted a concept to rebuild their town with "Green" elements. They've now totally adopted these green concepts in their homes, businesses and agricultural lifestyle that is the foundation of their economy.

Such an inspiring story of people who came out of a complete disaster and rebuilt their lives together with faith and courage.

photo credit - Greensburg Green Town Blog

Some neighbors left, but many stayed and many came back to recreate their town.  They created a non-profit, not unlike an agricultural co-op to rebuild their downtown. The non-profit is called Greensburg Green Town.

Just think what those of us who've not had our town destroyed by a tornado might be able to do!

Here is a blog post from SOTRU (State Of The Re-Union) about the Kansas town that was reborn after
a terrible storm destroyed everything they had known.

SOTRU's Al Letson & Tina Antolini

State of the Re:Union (SOTRU) is a radio show distributed by National Public Radio and PRX that explores "how a particular American city or town creates community, the ways people transcend challenging circumstances and the vital cultural narratives that give an area its uniqueness". The concept for this program was created by Al Letson as an entry for a contest designed to identify new talent for Public Radio; Al was one of three finalists. Al and the show's producer, Tina Antolini, accompanied by NPR's Peter Breslow, traveled to Greensburg this winter to interview residents about the rebuilding effort. Their take on the community is captured both on the radio broadcast that aired this month, and through the photos, blog entries, and shorter interviews that are featured on their website. NPR's All Things Considered featured a seven-minute excerpt of the SOTRU piece on May 14.

Photo Credit - Greensburg Green Town Blog

This building is the renovation of a home based on the "silo" that survived the tornado.

Amazing that the tree pictured survived too.

Martha Rose Construction Hosts

http://www.martharoseconstruction.com/wordpress/

"How Sustainability is Changing the NW &

Your Real Estate Business

Seminar"

Class held at Fish Singer Place, a new sustainable

home community located at 15715 Dayton Ave N

Seattle. Tour the new Martha Rose Construction

community and see firsthand how low impact development and green

building are impacting our region.

You Will Learn About

· Regional Population Growth and Demographic Forecasts, Policies and Initiatives

· Low Impact Development (LID) for Current Land Use and Development

· Examples of Local LID Projects

· Rain Gardens, Green Roofs and Green Walls

· Native Plants, the Value of Trees

· Seattle's "Green Factor", a New Building Requirement in Seattle

This is a fun class designed for lots of discussion and input from Agents. I have

had great reviews from nearly all of the participants who have taken this class;

it is very different from most of the other clock hour classes available.

*Date: Wednesday March 3rd

Time: 1- 4PM

Approved for 3 Continuing Ed. Clock Hours $35

For more information or other available dates & locations contact

Patty Moriarty 206.898.0356 or patty@nativegrowth.com

NativeGrowth.com

All participants receive their Clock Hour Certificate and a CD

which includes the presentation,

along with several other relevant resource links and articles.

Fish Singer Place Low Impact Development Strategies

Martha Rose is a local developer in the Shoreline Area. She has championed the "eco-village" concept in several of her recent projects. These projects feature many green building tactics and techniques including the "High Performance House" concept. Marthas previous project on Greenwood Ave N was featured in the Shoreline Sustainabilty Strategy Report.

Her latest project is the "Fish Singer Place" on Dayton Ave N. See her article below on LID techniques she's utilizing.

Her company is hosting a reception TODAY and Sat to showcase the projects during construction to demonstrate how they are made. It's a great opportunity to see this project and techniques as they are put into place.

Martha says "it's time to take it to the next level," join us for a special Behind the Walls Tour of Martha Rose's newest 5-Star Built Green Homes
Fish Singer Place
Wine & Cheese

Friday January 29, 2010 2pm-4pm
Saturday January 30, 2010 12pm-4pm
Address: 15715 Dayton Ave N. Shoreline Wa. 98133

Special Sneak Preview

The making of a High Performance House



Fish Singer Place Low Impact Development Strategies

Located just south of 160th on Dayton Ave N, a (4) lot eco-enclave is under construction. The Fish brothers would likely be very pleased that developer, Martha Rose, is employing many strategies on their old land to help clean up our waterways. Careful civil engineering allows all portions of the property to absorb, retain and purify storm water until it has a chance to sink into the ground and slowly wend its way to Puget Sound. Here are some of those highlights:

Several portions of this 35,000 square foot site are left undisturbed with 7 mature native trees and other smaller deciduous trees left intact. Wood chips from ground tree branches form a thick layer of mulch that create a natural forested condition that absorbs water like a sponge.

Sod is not planted, eliminating the need for lawn mowers, weed killers and artificial fertilizers. Areas suitable for vegetable gardening are enriched with slow release fertilizers such as manure compost, bone meal and wood chips to help create tilth. A similar strategy is used for landscaping plants to allow the native and drought tolerant species to thrive. These beds absorb water almost as well as our little forest.

Our hardscapes also function as water filtration devices. The pervious pavement road, installed over a thick bed of 2” crushed granite railroad ballast, is so efficient at purifying pollutants that it breaks down mercury and other heavy metals into 98% inert compounds. This rock basin that underlies the road is hospitable to microbes that “eat” the harmful substances, allowing cleaned water to be absorbed into the adjacent soil. Rain water on site that is not intercepted by a rain barrel or absorbed in garden beds ends up in this under-road natural treatment plant.

Vegetated roofs also play a role in storm water management. About 70% of the water that lands on a green roof stays there to either evaporate into the sky or to be released by transpiration over a longer time. Plants protect these long lasting roofs from harmful UV rays and also help to temper climate and add beauty to our buildings.

For an up-close look at all of these features, ask to sign up for our tour notices at info@MarthaRoseConstruction.com

These homes are available for sale. See www.FishSingerPlace.com Interested buyers, please ask for a personal tour.


Martha Rose

Can Heritage Buildings Be Called Green? by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 11.30.09 DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

Guest Blog - posted in Treehugger, Nov '09

Can Heritage Buildings Be Called Green?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 11.30.09
DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

BUZZ UP!


The keefer before its very jazzy renovation

We spend a lot of time saying that Heritage buildings are green, but Vancouver architect Gair Williamson, who has worked on a lot of them, says only "sort of" in an interview with a construction industry newspaper.

"A building constructed in 1904 is not going to perform to modern standards. If we were to take the Keefer project and bump it up to LEED standards, it would be unrecognizable as a heritage building. If they replaced the single-pane windows with double-panes, for example, it would lose the character that made the building iconic."



He makes some very good points that most architects miss when they work on old buildings- that they need to leak a bit.

"If we add showers and kitchens to these buildings, we have to add a semi-permeable sealer to the walls so that it lets the air in and lets the vapour back out as well. That helps to preserve the brick walls constructed with 100-year-old technology.
"Even some of the timbers in these buildings look like they've come fresh out of the sawmill. If you put up a full vapour barrier, these building components begin to age exponentially."

But I think he is off the mark when he says:

"An existing building is an invested resource of energy and material." By preserving that, we're meeting some of the goals of green building, but by any performance-based standards, these buildings are not green."


Of course there is a lot more to performance than just energy. There is the issue of durability, natural light and ventilation, use of healthy materials. But there are numerous examples (like 401 Richmond Street in Toronto) that show that older buildings with opening windows and walls with a lot of thermal mass use less energy and resources than newer ones. Studies have also shown that properly restored single glazed windows can perform very well, particularly if storm windows are installed.

There are lots of reasons to save old buildings, and Williamson is really good at it. But from any life-cycle analysis point of view, and even from a total energy consumption point of view, they can perform well. I think he understates their case here.

More in Greening heritage buildings a trade-off

More:
In Hard Times It's Time For Renovation and Preservation
The Greenest Brick is the One That's Already in the Wall
The Greenest Brick is the One That's Already in the Wall