Green Arch Design

NBC New’s Today Show sends its anchors to the ends of the earth to “bring attention to the issues facing the environment and to tell you at home what little things you can do to have a positive impact.” Matt Lauer was at the Blue Hole off the coast of Belize. Meredith Vieira was in Sydney, Australia. Ann Curry was at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Al Roker was in Iceland.

Click HERE for the Ends of the Earth features.

“China’s voluntary goal of decreasing carbon emissions… would result in five times more greenhouse-gas savings than the targets set by Europe under the Kyoto Protocol… If China’s leaders see the necessity of this approach, why can’t ours?” - excerpt from Enlisting Father Profit to Save Mother Nature review of Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded in BusinessWeek.

“Windows are the weak link, thermally speaking, in most building envelopes. Modern windows are much better than old single-pane windows and store-fronts, but they still represent a compromise—we accept their mediocre thermal performance because we want the daylight, views, and ventilation they offer…” - excerpt from “Reducing Heat Flow Through Windows” post at BuildingGreen.com

Help the earth and get paid to do it. TerraCycle Inc takes your average home trash and turns it into cleaners, accessories, office supplys and much more. So how do you get paid to recycle? Visit TerraCycle’s website and see how! There are several products they accept and in return you get money! How easy is that? - excerpt from TerraCycle Inc

Many buildings constructed within the last decade have already experienced major failures due to water damage and air leakage across the building envelope that caused condensation and mold growth. Now, building scientists are emphasizing the benefits of using effective air barriers for homeowners and trades. Air barriers significantly reduce random air leakage, conserving up to 40 percent of a building’s energy loss and improving indoor air quality, when combined with mechanical ventilation. Air barriers also extend the life of a building by minimizing the flow of airborne moisture that can breed condensation, mold growth and decay.Icynene delivers high-performance solutions for efficient building envelopes, thermal comfort and a healthy living environment – all of which are integral components of green building and design. Icynene can also contribute points/credits to LEED for Homes + the NAHB National Green Building Standard. - excerpt from Icynene.com

According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), buildings in the United States account for 70% of our nation’s electricity use. Find more Green Building Research click HERE.

“A new publication provides a thorough yet easy-to-read overview of the issue of climate change in our state.  “Climate Change in South Carolina” describes the impact of climate change on South Carolina’s environment, public health, and economy.  It goes on to detail solutions both individual and collective:  efficiency and conservation, renewable energy innovation, and political leadership.  The 24-page booklet is the product of former Upstate Forever intern Colin Hagan’s yearlong Compton Mentor Fellowship and was co-sponsored by Upstate Forever, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and Abell Muiltimedia”. - Excerpt from Upstate Update monthly bulletin.

Click on the link below to view the guide.

SC Guide to Climate Change

Green Directory

Click HERE to see msnbc’s interactive multi-media map of global warming.

The August 11 edition of BusinessWeek reports that despite China’s pollution and other ecological problems, the country is determined to be a green leader. The incredible images above come from National Geographic - Wallpaper.
Click here for further info - Environmental strides in China.

Did you see the June 8 Guitar Hero III tournament at Northpointe Church? All proceeds go to Greenville Middle Academy green efforts. On May 19 & 21, the greenLIFEproject brought Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Live Earth and An Inconvenient Truth to the 6th grade science classes of Greenville Middle Academy.

“We’ve all heard often enough that it’s time to start thinking and acting green. We’re depleting the Earth’s resources in record amounts, and it’s becoming more and more clear that we need to start thinking in terms of protecting and preserving the Earth and her resources when we build. Despite all the public knowledge about the importance of sustainable and renewable building practices, there’s still a lot of resistance to the idea of “going green”. One of the biggest reasons – the notion that it’s more expensive to use sustainable materials and consider environmental issues.
Obviously, it’s not financially feasible for most of us to completely gut our homes and replace them with totally green and environmentally responsible buildings, but that’s not the only way to accomplish the goal of living a greener life. There are a lot of things that you can do on a shoestring budget that don’t require any major investment of either time or energy. You can take bigger steps toward living a greener life when you’re ready to make major renovations to your home. While there’s a general belief that choosing greener products and alternatives will cost you more money, that’s not always true. In many cases, the greener alternative costs no more than or even less than the traditional option. In nearly all cases, you’ll make up any additional cost over the course of a few years.

No matter what renovations you’re doing, you’ll find that there are green alternatives that aren’t much more expensive than the traditional alternatives, and many that cost even less. When you factor in the ongoing savings and the added value to your home, green is the best way to go”. - Excerpt from greenbuildingarticles.com.

Click on the link below to read some valuable suggestions.

Going Green

I was looking around our website to make sure everything was up-to-date and noticed that we didn’t have a post on last summer’s movie Surf’s Up. So here it is! Surf’s Up was what we call an EcoFriendly event. This particular event was modeled after DisneyWorld’s popular KidCot program. It is a fun interactive way for children of all ages to learn about conservation.

An EcoFriendly event can occur at a movie opening, a WalMart, or even a school. This movie didn’t have the conservation theme of a Happy Feet but that didn’t matter. We partnered with the Sound of Light thru the greenLIFEproject to set up a booth where kids could learn about sustainability. The kids learned to carpool, recycle and use CFL light bulbs.

See this LINK for cost info on doing EcoFriendly events in your community.

It’s the dog days of summer. Trying to get caught up on some of the events that occurred this past spring. On May 30, the greenLIFEproject and GC-O’s Sound of Light Club brought Rock Band to the field day activities of Gray Court-Owings Middle School. All 3 grades (6th, 7th & 8th) were able to participate. We handed out Sound of Light/The Shine 96.7 stickers and gave the high scorers of each grade level a iPod Shuffle. 2nd and 3rd highest scorers from each grade got CDs donated by the Sound of Light. It was really cool! Hope we can do it again next year.

“Washington, DC—The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) has just published a monograph on the field’s hottest topic: building green. Sustainable Design II examines important new developments, tools, and techniques in sustainable design that have occurred since the publication of NCARB’s Sustainable Design in 2001.

Increasing concern about global climate change has raised public awareness about sustainable design and now requires architects to address these critical issues. “Sustainable design has entered the mainstream as a significant environmental and economic force in building design, construction, and development,” according to authors Muscoe Martin, AIA, LEED and Gregory Franta, FAIA. Sustainable Design II takes an in-depth look at the emergence of green building rating systems, most notably the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) certification. It also examines the costs and benefits of green buildings and integrated design strategies.

Successful completion of the Sustainable Design II quiz earns 12 professional development units (PDUs) and/or AIA learning units in health, safety, and welfare. The monograph’s price includes the monograph, the web-based quiz, the score reporting process, and one free retest if needed. Online, fax, or mail orders are accepted for all NCARB monographs.

Order online or visit the publication section of NCARB’s web site at
http://www.ncarb.org/publications/index.html to see other available titles.

Sustainable Design II
By Muscoe Martin, AIA, LEED, and Gregory Franta, FAIA
138 Pages
Regular Price: $275
NCARB Record holders: $175

NCARB’s monograph series provides a convenient, low-cost way for architects and other design professionals to learn about new developments in the industry and meet continuing education requirements. Current NCARB Record holders may earn multiple PDUs in health, safety, and welfare for less than $16 per unit— one of the lowest continuing education unit costs available today. All passing scores are reported to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) at no extra cost.” - Copied from www.NCARB.org.

Click on the link below to find out more about this series.

NCARB Monograph Series

Well we all know that summer brings a lot of hot weather and very little rain, especially here in the South.  Eartheasy has put together some tips that will help your lawn survive the drought this summer.  

Click on the link below for some very helpful tips.

Drought

On May 19 and 21, the greenLIFEproject brought Rock Band, Guitar Hero II, Live Earth and An Inconvenient Truth to the 6th grade science classes of Greenville Middle Academy in an effort to help increase climate awareness. On June 8th, Northpointe Church held a Guitar Hero III Save the Planet tournament to help fund the green efforts of Greenville Middle Academy.

“Almost half the coral reef ecosystems in United States territory are in poor or fair condition.” reported NOAA’s deputy assistant secretary Timothy Keeney. “Since NOAA’s last report in 2005, the Caribbean region has lost at least 50% of its corals.” The culprit? The rise in sea temperatures that accompany global warming. - excerpt from AP article.

Click HERE to view entire AP article.
Click HERE to view entire NOAA report.
Click HERE to view a blog that discusses this report.

See the following Oceana.org reports on Global Warming (GW) , what GW is doing to the Oceans, GW ocean victims, and What We Can Do!

“We could have no ice at the North Pole at the end of this summer…” report scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. “If it does happen, in September it’s possible that ships could sail from Alaska right to the North Pole.” - excerpts from June 28 AFP article. What is Santa going to do?
Click here to read entire article.

Did you catch the May 15 opening of Narnia - Prince Caspian at the Hollywood 20 Theater in Greenville, SC?

Even though the movie opening was set for midnight and it was raining like cats and dogs the turn out for the movie was really good. The greenLIFEproject partners The Sound of Light, 96.7 Shine radio station and Green Arch Design Group had a great time handing out brochures on recycling and going green.

The pictures below were taken at the opening of Narnia - Prince Caspian.

2 Years in the planning… It’s been worth the wait! The greenLIFEproject is set to raise the bar on affordable housing. The new 300 O’Conner Court home is a partnership between the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority, Greenville Technical College, Aaron-Kelli Builders and GreenArch Design Group. This Energy Star certified affordable house is modeled after the ‘Erin Cottage’, a Pocket Neighborhood plan book house designed by Ross Chapin Architects of Seattle, Washington. The ‘Erin Cottage’ plan book house is $150/sqft 3 bedroom 2 bath 1,302 sqft house designed for the temperate climate of the Pacific Northwest and didn’t even have air conditioning! Our challenge was to ‘affordablize’ and acclimatize the plan for the hot humid Southeast. The result is a 4 bedroom 2 bath 1,363 sqft home that is being built for $66/sqft.

5-16-08 Construction Photos

“We have only three options: mitigation, adaptation, and suffering. We will have to do all three.” Strong words from Harvard professor John P. Holdren in a BusinessWeek article titled Battening Down the Hatches.

But what exactly is mitigation, adaptation, and suffering? According to the article mitigation is the part of being ‘green’ that we are all familiar with. It’s driving less, recycling or using compact fluorescent light bulbs. It’s the things you can do to lessen or mitigate the damage to the environment. Reducing one’s carbon footprint is a great example of mitigation.

What is adaptation? According to the article, adaptation is all the things we need to do now to prepare “for a world reshaped by climate change.” The City of Annapolis, Maryland is planning to spend $9 million to raise the city’s dock located on Chesapeake Bay. Florida is exploring ways to protect 1,300 miles of coastline. You know its serious when Washington starts spending money. According to the article, “Congress is considering nearly two dozen bills with provisions for funding research and helping communities cope.

What is suffering? We are all familiar with Hurricane Katrina and the expense of rebuilding. The article mentions the Alaska town of Newtok. Diminished sea ice that once protected the town is leaving it vulnerable to erosion by the sea. The Alaskan town of Shismaref is “literally being battered to the point of falling into the sea.” - excerpt from July 17, 2006 BusinessWeek article, Business On A Warmer Planet. These towns are being moved. This is suffering!

“The Asian giant is overtaking the U.S. as the world’s biggest contributor to global warming…[and] between 2000 and 2010, the increase in China’s emissions will be more than five times greater than ALL the reductions expected under the Kyoto Protocol.” - excerpt from March 24, 2008 BusinessWeek article China’s Carbon Explosion.

Don’t you just hate all those styrofoam peanuts that you get in packages!  Or those styrofoam blocks around electronics and the like. 

Well, I received an email about recycling styrofoam and some tips on how to do just that.  Some of the tips I had not heard of before but were good ones.

I had heard that you can take the peanuts to places that ship packages and they will take them.  Just bag them up and take the bag to them.  I think the smaller shipping places would appreciate them more than the “big named” ones.

Click on the link below to read the article.

Styrofoam

On Friday, April 18th, Rock Port, Mo., became “the first city in the country capable of meeting 100 percent of its electricity demand from wind power, according to Wind Capital Group, the developer of the wind power facility in Rock Port.

St. Louis-based Wind Capital Group’s Loess Hills wind power facility, located in Rock Port, produces up to 16 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, which exceeds the 13 million kilowatt hours Rock Port uses each year.

“By generating enough clean, renewable electricity to meet all of Rock Port’s energy needs while also generating additional revenue for their tax base, the Loess Hills facility is a shining example of the benefits of wind energy development,” Tom Carnahan, president of Wind Capital Group, said in a statement.

Electricity generated from Loess Hills not used by homes and businesses in Rock Port will be purchased by the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission (MJMEUC) for use in other communities across Missouri. As part of this arrangement, MJMEUC will supply Rock Port’s power needs when the wind turbines are not generating at capacity.

Rock Port and 31 other city-owned utilities across Missouri receive their electric supply as part of the Missouri Public Energy Pool (MoPEP). MJMEUC coordinates the joint action of Missouri’s publicly-owned utilities, including aggregated power purchases for MoPEP cities.

To celebrate being America’s first wind-powered community, Rock Port, which is located in the far northwest corner of Missouri, will host a “Green Switch” celebration on Friday.

Wind Capital Group, a wind energy developer, was founded by Carnahan in 2005. Carnahan’s brother is U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan and his sister is Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan”. - Excerpt from Baltimore’s bizjournals.com.  

Click on the link below to listen to the 3rd part of the interview with Donnie Nix.

donnie-nix-part-3.mp3

After the tornado.

Artist rendering of the new Greensburg.

Last May, the small Kansas town of Greensburg was almost demolished by an EF-5 tornado.  Twelve of their residents died and 95% of the community’s structures were lost. 

This May we see that the small town is “rebuilding as a model green community, focusing on energy self-sufficiency and other principles of sustainability, with the aim to become the greenest community in America”. -  Excerpt from www.GreensburgGreenTown.org.

Click on the links below to read more about the rebuilding of this community.

“There’s No Place Like a Green Demo Home”

Town Rebounding

Matt Cheney is trying to make it easy and cheap to go green.  His firm, MMA Renewable Ventures (MMA), helps companies build solar energy systems, cut their electricity bills, and lock in rates for decades-all with no money down.  The San Francisco company has erected some $300 million worth of solar panels for clients ranging from Denver International Airport to Gap (GPS).

MMA’s approach brings together evergy users, builders, and financiers.  Essentially, MMA is the middleman.  It contracts with companies to install the solar panels, which it owns and operates.  Customers then pay MMA for the power the panels generate-like a traditional utility but with cheaper rates.” - Excerpt from www.newsweek.com.

Click on the link below to read the entire article.

Solar Panels

Click on the link below to listen to the second part of our interview with Donnie Nix.

donnie-nix-part-2.mp3

Click on the link below to listen to the last part of our interview with Anthony Coppedge.

4-new-interview-with-anthony-coppedge.mp3