:: aribra ::

by James Bedell

I spent this past Saturday hanging out with my brother-in-law Mike and my niece, Olivia. Watching her this weekend made me think of sustainability. Holding my three-month old niece gives me a tangible feel for the future. At one point I was in a room with all of my sisters my neice and my mother, three generations of women.

The eldest born in the 50’s (sorry Mom) and the youngest born in 2009.  Looking at them all I can’t help but think of how much the world has changed over the source of that time-for a little perspective, Dwight Eisenhower was President when my mother was born…her grandchild was born at the beginning of the Obama administration. What amount of change will take place over Olivia’s lifetime? Will we create a sustainable culture in the US in her lifetime? Shouldn’t we? [...]

By Timothy Hughes

The titanic effort of changing our energy policy, land use policy, and indeed our entire economy is overwhelming and daunting. Often though, it is the simple step that can generate significant incremental impacts. Baby steps are a lot easier for the public to grasp on to and adopt as well, thus creating behavioral change and lasting momentum. When viewed in the right lens, individual baby steps can truly be the lever to create lasting change.

The KISS principle – “keep it simple stupid” – is something I need to keep in mind professionally every day as a lawyer. I am forced to boil down legal precedent, complex facts, and apply psychology persuade on a daily basis. If I cannot translate my experience and knowledge into a format that a client can understand, the client will not be able to grasp my advice in making decisions. If I cannot translate the facts, documents and law of a case into a format that a jury understands and agrees with, I will lose my case. [...]

by James Bedell

I recently had the opportunity to sit in on an Alcholics Anonymous meeting. Limited Disclosure: Who I was in the meeting for is private, hence the ‘anonymous’ but I will share that I am not in recovery, just an interested, supportive third party.

One lesson from the meeting really stuck in my mind. It’s a simple concept.

“Progress, Not Perfection”

Put simply, the idea is that a recovering alcoholic is going to falter on the road to sobriety. What AA encourages is continual effort toward becoming sober for life, because as they also acknowledge being an alcoholic is something you are not something you “have.” The concept encourages continual improvement, instead of a light-switch, where one turns off their desire for alcohol and never turns it back on.

I left the meeting and that simple phrase kept turning around and around. I wonder if the green movement in total, and the green building movement specifically, could you a dose of this thinking. I often read on professional boards and blogs about the dilemma of asking clients to take sustainability measures when they are not perfect solutions. [...]

by Christopher Hill

An article in a recent issue of Constructor Magazine, the publication of the AGC of America, makes a point that I have been making for a while, namely that sustainable building is here to stay.

The article quotes several contractor members of the AGC and essentially concludes that

Green is the new gold

I agree. Especially in tough economic times such as these, contractors and subcontractors need to distinguish themselves. Owners need to save money through more sustainable and energy efficient practices. Possibly more importantly, government is jumping into the breach to require such building practices, whether through building codes or LEED certification requirements.

Not only is such activity a moral imperative, but it makes good economic sense. For this reason construction professionals must learn how to “talk the talk” of sustainability. To miss this train could mean bankruptcy or worse given current trends. [...]

by Christi Elflein

Haiti is a country that has suffered for decades with widespread poverty, political corruption, environmental destruction, and natural disasters.  Last week’s earthquake was devastating and made worse by the situation it was already in.  The Haitians desperate situation has lead to 97% deforestation in the country, which has led to a lack of wood available to construct buildings properly.   The poorly built buildings crumbled when the earthquake hit, taking thousands of lives.

Following is a link to a New York Times piece filmed three weeks before the earthquake.  It highlights the links between poverty, natural resource mismanagement and the consequences that have occurred from past natural disasters and from last week’s earthquake.

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Much of the devastation in Haiti has been attributed to inadequate design, building materials and construction standards. The country has been challenged with insufficient infrastructure only to be shaken to its core by a 7.0 earthquake. A lot of lessons can be learned here about the important of infrastructure investment and what the possible outcomes could be in the wake of natural disasters.

From New York Times | Flawed Building Likely a Big Element

Engineers and architects who have worked in or visited Haiti say that substandard design, inadequate materials and shoddy construction practices likely contributed to the collapse of many buildings in the earthquake that struck Tuesday.

Cameron Sinclair, executive director of Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit design group based in San Francisco, said he was “horrified” when he visited Port-au-Prince and Gonaïves last October to assess the quality of construction there. [...]

by Liz Neves

Brooklyn 1766

From where I live, I can hear cruise ships sound warnings in the night. I can see sea gulls pausing in church towers. Sometimes, I think I can even smell the sea, or at least feel its misty kiss.

But from where I live, in my apartment or on terra firma (the sidewalk outside) I cannot see from where these signs come. I cannot see the sea.

For perspective, I live a block away from the second highest point in Brooklyn and about 1.5 miles from the Bay as the crow flies. If I got on my roof, I’d view slivers of the East River, bits of New York Harbor, a slice of the Verrazano Narrows. But I don’t have access. [...]

by Yahya E. B. Henry

“There are always two parties; the establishment and the movement.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Once upon a time in a land far away…

The last decade is not that far removed to start a fable but one thing is for certain, there were some characters and plots that took shape-for better or worse. What should we expect of the next year, decade? A foundation for the coming years was being laid in the latter part of the decade that hinted we may be seeing an era of personal accountability, corporate responsibility and community engagement. It’s evident in almost every aspect of our lives; from the All-State commercials on responsibility to Subaru contributing apart of every vehicle sale to a charity of your choice.

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by Tommy Manuel

Health is one of the most wished for gifts during the holiday season, both for ourselves and others. It’s often accompanied by the wishes for prosperity and happiness, but health, it’s the one thing that in many ways influences the realization of those other two wishes. Unfortunately, there’s no universal formula that if we all just applied would ensure optimal health for everyone. There’s just too many variables; genetic differences, behavioral variations (such as physical activity and dietary habits), physical handicaps, emotional dispositions, economic irregularities, cultural tendencies, and environmental conditions.

On the other hand, our efforts to grant that wish of optimal human health to everyone is happening on some level in each of these areas. It’s happening through research at the smallest coded level of our DNA, through the expanding fields of human behavioral science, through technological inventiveness that compensates for failed or damaged human parts and processes, through political and social reforms policies, and through environmental remediation and protection efforts. But, what about our cities, our buildings, the places we live, work, play, and rest? Sure, we’ve seen advances in sustainable materials and construction processes, and there’s little criticism found in using these when it comes to creating healthier indoor air quality and reducing the amount of raw material and energy necessary for their production. Advances such as these only have a passive impact on our health though.

Not everyone though thinks this is an acceptable limitation of our built environment. Architects Arakawa and Madeline Gins have been preaching, and practicing, a radical and controversial theory that our buildings and cities should not only optimize human health, but they should also strive to make dying a thing of the past! That’s right, if Arakawa and Gins had their way with architecture – and ultimately its influence on mankind – you and I wouldn’t have to die.

Interior, Bioscleave House, Arakawa & Gins

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by Christopher Hill

As I thought about my good friend Eeyore, and my prior post (and borderline obsession with children’s characters (a totally different issue)), I realized that many can (and sometimes do) take my attitudes and penchant for baby steps as skepticism toward the whole idea of sustainable construction and its necessity.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

I am committed in a very real way toward the idea of sustainability, I just feel that we are rushing headlong into the void without thought of potential consequences of our actions.  In the laudable zeal to make broad sweeping changes to governmental policy and building activity, I see the details being lost.  As I have posted before, here and elsewhere, I am at heart a risk management guy.  I see many issues through the same liability lens and feel that Murphy was an optimist.  For this reason (much to my lovely wife’s chagrin) I always look for the cloud in the silver lining (is that enough mangled cliches for one post?).

While I don’t think everyone in the “green” construction space should be thinking this way, we do need folks who are willing to look at issues as simple as a broken window or the potential for liability due to new technologies that are not time worn and tested as we move forward toward a more sustainable future.  This is not rocket science.  These are not high level policy issues.  We need to make sure that we consider the simple questions even if we don’t have the answers. [...]