May is National Bike Month with special Bike to Work events occurring throughout the month in cities across the country.  It’s time to pump some air into your tires and get out there!  Biking to work is such an enjoyable way to commute.  You get fresh air, your heart gets pumping and you’re doing a good thing for the environment while you’re at it. 

The Today show and Self Magazine ran a special segment on biking to work last week.  According to the segment, 50% of American’s live within 5 miles of work.  And if you bike to work three times a week, the average person will lose 10 pounds in one year.  Now think of how much weight you could lose if you bike more than 5 miles three times per week. 

If you don’t have a bike, borrow one, rent one or buy one.  Bikes choices have expanded lately.  You don’t have to have an expensive road or mountain bike.  Try out a comfort bike, a beach cruiser, ones with greaseless chains (so you don’t get grease on your dress paints), and ones that fold to fit into your cubicle.  Your local bike shop will be happy to help you find the perfect bike for you.

Many cities throughout the country are planning group rides throughout the month.  Check out www.bikeleague.org for information about special events in your area.  It’s safe.  It’s good for you.  You’ll save gas money.  It’s let’s stressful.  And it’s good for the planet.  I hope to see you in the bike lanes!

Mercury exposure in humans primarily results from eating fish that contains methylmerucry. Mercury is primarily a neurotoxin, which means it attacks the central nervous system. Its effects are often subtle enough not to be recognized immediately, but more and more people are learning that their health problems could be due to mercury exposure.

~Oceana.org

I love seafood. More specifically, I love sushi. I mean really love it! This post isn’t about my adornment for sushi but to explore what health effects consuming the wrong amount of sushi can have on myself and other human beings, I have at least some reason to explore this further:

Sushi eater? [check]

Bad swimmer? [check]

Kids? [uncheck]

Plans for kids? [check]

After watching The Cove, my interest grew in learning more about where my food was coming from. The film highlights how many restaurants have been serving its customer’s dolphin meat which has extreme high levels of mercury; the numbers are quite revealing. The primary focus of the Cove’s producers is to tell the story of dolphin slaughter in a small, relatively unknown, Japanese island. The Cove took top honors at this year’s Academy Awards for Best Documentary.

Margie McClain, Georgia Field Organizer with Oceana, invited me to be a part of an event that would raise awareness around the issue of mercury pollution. My experience with oceans or marine biology is quite limited but as a sustainability advocate, this made perfect sense for me to get involved with. Mercury is something we have not discussed here at Aribra.com and found this to be a great time given what’s going on with House Bill H.R. 2190, the Mercury Pollution Reduction Act. This bill would mandate the chlor-alkali industry to modernize their plants that emit mercury into the environment.

This Friday, I’m taking part in “Fill the Gills Pass the Bill: Mercury Free Pub Crawl”. I’m excited to be apart of the effort to raise awareness about a very important issue. What are your communities doing to promote better air and water quality?

The pundits all say it. The skeptics believe it, they all say that America can never be a “green” nation. We will never lead the world in sustainability. America will fall behind because she doesn’t care about the environment she only cares about rabid consumerism, after all the “green” brand has already been bastardized beyond recognition anyway….

Enough.

Of course green will never scale. Green will never scale because “green” doesn’t mean anything. “Green” is a movement, a way of thinking, it’s not a product. There wasn’t a “mobility” movement that spurred the automobile to scale, there wasn’t an “information” movement that got a computer on every desktop in America. These were incredible products of immense value to their customers to the point where most Americans can’t fathom the idea of living without a car, a computer, or (multiples of) both.

When skeptics tell you “green won’t scale” tell them “you’re right.” But also tell them what will scale. What will scale is a superior class of building accessible to all. Tell them that what does scale are profitable retrofits of existing buildings. The conversion of buildings from energy sucking, health depriving, creativity sucking, productivity killing cinderblock dungeons to life affirming, productivity enhancing, health improving, energy neutral spaces that people are actually thrilled to live and work in every day will scale.

Enough defending green. Start providing such a vastly superior product it doesn’t have to be defended.

Green means defending Al Gore. “Green” means fighting with Glenn Beck. Green means having your building being spoken of in the same breath as organic home remedies. Green means fighting about how many degrees it was in Antarctica this winter or the distance between polar ice chunks…meanwhile our building stock still sucks.

Forget green. Make it better, better does scale.

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? Shouldn’t we make certain hers is a life free from an energy crisis? Free of water shortages and dirty air? Shouldn’t she be able to grow up in a world where she can be anything she wants to be and not be concerned about the ramifications of her actions on the planet…because her way of life is part of a sustainable system and culture?

Olivia and her generation will face a whole host of challenges we can’t even imagine yet. Creating a truly sustainable culture will be the work of generations…but shouldn’t we give her a head start?

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.

Construction, land use, transportation, and energy policy certainly have their aspects of extreme technical and political complexity. The KISS principle certainly applies here as well, including introducing sustainability as a value into the decision-making processes in these fields. In the context of sustainability, there is another double meaning. The KISS principle can help keep the sustainability conversation focused, productive and manageable and help keep the uninitiated or unmotivated from being overwhelmed. In addition, keeping things simple is where we need to head on a regular, day to day basis to make lasting changes with regards to our economy, energy policy, land use policy and the environment.

I recently saw a blog post with something so simple, so obvious but also carrying such wide implications it resonated with me. The city of Portland has long been a progressive source of environmental thought and advocacy. As reported on the very interesting site GOOD, Portland now has three separate tool libraries. Having spent a lot of money on tools over the years that often sit unused in the garage, this seems like a very obvious and very useful service. While Stanley in particular may not like this concept, overall this is the type of simple step that can create huge ramifications on reducing the intensity of material extraction, energy usage, and reducing our environmental footprint dramatically.

We need to think of the big picture in terms of land use and community planning. We need to foster change in the market towards denser urban and transit oriented development and away from sprawl and McMansions. At the same time, we need to remember that cultivating simplicity and finding structures and mechanisms to encourage that simplicity can also have a tremendous impact.

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.

“How can we ask them to switch to fluorescent when there is Mercury?”
“How can we ask them to switch to solar, when the waste stream isn’t managed?”
“How can we recommend LEED accreditation when, the NY Times posts articles doubting LEED’s effectiveness?”

It’s not that each of these questions don’t have merit, they do. Solving these kinds of problems through the development of best practices is something Build2Sustain is committed to. That said, the perfect cannot continually be enemy of the good. Apply the “progress, not perfection” mantra and we’ll see forward movement when it comes to increasing efficiency and therefore the sustainability of the built environment.

Does that make a perfect a building stock? No, of course not. To create one would be the life’s work of every design/build professional, but it’s a start.

Progress, Not Perfection.

Let’s get to work. 

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.

Of course the risks must be taken into account. Contracts must be drafted in such a way that those performing the work are not held accountable for uncontrollable human interaction with a building so that contractors and subcontractors will be ready to do what is necessary for a sustainable building future. A qualified construction attorney can help.

In short (like that isn’t too late at this point), while construction professionals must learn to build “green” to survive, they also need to make sure they don’t die trying.

As always, I strongly encourage comments below. Also, please check out my Construction Law Musings for other information on sustainable building and other construction topics.

“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.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HNKqffU3Cc

If you’ve read my other blog posts, each is sprinkled with a sense of optimism and cautiousness. I don’t doubt we have what it takes to create a more just, equitable society but am often leery of the human element. Given the right opportunity, visions of sustainability, curbing climate change and any other worthy cause can go out of the window. Take a look at the weeks that followed 9/11. Everyone was patriotic; American flags were on nearly every lawn, car and bumper sticker. At that time, I felt a sense that our States, well, were United. Though quite horrific, those events have fallen into memory and serve as a guidepost that marked a decade. Do we move on or dwell on the past you ask? We move on with the same conviction that together we are stronger than any challenge our nation faces.

As a 30 year old American, this new direction is somewhat of a culture shock. Many in my generation were raised on the premise of “more, more, more” being the standard for success. We believed that having the biggest house, car, bank account and TV signified status or “making it” -- I don’t think that will be the case as we move forward. I’m not suggesting we don’t want to be successful in our respective careers but the way we measure success has no doubt changed. In James Bedell’s “Why We Will Save The World”, he noted that “people are the new profit” and that “less is the new more”. I couldn’t agree with James more.

“So goes GM, so goes the country.”

The US automobile industry was pushed to the brink of disaster before an overhaul began. I personally didn’t support the auto bailout or any other federal intervention but was aware that without it, it could have easily tilted our country in another depression-easily. So what of capitalism? I’m not an economist but am of the opinion that the human element trumped reason on this one.

Moving forward our industries must evolve and commit to investing in R&D, infrastructure and education. Watching CBS Sunday Morning’s recent coverage of the last decade showed that the US created 0% jobs (zero) in an entire decade. Our labor market is suffering because we haven’t worked to create new industry domestically and trade policies have effectively shipped American ingenuity abroad for production and redistribution back to us.

With a defunct energy policy, declining dollar, lackluster labor and housing markets, the push is now toward sustainability, efficiency, buying local and community engagement. What happens when our GDP is growing, our communities are stable, CO2 emissions decrease and rail becomes a viable transportation alternative in the states? If our economy is to grow, history shows us that we’ll need innovation to push the limits of what we can accomplish. As those innovations come to market, legislation will be slow to understand the affects they’ll have on the public long after fortunes have been made and fortunes lost, hence the financial crisis.

I advocate growth, change, prosperity and hope. However, I’m well aware that what goes up must come down. America will recover. We will prosper again and again, we will become complacent.

I look to the past for clues and I’m cautiously optimistic we’ll get it.

**

Download Build2Sustain’s White Paper “It’s Time To Jump Into Sustainability”.

The current economic crisis offers a chance for a paradigm shift. We should not waste this opportunity by returning to the status quo that existed before the downturn or even pining for that unsustainable state. Instead, we should embrace rethinking our economy, and in particular our land use, development and construction policies.

We are already seeing some economic changes relating to the downturn. Prior to the economic freefall over the last year, savings rates had dwindled to literally nothing. With the modest level of recovery, some are bemoaning the lackluster spending on American consumers. What we are seeing is actually a rebound of more healthy savings rates rather than a continued hunger for excessive material goods fueled by debt financing. Count me as one who sees this as a long term win even if it means a slower recovery.

The downturn has had disparate impacts that in some markets are directly tied to land use policy. In urban style Arlington County, Virginia, the recession has certainly slowed business growth and hurt specific businesses. Overall, however, property values have dropped only very modestly in the midst of a global downturn. The 2009 budget actually called for a 4.4% budget increase while 2010 recommended a very modest 1.3% decline. These budget estimates reflect a modest drop in property tax revenues associated with a modest property tax increase and moderate value decreases.

By comparison, Prince William and Loudoun Counties experienced spectacular numerical growth fueled by huge sprawling single family subdivisions which feed into clogged arterial highways. These regions have suffered precipitous drops in property values and high foreclosure rates. For example, in 2006, Prince William recorded a total of 249 foreclosures. In 2008, this number jumped to 6,549. These jurisdictions are now struggling to shift their focus and development approach.

Transit oriented dense development has demonstrated a more sustainable environmental footprint and economic framework in challenging times. This intersection of economic and environmental sustainability makes the discussions blooming at places like Aribra and Build2Sustain so exciting and timely. Sustainability requires both economic and environmental consideration and in the end, both are truly symbiotic.

On one level, I see these changes and events as looking forward to the future. On another very different level, I see them as harkening to the better part of our nation’s past. I was raised in large part by my grandparents, children of the depression. My grandfather served in both World War II and the Korean War. Their generation, rightfully called the Greatest Generation, worked, fought, scrimped, and challenged our nation to success. It was these qualities of talent and character, coupled with a wealth of natural resources and a structural backbone of democracy and freedom that constitute what I associate with the phrase “American Exceptionalism”.

Over the last few decades, I believe we have strayed far from the ideals of the Greatest Generation. Deficit financing of excessive consumer goods does not match that generation’s value system. Folks who trumpet the theory that American Exceptionalism means we are “the best” and therefore can swing our global weight around do not get it either. It is not that we ever were or thought we were better than anyone else, but rather that the Greatest Generation did what they had to do and got it done. In fact, this co-opting of the Greatest Generation’s spirit in political discourse runs counter to the very concepts of humility and service that ran at the core of the Greatest Generation.

I think about these themes quite a bit in my daily life, my legal practice, and talks amongst friends. I was so struck when my friend and twitter pal James Bedell recently commented on this very theme in a post The End of American Exceptionalism. If this concept is about permanent US world domination, that is not reality in my book: what goes up, must eventually come down. I grew up pondering the theory of cost of empire and the fall of the Roman Empire. I was part of the guinea pig test history classes for Paul Kennedy’s widely respected The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, a tremendous book that still rings true decades later.

In the end, I agree with James that the world hungers for, loves and purchases our “culture”, but I believe to my core that what is perceived as American culture is part of the problem and not the solution moving forward. American Exceptionalism started and maintained from a very different set of core values, and those core values propelled us in large part to our success. In the end, it is about a more modest set of assumptions and expectations, values based on service and leadership rather than consumption and domination. These values in turn fit directly into developing a more sustainable model of growth and the economy moving forward. These values are ours to embody and demonstrate or to ignore and discard, so in the end, the question of whether American Exceptionalism is alive is up to us.

To many it seemed 2009 just started but for some of us, we’re delighted to see it come to a close. This has been an incredible year of transformation both personally and professionally. 2009 brought about a few changes I don’t think anyone saw coming; an unlikely president, social media became the buzz, climate change took center stage and I turned 30 to name a few.

I’m hopeful that as we usher in 2010, we will see more and more opportunities present themselves as we rebuild our economy and move toward a more sustainable future. With the help of some great minds, I’ve made it my challenge to establish a platform to share ideas with Aribra.com – mission accomplished.

If you have been following the blog,  you’ve received an education on permaculture, geography, land use, sensible green building, global vision, public health and we’re just getting started! I’m not out to ‘change the world’ per se but raise awareness and perhaps inspire a mind or generation that will. We’re only as great as the person next to us.

There is an NBC campaign that promotes awareness and personal responsibility with “The More You  Know”. Well, now you know that we have hope; that sustainably isn’t just a buzz word; that we are the future and are apart of a generation that will stand together and combat some of our greatest challenges.

May you continue to be blessed and prosper in the New Year!

Onward. YEBH