Sustainablog

GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks high end, eco-friendly luxury homes with Rick Byrd, of Byrd Development. Rick is now regarded as one of the premiere green building experts and is builder-personality for the show called Alter Eco starring Adrian Grenier on the new Planet Green network.

[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]

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The Sears Tower loomed large during my childhood in the Chicago suburbs. I remember when it opened in 1973. We took a special trip downtown to see it. According to my aesthetics as a seven year old, it wasn’t very elegant and I preferred the John Hancock Tower with its swanky restaurant on the 95th floor and proximity to Marshall Fields. Then the company my dad worked for was bought by Coldwell Banker, a subsidiary of Sears at the time, and his office was moved to the Tower. I spent some quality daddy-daughter time there, and one memorable summer got paid the incredibly generous sum of $8 an hour to take the train to the city every day, do some filing and hang out downtown.

But the Tower, in my mind, never had much to distinguish it other than a great view from the 103rd floor, its height of 110 stories and the convenience of the train station. But now everything is changing.

By the end of the summer, it will no longer be the Sears Tower. It will be called the Willis Tower, named for the global insurance broker. But more importantly, the building will undergo a $350 million efficiency and renewable energy retrofit that will reduce the base building electricity use by up to 80 percent - 68 million kilowatt hours annually or 150,000 barrels of oil every year. The retrofit will also create more than 3,600 jobs in the Chicago area.

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Jiangqiao Bamboo and Wood hails from China’s Jiangxi province, where bamboo resources are plentiful. Though the company began as a flooring company, they are now diversifying their production to include the latest in green design: bamboo keyboards.

In recent years, bamboo - a rapidly regenerating material - has gained popularity as a sturdy, sustainable alternative to wood flooring. Currently, China produces 200,000 cubic meters annually of bamboo plywood.

However, the history of bamboo’s use as an interior and even exterior material goes back way before sustainable buildings became trendy. Native to much of South and Southwest China, bamboo was first used to make paper, calligraphy brushes, and musical instruments thousands of years ago. For well over a century, it has been crafted into a range of household articles including chairs, baskets, mats, cutlery, and cabinets.

Bamboo - which is actually a grass - can be harvested after only four to six years of growth, much shorter than the 30-60 years required for comparable wood species. Replanting is not necessary, as bamboo regenerates on its own; and the speed at which it does so means it offers excellent erosion control.

Jiangqiao, which began manufacturing the green keyboards last October, has already received orders for 40,000 finished units, and is China’s sole producer of bamboo keyboards.

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GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks about the burgeoning industry of green building and the qualities of a green real estate property with Greg Reitz, Principal and Founder of REthink Development.

[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]

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If you have never heard of the Department of Energy’s Building America initiative, started in the 1990’s, start paying attention. With tax incentives for home energy efficiency and the addition of the new Builders Challenge initiative, started in January of 2008 this program is likely to become increasingly popular.

Building America works with research teams that include builders, manufacturers and technical experts to develop technologies and strategies that lead to improved home energy efficiency. They also created the Builders Challenge; builders that agree to join the Builders Challenge commit to constructing homes that rate 70 or better on the EnergySmart Home Scale (E-Scale).

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A “green economy” can be built in China in less than 20 years, argues a new McKinsey report. The new study, “China’s Green Revolution“, offers the most comprehensive quantitative analysis to date of China’s abatement cost curve.

Previous studies of a similar ilk, like the Stern Review, have incorporated social benefits to partially offset the cost of scaling up energy efficient and clean technologies. In contrast, the latest McKinsey report considers only technology-related costs and attaches a figure to the cost of green initiatives in China.

So what is the final damage? While costs are negative for upgrades in some industries, like buildings, due to the savings generated from energy efficiency improvements, a total 1.5-2 trillion yuan (USD 220-295 billion) would have to be spent every year until 2030 in order to reach McKinsey’s alternative scenario. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank McKinney, known as the real estate “artist,” according to his Web site, has built a 15,000-square-foot “eco-mansion.” Is that possible? I am not sure whether to look in awe at all the sleek green that money can buy, or to recoil from the notion that 15,000 feet of excess is environmentally friendly.

Photos of the inside and outside of this $29 million Florida mansion are as wild for their “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous” vibe, as for anything else. McKinney calls the property Acqua Liana, and has more plans in the works:

(He) will soon commence another masterpiece, “Crystalina,” a $30 million green home reflecting South Pacific influences.

He has designed and obtained permits for the world’s most magnificent oceanfront spec home with a 9-figure price tag, that’s right, Mr. McKinney’s new creation, The Manalapan Residence, will carry a price tag of over $135 million. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember back in December when 250 laid-off workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors Plant in Chicago? As you may recall, the company was obligated to give the workers 60 days notice, but their creditor, Bank of America, had cut of the company’s line of credit, even after receiving $25 billion in government bail out money, making it difficult to pay the workers. The workers refused to leave until they got what was due them and, miraculously, they won.

Well now an even bigger miracle has occurred. Some of the workers are getting their jobs back because of around provisions in the stimulus package that put aside about $30 billion in subsidies for improved home energy efficiency. You see, California based Serious Materials, a producer of energy efficient building materials, took a look at that particular part of the stimulus package and realized they were going to be getting seriously busy since their windows qualify for a $1500 tax credit. Recognizing the need to expand to meet the coming demand for things like energy efficient windows, and having a desire to do some good in the world and to have a midwest location, they thought why not purchase the former Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago, and while we’re at it, why not rehire some of those union workers, at their former union wages, and teach them about making our energy efficient products? So that is exactly what they did.

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One bright spot on the dark economic horizon is the number of companies across the U.S. poised for growth under a cap on carbon. EDF president Fred Krupp joined Vice President Joe Biden Friday in Philadelphia for the first meeting of Biden’s task force on middle class jobs.

At the meeting we unveiled our new interactive map highlighting more than 1,200 companies in coal country, the rust belt and other manufacturing regions. These companies all stand to benefit from the demand for clean energy technologies created by a cap on global warming pollution.

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The ‘Ecovillage’ movement is not new, but, along with many other green ideas, it is growing steadily these days.
Ecovillages come in different varieties, but they hold a few basic characteristics in common. They try to combine great ecological sensibility and responsibility with innovative social environments that are supportive and fair. Different communities use or establish different systems of governance, but they tend to stand apart from the larger societies in some clear ways, whether it be their own system of rules or laws or just a very clearly defined sense of community.

Many such societies also address spirituality or religion to some degree or another, but it is not the case in all places. Ecovillages vary from one to another and it is up to the people who live there (and especially founding members) to bring different issues and ideas to the forefront of their community.
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