Building Capacity

New Trim Tab: Exploring the Place of Leadership and the Leadership of Place

This week, the most delicious treat arrived in my in-box. Trim Tab (Volume 18)'s Summer Edition features one of my favorite examples of transformative thinking and doing: the Bertschi School's Science Wing, the fourth project in the world and the first in Washington State to achieve full certification under the Living Building Challenge, and the first ever to receive certification under Version 2.0 of the system. 

O'Brien & Company has enjoyed its association with the forward-thinking Bertschi School for several years, starting with the non-profit's decision to design and build its gym and community building to earn LEED Gold certification, and then its decision to become one of the pioneer participants in the Washington Green Schools certification program, and then its decision to work with the Restorative Collective to design the School's Science Wing to meet all 20 of the Living Building Imperatives. As part of the Restorative Collective, O'Brien & Company offered its services pro bono with other design professionals to build an informed foundation for designing buildings "to [meet] the 2030 Challenge and [create] net-zero buildings."

Also, drum roll....this issue of Trim Tab features my first published explanation of the EMERGE Leadership Model, the foundation for the EMERGE Leadership Project (ELP). ELP is my primary focus these days and consists of training, mentoring, writing and speaking on the topic of leadership from the vantage point of more than 30 years of experience in the sustainable building movement, as well as a particular focus on "emergent" leadership. We urgently need more effective leaders, and more of them. For more details, you can read my article: "EMERGE: Effective Leadership for Sustainable Solutions that Stick."

Associated with the article is a case study in which EMERGE principles were applied. This is a planning project for a very special place, the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands. The project, which was led by Berger Partnership and included O'Brien & Company's participation was stimulus for articulating how EMERGE Leadership principles could be applied in a collaborative community planning project. You can read the Case Study.

Trim Tab offers other nourishment: a great conversation with one of the most humble (and for that I really appreciate him) movement leaders out there, Paul Hawken, a feature on child-centered design, and a wonderful report on and call to further local leadership by Mona LeMoine in the feature "Rooted in the Region."

A great summer or anytime read.

Kathleen O'Brien, Editor of the Building Capacity Blog is a Cascadia Fellow, a lifetime designation provided by the Cascadia Green Building Council, a program of the International Living Future Institute. ILFI is the publisher of Trim Tab. Kathleen is also founder of the non-profit EMERGE Leadership Project. The primary vehicle for conveying the EMERGE Leadership Model is through the two-day workshop EMERGE: Leadership Skills for Green Building Advocates. See the upcoming Fall/Winter workshop schedule. 

There isn't anything better coming along.

I recently wondered aloud with Bronwyn Barry why members of our tribe (and by that I mean anyone actively working in the green building, sustainable development field on the West Coast), wait 'til the last minute to register for the Emerge: Leadership Skills for Green Building Advocates. In taking this route, it costs more money, risks not getting a place, and generally adds unnecessary tension to the process for you and for me.

Bronwyn, planner and convener for many successful Passive House California events cleared it up for me. "It's not just Emerge," she countered "but pretty much any event. What I've found is that people put it in their calendar, but hold out on actually registering, just in case something 'better' comes along."

Well, I'm here to say there isn't anything better coming along. "What Chutzpah!" I can hear you saying!

Maybe so, But I am certain that Emerge is genuinely different from anything else out there. It's a leadership workshop, and yes, there's lot of leadership offerings to be found. In fact, if you Google the term(s) leadership workshop, you'll get dozens of interesting entries. It's a workshop that incorporates sustainable concepts, as well, and yes, there are plenty of laudable offerings to be found in that realm as well.

And I've been told that the philosophy of Emerge -- an integrated systems-based  approach to leadership that combines the best leadership practices with an emphasis on servant leadership, change science and technology, and the collective intelligence and impact of community -- would be helpful for anyone endeavoring to lead social change in any realm.

However, Emerge has a specific mission, is designed with that mission in mind, and designed FOR those who align with that mission. And for that reason, it does a really good job. If you want to hear that from attendees, check out the testimonials (written and video) at www.emergeleadership.net. Emerge alumni share success stories relating to personal, organizational, and communitywide leadership. Anonymous evaluations compiled at the conclusion of the workshops are through the roof with positive ratings and comments. No lie.

Emerge is designed for you if: First, you are somehow involved in the shaping of our built environment and desire a built environment that is sustainable; Second, you know that leadership is involved in creating that world in the truest, biggest sense; and Third, you are personally committed to providing that leadership.

For that reason, you will find the Emerge curriculum incorporates examples, exercises, and stories pertinent to the overall mission: to create a built environment where sustainability is the norm, not an abstraction. Rather than professional motivational speakers, you'll find a faculty that is inspiring because we share your goals -- we just happen to be further down the road with some important lessons to share. The faculty scheduled for Winter 2012-2013 are award-winning dynamos, heartfelt speakers, and authors with a combined experience of nearly a century in the sustainable building arena.

Besides the obvious benefit of such a focused learning environment, there is the additional advantage of building a community that shares the emergent philosophy AND is committed to a sustainable building. When you leave you'll have become part of a network with strategic professional alignments and personal commitments. And you can stay connected through alumni "clinics" and fun gatherings.

Regardless of when you register, you'll get the benefit of all this, and more: CEUs for your LEED CMP, and/or ILFI Living Future Accreditation, a follow up mentoring session to complement the personal leadership development plan you created at the workshop, and permanent access to alumni resources on the Emerge Leadership Project website.

Additional discounts encourage membership in local green building non-profits and reward those who've taken the Sustainable Building Advisor Program and passed the national CSBA exam, and these exist for both the Early Bird and Standard optons.

So you don't HAVE to register by the Early Bird registration deadline...but it would be fabulous if you did. (Here's how.) Save some bucks, ensure your seat, and make me very happy.

Kathleen O'Brien is Editor of the Building Capacity Blog and contributes monthly to the DJC Green Building Blog. She has been in the sustainable building field for nearly three decades and currently provides special projects consulting for O'Brien & Company, the firm she founded over twenty years ago, and leadership training and mentoring through her legacy project: The Emerge Leadership Project (ELP). She was instrumental in the development of the Sustainable Building Advisor Program and the SBA Institute (SBAi).

International Living Future Institute Rolls out Living Future Accreditation in time for GreenBuild

For those in the sustainable building field hoping to distinguish themselves with a Living Future Accreditation  (LFA), the ILFI has just rolled out a clear path to do so.

There are actually two paths, Path One for those with LEED APs with Specialty, which requires 45 hours of approved education, and Path Two for those who are already certified as a Living Building Challenge/Facilitator, which requires 35 hours of approved education. Additional requirements, including prerequisites can be viewed at the ILFI site.

The LFA must be renewed on a two-year basis. According to Mona LeMoine, Vice-President, Education and Events for the International Living Future Institute and Executive Director of the Cascadia Green Building Council, "Accreditation demonstrates that an individual frames sustainability holistically and understands what is needed to help lead a transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative."

LFA's debut includes an on-line education catalog that lists  approved programs that in the ILFI's view contributes towards an individual's capacity to understand sustainability in this transformative fashion and would earn hours towards accreditation. If you peruse the inaugural catalog you will see some familiar titles, such as "Emerge: Leadership Skills for Green Building Advocates" and the Sustainable Building Advisor certificate course offered by the SBA Institute.

These partner-offered programs are approved in addition to ILFI-specific training programs (required for the LEED AP Specialty Path) in order to benefit from existing educational resources that already support the comprehensive framing that implementing the Living Building Challenge successfully requires. It also, according to LeMoine helps professionals "avoid the hassle (and cost) of redundant training."  Each course listed in the catalog has been curated through an application process similar to those offered by other professional credentialing bodies (such as GBCI).

Kathleen O'Brien is Editor of the Building Capacity Blog and contributes monthly to the DJC Green Building Blog. She has been in the sustainable building field for nearly three decades and currently provides special projects consulting for O'Brien & Company, the firm she founded over twenty years ago, and leadership training and mentoring through her legacy project: The Emerge Leadership Project (ELP). She was instrumental in the development of the Sustainable Building Advisor Program and the SBA Institute (SBAi). If you visit the GreenBuild Expo, you can learn more about both ELP and SBAi at Booth T-34 in the North Building.

A Taste of Living Future 2012

 

 

 

Chris Edlin, Donna Trost, and Kathleen O'Brien from O'Brien and Company attended Living Future 2012 in Portland. In addition to enjoying  great food at the local street food carts for lunch, we picked up some tasty tidbits we'd like to share with Building Capacity fans. Please keep in mind we weren't everywhere, and this isn't everything we participated in, either.

Note:  If you were there and you have additional highlights (or critiques) you want to share, COMMENT on this post.  If you weren't there, you can download or view presentations at Living Future 2012 -- and start planning now to go to Living Future, Seattle,  2013. They are (happily) capping attendance at 1000 (this year's tally), so don't miss out.

Money Talks

Both Kathleen and Donna attended sessions focused on money -- how to get it (funding) and how to get others to spend it (investment). The bottom line for the first continues to be creative partnerships that produce projects that have multiple uses (and therefore benefits) that can be monetized and "pitched" to potential funders. The Portland Public School District hooked up with the Boys and Girls Club and the University Park Recreation Center in a partnership that not only saved the school from building their o wn gymnasium but also created a Community Campus for the largest revitalization project in Oregon history. Hood River Middle School's new science and music building; and greenhouse doubles as the local farmers’ market on weekends and offers its amphitheatre for public use.

The Vernonia School in Northwest Oregon was able to achieve LEED Platinum partly because it also serves as a community and emergency center and received funding to rebuild its flood damaged school (on higher ground!) for these uses; in addition the school was able to meet FSC wood goals because it included local lumber companies in its planning discussions. Another reason the Vernonia School succeeded in its fundraising is its decision to work with local residents first to approve a bond measure. This local buy-in was compelling when the district applied for county, state, and federal funding.

Partnership also figures in moving the needle on real estate investment. A team, including Jason Twill (Vulcan), David Batker (Earth Economics), Theddi Wright Chappell (Cushman & Wakefield), Stuart Cowan (Autopoiesis), reported on the work they've done to identify where the investment barriers (and opportunities) are now relevant to sustainable real estate. The results of their efforts, which they now call Phase I, are included in "Economics of Change: Catalyzing the Investment Shift Towards a Restorative Built Environment." They are now partnered with the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) for Phase 2, which is anticipated to produce an open source investment decision making tool that integrates public and private benefits not currently considered for a variety of reasons. In the U.S. where investors are driven primarily on ROI, going beyond LEED Platinum is not yet defensible, in the opinion of the panelists. In Phase 2, the team hopes their work will help justify investments in meeting the performance requirements of the Living Building Challenge.

Another tool that might be used to justify investment in the future if and when decarbonization becomes a defensible real estate investment has been hatched in Chicago by architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill. The decarbonization strategies they are promoting for existing buildings and infrastructure are familiar to most of us, but the new angle is a calculator that provides feedback on the potential carbon emissions reduction these design strategies have in a specific building project and/or a district (in their research case the Chicago Loop). Of course, one hopes that investors will look at this data in the context of other benefits.

What's the Economy, Stupid?

Turning perceptions on their head is a regular exercise at the Living Future Unconference. This year was no exception. The Living Future bookstore featured "What's the Economy For Anyway?" co-authored by David Batker (mentioned above) with John de Graaf. The book explains "why it's time to stop chasing growth and start pursuing happiness." David and Kathleen traded books and autographs, and Kathleen just lauuuvs the book -- really.

Donna attended a session on "Living Economies," which posed the need for a more complete articulation of economic value (to include social and natural assets now seen as externalities to the economy) as a design problem, not a design constraint, and suggested that Biomimicry could be the framework for solving this problem.

Vandana Shiva offered an inspiring keynote at the conference that touched on the Living Future conference theme "Women Reshaping the World." She described the critical importance of seeing nature as a living feminine being, not an industrial resource to keep the world's GDP spinning upward. With her project Naydanya (Nine Seeds), and her book "Soil not Oil" she is working for food security in India, while enlarging the definition of economic value to include seeds, soil, and the protection of nature as a whole.

This larger view of our natural, living systems should not be unfamiliar, but a form of "Re-Connecting." Chris enjoyed a presentation by Bill Reed (Alliance for Regeneration) and John Boecker (7Group), which explored the nature and practice of pattern thinking to harmonize the interrelationships between human aspirations (where the economy comes in) and the nature of living systems.

Speaking of the larger view, Pliny Fisk, as usual, invited us to his orbit on EcoBalance design, but thank goodness, Gail Vittori (his life partner and his Co-Director at the Center for Maximum Building Potential) was there to explain what Pliny was talking about. (It's okay, Pliny can take it, he and Kathleen are old pals.) Chris' take-homes: think in cycles, utilize new information visualization tools to bring together abundant and complex data, reprogram thinking that your product will look different, and learn the value of cycles and regeneration.

See Women Lead

To be honest, Kathleen, and several of her women colleagues, cringed at first when this year's theme was announced at the 2011 conference. Would the conference "trivialize" women's issues by making the their contributions "special?" Although there were a few odd moments in the program -- for example why (???) should women especially be the ones balancing business and families, the topic of one session. (Shouldn't we all be concerned about that? Let's hear it for paternity leave!) And a keynote by Carol Sanford that seemed to promote being tough and argumentative, while selling her book (Did anyone not know the name of her current and future books by the time you left the talk? Shame on you.)

But there were two workshops on the theme that were just terrific. The first launched "Making Women's Leadership Visible"-- an advocacy project that involves women interviewing each other as a way to make our achievements visible. As women readers are painfully aware, women are generally uncomfortable taking credit for their work, often qualifying their claims with "helped, was instrumental in developing, was part of a team, etc." Nothing wrong with these statements, except that men don't seem to share this discomfort. Project principals Ann Edminster (Design Avenues), Christine Magar (Greenform), and Karen Tucker (iLiv) believe that building womens' ability to stand up and be counted will actually benefit all of us . For the curious, interviews are located on youtube channel seewomenlead. If you want to contribute an interview, contact any one of these folks for the instructions.

The second workshop included a panel of women leaders ranging in age from the mid 20s to the early 80s. Besides the fact that this was a total hoot for the panelists (we know this firsthand, since Kathleen was on the panel) it was clear that the topic and the workshop design were pretty darn engaging. From what we can tell, not a single person -- woman or man -- left before the session was over! In addition to visual presentations and stories by each participant, focusing on significant moments in each panelist's professional development, as well as personal inspiration and achievements, a timeline exercise designed by Ellen Southard (Site Story) allowed participants to identify critical moments in their lives that led to their current passion and involvement in sustainability. And Marj Barlow (The Possible Woman) and Nadine Gudz (InterfaceFlor) led an affirmation exercise that brought the session to a resounding and hope-filled finale. Other panelists for this workshop included Patti Southard (King County Green Tools), Jamie Statter (Clinton Global Initiative), and Kerry Mason (TetraTech).

Chris was particularly moved by Pete Munoz (Natural Systems International) in the closing session, who emotionally voiced his opinion that the UnConference theme was not about gender at all, but about all of us integrating the qualities often associated with the feminine. This attitude will go a long way towards redefining the value of money, the scope of our economy, and the health of our professional community.

Part 2: What’s The Story? Developing a Green Building Education Plan - Elizabeth Powers, LEED AP BD+C, CSBA Reports on Developing a Green Building Education Plan

This is Part 2 of a two- part blog. Before you read this blog, please take a moment to skim last week’s article (Part 1).

Now that you’ve got a good storyline for your green building education plan, let’s talk about how to put together an effective presentation and earn credit for it in LEED or other rating systems.

It is fundamental to good storytelling to know your audience. A building’s green building education program should be geared toward the audiences to which the building most directly relates or the groups of people that are most interested in stories about that type of building. There are usually two or three groups to target which will involve using different communication tools with different messages. Let’s look at two examples.

For a university campus academic building, the most direct audience is the faculty that teaches or works in the building and the students that take classes there. Communication tools with this group should be physically linked to working and learning in the building, like building signage, electronic kiosks, and visible sustainable design features. The messages can share what features were built into the building, the benefit of those features, and how they, as building users, can help keep the building green.

Other audiences include alumni and funders, potential students, and the nearby community. Communication with these groups is more likely through electronic media or one-time events like grand openings or potential student tours. The messages for alumni and funders can demonstrate responsible use of funds by reducing operating costs and how building features improve teaching and learning. Potential students (and their parents) are also concerned about costs, but more likely want to hear how green building supports a good education. The environmental stewardship message fundamental to green building will resonate with alumni, funders, students and the community.

For a residential apartment building, the obvious primary audience is building tenants. Good ways to reach this group are electronic kiosks or a display of building features in the lobby, an informational brochure provided on move in, and building newsletters. For prospective tenants, your green building message is a sales tool. You can use signage on sample green features in a leasing center or model unit, create a take-away brochure, and develop a tour script for use when walking prospects around the building. The message for current and prospective tenants is that the building is efficient, helping them save on rent and utilities, and is better for the environment than other apartment buildings. As any building, the education should also enable the tenants to live green in the building by explaining how to use, take care of, or benefit from green features, and providing additional ideas of activities they can engage in on their own. A good example is providing all new tenants a green cleaning kit upon move in that also points out the durable, easy to clean finishes used in the building.

A secondary audience for all buildings is the greater real estate, design, and construction community. This group is the audience most likely to be interested in how many LEED points the project received and how it was done. As this group is often responsible for developing green building education, a lot of what is produced is about the LEED story on the project. This can be a good story on a project, and the role of LEED should not be excluded from the story, but think carefully about what makes this LEED project unique from others and what elements of LEED the targeted audiences care about. A good way to reach out to the building industry audience is web based case studies and tours with local green building organizations. These industry case studies and tours can share detailed lessons learned about green design and construction practices and LEED documentation.

The process of identifying the audiences and communication tools for stories is a natural set-up for putting together a package that will earn a LEED Innovation point, meet the Living Building Challenge education imperative, or earn the Sustainable Sites Initiative credit. Let’s look specifically at the requirements for LEED.

To take advantage of the educational value of the green building features of a project and to earn a LEED point, any approach should be ACTIVELY instructional. Two of the following three elements must be included in the educational program:

• A comprehensive signage program built into the building's spaces to educate the occupants and visitors of the benefits of green buildings. This program may include windows to view energy saving mechanical equipment or signs to call attention to water-conserving landscape features.
• The development of a manual, guideline or case study to inform the design of the buildings based on the successes of this project. This manual will be made available to the USGBC for sharing with other projects.
• An educational outreach program or guided tour that focuses on sustainable living, using the project as an example.

 Following this structure, the first step is to decide if you will do a building signage program. This is probably the most durable and long lasting tool in your communications tool belt and can support a tour program as well. More engaging signage like window or “truth” walls, or electronic kiosks showing energy and water usage make a “signage” program one of the most effective education elements.    
In some cases, a signage program may not  make sense, as with buildings that have a very small audience or limited public access. In that case, a good approach is provide an overview sign next to the LEED plaque in the building lobby or put information from a case study on an electronic kiosk.

   A building case study does make sense for almost all projects, although there may be different versions distributed to different audiences. For the audience most likely to learn about the building on your organization’s website or marketing, use your storylines to organize and write the most effective case study for your that audience. [Example Left – BSCS] For sharing the technical details and lessons learned with the building industry, we recommend completing a project profile in the High Performance Buildings Database. This comprehensive resource is recommended and used by the USGBC and others to produce case studies and stories about green buildings. Its detailed structure is a great way to make sure you collect and organize all the green building information about the project.

The third option for the LEED innovation credit, an educational outreach or tour program, is a good place to leverage what you’ve already done in preparing signage and/case studies to do additional outreach. If you conduct a grand opening or LEED plaque event, distribute hard copies of the case study or make a brochure and do a building tour. Collaborate with local green building or industry organizations to provide another tour or two, or to do case study presentations, and you have the foundations of a educational outreach/tour program.  Round it out with an article in the local media, ongoing green building blurbs in a newsletter, or an annual tour.

The above elements can be combined in ways to best match your building’s purpose and audiences, whether it is hands-on with signage and tours, or more arms length with digital case studies, presentations, and newsletters. Whatever the method, remember that a green building education program is most effective and engaging when it tells a unique story that is compelling and appropriate for the audience(s) you are trying to reach.

Elizabeth Powers is Principal/Owner of O'Brien & Company, a mission-based firm in its 20th year focused on achieving sustainability in the built environment. Powers leads the green building consulting services team and is a regular contributor to the Building Capacity blog. O'Brien & Company publishes the blog as well as a monthly newsletter. For the most current edition of the newsletter, please see www.obrienandco.com/news-and-events/newsletters

Did you enjoy this article? You might also like these Building Capacity Blog Articles:
CSBA Reports on Developing a Green Building Education Plan
SBAi: Introducing the Next Generation of SBA Education & Service
Time to Deal with Your LEED AP Credential
Green Building Jobs in Lousy Market
Do I Need A Green Building Credential?

What’s The Story? Elizabeth Powers, LEED AP BD+C, CSBA Reports on Developing a Green Building Education Plan

LEED, the Living Building Challenge, the Sustainable Sites Initiative and other rating systems offer opportunities to earn credit for, or require, the development of a green building education plan. The intent of the credits is to inspire and educate others by sharing the feasibility and benefits of green building. Too often however, the materials produced to meet the letter of the requirements are just a litany of LEED credits or building features, without drawing any lessons or meaning from the accomplishments. Whether a project is doing green building education for credit or out of a desire to pass on lessons learned, and whether the program will be big and splashy, or simple and low-tech, it is worth taking moment to craft an effective and compelling education plan for your project. Not only will this actually accomplish the intent of the rating system requirements, it yields better results in getting press coverage, marketing your project, developing community support, fundraising and even gaining support from building occupants and users in keeping your building green.

The foundation of such a plan is a good story. Every project has unique characteristics, challenges, and accomplishments that can teach others important lessons about green building. O’Brien & Company has found that project teams often need a little guidance in finding the heart of their story and understanding the lessons of the project.

This article talks about developing a good story. Next week, the blog will address developing content and deciding on the types of educational media to use.

When tasked with developing a green building education plan, don’t start by looking at the LEED scorecard, instead, go back to the origins of the project. Pull out the eco-charrette report, owner’s project requirements (OPR), or other documents that defined the vision and goals for the project. Reflect back – what were you trying to accomplish on this project and how did it play out?

Try writing down the three most significant challenges or accomplishments of the project as the story lines. Ask yourself and your team - When did the project get stuck on accomplishing the goals, and how did you get beyond it? What green approach failed on the project and what did you learn from it? What will you always remember about this project? What green feature will you definitely incorporate on your next project? What are you most proud of when you drive by the completed project? You could do this with the project team and stakeholders as charrette-style brainstorming exercise and see what themes emerge. Then you can pull out the LEED scorecard as another lens to think about the unique story of your project.

The best stories may not be individual building features, but human stories that resulted from the project. Here are some examples of stories that still stand out for me from one of our earliest LEED projects, Merrill Hall by the Miller Hull Partnership. This project accomplished the following:

• A diverse community of stakeholders came together to seek alternative funding and enable the Center for Urban Horticulture to rise from the ashes of a fire (literally) and create a building that exemplified their mission of stewardship.
• The project inspired a student group to lobby for green building standards campus-wide, leading to adoption of a LEED requirement for capital projects.
• The design opened the space to the surrounding natural environment and created a great outdoor living room for more collaboration and education.

Do you feel your project is more boring than this? Think it won’t lead to wholesale change like Merrill Hall? Maybe, but there is still something to be learned. Here are some of the fun stories from the more mundane projects we’ve worked.

• A contractor figured out how to collect rainwater from a nearby hillside to pressure test waste water tanks at a waste water treatment plant instead of using large quantities of municipal water which saved resources and a lot of money.
• An industrial park building put in bike racks and shower and restrooms for tenants (something tenants usually have to build themselves) to earn LEED points, one of several LEED features that attracted tenants and caused the park to lease out quickly.
• An office building renovation of a 1960’s building earned LEED Gold after starting out with a stretch goal of LEED Silver.

The message from these examples is that your project is unique, has a story to share, and people can learn from every green building. Tune in next week for discussion on how to turn these stories into a “credit-worthy” green building education plan.

 

Elizabeth Powers is Principal/Owner of O'Brien & Company, a mission-based firm in its 20th year focused on achieving sustainability in the built environment. Powers leads the green building consulting services team and is a regular contributor to the Building Capacity blog. O'Brien & Company publishes the blog as well as a monthly newsletter. For the most current edition of the newsletter, please see www.obrienandco.com/news-and-events/newsletters

Did you enjoy this article?  You might also like these Building Capacity Blog articles:
CSBA Reports on Developing a Green Building Education Plan Part 2 
Do I Need A Green Building Credential?
SBAi: Introducing the Next Generation of SBA Education & Service
Green Building Jobs in Lousy Market
Time to Deal with Your LEED AP Credential

 

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.

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Come Rain/Shine: Envisioning a net-zero water future

I arrived at Cascadia's recent all day Come Rain/Shine workshop thirsty for a deeper dialogue about water issues, obstacles to change, and solutions that make sense for Washington. Being a sustainability consultant, I’m well aware of the smart and simple steps –like low-flow fixtures, rain gardens, and bioswales – that we can do on every project to reduce water consumption and restore our ecosystem. I was looking for the giant leaps needed to achieve a net-zero water future. Happily, Come Rain/Shine quenched my thirst.

Living in Seattle, especially after experiencing an “extra wet” winter and spring, it is easy to take water for granted or even begrudge it. The fact is that all water is precious. Whether living in a region of abundant water like Seattle or a place where water is scarce like the high desert east of Cascade Mountains, all water is vulnerable to the same threats of climate change, deforestation, over development, pollution, and unsustainable water use behaviors. What better test bed for creating new ways to support healthy and resilient water systems than the State of Washington? This state’s extreme range of wet and dry climates presents unique challenges and opportunities to innovate. Like other innovations spawned in Washington, these solutions can be exported to wet and dry climates around the world.

A Call To Action: The Replacement Era

Early in the day, Steve Moddemeyer, Collins Woerman, pointed to the root cause of our water crisis saying, “Water connects all life, yet we disintegrate water into silos – potable water, rain water, storm water, gray water, and waste water.” Our decaying water infrastructure model is based on a time when energy was cheap and resources were plentiful. We focus on building “reliable” systems in an increasingly uncertain world. Yet, we have entered a time that compels us to change -- and perhaps be more agile than predictable. The Pacific Northwest region has the capacity to navigate and define this change with pragmatism and good-natured idealism.

Design alone won’t save us. The Bullitt Foundation's Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design & Construction, Seattle, is designed to meet the Living Building Challenge, but it won’t be able to treat its black water on site until the City’s health code allows it.

As great as new technology is, it is not the complete or only answer, either. As Katie Spataro, Cascadia Green Building Council, revealed through her research on alternative waste water treatment strategies (Toward Net Zero Water: Best Management Practices for Decentralized Sourcing and Treatment), when comparing the life cycle analysis of a natural system versus an engineered bio-membrane reactor, Mother nature wins again!

We can not overlook the important role of governance in moving us toward a more resilient environment. Chuck Clark, Cascade Water Alliance, stressed the need to look at a full-cost pricing of water systems (with price based on environment, economic, and social values). Full-cost pricing can lead to policy changes that in turn support design changes. In Washington, we allow net metering for solar energy. How about net metering for onsite water reuse?

Probably the most important key to solving this puzzle is our behavior. We need a willingness to experiment, collaborate, and advocate. Come Rain/Shine was a great forum to foster this spirit among a diverse group of elected leaders, public utilities representatives, designers, developers, and members from the non-profit sector and academia.

The Slam

Katrina Morgan, Fermata Consulting, introduced “the slam,” a brainstorming session on steroids – fast and concentrated. Teams worked on scenarios of differing scales from urban to small city to rural communities with the common goal of envisioning healthy, resilient water systems. There were only a few rules of engagement. The most important was to leave your day job at the door, represent yourself -not your organization. Nametags intentionally left company names off to reinforce this notion. Slam teams explored solutions from the multiple perspectives of design, technology, policy, and behavior.

I facilitated a slam session for a hypothetical new eco-city just east of the Cascade Mountains. Here, rainfall is less than eight inches per year. Although this is a dry and arid city, it sits along an 18-mile long lake. The city has access to a major highway. Our assignment was to invent an eco-city that protects the existing natural ecosystem while creating a healthy mix of industry, residences, and tourism.

We named our community “WOW” for “wise on water”. WOW offers an out-of-the ordinary experience from the moment you leave your car about a ¼ mile away from town at the “exchange and recharge” station. Here, you can plug your electric vehicle into solar powered charging stations and bike or walk into town. The city is compact and walkable with dozens of restaurants featuring local produce, artist studios, boutique hotels, urban farms, year-round residents, and a center for sustainable agriculture.

Scarcity of water drives design, technology, policy, and behavior in this community. Sewage is not conveyed with water. Instead, WOW uses composting toilets and the public utility picks up bio-solids. Waste water and stormwater are treated in beautiful constructed wetlands by the lakeside.There are no individual bathtubs, just stand-up showers with ultra low flow showerheads. But here’s the perk, WOW has a public bathhouse that is free and luxurious.

Organic farming happens within the town center instead of outside of it. This shift from large scale monoculture crops for national distribution to diverse crops for local sales supports a healthy ecosystem and creates an economic draw for WOW. This is a destination for all who want to unplug and enjoy the simple things of life.

The “New” Normal

Current water use is simple and wasteful. Net-zero water use, on the other hand, requires a complex approach--imitating nature’s water cycle--where potable water is sourced from many places, use, reused, cleansed and returned to nature. We won’t get there alone. Nor will we arrive there using a one-size fits all approach. Arrival requires a toolbox filled with design, technology, policy, and behavioral change tools, and individuals qualified and willing to use those tools creatively and appropriately for climate and cultural conditions.

Nora Daley-Peng, AICP, ASLA, CSBA, LEED AP is a Senior Project Associate with O'Brien & Company, providing project management and planning for green building projects. She is a regular contributor to the Building Capacity Blog, and recently participated in a committee reviewing the IP ANSI Standard organized by Vulcan Real Estate. Photo Credits: Miller Hull Partnership (Bullitt Rendering), Buster Simpson (Slam Exercise)

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Living Future 2011: Delicious

The Mac Lovers among us must have loved Majora Carter's declaration in her keynote that the “USGBC is PC, Living Future is Apple.”  Not sure I agree with the exact analogy but I get what she means. Regrettably I didn’t get to the Cascadia Green Building Council’s Living Future Conference this year, but I learned this pearl second hand from Alistair Jackson, my colleague at O’Brien & Company. Alistair and Kelly Kirkland, also of O’Brien & Company did attend, and when asked to share their highlights came up with more than I can reasonably cover in a single blog…so I will summarize:

Impact: Majora Carter’s keynote focused on local strategies that solve big problems and pay back multiple times.  Her examples included working with the most expensive citizens in our community (the generationally impoverished and veterans of war) – and provide them with the skills to do environmental restoration, climate change adaption and energy retrofit work.  This “conversion” would reduce entitlement budgets, reduce municipal operating budgets and foster self-respect in these generally marginalized populations.  For planners, this amounts to risk reduction. She called it “Hometown Security” rather than Homeland Security. 

In the same vein, Kelly was encouraged by the increasing value place on the contribution construction trades can make to green building. Outside of the formal sessions, she “heard more than ever before about green building training for the construction trades. Some of this training is happening on the job site of projects in progress, and one project even set aside time to build a ‘practice’ building to help trades people learn by doing—so they could do better when it came time to build the real project.”

Connections: In her keynote, Margaret Wheatley encouraged the audience to focus not on “critical mass” but on “critical connections” with others. At most conferences that might seem daunting, but Kelly “found most attendees of LF11 fully present and engaged in looking for ways to advance green building. I met people building the most progressive Living Buildings on the planet, people engaging kids to improve their community, and people with a genuine passion for their work.” Before Kelly even arrived on site, she met presenter Jane Turville on the Amtrak bus ride up to (Vancouver, BC) Canada. Jane is the writer/director/producer of “The Greenest Building” an inspiring case for green renovations of existing (especially historic) buildings, with case studies from around the US. Check out the film’s web site to see some clips: http://www.thegreenestbuildingmovie.com.

The issue of connection was implicit in a presentation on “trust-based” contractual arrangements offered by Turner Construction. Apparently not all of the designers in the room were comfortable with the idea based on their comments, but Alistair appreciated Tony Toppenberg’s (Tony is a Cost Estimator at Turner) discussion of an integrated approach in which the three key parties  (owner, architect, and the builder) share the risk and reward of delivering (or failing to deliver) on project goals.   (More on this subject in a future blog!)

Re-Imagination:  In addition to the novel idea of trust-based contracts (!) Jason Twill (Senior Project Manager for Sustainability) of Vulcan Real Estate discussed how the Living Building Standard forces one to rethink both the ideal building design process and business model for multi-family buildings. In Seattle, at least, it turns out that 4-5 story mid-rise is the maximum for truly achieving Living Building.   While on-site energy is inevitably one of the limits to growth, it turns out that Net Zero water is the greater constraint.  Seattle-based research shows that relying on precipitation alone won’t get you to net zero water (even in Seattle!). That means relying on recycling grey and black water to some degree.  Working outward from this “natural” building constraint, one would need to review thinking about design (integrating the process) regulations (permitting water recycling), economics (valuing water recycling), leasing (moving to gross leases to allow capture of performance savings), and marketing (including building performance transparency and education). Only this, Jason?

For their “15 minutes of Brilliance” presentation, students from Jasper High School read their inspiring, opinion essays about the state of education.  Kelly’s favorite line: “education should be experimental (read experiential) with real consequences.”  Education, no matter the age of the learner, needs to do a better job of making connections between the way we behave and the consequences or impact of that behavior.  It seems obvious from the takeaways shared by Alistair and Kelly, that Living Future did a good job modeling that.

Alistair Jackson, LEED AP for Homes, CSBA is Principal and part owner of O’Brien & Company, and is responsible for the company’s residential technical services team (including the LEED for Homes providership). Kelly, LEED AP for O+M, CSBA is Project Associate for O’Brien & Company and the firm’s marketing and educational services coordinator. She presented at Living Future 2011, on Washington Green Schools, and has produced several green building curricula for construction trades.

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Capacity Building Tool for Planners hoping to achieve Net Zero Water Buildings and Neighborhoods Marks World Water Day

Although the energy crisis has long held our attention in the green building world, the global water crisis urgently needs our attention. That’s because we can do a lot to reduce the consumption of water, and in particular, potable water, in the way we design our buildings and neighborhoods. To celebrate World Water Day, and its 2011 focus on urban water systems, our friends at the Cascadia Green Building Council (CGBC) have released “Toward Net Zero Water: Best Management Practices for Decentralized Sourcing and Treatment.”

The authors, Katie Spataro and Joel Sisolak, Cascadia’s Research Director and Advocacy and Outreach Director, respectively, have produced what I predict will be a significant capacity building tool for communities hoping to achieve net zero water at the building and neighborhood scale. The report contains an overview of best practices and technologies for decentralized and distributed water systems, with special focus placed on rainwater harvesting, greywater reclamation and reuse, and on-site wastewater treatment for reuse – the systems that face the highest hurdles when it comes to permitting them. (Presumably it is for this reason the manual does not address on-site stormwater management systems and fixture efficiencies, both of which do contribute to net zero water schemes, but also enjoy greater regulatory acceptance in the past few years. There are also plenty of resources out there  on these topics, including one O'Brien & Company helped develop: “The Low Impact Development (LID) Guidance Manual  for Kitsap County".)

Each BMP chapter describes major system components, how the systems work, and background on appropriate scale and efficiency. Design considerations are provided for system sizing, location, and integration with other building systems. And, because case studies can be very compelling, there are several demonstrating the best practices covered. The manual is more of a planning tool then a design tool; for each system, resources are provided to find more in-depth technical details.

Katie and Joel have done their homework and made it easy for us. Though there is a tremendous amount of information on these systems out there, it isn’t easy to access in a methodical, efficient manner. They’ve sifted through it all, gleaned the credible data, and organized it in a way that is useful. No fear, this is not a “cheerleading” document, but you also don’t have to be an engineer to “get it.”

The Living Building Challenge’s net zero water imperative requires “closed-loop” water systems, and that is the focus of the manual. Mark Buehrer, of 2020 Engineering, and a peer reviewer for the study has long held that closed-loop water designs are “critical for net zero water buildings.” I concur. Similar to the low impact development approach to stormwater, decentralized on-site closed-water systems can mimic nature better. Because they are more site-appropriate, they will be diverse, but the overall approach of these small-scale systems remain the same: begin with super-efficient measures to reduce overall water demand, and then treat the water needed for potable and non-potable uses.

When faced with the facts that many cities around the country are anticipating water shortages; that the cost of replacing our steadily degrading water and wastewater infrastructure is huge; and that the money (and political will) to invest in centralized infrastructure is dwindling, it only makes sense to stop using potable water for uses that don’t require it, and to find more agile and effective ways to supply and treat our water.

Building Capacity Blog is edited by Kathleen O’Brien, a Cascadia Fellow, and President of O’Brien & Company, a green building consultancy, founded nearly 20 years ago, and located in Seattle, Washington, providing services in green project consulting, sustainability policies, plans, and programs, and education. Sisolak and Spataro are among the line-up of presenters at this year’s Living Future (April 27-29 in Vancouver, BC). Their session, “Getting to Net Zero,” digs into the elements of the Living Building Challenge water petal and regulatory challenges impeding the progress of net-zero water projects. Cover image courtesy of Cascadia Green Building Council.

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