SanJoseGreenHome.com

Guests: Paul Hawken, Author, Blessed Unrest and Bill McKibben, Founder, 350.org.  Both these authors are well-established environmental activists. The presentation was conducted as a panel discussion with the moderator posing questions to the two. At the end there was audience participation. I thought it was a very interesting discussion on climate issues – both the politics and the science. Here is what I captured. In parenthesis I have introduced some of my own thinking:

• “Problem is that government policy has artificially increased consumption. There have been tax incentives for home ownership and government subsidies for freeways to get to all the homes. Thus, we have created a housing/work transportation design, which is very carbon-intensive (driving long distances) and now that carbon based fuels are expensive, it is an expensive design. Nevertheless, studies show people in cities have twice as many close friends as those in suburbia.
• Financial meltdown will take 10-12 years. (I have heard this before. It is not clear to me that without substantial changes to our economy that simply waiting will relieve our problems. The Great Depression was not relieved for 12 years until (more…)

If you had to imagine the greenest home in California, what images would spring to mind?  Would it be some clay, dome shaped structure perfectly exposed to solar angles, or maybe an ultra chic, boxy looking modern beauty with massive windows facing a valley?  What if I told you that this home sits on a pretty standard residential street in Santa Clara and an untrained eye wouldn’t even notice any “greenness” about it if they drove by?

Meet the “Bluebird” residence.  This Earth Bound Home’s show house  is also the personal residence of founder David Edwards.  Rated as the Greenest Home in California by Build it Green organization, the original 1400 sq. ft. ranch style home was added to and remodeled, creating a 3100 sq. ft. 4 bedroom, 3 bath home with an office and workout room.   Awards range from Acterra’s Business Environmental Awards Built Environment Award to Build It Green’s South Bay Best New Home award for the 1996 Green Home Tour. Come with us on a video tour to explore all the ingenuity, design and careful choice of materials that went into this project.  (Also see a list of “green” features below the video.)

This home’s many green features include:

• Small 2.7 kw Photovoltaic solar electric panels provide all of houses electrical needs
• Solar thermal renewable energy systems
• An inexpensive and no maintenance Grey water system waters the only plants in the entire landscaping that require water, the clumping Bamboo.
• A 1400 gallon underground rainwater cistern collects rainwater every winter
• All FSC wood framing and FSC certified Brazilian Cherry Flooring
• Home built with Structural Insulated Panels(SIPs)
• 65% more efficient than Californias’ Title-24 Energy Efficiency requirements
• $155/year gas bill, $4/year electric bill, $132/year water bill
• 93%  recycling and reuse of building demolition debris
• Half of all windows were purchased from salvage yards, saving over $10,000 over new windows
• All doors on the first floor were salvaged, saving $3,000.
• All trim throughout the house was salvaged from old redwood decks, fences and the siding on old houses. It was milled on site and the shavings used as mulch on the landscaping.
• New One Lawn Synthetic Lawn contains no heavy metals and requires no maintenance or water. None of the landscape requires supplemental water and saves approx. 50,000 gallons of water a year.
• House uses 31,285 gallons of water a year, for 5 people. This is approx 84% less. than the average household uses(~110 gallons per person/day- including irrigation)

Photo and home description courtesy of Earth Bound Homes

Don’t try to tackle all the issues, pick the closest to your heart, where you’re most likely to make a decent impact.  Most importantly – be brave, don’t be politically correct, have courage,  be the change you want others to be.  Mean what you say and don’t be mean when you say it.  

Don’t fall in the extremes as those who do that are very vulnerable… do it from the heart.  When it gets tough, remember the others, do it for them, don’t expect rewards, don’t ask for recognition.  This is the way of a true eco warrior.  

Stevie Wonder sang… “If you believe in things you don’t understand then you suffer.”  He’s awesome.  Get educated, see what’s really happening in the world, study the science yourself, go visit places!  Visit places in Asia, you’ll see much less subtle ways how humanity is wreaking havoc on the planet.  We’re all connected. 

The biggest challenge facing the planet is overpopulation and all the demands on the resources that this brings with it.  Every new life will create a footprint.  When you have kids, don’t be selfish by having many.  Strive to live (more…)

When many of us think of a solar home we normally envision a specially designed, carefully crafted construction .  Hardly ever we can think of a modest 1,200 square foot tract home in South San Jose as being a model for passive solar benefits that almost all of us can achieve.  This is exactly what Frank Schiavo did when he retrofitted his 1978 home to harvest our greatest energy source – the Sun. 

Frank was an extraordinary man.  He was an enthusiastic passive solar home consultant, environmental educator at San Jose State and an avid social change advocate.  One of his most fascinating qualities was that he produced no trash.  That’s right; he composted everything and never bought anything that he couldn’t recycle.  He even stopped paying garbage bills to the city which was a highly controversial and highly publicized move.  Gotta love this spirit of sustainability! 

Unfortunately Frank passed away very unexpectedly last January, just a week before we planned to meet, but he leaves his solar legacy behind for all of us to marvel at and learn from.  He really wanted to use his house as a way of teaching others about benefits of a green solar home “on a budget”. 

As a very tiny way of repaying his years of kindness to the community I would like to share with you some of the things that Frank was able to accomplish in his home (more…)

If you are going on a long trip across a couple states for a week do you drive your own car or do you rent one?  Many people rent because they don’t like adding extra mileage on their cars.  Normally renting a car is a bit more expensive than driving your own but what about renting a hybrid?  Can the gas savings potentially offset the rental car costs?  As we found out during our recent trip to Nevada and Arizona, the answer is absolutely YES! 

First, we weren’t sure what to do.  Alamo at San Jose Airport presented two options: to rent an economic mid-size car for a total of $180 per week or go for a hybrid for $220.  Considering the fact that we are thinking of buying a hybrid in the future, and the fact that our trip would leave a smaller pollution trail, we decided to have some fun and go for a hybrid – the brand spanking new Toyota Prius. 

Man it was exciting to get into one of those.  Besides the fact that it took five minutes to figure out how to start the darn thing, the ride, the comfort, the dynamics is all really a joy in that car.  Cruising at low speeds in national parks and knowing that there is absolutely no emissions coming out of the pipe was nothing short of orgasmic.  

It was a great trip but what about the bottom line on the numbers? (more…)

You and I probably had a similar experience when we saw that plasma TV quality for the first time at our local Fry’s store.  The picture quality was so vivid and beautiful it seemed like you could reach in a grab that tropical fish.  The technology is truly wonderful but unofrtunately, plasma TVs have become the home’s equivalent of a gas-guzzling SUV, consuming two to three times more energy than other smaller types of TVs. In fact, some models, even when used only a few hours a day, will suck up as much electricity each year as a refrigerator. Powering a fancy TV and full-on entertainment system can add nearly $200 to a family’s annual energy bill.  In five years this will add up to a $1000 easy.  Plasma TVs are really a gift that keeps on taking.

Comparison of energy suckers by California Energy Commission

Now if someone started regulating the size of TVs we can buy or own, most of us would have a serious conniption with this.  But wouldn’t it benefit us if we were made aware of (more…)

Did you know that your roof color can actually affect your energy bill, your comfort in the house and even contribute to climate change?  It’s true.  Our usually dark colored composition roofs contribute to what is called an “urban heat island.”  The problem with most of home roofs is that they absorb the heat of the sun, the temperature of the area rises and our air conditioners have to work much harder to keep us all cool and cozy. 

What’s a Heat Island? 

No, it’s not an island in the Bahamas.  The term “heat island” describes built up areas that are hotter than nearby rural areas.  According to the EPA, the annual air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8–5.4°F warmer than its surroundings. In the evening, the difference can be as high as 22°F. 

Source: EPA Website

Heat islands are no joke.  They can affect communities by increasing summertime peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and heat-related illness.    

What Can Home Owners Do? 

Very simple.  Next time you are replacing your roof, opt for a (more…)

Which part of the world does your bite come from?

It seems not just that many years ago, imported food was considered a status symbol, no matter what condition it was in when it finally arrived at the table.  This was just as true in Eastern Europe, where I grew up.  My mother used to be a “produce director” at one of the biggest grocery stores in town.  Once in the blue moon she would bring home what everyone called “deficit” goods.  Those included exotic nuts from India, baby fruit purées, and of course the mighty banana!  Gosh you should have seen the looks in our eyes.  My sister and I were more excited to see a banana than most people buying a brand new hybrid today. 

Those days are long gone and now Europeans as well as Americans live in economies where food is so plentiful that we are faced with hundreds of choices of fruit and veggies from every corner of the globe.  Things change but today we’re facing a very different dilemma.  There is a growing awareness that the food that ends up on our dinner plates has a much higher price tag than what we actually pay for it with our hard earn dollars.  What does this mean? 

In many cases, Western society routinely purchases food that was grown more than 1000 miles away and transported to the local grocery store.  While food prices in the store are relatively inexpensive, the environmental cost of transporting our food is often very high.  You see, all these trucks, trains, and boats, all of which consume fossil fuels, are the primary methods for transporting large quantities of food around the world.  Inevitably, transportation of these goods leave a trail of pollution and produce (more…)

Sure we can talk about green products like bamboo floors and solar cell phone chargers but with our homes accounting for a 21% of total U.S. carbon emissions, the focus is obvious – energy efficiency.

If we really want to reduce pollution and our carbon footprint we ought to be honest with ourselves and start with things that have the biggest impact.  Yes, it’s true, caulking those windows to improve the efficiency of our homes is not as sexy as the designer eco-smart, ventless fireplace in the corner but we have to be real, don’t we?

Green products are fun, really, but when it comes to a more holistic approach to lowering our impact on the environment, nothing is more effective than making some smart improvements like tightening that ductwork, good insulation, and weather stripping.

Enjoy this fun video where you will go on a room by room tour of a typical home and receive tips on energy improvements while tapping your foot to some groovy music in the background.

By making smart improvements we can usually make our homes more comfortable and efficient at a fraction of the cost.  Doesn’t matter whether we own or rent, sustainability starts at home.

You must have heard by now the term – Carbon Footprint.  Many folks, including myself, for years had no clue what it truly meant and what to eat it with.  It could be that the word “carbon” confuses most people so personally I like the term – environmental footprint.   It’s more obvious and easier to relate to isn’t it?  Plus, most folks relate carbon to green house gas only but we sure have a much wider effect on the environment than merely passing gas into the atmosphere.  

Carbon Footprint Defined

Basically, our life on the planet generates its own set of environmental footprints by virtue of our use of natural resources.  Almost everything we touch, eat and throw away has an effect on the environment.  This is the footprint we leave behind after we interact with nature.  This has been going on ever since humans inhabited the planet and this caused no problem because nature could cope with our existence.  The footprints left behind were quickly replaced by green grass and a new animal was born to replace the one freshly barbecued over a bonfire.

As time went on, population grew (watch this video) and tools were introduced into society, ostensibly to make life easier on humans, and humanity’s carbon footprint increased proportionately.  Eventually we started multiplying and consuming natural and non-renewable resources at a speed that is now putting a humongous strain on the planet.  Our environmental footprint became bigger than the ground it can stand on.  Thus, we now experience troubling events like (more…)