Building Capacity

Green Communities National Summit Identifies Challenges and Solutions: Keep it Up!

I recently attended the Enterprise Green Communities National Summit – Feb 27 and 28 in Dallas, TX. In fact, my colleague, Elly Bunzendahl and I delivered a Green Communities Criteria 101 training as a prelude to the National Summit, in part to provide an introduction to the Green Communities 2011 Criteria for Summit attendees who were not familiar with the program. Roughly 80 of the 200 summit registrants attended the training, suggesting that, even after more than seven years in the field, there are many newcomers to Green Communities' approach to greening affordable housing. This is a good sign.

For O’Brien & Company, the synergy of sustainability and affordable housing has always had gravity. Who better appreciates the benefits of lifecycle thinking than the client who is required to hold a new property for 30 or 40 years, or more! And what better way to address the “equity” component of sustainability’s “Three Es” (Environment, Economy, Equity) than in the pursuit of providing high performance, healthy housing to people who are economically and/or socially marginalized?

So, what of the Summit? In 2009, Enterprise deepened its commitment to green affordable housing by setting a goal that all the housing they helped produce or preserve would be green by 2013. This later evolved into a National Call to Action; that ALL publicly subsidized housing should have the opportunity to benefit from green practices by 2020. Prior to this National Summit, Enterprise held a series of regional Convenings in Denver, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.in 2011 and early 2012 to help focus the national discussion.

The goal of the National Summit was, through the participation of national affordable housing leaders, to identify the major barriers to achieving the 2020 objective and to identify innovative approaches to overcoming those barriers. The 200-person brainstorm was facilitated and focused using the services of AmericaSpeaks; a non-profit dedicated to engaging citizens in the democratic process, and experienced in the use of technology to enhance dialogue and sharing in large-group settings, among other things. Certainly, the ability to synthesize the ideas from twenty tables into a series of powerful themes that we could then vote on using personal, wireless voting tablets put the old-fashioned flip charts and dot-voting process to shame. And the fact that they could take the output of an eight-hour session with 200 people and summarize it into a 4-page hard-copy document that was handed to participants before they left the session was impressive indeed. Not inexpensive, for sure, but if you are involved in large group process and haven’t seen this technology at work, I urge you to check it out.

For me, a few things stood out from my personal discussions with attendees at the training, at my Summit table and from the synthesized themes from the whole group:

1. The affordable housing “universe” is made up of an uncommonly dedicated, creative and realistic collection of people – if we can’t figure out the solutions to this challenge, I’m sure no-one can!

 2. The dominant themes that drive this community were “creating resilient communities of choice that fulfilled the promise of the USA,” “promoting social justice,” “creating healthier outcomes for residents,” and, “reducing costs for owners and occupants.” Nothing very surprising here, but a happy blend of idealism and pragmatism;

3. Regarding challenges, the top items were:

• In Design, Construction and Operations: Reliable data for construction and operations; changing occupant behavior; and education (somewhat related).
• In Financing: Capturing the true costs and benefits; monetizing Long-term savings; and, devising a way to subsidized the first cost of green affordable housing.
• In Policy and Regulation: Inexperienced regulators, policy makers and funders; the need for incentives for owners and residents; and the lack of a consistent approach to green requirements across Qualified Allocation Plans from different federal and state agencies.

4. In terms of innovations and breakthroughs, the top items were:

• In Design, Construction and Operations: A central repository for design, cost/benefit, operations and performance data; incentives to facilitate behavioral changes among residents; and, a “Process in a Box,” – a turn-key, step-by-step guide for designing, building and operating a green affordable housing project. (Hey! Can this really be so hard?)
• In Financing: Devise more financing options, such as Green US Treasury Bonds, PACE and on-bill financing, social impact bonds, etc.; develop a financial product to monetize off-site effects such as water quality, human and community health; and standardize underwriting by GSEs and banks.
• In Policy and Regulation – Pass a GREEN Community Reinvestment Act that requires banks and insurance companies to require green practices in CRA investments; create a uniform national green building requirement with Treasury that would apply to ALL QAPs; and, make the connection between green strategies and human health more explicitly understood.

Overall, I came away feeling optimistic. A few, well thought out and implemented policy and financing interventions could move the focus from subtraction to integration. Instead of conversations about what needs to be value-engineered out to meet capital budget and the per unit cost caps, we have conversations on how to draw more capital into the first cost of the project in order to eliminate long term utility and O&M costs, and minimize replacement requirements.

The Summit also highlighted a couple of areas that need the same kind of positive, solution-based focus:

1. There is a woeful lack of meaningful performance data available on the achieved performance of green-certified multi-family projects, most particularly affordable projects. How can we make capturing and sharing this data routine and convenient? Can this be added to the scope of affordable development projects? This is worth more discussion.

2. An increasingly large percentage of the energy, water and health impacts of a residential unit is up to the behavior of the occupants. As designing in green features becomes the norm for affordable housing, more emphasis will need to be on addressing occupant behavior. We have worked with Enterprise to create, test, and promulgate effective models of residential engagement and education. Can these be routinely added to the scope of funding for new and existing affordable development projects?

Enterprise hopes to continue this discussion. If you want to participate, check out: http://enterprisecommunity.force.com/greenforum.

Did you enjoy this article?  You may also enjoy reading Green Resident Engagement Cards Inform AND Empower in California Non-Profit Housing Developments: Interview with Maria Elena Marquez-Brookes, LINC Housing’s Director of Resident Services

Alistair Jackson, CSBA is a Principal at O’Brien & Company. He was involved in the development of the original LEED for Homes Pilot Rating System and is, among other things, the Quality Assurance Designee (QAD) for O’Brien & Company’s role as LEED for Homes Provider. He is a strong advocate for market-led innovation and market transformation towards sustainability. He is also a father of two – and impatient for change towards a better future.

Is Training the Answer? Not always, says Kelly Kirkland, CSBA, LEED AP O+M

The green building industry is slowly coming to realize that the most efficiently designed buildings in the world won’t operate at peak efficiency without well-trained building operators, managers and occupants. With technology evolving and people turning over, ongoing training is generally required to achieve peak efficiency and comfort.

But when faced with a building performance or comfort problem, throwing a training at it mindlessly could end up as money wasted. Experienced trainers can crank out PowerPoint slides on any topic at a moments notice to be delivered to warm bodies in a dark room. A friend, who is the training manager at a large company, refers to this as the “magical training factory.” But will anything this factory spits out result in real learning, or provide a solution to the problem?

Here are a few real examples of green building problems that may or may not have a training solution:

The Scene: A small, remote building that operates 24 hours a day to serve military personnel. Individual staff members rotate through this location every few years, and the person put in charge of building operations is likely to have had little to no previous experience—plus a slate of many other duties related to their “primary mission.” The complex building DDS system is something no one really understands. When something in the building goes wrong, a huge amount of the maintenance budget must be spent to fly in an outside expert.

Is Training the Answer? Probably not—at least not at first. When I talked to the staff members all they really wanted was something simple and intuitive that they could operate themselves. Making a change to the equipment with the next building upgrade would likely save a lot more energy and maintenance budget in the future. If the new system came with intuitive documentation, a simple recorded training could ensure that all new staff could be oriented to their role as building manager quickly and without taking time away from their other duties. Another option would be to reevaluate staffing structure to allow for a dedicated building manager—what a great skill that would be to take home to the civilian workforce!

The Scene: A governmental organization adopts a new green policy mandate that all project managers need to follow. The staff in charge of ensuring adoption with the policy are worried that PMs will be resistant due to concerns that it’s too complicated or expensive to implement. In addition, staff have been resistant to training in the past when they feel it’s not a good use of their time.

Is Training the Answer? In the case of staff resistance to implementing the policy, no. You can’t train motivation but you can remove barriers (like reducing the paperwork burden) and add incentives (like individual and departmental recognition). Both of these were done. In addition, staff tapped green advocates at each department to organize a brief “training” for PMs. The content of this training covered the basic policy requirements  and showed how these were relevant to the specific types of projects the PMs managed. These concise trainings highlighted case studies from the relevant department to provide concrete examples to assuage fears about the complexity or limitations the policy might impose on projects. Even better, these sessions provided an opportunity to determine which kind of additional technical trainings would be needed to support project managers moving forward. PMs reported  they appreciated the concise initial training and were much more eager to get additional technical training once they understood the opportunities.

The Scene: A K-12 school with a highly interactive natural ventilation strategy that made buttons on the wall glow: green, when windows could be open for ventilation, or red, when they should be shut while the building was in heating mode. In this case, I don’t know that the building managers were aware of the problem. On green building tours I like to sneak away and talk to occupants to see how a building is really performing for them. None of the teachers I spoke to had any idea what those glowing lights were for and they complained of stuffy spaces.

Is Training the Answer? In this case, yes! The teachers were motivated to make their classrooms more comfortable and had everything they needed to fix their problem—except the know-how. In fact, when the building opened all teachers did receive training. The problem was that in three years the teachers no longer had that information, either due to being new or not understanding or remembering it from the first training. A short module as part of new staff training (or, better yet, as part of an in-service training day for all staff!) would be a great way to help teachers be more comfortable and get the desired energy performance. A quick reference sheet for each classroom, and better signage on the lights would be great training follow-ups.

You don’t need a training on adult learning theory to know that adults will be learn better with information that they need to know (to do their jobs or to be comfortable) presented in a straightforward, practical way that involves some engagement or interaction. Before throwing a training at a problem, however,  make sure that the issue isn’t with equipment, policy barriers, lack of motivation, or another issue. Your time and resources might be better spent by providing better equipment, processes,  incentives, individual coaching or something else. We have had experience where training has had  the opposite of the desired effect, because it simply wasn't the right solution to the problem. Participants left the training frustrated, as they were still left with the same problem, and had (in their minds) less time to manage it.  On the other hand, if lack of know-how is the problem, training is absolutely the right way to go.

Kelly Kirkland is O’Brien & Company’s Education Coordinator. She has developed and delivered dozens of courses on a variety of green building topics. She recently completed a three-day course on training assessment, development, delivery and evaluation and holds a Training Certificate from the American Society for Training and Development.

Living Building Results from a Living Vision: HPA’s learning laboratory starts with a charrette

In 2007 O’Brien & Company facilitated a strategic visioning process for the staff, students and stakeholders of an independent school with a strong commitment to “Go Green.” Today, HPA’s leadership points to that process as the foundation for successful completion of its new Energy Lab, a living, learning laboratory. A Little Background:

Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy (HPA), founded in 1949, is an independent coeducational school providing a full range of opportunities for students from kindergarten through grade 12. The school is located in Waimea on the island of Hawaiʻi (the Big Island). Their main, 200-acre campus is located at the foot of the Kohala mountains, with views across the rolling paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) country to Mauna Kea to the south.

Visioning Process Plants the Seed

A desire for a more integrated, comprehensive approach to sustainability was the natural outcome of the work of a small group of campus enthusiasts who began meeting a year or so earlier and who had already achieved some success with the installation of solar street lights and solar water heating on campus.

The visioning work, facilitated by Kathleen O’Brien and Elizabeth Powers of O’Brien & Company in 2007, marked the beginning of a campus-wide integrated process, aligning the passion, energy and intention of the students, faculty, staff and parents towards a vision of a sustainable school in a sustainable community with clear goals and metrics for measuring success along the path of progress. Topics covered all aspect of campus operations: food, transportation, buildings, and natural resources (such as energy and water), and discussions went beyond operations to integrating learnings into curriculum and into community relations.

We met in the old Parker Ranch House and the walls for each room were literally covered by the end of the day with ideas that eventually were organized and compiled in a report for the committee to work with. A blown-up campus map provided a canvas for participants to answer the question: What would it look like for HPA to “Go Green?”

HPA wanted to be a major leader in the region’s sustainability efforts – a goal made all the more meaningful by the fact that their region is a collection of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which once supported a population of more than one million people without any input from the outside world, but is now dependent on a continuous IV drip of oil tankers to meet its energy needs. Says Bill Wiecking, a participant in the early visioning process and now Energy Lab Director, “The Big Island can serve as a model for the planet: this is all we have, we must learn to use our resources wisely, while thinking about forever.”

One of the strategies that emerged from the visioning work was creation of an Environmental Energy Lab that would focus on locally-appropriate strategies towards achieving energy independence. The learning laboratory would offer a fully integrated curriculum, real-time reporting of performance and a forum for learning about project management – not a one-off but a model that could be replicated across the state of Hawaii and beyond.

The Seed Bears Fruit

As a testament to the strength of that vision, Bill Wiecking’s passion, and the commitment of HPA’s stakeholders, the new Energy Lab, designed by architect David Croteau of Flansburgh Associates recently earned certification under the Living Building Challenge – the most rigorous rating for sustainable building.

The building is finely tuned to respond to its environment. Form and orientation evolved to balance complex flow dynamics that drive the natural ventilation system, designed by Buro Happold with access to daylight and views that are critical to creating an optimal learning environment – it is, first, a classroom, after all. Not a singular effort, this building forms the blueprint for future structures on the campus – an integrated, optimized response to a complex system.

At the award ceremony in May, 2011, David Croteau spoke of the challenges of designing and constructing a Living Building in Hawaii. Between the Red List of unacceptable materials and the limitations of transportation distances for different resources, just writing the specifications for the project was a major effort. But seemingly insurmountable barriers were overcome because everyone’s values were fully aligned around the larger goals. The value that the building represented as a model was so great it justified extraordinary steps to ensure the coherence of the story it had to tell.

Without the clarity that came from the Go Green visioning, that unity of purpose might not have existed. Bill Wiecking said of the process, “Our school had a nascent "Go Green" movement for years before our first charrette challenged us to reach for something beyond our grasp. This workshop had many outcomes besides the kernel of our energy lab project: recycling, energy auditing, farming, materials awareness. As a school we are uniquely vulnerable to supply disruptions, with energy and food costs among the highest in the country. We are well motivated, and now we have a place to study sustainability using tools and techniques years ahead of any other school, presenting educational opportunities beyond the scope of anything we might have envisioned several years ago (prior to 2007).”

Posted by Alistair Jackson & Elizabeth Powers, principals and owners of O’Brien & Company, Inc, a green building consultancy founded 20 years ago in the Seattle area and publisher of the Building Capacity Blog. See also Elizabeth’s article on Living Buildings in the Northwest in the O'Brien & Company June 2011 newsletter.

Did you enjoy this article?  You might also like these Building Capacity Blog articles: 
Living Building Challenge: Bertschi School’s New Science Wing
Living Future 2011
Envisioning a Net-Zero Water Future
Living Future: Life in the Solution

"Green" Resident Engagement Cards Inform AND Empower in California Non-Profit Housing Developments: Interview with Maria Elena Marquez-Brookes, LINC Housing’s Director of Resident Services

Enterprise Community Partners offers technical resources and training grants for affordable housing communities. In 2010 O’Brien & Company developed a suite of customizable engagement tools to educate and inspire affordable housing residents about green features in their buildings and how to sustainably operate and maintain their home and make healthy lifestyle choices. The primary tool is a set of Resident Engagement Card templates, developed in Power Point. O’Brien & Company also developed companion tools, including a User Guide, a short Tutorial video, a video highlighting some of the universal key concepts covered in the cards, quiz question templates, and an image library. LINC Housing participated in a pilot to show how Enterprise’s new residential engagement tool can be customized for affordable housing agencies and then for specific properties.

Editor: What is LINC Housing and what do you do there? MARIA: LINC is a nonprofit developer of affordable housing for low-income seniors, families and individuals with special needs throughout the state of California. We are located in Long Beach, California. Since 1984 we have helped create more than 6,500 units of affordable housing in 59 communities across the state.

About six years ago I was hired as the Director of Resident Services, tasked with developing the resident services department otherwise known as LINC Cares. At LINC we feel it is important to go beyond simply offering housing and also provide life enhancing services.

With our senior communities, for example, we understand how important it is for our seniors to live independently for as long as possible, so we try and support this goal by providing opportunities to maintain their mental, physical, and social health with exercise and nutrition programs and community engagement activities such as game days. It may just look like Bingo or Arts and Crafts, but in fact we are providing an opportunity to exercise the mind, socialize and build new networks.

Likewise with our family communities, we provide after school programs for children and youth, where they receive tutoring, homework help and have the opportunity to engage in a variety of enriching programs. We hold Family Nights, sessions where families learn about the local resources in their community. We hope that by providing our families with information and increasing access to local services that we are taking a proactive approach and preventing crises from occurring or at least minimizing it.

Can you describe LINC’s role in this project and the process? What were you hoping to accomplish? Enterprise's residential engagement tool seemed to fit right in with our life-enhancing approach to resident services. Giving information to our residents is a great thing –coupling that with the tools to take action is even better. LINC Housing has been engaging residents in being stewards of their environment since 2006. What we learned from our experiences is you can't just tell people to "be green." It's too big. What does that mean? It's overwhelming. The engagement tool was an opportunity to expand on our experiences and break it down even further, making “being green” that much more doable. The tool allowed us to recognize and celebrate what our residents were already doing while providing them with new ideas or strategies they could adopt. And the best part of the tool was that because it was customized to the community we were able to identify stores or services in their neighborhood that could help support their behavior changes.

The specific property you chose to focus on for the pilot was the Pepperwood Apartments. Can you tell us little about Pepperwood? Pepperwood is in Rancho Cucamonga, providing 230 apartments to families. It was a market rate development that we purchased in 2006, converted to affordable housing, and renovated with "green" upgrades including: insulation, energy efficient appliances, heating and cooling, lighting, and low-flow toilets. The resident engagement cards were an opportunity to go back to the residents to make sure they understood how these features worked and how they could take better advantage of them.

How did you use the tool? For our pilot we ended up customizing 30 cards for Pepperwood. We knew that would be too much for a single sitting so we focused our first workshop on two things: some simple energy efficient things they could do, and creating a product they could use in their homes. We used 4-5 cards and used these to stimulate dialogue and to introduce ideas like creating an all purpose green cleaning product they could use at home. This project was greatly appreciated by residents who were looking for something inexpensive and environmentally safe. We also had each participant sign a commitment card;the commitment cards focused on behaviors or strategies the participant was planning on adopting. We plan to check in with these residents in three months.

How did it go? Really well. We were a little surprised; since we held it directly following our after school program, we expected youth to stay and participate. We didn't really expect adults to come. It was a two-hour meeting on a weeknight, dinner included. We had 27 participants, including 15 kids and 12 adults ranging in age from 7 years old to someone in their 60’s. We had moms, dads, grandparents, and whole families participating and everyone stayed right to the end. People were really engaged. And everyone left with a product they had made and could use at home. (The children made play dough.)

So the pilot was successful? Yes, and in more ways than we thought. The cards were about engaging the residents, but it also ended up being a great tool for dialogue with property management, asset management, and housing development staff. In our customization process, there were things we learned through our discussions with community staff. For example, at Pepperwood, we learned that clothes line drying was against policy.

We also learned from Pepperwood's property manager that she was struggling to get cooperation regarding cleaning the lint from dryers. Since this can help make a dryer act more efficiently, it was something we could point out as an energy saver. Residents can hear the message from someone other than the property manager, therefore, validating it.

What's next? We plan on using the generic cards next in one of our senior communities. One thing I liked about working with Kelly (at O'Brien & Company) was that in working with me on getting the cards ready for Pepperwood she would always have a question I didn’t think about, and she would keep digging deeper. In the end we ended up with some great customized cards and with skills to meet the specific needs of all our communities. We want this experience to last for the long haul. We also plan to use the cards as a basis for a community-specific booklet we can hand out to every resident.

Do you have plans to customize the cards for other properties? Yes, two properties, including SEASONS at Compton, which is scheduled to open in summer 2011. SEASONS at Compton will serve a blend of limited income seniors, seniors with developmental disabilities, and seniors who care for dependents with developmental disabilities. The project is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council and is set to achieve LEED Gold Certification. The complex will include environmental features like photovoltaic panels and solar thermal hot water, as well as accessibility features like wider doorways and hallways, adjustable height counters, lower light switches, ramps, and elevators. A bioswale will be used to filter rainwater runoff and collecting silt and pollution before it enters the sewer system. This is very exciting and we have a great opportunity to customize cards for this unique community.

Do the cards only work on "green facilities? No, there are lots of cards that have to do with one's lifestyle and the choices we make, and are not dependent on living in a green building. Again, it is about what our residents can do. They can change out light bulbs, use green cleaning products, recycle or simply walk to the local store.

What lessons learned would you like to share? Engage as many people as you can. We work at such a fast pace, I grabbed at the pilot opportunity without realizing the extent of the project. Fortunately, everyone was as excited about the project as we (resident services) were and provided the support we needed. Engaging everyone who needed to get involved did slow the process down but it was well worth it. The engagement tool is much more effective because everyone from corporate to property staff to residents have had a hand in shaping it.

The other lesson we learned was that today’s youth are much more informed on environmental issues than we ever were at their age. They are familiar with recycling for example, because they've been hearing about that in school for most of their lives. They can be great allies for your resident engagement program and should be part of the development process.

Maria Elena Marquez-Brookes is Director of Resident Services for LINC Housing where she continues a life of "giving back" to the community, something she learned growing up in a community-oriented family. A social worker by training, she has been a community organizer, activist and in addition to her work at LINC serves as a field instructor for other up and coming social workers. This interview was conducted by Kathleen O'Brien, President of O'Brien & Company, and editor of Building Capacity Blog. For more information on how your agency can use this tool, Enterprise Community Partners plan to host a webinar “Introducing New Resident Engagement Tools for Affordable Housing Developers and Owners” on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM (EST)

Did you enjoy this article?  You might also like these Building Capacity Blog articles: 
Sound Mental Health's LEED Platinum Housing Project
Interview with Schuchart's Joe Giaudrone
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 1
Mechanical Systems and Fuel Choices for the Warming World
Gut Rehab: Groll Residence Turns 1918 Home from “Leaky” to Green

How do you optimize a forced-air system to maintain a green home? Alistair Jackson, LEED AP for Homes Rater Responds: Part 4: MECHANICAL VENTILATION

If not installed or maintained properly, forced-air heating and cooling systems can perform poorly, creating air quality problems and unnecessary expense. To optimize a forced-air system, you need to design or refine it to prevent leaks and pressure imbalances, protect it properly during construction (or make sure the ductwork is clean and sound), and use the right filter.

The performance spec of the heat (or cooling) source is also important, but it is critical to address the distribution system first before investing in better furnace and air handler performance. This article is the FINAL of four focused on optimizing forced-air systems on the topics of Distribution, Filtration, Heat Source (and Controls), and Ventilation.

Whether in a new house or an existing home, mechanical ventilation is an important component of indoor comfort and building durability. Here in Washington, codes have required it for several years, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the ventilation system in a home is effective.

This is another system that is worth having tested by a qualified contractor to see if it is over- or under-performing. A system that is under-performing (provides less airflow than recommended) may not provide adequate fresh air or remove enough moisture from the home. A system that is over-performing (providing too much airflow) will increase energy consumption, as heating system has to heat or cool the additional volume of  air.

The ventilation performance requirements of the IRC 2009 (and the current Washington Residential Code) are consistent with ASHRAE 62.2-2007, a recognized national reference standard, and a great performance benchmark even for a project that isn’t covered by the code. The intent of this standard is to ensure adequate air changes in the home, based on size and occupancy load. It requires mechanical ventilation with dedicated outside air inlets in new construction to increase the likelihood of effective ventilation.

For existing homes, it should be noted that mechanical ventilation becomes increasingly important as the building envelope becomes more air-tight. If a blower door test gives a result of ≥7 ACH@50, the focus should be on reducing envelope leakage rather than adding mechanical ventilation. This test result is roughly equivalent to 0.35 nACH or about one air change every three hours. With this much leakage in the envelope, the house will experience more than enough ventilation through the natural convection caused by “stack effect” as well as those induced by the influence of wind on the structure. But if your envelope weatherization efforts have brought envelope leakage substantially below this level, adding effective mechanical ventilation is a top priority.

Let’s assume we’re talking about a project that has successfully upgraded the building envelope to something less than 4 ACH50. A common practice in forced air homes is to integrate a mechanical ventilation system into the forced air system; a logical approach since you already have a system of ducts to deliver air to all the living spaces. This is called a “Central Fan Integrated System (CFIS)” – Imagine that. It is a straightforward solution that can be properly implemented for around $500 as long as your distribution ductwork is clean and sound and there’s easy access for a duct run from your air handler to an exterior wall, away from other exhaust outlets.

In its simplest form, this approach consists of a duct into the return side of the air handler, drawing fresh air into the system whenever the air handler fan runs. The problem with this approach is that the ventilation rate is totally dependent on how much the air handler runs. So on the coldest days (or the warmest days in a cooling-dominated climate) you get the greatest ventilation. On these days, the outside air also needs more conditioning to meet the indoor set-point temperature – so that means more heating (or cooling) energy; a recipe for higher energy bills.

                                      

This can be mitigated by adding a “fan cycler” – a control box connected to a mechanical damper in the fresh air duct. See the mechanics of an AprilAire fan cycler  in the photo at left. The fan cycler opens and closes the fresh air duct and monitors how much time the fan runs with the duct open. On cold days, it will close the fresh air duct once the ventilation air volume for a given period has been reached. On mild days, when heat (or cooling) demand is low, it will also switch on the air handler fan to circulate fresh air to meet the ventilation requirement. The disadvantage of this action is that it uses the large air handler fan (and associated electrical consumption) to circulate a relatively small amount of fresh air. If your air handler includes an efficient, variable speed fan this impact is significantly reduced. Aircycler provides an interactive  schematic showing the airflow.

 

Another approach that reduces fan energy is to tie the Fan Cycler to one or more exhaust fans and use these fans to pull outside air through the ducts when the air handler is not running. Energy Star labeled fans from Panasonic and others use a fraction of the energy of a typical air handler fan. I’m not personally convinced this solution provides good outside air distribution but it may be worth further exploration.

Energy (or heat) recovery, where energy from the stale exhaust air is used to pre-condition the incoming fresh air, can also be integrated into this approach. Typically, the air handler fan of an HRV or ERV is not large enough to effectively circulate fresh air through the large, forced air duct system, resulting in inadequate distribution and mixing of outside air. It is better to integrate the ERV/HRV with a fan cycler and use the furnace air handler fan, (Venmar AVS used to sell a passive  HRV unit called the Enerflo, that offered all this in one convenient unit, but I’m not sure this product is still available – comment if you know differently!).

You can also install small diameter, dedicated ductwork for the ventilation air distribution. Either approach will involve increased installation cost and control complexity (see the photo). In simple payback terms, this probably only makes sense in very cold or hot climates.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Any CFIS system requires proper commissioning by a qualified technician to ensure it is performing properly and delivering the required rate of ventilation in a range of conditions. Your HVAC contractor may be able to provide this service, or you may choose to use an independent contractor such as those listed with Home Performance Washington, RESNET, Building Performance Institute (BPI), National Comfort Institute Certified Contractors. 

Alistair Jackson, LEED AP, CSBA is Principal in Charge of O’Brien & Company’s Residential Technical Services, and is a LEED for Homes, Energy Star and Built Green Verifier, LEED for Homes Faculty and ARCSA certified Rainwater Harvesting designer. Alistair is a frequent contributor to the Building Capacity Blog and was also a major contributor to the Northwest Green Home Primer.

Did you enjoy this article?  You might also like these Building Capacity Blog articles:
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 1
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 2
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 3
Interview with LINC’s Maria Elena Marquez-Brookes
Creating Effective Energy Efficiency & Conservation Strategies Part 1
Cracking the Energy Code: What Will It Cost?
Mechanical Systems and Fuel Choices for the Warming World

How do you optimize a forced-air system to maintain a green home? Alistair Jackson, LEED AP for Homes Rater Responds: Part 3: HEAT SOURCE & CONTROLS

If not installed or maintained properly, forced-air heating and cooling systems can perform poorly, creating air quality problems and unnecessary expense. To optimize a forced-air system, you need to design or refine it to prevent leaks and pressure imbalances, protect it properly during construction (or make sure the ductwork is clean and sound), and use the right filter.

The performance spec of the heat (or cooling) source is also important, but it is critical to address the distribution system first before investing in better furnace and air handler performance. This article is the THIRD of four focused on optimizing forced-air systems on the topics of Distribution, Filtration, Heat Source (and Controls), and Ventilation.

The most effective upgrades to the heat source in a forced air system are typically: 1) Improve the thermal envelope of the home; and 2) Seal and insulate the ductwork. Once those things are done, investments in improving the furnace or heat pump are likely to be returned to the homeowner rather than being lost. If you’ve dealt with those, then consider the following.

CONTROLS

The simplest way to improve performance of an existing system is to add a programmable thermostat, if it doesn’t already have one. EPA claims you can reduce energy consumption by 5% to 15% with a properly programmed thermostat. But there’s the rub. Just installing it doesn’t help; it has to be properly programmed. Make sure it’s set up and the homeowner knows how to use and reprogram it. Heat pumps need a heat pump thermostat. In cold climates, many say it doesn’t pay to set back the night time temperature with a heat pump system, because the system will switch to electric strip heat during the early morning warm up cycle. However, the better heat pump thermostats include algorithms in their programming to lock out or minimize the use of strip heat at such times, which can significantly reduce overall energy consumption.

Zoning can be an energy-saving upgrade. This can be achieved in a forced air system by including motorized dampers to control air flow to each zone, controlled by multiple thermostats connected to a system controller that operates the heat source and air-handler. Once again, it is important to have a reasonably air-tight, thermally efficient building envelope before you think about this upgrade, or it may lead to unanticipated comfort and control issues. Zoning can be difficult to retrofit depending on the duct design and accessibility. Since turning off a zone reduces the effective size of the system it can result in too much back pressure which may damage the air handler. For this reason, zoned systems generally use oversized ductwork, though there are other ways to address this.

HEAT SOURCES

What if it is in the budget to think about upgrading the heat source? I’m only going to address a few big picture issues here, since this is a huge topic with a lot of great resources available on the web and elsewhere.

First - Make sure the person who designs the HVAC system does a proper room-by-room load calculation, using a reputable tool (ask for ACCA Manual J or equivalent) the actual design specs for the home (floor, wall and ceiling insulation values, glazing area and u-factors, envelope infiltration rates). This way, the heat source will be properly sized for the house and sufficient heat will be delivered to each room. If the loads are significantly different from the original system design, the ductwork may also be oversized and may require some redesign, too.

Second – If you have the option, locate the heat source and all the distribution ductwork inside the conditioned space, eliminating almost all the heat loss to the outside. This can be challenging in smaller homes or retrofit situations, but it can be done. If you are retaining the existing ductwork, this likely means relocating the thermal and pressure envelope to enclose the mechanical space and should only be done if you are using a closed combustion appliance.

Third - Consider a multi-stage heat source (gas furnace or high-efficiency electric heat pump). Since a heating system is designed to provide enough heat to keep the home comfortable on the coldest day of the year, it spends most of the heating season running at less than full capacity, which is generally less efficient. In a combustion system (furnace), this means the burner/gas valve has more than one heating level, so it can modulate how much gas is burned according to the amount of heat that is needed. A dual stage furnace might have a peak capacity of 60 kBTUh and a first-stage capacity of 30kBTUh. In a house with a peak heating load (the heat required to keep the inside of the house comfortable on the theoretical coldest day of the year) of 24 kBTUh (not uncommon for a typical, quality-built 3- or 4 bedroom house), such a furnace might NEVER use the full 60 kBTUh capacity.

In a heat-pump system, performance depends on the outdoor compressor unit’s ability to extract heat from the outside air – the colder the outside air, the harder it is to get heat from it. So on the cold days when more heat is needed inside, there is less heat available outside. In older heat pump systems, this situation triggers the “Emergency Heat” source, electric resistance heat strips in the heat exchanger. This is expensive and inefficient. There are a few cold climate forced air heat pumps that use multiple, staged compressors to address this. They seem to perform well but availability and technical support is currently limited and these systems do need specialist attention. To address this, some HVAC installers recommend hybrid systems with a heat pump AND a combustion furnace – the furnace replaces the electric emergency heat with a more efficient gas combustion supply. This is more efficient, but it adds a lot of cost and equipment up front.

The latest in heat pump technology features multi-stage or variable speed compressors. With this technology, heat pumps can deliver satisfactory heating performance even at outdoor temperatures well below freezing. The heat-extracting capacity of the outdoor units is matched to the outdoor temperature and the need for heat indoors, so that the system runs at its most efficient whatever the conditions. 

While this technology is commonly available in Ductless Mini-split heat pumps, which are a great solution for smaller homes with small heating and cooling loads (typically less than 1-ton per unit), it is not available in ducted forced air systems – at least not yet. In a smaller home with a thermally efficient envelope, however, abandoning the forced air system altogether and installing one or two ductless mini-split heat pumps may yield great, energy efficient and comfortable results. But that’s for another column.(Just to whet your appetite, we understand that several mini-split heat pumps, most notably the Fujitsu Halcyon system pictured in the photo, perform quite well in our Northwest climate).  We are waiting with baited breath to get the results from a two-winter study of heat pump technology being conducted by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.  For a great overview of heat pumps, check out Green Building Advisor.

Fourth – Use a variable speed fan. The air handler – the fan that moves air around the building – provides another opportunity to improve performance. Most air handler fans are single-speed units – they blow at the same speed whenever they are switched on, using the same amount of electricity. Variable speed fans (which typically use Variable Frequency Drives or VFDs, or Electrically Commutated Motors or ECMs) are an optional upgrade, often standard in higher-efficiency furnace packages. When a house is at a steady temperature, it takes relatively little heated air to keep it comfortable. A variable speed fan will run at a much lower speed in these conditions – reducing energy consumption and noise. (See my fourth and last installment of this series on Ventilation, next week).

FUEL TYPE

Climate – In moderate heating climates, where it rarely stays much below freezing, and in cooling dominated climates, electric air-to-air heat pumps are a good choice. In cold climates, a combustion-based heat source is generally preferred - natural gas if it is available, propane or fuel oil if it is not. But be aware that oil and propane prices fluctuate significantly with supply and demand, sometimes making them more expensive than electricity in the heating season. If gas is not available, and the budget allows, it might be worth considering a ground-source heat pump. Very high efficiencies are achievable but unless you are dealing with large heating and/or cooling loads, the simple payback on such a system will be very long. Other benefits, such as quietness and reduced carbon footprint may be important to the homeowner (see fuel source).

Fuel Source - If your homeowner is concerned about carbon emissions and your electricity comes from gas, oil or coal, an electric-based heating system is probably not the greenest choice. Because of distribution inefficiencies in the electricity grid, you get less than half the energy value of the source fuel delivered to your house as electricity. Better to burn that fuel in a high efficiency appliance in the house and get 90%+ of the fuel value. A heat pump is much more efficient than electric resistance heating, but only the most efficient air-to-air heat pumps for forced air systems offer enough efficiency to offset the grid energy losses (look for HSPF of 9.5 and above, or a COP of 2.5 or better). In the Pacific Northwest, we are less carbon-dependent because of the large portion of hydroelectric power in our grid energy. Also, in the area west of the Cascades and Coast Ranges, we have mild climates, making heat pumps a great choice. In all cases, if you choose an electric system, consider a green power purchase to effectively neutralize those carbon emissions

Alistair Jackson, LEED AP, CSBA is Principal in Charge of O’Brien & Company’s Residential Technical Services, and is a LEED for Homes Rater, LEED for Homes Faculty, Energy Star Verifier and Performance Tester, ARSCA Accredited Professional, and Built Green Verifier. He is a regular contributor to the Building Capacity Blog, and was a major contributor to the Northwest Green Home Primer on the subject of home operating systems and the energy picture. He is a regular

Did you enjoy this article?  You might also like these Building Capacity Blog articles:
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 1
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 2
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 4
Interview with Schuchart's Joe Giaudrone
Mechanical Systems and Fuel Choices for the Warming World
Balancing Energy Efficient Adaptive Reuse with Historic Preservation
Gut Rehab: Groll Residence Turns 1918 Home from “Leaky” to Green

How do you optimize a forced-air system to maintain a green home? Alistair Jackson, LEED AP for Homes Responds: Part 2: FILTRATION

If not installed or maintained properly, forced-air heating and cooling systems can perform poorly, creating air quality problems and unnecessary expense. To optimize a forced-air system, you need to design or refine it to prevent leaks and pressure imbalances, protect it properly during construction (or make sure the ductwork is clean and sound), and use the right filter.

The performance spec of the heat (or cooling) source is also important, but it is critical to address the distribution system first before investing in better furnace and air handler performance. This article is the SECOND of four focused on optimizing forced-air systems on the topics of Distribution, Filtration, Heat Source, and Ventilation.

Some are inclined to believe that forced air systems are more of a cause of air quality problems than a solution. However, one of the advantages they offer is the ability to continuously filter the re-circulating indoor air as well as the outside ventilation air (in a central fan integrated system). While filtration shouldn’t replace efforts to reduce source contaminants, this can be a real bonus to homeowners who have pets (including small children :), live in areas with a lot of particulates in the outside air or have a need for highly-filtered indoor air.

Filters in forced air systems are generally (and preferably) located in the return trunk immediately upstream of the air handler, though sometimes they are located at central return grilles. An important consideration here is accessibility – filters must be cleaned or changed according to manufacturers’ instructions to maintain performance and minimize wear and tear on the equipment. So they should be easily accessible to the homeowner and the access door should be air-sealed in such a way that it will reseal easily and effectively, even after it’s been opened multiple times.

If the air handler is in a garage or mechanical closet, that’s probably a good place for the filter, but if it is in an attic, crawl space or other location that’s hard to reach installing high-efficiency 1-inch filters at the central return grilles might increase the likelihood they’ll get changed regularly. Clogged filters will reduce the air flow through the system, affecting comfort and energy efficiency and potentially increasing wear and tear on the system.

Use the highest efficiency filter appropriate for the system, preferably a filter with a MERV rating of 10 or higher. MERV, or Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, is a simplified expression of the effectiveness of a filter at removing particles of different sizes from the air stream flowing through it. What you need to know is that MERV is a scale from 1 to 16, that 10 and above are considered to be high-efficiency, and that the non-woven, fiberglass filter that was supplied with your furnace (and may still be in there . . .) probably wouldn’t even get a MERV of 1! (Such filters are installed to protect the air handler from large dirty objects, not your respiratory system from small ones.) If you want more details on what MERV is really all about, visit the National Air Filtration Association website.

If you are upgrading the filter in an existing system, bear in mind that for a given surface area of filter, the higher the MERV rating, the greater the pressure drop across it. One inch filters above MERV 11 may cause sufficient pressure drop to significantly affect the performance of an existing system. If you are upgrading the air handler, the fan/blower spec can be altered to accommodate this, but if you’re adding more efficient filtration to an existing air handler it may be worth increasing the surface area of the filter. This typically means switching to a thicker, pleated filter (perhaps 3” or 4”) which may create an installation challenge in the existing sheet metal. However, if the upgrade also includes full duct sealing and insulation, the reduced losses in the system may offset the reduced flow from a moderate improvement in filter performance. Measuring the pressure drop across the filter and in various parts of the system will provide useful data to support good design decisions. Add a manometer (such as the JMW digital manometer pictured above,  and the know-how to use it to your toolbox, or find an HVAC balancing contractor or home energy specialist to assist you.

Make sure the homeowner understands the maintenance requirements of medium- or high-efficiency filters, the benefit of fulfilling those requirements, and the downside of not doing so. The photo to the left shows two filters, one new and one with just a few months of wear that is quite clogged.

Filters with the lowest first cost, such as one-inch (1”) pleated media, require regular replacement (four times per year), amounting to considerable cost over time. Four-inch pleated media filters are now commonly available. Though they cost more individually, they generally require less frequent replacement (so have a lower lifecycle cost) and cause less pressure drop than a 1” filter of similar cross-sectional area. For systems in big homes that move large volumes of air, high efficiency bag-type filters (some of which are washable) may be a worthwhile consideration.

Although electrostatic air filters enjoy a PR buzz, green designers generally don’t recommend them. To maintain their performance, they should be cleaned as often as once or twice per month, and most homeowners are not willing to keep that schedule up. When they’re dirty, their filtration performance drops dramatically, and they may generate and introduce ozone—a significant respiratory irritant—into indoor air stream.

Next week we’ll be looking at heat sources in a little more detail.

Diagnostic HVAC Resources: To find a qualified Home Performance Testing contractor, check out websites for Building Performance Institute (BPI) or RESNET. If you are located in Washington see Home Performance Washington or Northwest Energy Star. To locate a Balancing Contractor, see National Comfort Institute Certified Contractors.

Alistair Jackson, LEED AP, CSBA is Principal in Charge of O’Brien & Company’s Residential Technical Services, and is a LEED for Homes Rater, LEED for Homes Faculty, Energy Star Verifier and Performance Tester, ARSCA Accredited Professional, and Built Green Verifier. Alistair was also a major contributor to the Northwest Green Home Primer where much of the information for this article originally appeared. It has been expanded upon for this publication.

Did you enjoy this article? You might also like these Building Capacity Blog articles:
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 1
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 3
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 4
Mechanical Systems and Fuel Choices for the Warming World
Cracking the Energy Code: What Will It Cost?
Passive House: A Bit of Overkill

Shoreline's Sustainability Strategy Bears Fruit: Interview with Juniper Nammi, Associate Planner, AICP.

  
Editor: The theme of this blog is to provide inspiration and practical advice to help build capacity in the realm of sustainability and green building. In 2007, O’Brien & Company partnered with the planning firm AHBL to help develop an Environmental Sustainability Strategy for the City of Shoreline. This Fall, we checked in with Juniper Nammi, Associate Planner for the City of Shoreline, and Project Manager for our contract to see how implementation of the Strategy is going.

Before we get into today, let’s provide the reader with some background. Can you provide a little history for our reader? JUNIPER: Certainly. As of 2006, there was actually a good deal happening throughout the City’s departments and among our residents with regard to sustainability. But there was nothing tying all of these efforts together and no comprehensive guidance going forward. In 2006 the City Council added "creating an environmentally sustainable community" to its goals. Under the Council’s charge, City Staff leadership worked on what this might mean and determined that a plan or strategy to define and direct municipal and community wide efforts towards sustainability would be helpful. The Council approved a consultant budget of $75K (keep in mind this was different economic times!) and City Staff leadership created an interdepartmental team to work with the consultant team. This team was the foundation for our green team which still functions today and is a key component of Strategy Implementation. The process took one year, and included review of our Comprehensive Plan and Development Code regulations, interviews with various city staff, and two very important community conversations. The Strategy document went through an intensive review and was adopted formally by the Council in 2008 with unanimous support of Council, Planning Commission, and the Parks Board.

You mentioned an interdepartmental green team as a key component of Strategy Implementation. What is your role on the team and how does the team function? I’m co-chair of the green team along with Miranda Redinger. We have about 13-15 members at any given time and meet monthly, although there are subcommittees that meet in between to do more specific tasks. I’m happy to say that all City departments are committed and the work is included in our work plans. With lean times, it is definitely a challenge to get full support from every team member all the time, but the team does provide a city-wide forum for the implementation of ideas generated during and since the strategic planning process in 2007-08. As I mentioned earlier, prior to the Strategy there were a number of individual efforts going on. This team gives us all a better understanding of what's happening in other departments, and allows us to collaborate. It enables us to do what we are already doing, better, and to build on that.

What kind of budget does the team have? Not much. We have a few hundred dollars for direct expenses. However, sustainable elements recommended in the Strategy are being integrated into many of the City's projects. An important outcome of the strategic planning process was to add the question -- What are the sustainability implications for your project? -- to the budgeting process.

Bravo! What other positive outcomes have you seen? The Strategy provided a good starting point for the green team’s discussions, but it intentionally wasn’t a prescriptive plan. If you visit our City’s website you will see projects that have been completed or are in-progress that were identified at the community conversations we held as part of the strategic planning process. The City is also doing a better job of explicitly calling out the environmental sustainability implications of our plan updates and capital projects

A good example is our Transportation Master Planning process, which is currently underway. A number of specific recommendations in the Sustainability Strategy are related to transportation planning and the plan update is systematically reviewing those recommendations for incorporation into the Master Plan. Recommendations being considered include transit oriented development, improving the safety and connectivity of walking and biking routes in the City, and addressing transit service issues.

Anything else? We were able to secure grant funding for some projects including getting our sustainability indicators and baselines up on our website, conducting a carbon inventory, and updating our urban tree inventory and related regulations. Also, we have an approved framework for an environmentally preferable purchasing policy in place. Now we are working on specifics for various categories of purchases such as office supplies, janitorial supplies, or consulting contracts.

What about green building efforts? Planning and Environmental Services staff are currently developing a comprehensive Green Building Program, including evaluation of building codes, outreach materials, technical assistance and training opportunities, as well as incentives for greener buildings in our zoning standards. We are developing guidance for capital improvement projects to ensure sustainability is a consideration along with financial feasibility. In addition, we are in the process of benchmarking the energy efficiency of our facilities through a comprehensive carbon emissions inventory effort.

In addition to all the activity you've described, have you seen a change in the way City staff approach the concept of environmental sustainability? From the very beginning of the strategic planning process, the City Council and management staff recognized that environmental sustainability was not just about trees and recycling. There has definitely been an organizational shift in thinking about environmental sustainability, broadening staff understanding beyond the commonly understood environmental topics of habitat and the three Rs. Interdepartmental involvement supported by the leadership has been a big part of making this shift happen.

Strategy development engaged the community in planning. How is the public involved now? Public participation opportunities in environmental sustainability include outreach events such as Earth Day Every Day and Clean Sweep Recycling events, community meetings and public hearings related to specific plan and project development topics, and ongoing volunteer opportunities in our parks. At this time the City does not have a citizen committee or volunteer opportunity specifically related to the Sustainability Strategy implementation because the Green Team is primarily focused on city operations, updating processes, and developing new programs.

Any lessons learned you’d like to share with municipalities trying to do something similar? Start with the basics. In our case the leadership explicitly added sustainability as a value for our community. This begins to shape all other guiding documents and policies. And it is critical to have interdepartmental collaboration, even more so when our budgets are so constrained. For this to happen you need the blessing of your leadership, both from elected officials and City staff. Shoreline has been fortunate to have the continued support of our Council, our City Manager, Department heads, and the community at large.

Are there other tools besides a sustainable strategy that you feel are/could be useful for municipal planners? (Including tools that don’t exist but would be great if they did!) We need analytical and assessment tools that are easy to use -- for example, a Life Cycle Cost Analysis tool that doesn't require you to be an LCA expert. We also need tools that can help us convey the significance of the data in an articulate manner.

What do you think the big opportunities are there now for municipalities? We need to be looking at neighborhood or district level solutions -- although there can be challenges with maintaining centralized systems. Collaboration with neighboring jurisdictions will also be essential, especially given limited resources, to share ideas and tools that work as well as coordinate projects and ideas that need to be implemented at a larger scale. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel if the city next door has an excellent wheel model to get things rolling. Cascadia Green Building Council has issued a challenge to create Living Communities using the International Living Building Institute's Standard.. It will take some time and effort to shift the thinking of the building industry and general public as to why this approach is a good idea, but I think it's time to move beyond the low hanging fruit to more comprehensive steps toward sustainability.

Juniper Nammi is currently an Associate Planner with the City of Shoreline and a Shoreline resident. She acted as project manager for development of the Shoreline Environmental Sustainability Strategy and is currently co-chair of the City’s interdepartmental Green Team, which is charged with implementation of this Strategy. Juniper also works as part of the permit services team reviewing a wide variety of permits and assisting customers when they have questions about City regulations. She has a Masters degree in Water Resources Management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2004).

Did you enjoy this article?  You might also like these Building Capacity Blog articles: 
Interview with City of Kirkland’s Ellen Miller-Wolfe
Vulcan’s Sustainable Real Estate Initiatives Have Deep Roots
Creating Effective Energy Efficiency & Conservation Strategies Part 1
Interview with KCR’s Larry Eyre

Creating Effective Energy Efficiency& Conservation Strategies in Your Community: Getting Started (part 1 of 2)

Creating Effective Energy Efficiency& Conservation Strategies in Your Community: Getting Started

EECS & Strategic Energy Plans: What are they?

Many government municipalities around the country have taken advantage of Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EEC) Strategy Block Grant money authorized by the National Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to fund strategies that reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions, and improve energy efficiency in transportation, building, and other sectors as appropriate. For many cities, counties, and states, the funding represents an opportunity to act on commitments to respond to climate change, to identify and capture operational savings now and in the future as a measure of fiscal prudence, and to assist citizens in doing the same.

The Block Grant covers developing and implementing an EEC Strategy, which may include everything from conducting audits, developing financial incentive programs, analyzing and updating codes and enforcement, and implementing public education, among others.  Although the EEC Strategies we’ve seen thus far range in scope and detail, they generally include some form of action or implementation plan. Often this involves project descriptions with budgets and projected results associated with those budgets (such as energy savings, job creation, emissions reductions). The latter justification is used to prioritize and disburse remaining Block Grant monies.

Budgets for implementation can run to the millions. Las Vegas, Nevada’s Implementation Plan  announced in July of 2009 represented a proposed investment of nearly $28 million, including the planning element, and including items such as solar covered parking structures, a solar powered waste water treatment facility, facility and exterior lighting retrofits, financing and incentive programs, upgrading its green building program, and outreach. Charlotte, South Carolina has a more modest budget, roughly $6.5 million. Again, this investment is proposed for a number of different activities, primarily retrofits improving energy efficiency of existing facilities and incorporating renewable technologies. Like several of the EEC Strategies, the Charlotte Strategy proposes that some of this funding be used to staff a position to coordinate implementation.

A couple of good examples of EEC Strategy documents we’ve seen are those developed by Loudon County, Virginia and Topeka, Kansas.

In addition to EEC Strategies, we are also seeing a growing number of “Energy Plans” at the city, county, and state level. Not surprisingly, these are often allied with a concurrent commitment to addressing Climate Change. The City of San Diego’s “Energy Strategy for a Sustainable Future” is a good example of a stand-alone document. Burlington, Vermont’s Energy Plan is a section of the City’s 2006 Municipal Development Plan. King County, Washington, has an Energy Plan that it continues to update as it internalizes ongoing analyses of its operations and transportation energy efficiency measures and impacts.

An outline for an ideal strategic process for developing a community energy plan is provided by the Department of Energy (DOE) in its publication “Community Greening: How to Develop a Strategic Energy Plan.” Like most community strategic planning, the DOE outline proposes a stakeholder process, visioning and goal setting exercises, benchmarking existing conditions, identifying programs to fund as well as ways to fund them, prioritizing those programs, and memorializing all of this in a written document, which is then subject to review and ratification.

What’s Right for Your Community?

Embarking on an EEC Strategy will entail a unique process guided by the champions and leaders within your community, and influenced by resources available for the process. Although the Department of Energy process outline (discussed above) should work for most communities, the devil is in the details. It is our experience in community planning that a one-size-fits-all approach will not succeed. Each plan should be tailored to reflect the goals and interest of the stakeholders and be directly related to city and utility planning efforts. Begin by asking three high-level questions: 

• What planning efforts are already in place that would support an EEC Strategy such as comprehensive and code update cycles, greenhouse gas emissions planning, or community master planning?
• Where is the leadership and strongest support for efficiency and conservation within the community: the building and design sector, policy makers, public? 
• What federal, state or county technical assistance and funding is available to assist with strategic energy planning in your community?

Where to next?

Once you've pondered these questions, we anticipate a hunger for more information. Fortunately, resources abound for local governments seeking assistance with strategic energy planning, removing regulatory obstacles, and developing policies and standards in support of energy efficiency and renewables. A few of our favorites follow. In the meantime, good luck! Whether your motivation is operational savings, civic duty, or environmental protection -- or all of the above -- an EEC Strategy is a worthwhile venture. While it is most certainly an opportunity to save energy, it is also an excellent an non-partisan way to build community -- in itself a transformative gesture.

Resources:

US Dept. of Energy
Community Greening: How to Develop a Strategic Energy Plan www.nrel.gov/applying_technologies/pdfs/community_greening.pdf

US EPA
Sustainable Design and Green Building Toolkit for Local Governments www.epa.gov/region4/recycle/green-building-toolkit.pdf

Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute
Sustainable Community Development Code and Reform Initiative: http://law.du.edu/index.php/rmlui/sustainable-community-development-code-and-reform-initiative

US EPA
Essential Smart Growth Fixes for Urban and Suburban Zoning Codes: www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/essential_fixes.htm

Cascadia Green Building Council
Codes and Regulatory Research Publications
http://cascadiagbc.org/resources/research

Kathleen O'Brien is President of O'Brien & Company, a nationally respected green building consultancy founded in 1991. She is currently Principal-in-Charge for the firms planning, policy and programmatic work (including the Ellensburg project), and has been instrumental in the development of multiple sustainability strategies for government, non-profit, and private sector organizations. She served as an officer on the Cascadia Board of Directors in its early years and has been recognized by the organization as a Cascadia Fellow, a lifetime honorific. She is Editor of Building Capacity Blog.

Katie Spataro is Cascadia’s Research Director for Codes and Standards. Katie’s efforts to assist local governments with identifying obstacles and seeking pathways to support more sustainable development practices has assisted in the creation of policies, programs and code-related curriculum around the region. Katie heads up Cascadia’s Research Department which provides groundbreaking research and technical consulting services to help to further the adoption and understanding of the Living Building Challenge and other high performance policies, programs and standards.

Editors Note: More in depth treatment of the topic is in the fall issue of Cascadia Green Building Councils publication, Trim Tab here: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/95a19dea#/95a19dea/1  

Did you enjoy this article?  You might also like these Building Capacity Blog articles: 
Creating Effective Energy Efficiency & Conservation Strategies Part 1
Tips for Optimizing Forced-Air Heating and Cooling Systems Part 1
Interview with SBCA and Built Green Santa Barbara’s Karin Perissinotto
Washington Business Alliance: A Sustainable Approach
Green Building Public Education: Writing to Make a Difference
How Can We Accelerate the Green Building Movement?

Workforce Training Tool Responds Directly to Industry Needs: Interview with Laurie Black, Director Workforce Initiatives

EDITOR: We enjoyed working with you on developing the "Sustainability in the Building and Construction Trades" course. Can you share with our readers how the course is being used? BLACK: The course was designed to introduce pre-apprentices and apprentices to green building concepts, terms and best practices. There are four recorded modules that can be used as is or used interactively. Quizzes test learning, and a certificate is available for those who complete the course successfully. Instructors are provided a guide to help them run the course.

We launched the course at the Pacific Northwest Apprenticeship Education Conference this past spring and we know it's being implemented in the field. We're getting a great response from the trainers using the course materials. In fact, it's now been adopted for use in the Building and Construction Trades Department's "Multi-Craft Core Curriculum" of the AFL-CIO.

Why do you think the course is working? A big part of the course's success is its genesis. We started with a 25-member green building industry panel in 2008-2009, chaired by David Allen of McKinstry and including many other design and construction professionals leading in the field of green building, as well as representation from educational, economic development, and workforce development groups. The panel's goal was to identify the highest workforce development priority; they felt strongly it was to integrate green building knowledge across sectors. They also felt it was important to target apprentices first because as these apprentices would move forward in their careers as journey workers and construction project managers they would bring that knowledge with them. The idea for the course emerged from this discussion. In addition, the course was built with the input of an advisory committee representing multiple trades and training programs. So the course was a direct response to the industry's need and was shaped with significant input from industry and industry trainers. Not only that, the narration was done by apprentices. This really appeals to trainers who want to offer something their trainees can relate to.

What's next on the agenda for your agency? The training you helped develop provides a foundation, intended to be used across trades and in any training program. It is not craft-specific by design. Now, through grant funding from the Department of Labor, we are contracting with Joint Apprenticeship Training Committees to deliver craft-specific training. We are also working with local community colleges to provide training for energy efficiency occupations in the built environment as well as training for more senior level positions, such as the commercial building energy auditing course that will be offered at South Seattle Community College.

What else? We have convened a Green Workforce Leadership Council, which includes employers from five green economy sectors: green building, energy production and distribution, manufacturing, transportation (both mass transit and fuel efficiency vehicles) and environmental remediation/protection. The goal of this council is to give us a cross-sector view of workforce needs as the green economy grows in our region. This council also commissioned a study to track all of the federal funds coming into the area, where it is going, and how many jobs have been created from that investment.

What challenges did you face in developing the Sustainability and the Building and Construction Trades? It was new territory for us. For one thing, we found that developing a video course (especially one that isn't boring!) is more involved than we thought. And making sure that all of the course elements went through proper review and met with the approval of the advisory group was of course, time-consuming. It was a great idea to use apprentices to narrate, but they needed a little extra coaching - the results were great though and the extra effort definitely was worth it.

From this vantage point, what key learnings can you offer someone in green building job development? First, an understanding that there are very few unique green building jobs. Mostly we are seeing existing jobs on projects that are pursuing energy efficiency. The skills for the green jobs in demand are largely the same. What is changing is the knowledge required -- knowledge about green materials, green products, and green processes. This knowledge needs to be integrated with existing job training programs. In fact, if you create resources outside those normal pathways, your trainees may not be able to access the jobs. Second, an understanding that there has been a significant lag between investments in training and investments in job creation. Estimates of green building job opportunities have been high, especially given the downturn in the economy. We've seen that in terms of weatherization and public building energy audits in particular. Policies and investments to create jobs are just coming on line now. It's important not to overpromise the opportunities, and to pace the training with them as they emerge and the economy recovers.

Laurie Black’s background combines over twenty years of executive experience in private industry and six years in non-profit workforce development, giving her an understanding of both the supply and demand sides of the workforce equation. Currently she is Director of Sector Initiatives for the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County (WDC) with a particular emphasis on green jobs training. The WDC is now leading or is a partner on three Department of Labor grants which bring over $10 million into the region for training in the building and construction trades as well as other occupations related to energy efficiency in the built environment.

Editor's Note: O'Brien & Company has also worked with Laurie on developing a job description and handbook for a "Sustainability Coordinator." DOL’s Bureau of Labor Statistics has just recognized positions related to sustainability, acknowledging that many companies are trying to "green" their operations and not all of them have the knowledge base to do so. Where there's a need, there's a job opportunity! This publication is for businesses and non-profits (especially small to mid-size organizations) that are not likely to have (or need) a senior level manager dedicated to sustainability, but would like to address operational issues in a more sustainable manner.  The publication will be available on the WDC and O’Brien websites and also available in a printed version from the WDC.

Did you enjoy this article?  You might also like these Building Capacity Blog articles: 
SBAi: Introducing the Next Generation of SBA Education & Service
Do I Need A Green Building Credential?
Green Building Jobs in Lousy Market
Time to Deal with Your LEED AP Credential
Green Building Public Education: Writing to Make a Difference
CEFPI Award Celebrates Synergy Between Learning and Learning Facilities