I'm going to have to read the specific requirements for the Living Building Challenge, but my first impression is this: I thought LEED was pretty oversimplified as it is! I'm wary of how much good something even more simplified can do. But, I will definitely update with my final thoughts after a thorough reading.
Some scientists and private environmental groups noted that the cause, according to the government, was mainly moderate weather and high prices for oil, natural gas and electricity.
So, theoretically, gas should keep getting more and more expensive, thereby driving people to conserve.
Ok, to be honest with you, my first thought is that this really freaks me out..... because, I don't want a bunch of sharks reproducing asexually and disrupting the food chain! Although we've already disrupted it enough, I suppose, eh?
I guess it's possible that this particular shark may have been born with a mutation in its DNA that allowed it to do this....I am not a biologist by any means so I am just speculating. (X-Men 4: Shark Attack, anyone?)
My next thought is, when are women going to start having babies without needing men?!? It's like the opposite of "Children of Men", which was a great movie, BTW....
Everyday hazards such as inhaling polluted city air or other people’s cigarette smoke are potentially worse for your health than being exposed to the radioactive fallout of an atomic bomb, according to new research.
A study of radiation exposure caused by the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 and the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has suggested that they have posed similar or lower health risks to survivors than the more prevalent problems of air pollution, smoking and obesity.
Moving from Inverness to the more polluted streets of Central London could have worse consequences for your health than choosing to live in the contaminated exclusion zone around Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
oh, treekiller....I consider myself an urban pioneer, not so much an evolutionary one :o) Thanks, though.
Actually the whole shark thing reminds me of an episode of South Park a while back where a small woodland creature - a raccoon, maybe? or a possum, can't remember - gave birth to the anti-christ. Maybe the other fish in the tank that killed that shark pup actually saved humanity!
Sorry, it's getting on in the day, my mind is wandering....
My footprint a month ago:
FOOD 5.9
MOBILITY 2
SHELTER 3.2
GOODS/SERVICES 4.7
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 16
My footprint today:
FOOD 5.9
MOBILITY 0.7
SHELTER 2.7
GOODS/SERVICES 3.2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 12
I've shed 4 acres.... and a few pounds. Changes: made an effort to conserve energy around the house by installing compact flourescent bulbs, turning off and unplugging more appliances when not in use (I've given up my hairdryer altogether), and started biking to work, as well as to places like the farmers market on tuesdays.
On the plastic bottle issue, I admit a big fondness for Naked Juice and the Trader Joe's equivilant (c'mon, who can resist organic ginger limeaid on a hot day?!), but try to either recycle or reuse the bottles. I feel bad if I throw one away. Anyone got creative uses for their used juice or water bottles?
IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 4.8 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
I live in an apartment in Tokyo and I am vegetarian. Probably the biggest thing working against me is the amount of things that are imported. I'm still doing pretty well!
Going car-free, or even car-lite (my current state) does help a ton. I was speaking with WonderK about this the other day, and was just realizing how many of the world's ills could be abated by the drastic reduction of car dependency: there wouldn't be wars over oil, because oil would no longer be such a crucial product. Plus we'd all be so much less stressed that we wouldn't be looking to pick fights anyways, and there wouldn't be so many beautiful places destroyed by roadways! Then add in the health benefits of biking or walking, and the economic benefits that would have on our healthcare system, and you've got one hell of a better world!
The only drawback I can see is the economic impact, because so many people jobs are dependent on our auto addiction. Sure, more jobs would open up in sectors like public transit, bike production/distribution/sale/repair, but likely not enough to replace all the auto industry jobs out there right now.
Yeah, the US is so invested into car culture infrastructure now though, how do you change now? Dense places like Tokyo certainly weren't building rails becuase of some sort of eco conscienceness, it was about logistically moving 30 million people! Cars just can't do that.
Commuting by train, at least tokyo style, can be stressfull if you live on one of the lines that go out to the family communities. Those trains are packed, really packed. I don't think Americans would ever tolerate that.
I live 'downtown', so it's not a very stressful commute for me.
I do really wish that the US could have a clean convenient public transit system. It would be great to see a shift in the economy like you're mentioning from building cars to building public transport. On another forum we were talking about how great a high speed rail network in the US would be. Like running from Minneapolis/Madison/Chicago/Detroit/then into the eastern corridor. Sure would reduce the the amount of short flights needed.
Trains, and public transit in general, is just so foreign to most Americans though, I don't think it will be picked up very soon.
To use a similar analogy, I would say that this is why we still have so many wars. The military industrial complex is so over developed and so much money and jobs are invested in it that to stop having wars would have too big of an impact on too many pocketbooks. However, much of this is documented in Bowling for Columbine and I don't necessarily want to dive into this can of worms right now, so I'll stop right there.
I know this sounds really un-american, and my father (libertarian) would kill me for saying it, but european soft-socialism is looking a lot better to me than it used to: better environmental policies, better working hours, better healthcare...
Is there any way we could get there without resorting to socialism?
It really sucks, I have tried using other countries as a basis to calculate my footprint for a country of 5,000 but it keep throwing it above 20. Its made me feel bad, although i know that almost all food stuffs are important and barely anyone here uses a motorcycle or a bicycle (difficult moutainous terrain)
Has anyone been using GoogleTransit? I just found this on treehugger (which has lots of great environmental news), and it seems like a cool idea. Wish they'd expand it to more cities.
Then get ready to find yourself lost in South Central LA because the bus driver no longer feels the need to follow the published route and has edited your planned stop out of the schedule.
If you can manage to get places by light rail though, that is an excellent system which only drawback is that it doesn't extend half as far as is needful.
The 1st public review draft of BSR/ASHRAE/USGBC/IESNA Standard 189P,
Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except
Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is now available for review and comment. See below for descriptions. See the ASHRAE website for the draft
addenda, instructions and comment form.
The 45-day public review extends from May 25, 2007 through July 7,
2007. THE LINK IS HERE
Foreword to Standard 189P:
This is the first edition of ASHRAE/USGBC/IESNA Standard 189. This is a
standard for high-performance green buildings. It is not a rating system, though it could be incorporated as the baseline in a green building rating system. It addresses sustainable sites, water use efficiency, energy efficiency, the building's impact on the atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). These five key subject areas, as well as construction and operation, are each addressed in a separate chapter
using the following format:
x.1 General: This subsection includes a statement of scope and addresses
other broad issues.
x.2 Compliance Paths: This subsection indicates the compliance options
for each section.
x.3 Mandatory Provisions: This subsection contains the criteria that
must be complied with by all projects (i.e. the criteria that can not be traded
off).
x.4 Prescriptive Option: This subsection contains additional criteria
specified in a manner that provides a simple way to show compliance that involves little or no calculations.
x.5 Performance Option: This subsection contains an alternate way to
show compliance that is typically based on equivalence to the Prescriptive
Option.
x.6 Submittals: This subsection lists information needed to show
compliance with the Mandatory Provisions, and Prescriptive and Performance Options.
This standard is meant to be used in conjunction with ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1- 2007, and ASHRAE Standards 62.1-2007 and 55-2004. Where a requirement is contained herein, this requirement supersedes the requirements in those standards. For all other criteria, the project is to comply with the requirements in those standards. Following approval, this standard is expected to be placed on continuous maintenance, permitting the standard to be updated through the publication of approved addenda to the standard. The standard is expected to be republished in its entirety every third year. All approved addenda and errata will be included in the new edition.
Thank you and have a great day.
Steve
Steve Ferguson, Assistant Manager of Standards - Codes
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers, Inc.
Direct Line: 678-539-1138 Fax: 678-539-2138 eMail: sferguson@ashrae.org Web: www.ASHRAE.org
What's the SPC 189? Who's allowed to comment on this? Does this mean that this particular code will change while the ratings systems that refer to it - i.e., LEED - will remain the same?
late night reading for me on NYTimes picked up this story about the potentially deleterious effects of biofuels.
i haven't finished it and between that and having started (finally) michael pollan'sOmnivore's Dilemma i'm up way past my bedtime.
the times piece seems to be hitting ground we've touched on in our various discussions on biofuel/biodiesel. to me, the problem is still that under our current global trade system, poorer countries will inevitably rape and pillage their lands to produce the raw materials that drives the dow, the tokyo exchange, etc, as long as it's their only option. why grow corn and make tortillas when i can sell biodiesel to california? who cares that my abuelito has no harina long as mightylittle can drive his jetta to work! damn i'm miserable about it now. 'effing Times. why do they have to print that?
are they trying to ruin my night?
whether it's biodiesel, petrol, or fricking' pasta. why can't we all just stay local? makes the most sense on a variety of levels, but damn if it's not tough to do.
i live in a place that happens to be a big national leader in production of all kinds of things, especially food, and it's still hard to keep up the 100mi or less range for goods and services.
the deeper i get into omnivore's dilemma, the more these issues will haunt me in know it.
anyone else read it? or how about Botany of Desire? also by michael pollan.
whether it's biodiesel, petrol, or fricking' pasta. why can't we all just stay local? makes the most sense on a variety of levels, but damn if it's not tough to do.
mightylittle, it's so funny that you say this, because I was listening to Car Talk on NPR over the weekend, and during a break they said, "this program is brought to you by so-and-so's Home Oil Drilling Platform, Refinery sold separately", and I laughed out loud in my car.
Also, I just ran into my neighbor yesterday who bought a new motorcycle and is thinking of selling his car. He gave me some tips on taking the test and the safety course, which I have to do to get my endorsement.
I would like to read that book but I'm a bit backed up on reading right now....
Sorry to thread jack here, but I wanted to quickly point out this thread to the green-inclined people because it has a great link to an article about sustainable power generation using a solar tower. I thought some may find it interesting...
mightylittle - i just read omnivore's dilemma recently - it really got me thinking.
it's frustrating that knowing what you're eating has gotten so complicated. i, personally, would prefer not to eat conventionally. i had heard a decent amount of information before reading the book, so i wasn't incredibly shocked by the ways conventional food is raised.
but it did really get me fired up to find a csa or local farm. i already shop at a local veggie and fruit market/store, but i know not all of it is local.
a great resource is localharvest.org - it tells you all of the local farms, farmers markets, etc. in the area.
i don't know how far you've gotten in the book, so i don't want to throw too much out there - get beyond where you're at.
Does anyone else have a grocery co-op in their city like the PCC? I haven't heard about anything like this in LA, so it's one of the things I'm looking forward to about Seattle. That sounds pretty geeky, but yes, I'm looking forward to the bountiful organic options in my future home. I'm tired of all the processed junk and knowing that everything I buy at the market is absolute crap.
here in the bay area, there's lots of options...seattle has bountiful produce as well.
there's some great farmer's markets in LA, but i don't know offhand of any good coops.
the big one in SF is the Rainbow Grocery which is great. they even give an additional 10% off for SF Bicycle Coalition Members! Neat-O.
i've been a supporter of CSA's or community supported agriculture for most of the last decade. it's probably the best way to get produce. always seasonal, always direct from the farm. but don't buy into the veggie-box, or the organic box delivery services. they're just middle men who buy commodity organics from wherever is the cheapest.
csa's are the most efficient way to financially support your local organic farmers...farmer's markets are great, but it costs the farmers money to get there, if the weather is lousy they lose tons of money in un-sold product, and they have to have labor to man the booths, etc. with the CSA format, you prepay and help share the burden if the season is tough. and it's not like you'll starve, you can always head out to the store!
real CSA's generally have a bunch of centralized drop-offs around your town/city, often within a reasonable biking distance. i get my produce from Full Belly Farm which is up in Capay Valley, Yolo County CA.
as laurilan mentioned, localharvest.org has great resources for CSA's.
We also do the CSA, Tierra Farms in Santa Rosa. A box of vegetables and free carrots for the kids when you pick up the veggies. They also encourage you to walk around the farm and enjoy the free blackberries!
You can't beat that.
j
Great story yesterday on Marketplace about renewable energy and "conflicting sustainabilities" in Southern California. Here's a synopsis....
Apparently "Los Angeles wants to become the "greenest and cleanest city in America," in the words of its mayor: 20 percent renewable power by 2010." (woo hoo! here I come...) Anyway, there is a movement afoot to tap into geothermal fields east of the city in the desert to help accomplish this. Preservationists have taken issue with this plan because the power lines between the geothermal energy source and the city would stretch through miles of an "ecologically sensitive desert wildlife preserve". The story goes on predictably....I find the part about the place called "Pioneertown" fairly silly.
Conflicts like this, where environmentalists are pitted against, um, environmentalists really frustrate me. It reminds me why so many people scoff at the environmental movement.....I often think that there is a huge faction of environmentalists who are keen to say, "you can't do this or that" but rarely try to offer alternative solutions to what I feel is constructive progress in sustainability.
hmmm, apparently the ones listed as farms in the area are honeyfarms! Looks like the best bets for me are the PCC markets and/or the weekly farmers markets.
WonderK- this is a big problem within any venture, but things like ecology and preservation are especially vulnerable to criticism about it because they are not mainstream. What about medical practice? Weight loss? event art and architecture? Don't the jerk people around a bit too, arguing amongst themselves, not presenting a clear solution to percieved problems? Absolutely. But people put up with it or don't put up with it based on their percieved need for the service. People aren't putting up with it in architecture judging by the number of buildings built by developers and contractors vs. architects. People put up with it in medicine only because they absolutely have to. They criticize environmentalists for it because frankly it's easier for them to go about their daily lives as they always have, and use the indecision as an excuse not to do anything.
wk- the back story is the business as usual failure of the LADWP to look into alternate routes for the power lines. It's not like there is only one route into the city... This is typical of DWP technocrat looking at the small picture only and not seeing the forest for the trees.
so who wins, wild flowers or energy guzzling people? typically the power lines win...
i'd argue that a road is more environmentally damaging then a transmission corridor- more habitat fragmentation/distruction, more disruption to the hydrological cycle, more heat island effect, more pollution (from oil, brake dust, vehicle emissions), and soil compaction to name a few. transmission lines do cause erosion, habitat destruction/fragmentation and EMFs, but the actual foot print is small (and they provide perches for birds). Ok you might be able to see the transmission lines from further away then the road.
rationalist, they're really all honeyfarms?? well, at least you'll never run out of royal jelly!
i'm sure once you get to the markets and start talking to the farmers, you'll find out who runs a CSA.
tk/wK - does this sound like a similar issue to when they paved the LA river basin because the dominant theories at the time thought it would be a better solution to runoff? and by theories i mean greenwashed developers and their agency hoodwinks of course.
i agree that a transmission line (even with the EMF's and fragmentation) is far less damaging (as far as we know...given the disagreement on EMF's) than a conventional automobile corridor would be.
but it's being parsed like the "debate" on global warming. there is no debate. the "debate" was created by folks who wanted to run the status quo for as long as possible, so murdoch/fox/wolfowitz/whitman played it out as "well gee whiz people, the science just doesn't add up!"
now they just pit environmentalists who are in favor of saving habitat against environmentalists who are fighting conspicuous consumption...little do they realize they're on the same team.
tk & mighty....I agree. And I figured there were other ways for the transmission lines to go, and of course they probably cost more money, which is why they are trying to go straight through the "wildlife preserve". I can't wait to see how LA is going to be the "greenest and cleanest city" in America.
By the way...I've been to Fargo, and there is nothing environmentally friendly nor healthy about Fargo, I don't care how they ranked them.
Gary, Indiana is the nastiest place in the country. It is truly a hole. I am sorry for anyone who might live there, but for god's sakes, move, before you grow a 3rd arm!
whooo, I'm definitely going to be moving up in the world, from city #62(!!!!! out of only 72! Get your ass in gear, LA) to city #7. I expect my lungs to thank me.
Phoenix was rather higher up than I expected, I thought it'd be near the bottom by LA. Maybe it got out of all the water quality categories by virtue of not actually having any water to test?
Green Thread Central
yay for biking to work!
life in the green lane is moving so fast, it's tough to keep up with the latest and greatest while studying for my exams...
Living Buildings Unite!!!!!!
I'm going to have to read the specific requirements for the Living Building Challenge, but my first impression is this: I thought LEED was pretty oversimplified as it is! I'm wary of how much good something even more simplified can do. But, I will definitely update with my final thoughts after a thorough reading.
The carbon is falling, the carbon is falling!!!!!!
So, theoretically, gas should keep getting more and more expensive, thereby driving people to conserve.
I like how the Bush administration tried to take credit for it. As if.
tk... that is a FABULOUS news story and link!
wtf? shark gives birth without mate.
according to the scientists, "only a species such as this under threat would resort to reproducing this way."
did this shark evolve? did it always have this ability? are we the only ones who cant reproduce asexually?
California is limiting purchasing power from coal burning power plants- now we know how the carbon is falling!
Ok, to be honest with you, my first thought is that this really freaks me out..... because, I don't want a bunch of sharks reproducing asexually and disrupting the food chain! Although we've already disrupted it enough, I suppose, eh?
I guess it's possible that this particular shark may have been born with a mutation in its DNA that allowed it to do this....I am not a biologist by any means so I am just speculating. (X-Men 4: Shark Attack, anyone?)
My next thought is, when are women going to start having babies without needing men?!? It's like the opposite of "Children of Men", which was a great movie, BTW....
Everyday hazards such as inhaling polluted city air or other people’s cigarette smoke are potentially worse for your health than being exposed to the radioactive fallout of an atomic bomb, according to new research.
A study of radiation exposure caused by the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 and the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has suggested that they have posed similar or lower health risks to survivors than the more prevalent problems of air pollution, smoking and obesity.
Moving from Inverness to the more polluted streets of Central London could have worse consequences for your health than choosing to live in the contaminated exclusion zone around Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1605122.ece
w o w
yeah seriously WK... its just disturbing how the scientist responded by saying it was an evolutionary response to a species threat.
thats crazy
wk- you're welcome to become the first cloned women... we need more of you to win the fight over climate change.
oh, treekiller....I consider myself an urban pioneer, not so much an evolutionary one :o) Thanks, though.
Actually the whole shark thing reminds me of an episode of South Park a while back where a small woodland creature - a raccoon, maybe? or a possum, can't remember - gave birth to the anti-christ. Maybe the other fish in the tank that killed that shark pup actually saved humanity!
Sorry, it's getting on in the day, my mind is wandering....
The Unintended Consequences of Hyperhydration
What to do with the 30 BILLION plastic bottles of water we drink a year?:
NYT
DubK to be cloned. As a means to combat climate control...yeah that's why we are cloning her. That's our story and we are sticking to it damnit!
I just wanted to report how much I've improved.
My footprint a month ago:
FOOD 5.9
MOBILITY 2
SHELTER 3.2
GOODS/SERVICES 4.7
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 16
My footprint today:
FOOD 5.9
MOBILITY 0.7
SHELTER 2.7
GOODS/SERVICES 3.2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 12
I've shed 4 acres.... and a few pounds. Changes: made an effort to conserve energy around the house by installing compact flourescent bulbs, turning off and unplugging more appliances when not in use (I've given up my hairdryer altogether), and started biking to work, as well as to places like the farmers market on tuesdays.
On the plastic bottle issue, I admit a big fondness for Naked Juice and the Trader Joe's equivilant (c'mon, who can resist organic ginger limeaid on a hot day?!), but try to either recycle or reuse the bottles. I feel bad if I throw one away. Anyone got creative uses for their used juice or water bottles?
congrats rationalist...great improvement for you and all of us really.
Hey guys,
Just found this great thread!
Here's my footprint
FOOD 0.9
MOBILITY 0.6
SHELTER 0.3
GOODS/SERVICES 0.7
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 2.5
IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 4.8 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
I live in an apartment in Tokyo and I am vegetarian. Probably the biggest thing working against me is the amount of things that are imported. I'm still doing pretty well!
Forget cloning me, I think we need to clone Travis! Nice job Travis!
Thanks!
Really the only thing I've done myself is be vegetarian and change to flourescent bulbs.
Being able to live without a car reduces your foot print a lot I think.
I went back and did my footprint as it would have been in Minneapolis
CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 3
MOBILITY 0.2
SHELTER 5.4
GOODS/SERVICES 4
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 13
Going car-free, or even car-lite (my current state) does help a ton. I was speaking with WonderK about this the other day, and was just realizing how many of the world's ills could be abated by the drastic reduction of car dependency: there wouldn't be wars over oil, because oil would no longer be such a crucial product. Plus we'd all be so much less stressed that we wouldn't be looking to pick fights anyways, and there wouldn't be so many beautiful places destroyed by roadways! Then add in the health benefits of biking or walking, and the economic benefits that would have on our healthcare system, and you've got one hell of a better world!
The only drawback I can see is the economic impact, because so many people jobs are dependent on our auto addiction. Sure, more jobs would open up in sectors like public transit, bike production/distribution/sale/repair, but likely not enough to replace all the auto industry jobs out there right now.
Yeah, the US is so invested into car culture infrastructure now though, how do you change now? Dense places like Tokyo certainly weren't building rails becuase of some sort of eco conscienceness, it was about logistically moving 30 million people! Cars just can't do that.
Commuting by train, at least tokyo style, can be stressfull if you live on one of the lines that go out to the family communities. Those trains are packed, really packed. I don't think Americans would ever tolerate that.
I live 'downtown', so it's not a very stressful commute for me.
I do really wish that the US could have a clean convenient public transit system. It would be great to see a shift in the economy like you're mentioning from building cars to building public transport. On another forum we were talking about how great a high speed rail network in the US would be. Like running from Minneapolis/Madison/Chicago/Detroit/then into the eastern corridor. Sure would reduce the the amount of short flights needed.
Trains, and public transit in general, is just so foreign to most Americans though, I don't think it will be picked up very soon.
To use a similar analogy, I would say that this is why we still have so many wars. The military industrial complex is so over developed and so much money and jobs are invested in it that to stop having wars would have too big of an impact on too many pocketbooks. However, much of this is documented in Bowling for Columbine and I don't necessarily want to dive into this can of worms right now, so I'll stop right there.
I know this sounds really un-american, and my father (libertarian) would kill me for saying it, but european soft-socialism is looking a lot better to me than it used to: better environmental policies, better working hours, better healthcare...
Is there any way we could get there without resorting to socialism?
It really sucks, I have tried using other countries as a basis to calculate my footprint for a country of 5,000 but it keep throwing it above 20. Its made me feel bad, although i know that almost all food stuffs are important and barely anyone here uses a motorcycle or a bicycle (difficult moutainous terrain)
Has anyone been using GoogleTransit? I just found this on treehugger (which has lots of great environmental news), and it seems like a cool idea. Wish they'd expand it to more cities.
That's pretty cool. They really do need to add more transit systems though.....I can currently get around in Reno if I wanted, but not LA!
Who needs to get around in Reno besides these guys, anyway?
That's because the Los Angeles public transit system is completely indecipherable by humans and computers alike.
Don't tell me that! I might have to use it! I WILL have to use it!
Then get ready to find yourself lost in South Central LA because the bus driver no longer feels the need to follow the published route and has edited your planned stop out of the schedule.
If you can manage to get places by light rail though, that is an excellent system which only drawback is that it doesn't extend half as far as is needful.
of interest to the greensters on archinect:
To SPC 189 and interested parties:
The 1st public review draft of BSR/ASHRAE/USGBC/IESNA Standard 189P,
Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except
Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is now available for review and comment. See below for descriptions. See the ASHRAE website for the draft
addenda, instructions and comment form.
The 45-day public review extends from May 25, 2007 through July 7,
2007. THE LINK IS HERE
Foreword to Standard 189P:
This is the first edition of ASHRAE/USGBC/IESNA Standard 189. This is a
standard for high-performance green buildings. It is not a rating system, though it could be incorporated as the baseline in a green building rating system. It addresses sustainable sites, water use efficiency, energy efficiency, the building's impact on the atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). These five key subject areas, as well as construction and operation, are each addressed in a separate chapter
using the following format:
x.1 General: This subsection includes a statement of scope and addresses
other broad issues.
x.2 Compliance Paths: This subsection indicates the compliance options
for each section.
x.3 Mandatory Provisions: This subsection contains the criteria that
must be complied with by all projects (i.e. the criteria that can not be traded
off).
x.4 Prescriptive Option: This subsection contains additional criteria
specified in a manner that provides a simple way to show compliance that involves little or no calculations.
x.5 Performance Option: This subsection contains an alternate way to
show compliance that is typically based on equivalence to the Prescriptive
Option.
x.6 Submittals: This subsection lists information needed to show
compliance with the Mandatory Provisions, and Prescriptive and Performance Options.
This standard is meant to be used in conjunction with ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1- 2007, and ASHRAE Standards 62.1-2007 and 55-2004. Where a requirement is contained herein, this requirement supersedes the requirements in those standards. For all other criteria, the project is to comply with the requirements in those standards. Following approval, this standard is expected to be placed on continuous maintenance, permitting the standard to be updated through the publication of approved addenda to the standard. The standard is expected to be republished in its entirety every third year. All approved addenda and errata will be included in the new edition.
Thank you and have a great day.
Steve
Steve Ferguson, Assistant Manager of Standards - Codes
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers, Inc.
Direct Line: 678-539-1138 Fax: 678-539-2138 eMail:
sferguson@ashrae.org Web: www.ASHRAE.org
What's the SPC 189? Who's allowed to comment on this? Does this mean that this particular code will change while the ratings systems that refer to it - i.e., LEED - will remain the same?
hi all.
late night reading for me on NYTimes picked up this story about the potentially deleterious effects of biofuels.
i haven't finished it and between that and having started (finally) michael pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma i'm up way past my bedtime.
the times piece seems to be hitting ground we've touched on in our various discussions on biofuel/biodiesel. to me, the problem is still that under our current global trade system, poorer countries will inevitably rape and pillage their lands to produce the raw materials that drives the dow, the tokyo exchange, etc, as long as it's their only option. why grow corn and make tortillas when i can sell biodiesel to california? who cares that my abuelito has no harina long as mightylittle can drive his jetta to work! damn i'm miserable about it now. 'effing Times. why do they have to print that?
are they trying to ruin my night?
whether it's biodiesel, petrol, or fricking' pasta. why can't we all just stay local? makes the most sense on a variety of levels, but damn if it's not tough to do.
i live in a place that happens to be a big national leader in production of all kinds of things, especially food, and it's still hard to keep up the 100mi or less range for goods and services.
the deeper i get into omnivore's dilemma, the more these issues will haunt me in know it.
anyone else read it? or how about Botany of Desire? also by michael pollan.
whether it's biodiesel, petrol, or fricking' pasta. why can't we all just stay local? makes the most sense on a variety of levels, but damn if it's not tough to do.
mightylittle, it's so funny that you say this, because I was listening to Car Talk on NPR over the weekend, and during a break they said, "this program is brought to you by so-and-so's Home Oil Drilling Platform, Refinery sold separately", and I laughed out loud in my car.
Also, I just ran into my neighbor yesterday who bought a new motorcycle and is thinking of selling his car. He gave me some tips on taking the test and the safety course, which I have to do to get my endorsement.
I would like to read that book but I'm a bit backed up on reading right now....
Sorry to thread jack here, but I wanted to quickly point out this thread to the green-inclined people because it has a great link to an article about sustainable power generation using a solar tower. I thought some may find it interesting...
mightylittle - i just read omnivore's dilemma recently - it really got me thinking.
it's frustrating that knowing what you're eating has gotten so complicated. i, personally, would prefer not to eat conventionally. i had heard a decent amount of information before reading the book, so i wasn't incredibly shocked by the ways conventional food is raised.
but it did really get me fired up to find a csa or local farm. i already shop at a local veggie and fruit market/store, but i know not all of it is local.
a great resource is localharvest.org - it tells you all of the local farms, farmers markets, etc. in the area.
i don't know how far you've gotten in the book, so i don't want to throw too much out there - get beyond where you're at.
Does anyone else have a grocery co-op in their city like the PCC? I haven't heard about anything like this in LA, so it's one of the things I'm looking forward to about Seattle. That sounds pretty geeky, but yes, I'm looking forward to the bountiful organic options in my future home. I'm tired of all the processed junk and knowing that everything I buy at the market is absolute crap.
here in the bay area, there's lots of options...seattle has bountiful produce as well.
there's some great farmer's markets in LA, but i don't know offhand of any good coops.
the big one in SF is the Rainbow Grocery which is great. they even give an additional 10% off for SF Bicycle Coalition Members! Neat-O.
i've been a supporter of CSA's or community supported agriculture for most of the last decade. it's probably the best way to get produce. always seasonal, always direct from the farm. but don't buy into the veggie-box, or the organic box delivery services. they're just middle men who buy commodity organics from wherever is the cheapest.
csa's are the most efficient way to financially support your local organic farmers...farmer's markets are great, but it costs the farmers money to get there, if the weather is lousy they lose tons of money in un-sold product, and they have to have labor to man the booths, etc. with the CSA format, you prepay and help share the burden if the season is tough. and it's not like you'll starve, you can always head out to the store!
real CSA's generally have a bunch of centralized drop-offs around your town/city, often within a reasonable biking distance. i get my produce from Full Belly Farm which is up in Capay Valley, Yolo County CA.
as laurilan mentioned, localharvest.org has great resources for CSA's.
in fact - there's 44 listings for seattle:
really great stuff.
We also do the CSA, Tierra Farms in Santa Rosa. A box of vegetables and free carrots for the kids when you pick up the veggies. They also encourage you to walk around the farm and enjoy the free blackberries!
You can't beat that.
j
Great story yesterday on Marketplace about renewable energy and "conflicting sustainabilities" in Southern California. Here's a synopsis....
Apparently "Los Angeles wants to become the "greenest and cleanest city in America," in the words of its mayor: 20 percent renewable power by 2010." (woo hoo! here I come...) Anyway, there is a movement afoot to tap into geothermal fields east of the city in the desert to help accomplish this. Preservationists have taken issue with this plan because the power lines between the geothermal energy source and the city would stretch through miles of an "ecologically sensitive desert wildlife preserve". The story goes on predictably....I find the part about the place called "Pioneertown" fairly silly.
Conflicts like this, where environmentalists are pitted against, um, environmentalists really frustrate me. It reminds me why so many people scoff at the environmental movement.....I often think that there is a huge faction of environmentalists who are keen to say, "you can't do this or that" but rarely try to offer alternative solutions to what I feel is constructive progress in sustainability.
hmmm, apparently the ones listed as farms in the area are honeyfarms! Looks like the best bets for me are the PCC markets and/or the weekly farmers markets.
WonderK- this is a big problem within any venture, but things like ecology and preservation are especially vulnerable to criticism about it because they are not mainstream. What about medical practice? Weight loss? event art and architecture? Don't the jerk people around a bit too, arguing amongst themselves, not presenting a clear solution to percieved problems? Absolutely. But people put up with it or don't put up with it based on their percieved need for the service. People aren't putting up with it in architecture judging by the number of buildings built by developers and contractors vs. architects. People put up with it in medicine only because they absolutely have to. They criticize environmentalists for it because frankly it's easier for them to go about their daily lives as they always have, and use the indecision as an excuse not to do anything.
Damnit, now you've got me all riled up.
wk- the back story is the business as usual failure of the LADWP to look into alternate routes for the power lines. It's not like there is only one route into the city... This is typical of DWP technocrat looking at the small picture only and not seeing the forest for the trees.
so who wins, wild flowers or energy guzzling people? typically the power lines win...
i'd argue that a road is more environmentally damaging then a transmission corridor- more habitat fragmentation/distruction, more disruption to the hydrological cycle, more heat island effect, more pollution (from oil, brake dust, vehicle emissions), and soil compaction to name a few. transmission lines do cause erosion, habitat destruction/fragmentation and EMFs, but the actual foot print is small (and they provide perches for birds). Ok you might be able to see the transmission lines from further away then the road.
rationalist, they're really all honeyfarms?? well, at least you'll never run out of royal jelly!
i'm sure once you get to the markets and start talking to the farmers, you'll find out who runs a CSA.
tk/wK - does this sound like a similar issue to when they paved the LA river basin because the dominant theories at the time thought it would be a better solution to runoff? and by theories i mean greenwashed developers and their agency hoodwinks of course.
i agree that a transmission line (even with the EMF's and fragmentation) is far less damaging (as far as we know...given the disagreement on EMF's) than a conventional automobile corridor would be.
but it's being parsed like the "debate" on global warming. there is no debate. the "debate" was created by folks who wanted to run the status quo for as long as possible, so murdoch/fox/wolfowitz/whitman played it out as "well gee whiz people, the science just doesn't add up!"
now they just pit environmentalists who are in favor of saving habitat against environmentalists who are fighting conspicuous consumption...little do they realize they're on the same team.
what would happen if we ran this place?
neat site I just found: Urban Environmental Report gives a scorecard for the cities on the map below...
detroit is the ranked worst and fargo (fargo??!!!!) is the highest ranked city
tk & mighty....I agree. And I figured there were other ways for the transmission lines to go, and of course they probably cost more money, which is why they are trying to go straight through the "wildlife preserve". I can't wait to see how LA is going to be the "greenest and cleanest city" in America.
By the way...I've been to Fargo, and there is nothing environmentally friendly nor healthy about Fargo, I don't care how they ranked them.
i've always thought Gary, IN, was high up on the environmental scorecard.
Gary, Indiana is the nastiest place in the country. It is truly a hole. I am sorry for anyone who might live there, but for god's sakes, move, before you grow a 3rd arm!
whooo, I'm definitely going to be moving up in the world, from city #62(!!!!! out of only 72! Get your ass in gear, LA) to city #7. I expect my lungs to thank me.
Phoenix was rather higher up than I expected, I thought it'd be near the bottom by LA. Maybe it got out of all the water quality categories by virtue of not actually having any water to test?
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