The other day, I was talking with Pam Worner, top dog at Green Dog Enterprises (yes, that’s her official title) about a new green house project. When Pam just about shocked me out of my chair with the following sentence: “We had the best year ever last year but not without a lot of anxiety.” That’s right; 2009 was her company’s best year ever.

First, some history. Green Dog Enterprises is a consulting firm that has been around for four years. It “promotes

Pam Worner

green construction practices and helps businesses succeed in the green building market.” It has three employees, including Worner, the business’ founder.

She has worked on a number of cool projects, many of which are listed here.

To survive this past year, Green Dog did a number of key things. First, it didn’t turn down any job and expanded the kind of work it did. It did consulting, marketing, verification and worked in niches that weren’t being filled. Second, it spread out geographically to areas that green building consultants don’t always concentrate on. Areas like Pierce, Thurston, San Juan and Jefferson counties. Third, it cut overhead and moved into an office in Worner’s house.

In other words, Green Dog worked with 50 different clients in 2009. That’s up 50 percent from the year before, Worner said.

Worner said a lot of her growth came from areas outside of King County. In King County, she said, “you probably can’t swing a cat without hitting some sort of green building expert.” But those experts don’t always go to neighboring areas where demand for green systems and projects are also growing exponentially.

Still, there was a lot of anxiety about surviving. But for every one thing that disappeared, another two things reappeared, Worner said.

Worner only works with green projects and attributes her success in the past year to that work. She said she knows of several builders who say that it is the green focus that has kept them competitive during the downturn.

Moving forward, Worner is confident she can continue her momentum. “This will be an even better year.”

Tomorrow and Saturday, Martha Rose (the “queen of green”) will be hosting wine and cheese parties at her

Martha Rose at the development site

newest development, Fish Singer Place. The event features a behind the walls tour. It runs from 2-4 p.m. on Friday and from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. To attend, meet up at 15715 Dayton Ave. N., Shoreline Wa. 98133.

To watch a video about the project (with a really catchy song), click here. To learn more about the project, visit the project Web site here or click the tab ‘green developers’ below to learn more about this project.

There’s a story from yesterday’s Associated Press which is absolutely fascinating, not just for what it says in print but for what it says between the lines.

The story, called ‘Homebuilders Sticking with Less-Is-More Approach,” talks about housing trends at the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas.

The Salveo. An efficient townhouse project in Discovery Park that targeted LEED platinum certification

There’s a few things in the story that caught my eye:

• According to a survey from the National Association of Home Builders, the average size of an American house shrank about 100 square feet last year to about 2,400 square feet while the percentage of homes with three or more bathrooms fell for the first time since 1992.
• Builders said they’re less likely to build homes this year with outdoor kitchens, media rooms and sunrooms. The next generation of homes is more likely to have a walk-in closet in the master bedroom, a laundry room, energy-saving windows, energy efficient lighting and appliances and an insulated front door.
• Up to a quarter of all new homes built last year received an Energy Star rating. That’s up from 11 percent in 2007.
• Solar energy continues to be a big draw.
• And pricey green products won’t be driving the recovery. Many homebuyers are eschewing energy-saving features and recycled products that don’t offer enough quick savings.

I’ve had a few interesting articles in the DJC this week. If you’re not a subscriber, you’ve been missing out!

First, an article published on Monday discussed what local green contractor Martha Rose had to do to get financing for her latest 4-home project. Turns out she had to fund part of the project herself and educate (many, many) bankers on just how sustainable a builder she is. (Rose believes in continually improving her green credentials. Her latest projects employs a number of Passive House techniques and is striving to be a net zero development). That story was carried by the AP - so anyone can read it, even if you don’t have a subscription. The story is located here at The Tacoma News Tribune and here at The Seattle PI (who do you want to give your advertising dollars to?)

Second, an article I wrote appeared in yesterday’s (Jan. 5) edition regarding the first straw bale structure in Seattle to receive a permit. The project was completed last fall and was built by the community via a number of different work parties. As part of my reporting, I visited the home addition, which has a bedroom in it. The space was beautiful but what struck me most about the space was how different it feels… it somehow seems more safe and secure than your stick built home (likely thanks to the walls that are around 20 inches thick!) It also is extremely, extremely quiet… and comforting.

Have you been in a straw bale house? What was your experience?

There were a number of photos I didn’t get to include in the story so I’m including them below for your enjoyment:

An outside view of the edition

An inside view

A small window showing the staw behind the wall (and some cute, lil animals)

Architect Sage K. Saskill and home owner Brenda Abjour

Interior view of the window without people in it

Third, also in the Jan. 5 edition, I wrote a story about Art Stable, a new development in the Cascade neighborhood of South Lake Union. More on this later but the team is using an innovative combination geothermal and piling technique, which allows the system to make sense financially. Fun stuff!

What does the future hold?

Generally, I’m not one for predictions. So I’m letting Parsons PR be psychic for me. Parsons, a local public relations group that only represents sustainable clients, recently issued this list of green trends for 2010. Here’s what they think is going to be hot. What do you think? Do we agree?

1. Green walls – Green roofs were all the rage in 2009 and their numbers will continue to grow - but why stop there? Incorporating green walls into a building’s design creates additional opportunities to reap the benefits of vegetative surfaces: added insulation; reduced stormwater runoff; absorption of pollutants; natural habitat for birds, bees and butterflies; and reduced outside noise.
2. Living Buildings – More comprehensive than LEED Platinum and beyond net zero, the Living Building Challenge is the highest standard of sustainability in the built environment. Functioning as complete, natural and self-sufficient systems, Living Buildings represent a radical step forward in green building when there is growing consensus that the time for baby steps is past. 2010 will be a big year for Living Buildings; four years after the launch of the Challenge, the first Living Buildings are finally expected to be certified.
3. Green retrofitting – President Obama is planning a new federal economic stimulus plan that will train workers in home energy audits and green retrofits.  New and green is sexy, but the bulk of the opportunity to address energy efficiency lies with our existing inventory of buildings.
4. Indoor Air Quality – With one in four Americans suffering from allergies and/or asthma and with Americans spending 90% of their time indoors, tighter and more energy-efficient homes demand more attention to IAQ.  The EPA has updated rules coming on line in 2010 with new requirements for remodeling work to reduce the harmful impacts on children and adults.
5. Green neighborhoods – An individual green building is great, but again, why stop there? It’s time to make the whole neighborhood green too. Walkability, transit-oriented development, smart growth principles ? all elements of a green neighborhood.
6. Green modular – Mostly factory-built and assembled onsite, modular housing poses several benefits - monetary savings, reduced material waste and less time onsite, for starters ? that will propel the green building movement forward in 2010.
7. LED lights – Commercially and in homes, LED lights will become more mainstream in 2010. Previous problems in design and distribution are being corrected. And even though LED lights are still a little pricey, consumers are getting savvier about the life cycle assessment of the products they choose, as well as the long-term pay-off of using a more sustainable lighting alternative.
8. Environmental labels – Like the nutrition labels on food, green building labels offer easy-to-digest data and performance metrics for building materials.
9. Performance counts – We’ve seen the modeling for green buildings, now we want to see some results. In other words, prove it! In 2010, expect to see more and more studies from academia, non-profits and corporate America that document the rental premiums, cost savings, health benefits and long-term investment value of green.
10. Updating community and homeowner association rules – Rules hindering environmentally-friendly behavior are being overturned: clotheslines are back, white roofs are okay, and compost bins and recycling containers are a point of pride, rather than hidden away.

Well, everyone, it’s (almost) a new year. Looking back, 2009 has certainly been…. interesting.

Summing up: the U.S. got a new president, Seattle got a new mayor, energy efficiency got a lot more attention and the economy continued to move along on its (very) bumpy path.

Now, looking on to 2010, there are a number of things on the horizon. Both nationally and locally, it looks like existing buildings will be getting a lot more attention. It also seems like 2010 will be the year that Living Buildings really start to pop up, both in the Puget Sound and nationally.

And then, there’s the wildcard that is Seattle’s mayor-elect, Mike McGinn. What will he do? Where will he

Mayor-elect Mike McGinn

stand on environmental issues? What will be his pet issues (other than the viaduct)?

Before McGinn was mayor, I spent a lot of time listening to him introduce Great City events. Based on that, I suspect density, green buildings and transit will be seeing some interesting changes in the next few years, though only time will tell.

In the mean time, answer my poll at right and tell me what one thing you would have McGinn concentrate on in terms of the environment. In a perfect world, what should be the hot button issue? Living buildings? Density? Congestion pricing? Only you can tell me (and maybe McGinn if he stops by) what you’re most interested in.

Other than that, happy holidays to one and all! Also, please feel free to share with me your reflections of the past year from an eco-standpoint, or to tell me what other eco-issues you want McGinn to focus on. Remember, you never know who could be reading…..!

………………..happy holidays!

Energy efficiency has been a big topic this week. On the left coast, the city of Seattle moved closer to requiring that many buildings measure and publicly disclose energy use while on the right coast, New York City passed a package requiring energy audits and tune-ups every 10 years, among other actions.

These steps make sense. But they also seem to bypass a really big

Where should technology take us?

elephant in the room: our own, personal energy use at work.

Think about it. When you are at work, you aren’t paying for energy so it doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal if you leave the computer running all weekend or maybe run a space heater in the dead of winter. You likely work in an efficient building or you work in an energy hog. But either way, it’s the building’s energy use that gets measured when (or if) it applies for Energy Star status. There is no accountability between that number and your use of energy while at work.

Even energy software programs like this one, look at a building as a whole (though its “eggs” can be located on floors).

But a building as a whole is only part of the solution to improving energy efficiency. The other part, which is consistently ignored, is the users.

See, you never really know how a user will treat a building. Even that brilliant LEED platinum project can turn into an energy hog if everyone in it is plugging in multiple devices or using extra electronic equipment. Architects can guess at how a building will be used but that’s all it is: a smart, qualified guess.

To really get efficient buildings, there needs to be a connection between the building itself and the user. How do you make that connection? How do you get people to care about resources they are using when they aren’t paying for it?

One idea: instead of just measuring the entire building’s performance (which, I know is a feat in and of itself), why not also find a way to measure separate sections of a building and give that information to tenants? That way, users can at least begin to make a connection between the very nebulous idea of “building energy use,” and well…. us. The workers. The people using energy. That way, we no longer have the excuse of thinking “this is a LEED certified building, it will be efficient enough for me.” Or “this is an energy hog anyway, it doesn’t matter what I do.”

Heck, if I had a pop-up system on my computer that was half as annoying as my virus detector that told me when I’m using more than my fair share of energy and when I’m being efficient or even gave me that information on a floor by floor basis, I could understand how much I’m using. Maybe it would get people to turn off their computer during the weekend. Or maybe it would remind me to turn off my task light when the sun comes out (because hey, sometimes, I forget).

So, um…. how do we do that?

Locally, Washington Real Estate Holding’s LEED Platinum (for existing buildings) Park Place is at least starting down this very interesting road. I wrote about the building, constructed in 1971, in the DJC here. In the story, I said Park Place has a new online system that lets tenants, staff and eventually the public

Park Place in Seattle

Image courtesy Chris J. Roberts Photography

see its operation in real-time, including water capture, reuse, lighting and HVAC loads. The system measures water on a building level but also measures utility use on a floor by floor basis!

Floor by floor measurement still might not seem like it goes far enough, but it sure is a great start to at least seeing how much you - or you and your counterparts - use compared to the rest of a building. Park Place has 10 floors that are occupied by the EPA. Don’t you think actual energy use will affect the actions of people working on those floors?

What do you think about all of this? Are the politicians on the right track by starting with building energy use? Should that information be made public or is it proprietary? Do I have the right idea? Should we - as tenants of a building - see how much energy we are using or is our energy use not worthwhile when compared with building operation as a whole?

Heck, is there a building out there that already sub-meters individual spaces for tenants to this level?

I’d love to hear from you on this topic!

It’s a big day in the environment for the U.S.

First, the long-awaited climate talks have begun in Copenhagen. Second, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has formally determined that greenhouse gas pollution is dangerous, setting the stage for the U.S. to regulate emissions through the Clean Air Act.

Though I know about these issues, I’m not a national news reporter, so let me point you to some great resources regarding these two very important events:

Copenhagen. The New York Times has a team of reporters covering the two-week talks. The NYT staff will also be keeping the public up to date via very informative video posts here.

If you’re looking for a local perspective, nonprofit Climate Solutions’ eco guru K.C. Golden is attending the talks. He’ll be posting periodically on the CS Journal.

There’s also this resource for journalists that I’m sharing with you (shhh, don’t tell).

On a bit of a side note, there is an excellent look at how green Denmark really is, reported by Henry Chu of the Los Angeles Times and carried in today’s Seattle Times. The article points out that Danes throw out more waste than Americans and eat more meat than we do (whodathunkit?) However, what struck me most was although Danish people throw out more waste than we do, only 5 percent of that waste ends up in a landfill, compared with 54 percent in the U.S. (Washington’s recycling rate was 55 percent in 2008. Seattle recycles 50 percent of its waste).

On the EPA side, there’s the NYT’s Green Inc. blog with the story, the general AP story is here, and a (somewhat) local version of it is here at Natural Oregon.org.

Remember the post we ran last summer about a new, local green reality TV series called Mission: Sustainable? You remember: during show episodes expert consultants provide ordinary people with the tools to make more sustainable choices around transportation, home furnishings, landscaping, food, personal care and products….?

Well, it turns out the show has shot its first episode and is seeking to shop the concept to networks in

Mission? She\'s searching out sustainability!

2010. But before it gets there (and maybe gets really, really big) it is hosting a premier in Seattle in the middle of January… and is looking for partners.

Most importantly, the crew behind the TV show wants to host the premier on Thursday, Jan. 14 but it needs a place to do it. However, it needs the space for free, at a discounted price or via a sponsorship (remember, this whole TV idea is basically a grassroots effort created by Rose Thornton of ReGeneration Productions). The team is looking for a place that can hold 1,000 people and preferably has audio visual capabilities. It needs to confirm a space by Dec. 10. Dream locations include Town Hall, Fremont Studios, Olive 8 and Benaroya Hall.

It also is looking for a celebrity emcee to introduce the pilot episode, musical entertainment, local and organic food and beer and wine.

Want to help “the little TV show that could,” as co-host Megan Hilfer says? Contact Megan@parsonspr.com to do your holiday good deed! And if you’re looking for more information on what the show is all about, check out ReGeneration Production’s blog here.

If I were to take a poll, I bet that nine out of 10 people have seen at least one episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (commonly called ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover). I have now worked on two episodes and the most recent one was the first time ever in seven seasons that they have allowed a group to completely disassemble a home to the ground. I was asked to fly out and help deconstruct a 2,700-square-foot, two-story home in 15 hours, and that is exactly what we did.

Crews gather to re-make a home!

I won’t spoil the show by giving out details, but I can say that it opened the door to reusing materials in the new building and in the surrounding neighborhood. That my friends, is exactly what Extreme Home Makeover did! They immediately found ways to incorporate the materials in their plans and much of the lumber will never be more than a block away from the property. It is true that the show has its critics. Many of them complain to me that it glorifies demolition. If I had a TV, I would watch the show on a regular basis, but the few episodes I have seen do make demolition look ‘fun’.

Hopefully, we have opened the door for them on alternatives to demolition. Each show I watch seems to have a growing focus on green building and this might be the next step for them. Given the tight timeframe allowed for demolition and site work until now, they really haven’t had a choice. Our industry offered them no solutions given their extreme situation. For me, this is all part of the path toward making green building a mainstream choice, systematically pursuing projects that we couldn’t touch years ago, until we become an option for anyone interested. Over the last 16+ years working in the green building field, I have realized that my work consists of one part natural resource conservation, one part reduced energy demand and two parts basically helping people. This is the path of Extreme Home Makeover, so keep watching and encouraging them to raise the bar higher, because that is exactly, what I plan to do.

A picture of the home\'s foundation