Have you ever watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and thought to yourself, “Wow. That TV show sure is using a lot of resources. That aren’t green. Or environmentally friendly?”

Well, ReGeneration Productions is aiming to create a reality television show for you, dear reader. It’s called Sustain the Rain and it’s being billed as “Seattle’s first sustainability

Rose Thornton

makeover television show.”

Doesn’t sound like your cup of TV? Maybe you’re just imagining this from the wrong side of the fence. It turns out the TV show, which is the brainchild of Rose Thornton, pictured at right, is also seeking a host for the show and expert consultants.

Here is what the show is looking for: a green business consultant, a green transportation consultant, a green chef/food consultant, a green interior home consultant, a green exterior home consultant, a Pacific Northwest outdoors consultant and a green personal care consultant.

Everyone involved in the show must be well connected to Seattle’s environmental community, able to donate evening and weekend time during a pilot shoot this July and August, comfortable in front of a camera and passionate about the environment.

Sound like you? Then you need to e-mail Rose at rosecthornton@gmail.com to receive an extended list of qualifications. You also need to sign up to audition for a part. Auditions are this Saturday between 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. in the meeting room of the Greenwood Branch of Seattle Public Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N. Audition time slots last 15 minutes. Those auditioning for consultant spots must prepare a two to five minute description of how to “make-over” a lifestyle choice in your area of expertise.

Here’s to being a green movie star!

Last week, I had the incredible good fortune of being invited to listen in on a living building charrette. If you ever have this opportunity, drop what you’re doing and go. It’s worth the effort.

This charrette was for a project developed by GreenFab, a team headed by Johnny Hartsfield. If you don’t know Johnny, this is from his profile: “After working as an

Johnny Hartsfield

engineering technician for Snohomish County Surface Water Management and as a sustainable project designer for Mithun and Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd., he realized that developers, not designers, control our built infrastructure.”

So Hartsfield formed GreenFab and is in the process of developing a modular living building house. He envisions his project being well-priced, easily replicable and super green. (He also has a great blog here that he has taken a break from recently. He promised me however that it would be up and running again soon.)

The charrette last week was the first step in developing that project and seeing how it would really work. Just listening to the differing viewpoints between the people in the room - and then between the “greenies,” if you will, and the folks representing the modular construction company, Guerdon Enterprises of Boise, was fascinating.

For example, one of the living building challenge prerequisites says that a building either needs a green roof or needs to be set above the ground, so as not to take away

A house from Brad Pitt\'s Make it Right project in New Orleans sits above ground. Would a house like this attract or disturb you?

from the site’s ability to perform functions of natural hydrology. One of the gentlemen from the modular company was pretty disturbed by the idea of raising a house above the ground and the living area that would create for vermin below. He said he could not imagine anyone wanting to live in a house above the ground, or seeing that as an attractor.

But the whole point of this project, Hartsfield said, is to educate people and change opinions (while of course also creating a profit to keep the company in business). He said, “I’m doing this because I don’t want to work in any system that’s out there now. I’m tiered. I’m pissed off. And we’re going to get there…. Our job is to create the demand.” 

What do you think? Would you ever consider living in a building that was sited above ground? If a living building was available to you that cost around $120,000 plus the cost of land …. so let’s say $400,000 on the low side - would you do it? Or would you stick with whatever you can find in Seattle for that price?

You can weigh in below or answer my new poll at right.

Hybrid Architects is designing GreenFab’s modular home. Bright minds that attended the charrette and were fleshing through ideas included Jon Alexander of Sunshine Construction, Mike Broili of Living Systems Design, Judith Heerwagen of J.H. Heerwagen & Associates, Jonathan Heller of Ecotope, Chris Meek of the UW’s Integrated Design Lab and Sage Saskill of SAGE Designs NW, among others. Marni Evans of The Living Project led the charrette. 

On the other end of the fence, the Bullitt Foundation is also planning to develop a living building. I wrote about this in today’s paper here. The Stranger asked some great questions about urban density in regards to the project here.

What exactly the Bullitt project will be is still entirely in the air, though it could be a five story mixed-use project with retail, office and residential. More to follow later as the project progresses.

Bullitt also recently held a living building charrette, though I wasn’t invited to that process. Teams tend to be a bit cagey about letting a reporter sit in and hear the process of arguing through and figuring out what a project is going to be.

But listening in on GreenFab’s process was invaluable to me. So if you plan on developing a living building, please send this reporter an invite!

Want a job? How about becoming chief operating officer for the largest regional green building nonprofit? Well, then this is your lucky month because the Cascadia Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council is hiring.

Cascadia is waiting for you! (image courtesy of Cascadia).

That’s right. They’re looking for a new COO as current COO Brandon Smith is moving to the position of vice president of business development.

The new COO will be based in either Portland or Seattle and will be in the post by August 1st. The deadline to apply for the job is June 30.

Cascadia is also searching for a new administrative assistant. This is a part time position of 20 hours per week. It will remain open until filled with a tentative start date of July 20.

For more information or to apply, visit Cascadia here.

When reporting on environmental topics, I do my best to avoid thinking I know the solutions to any eco problem. Here’s why: environmental topics are tricky. Just when you think you know something is bad for you, it turns out to be good. Just when you think you’ve found the solution to a problem, it turns out your solution has a whole host of other problems.

Here again, is another example of that trickiness: a study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, did a full life-cycle analysis of emissions generated by different modes of transportation. And guess what? The study found that in some cases, riding the train could be just as bad or worse for the climate than riding a plane.

Could this really be more efficient than a train?

Now even though I avoid thinking I know the answer, my internal monologue immediately did a double-take. Or, more clearly, said, “NO WAY!”

This article, from NewScientist via the Environmental News Network, does a nice job of summarizing the information.

The researchers looked at 11 different modes of transportation - like the car, train, bus or plane - and then looked at emissions considering aspects like building and maintaining the vehicles and infrastructure, in measuring their effects on the climate.

According to the actual study, “Most current decision-making relies on analysis at the tailpipe, ignoring vehicle production, infrastructure, provision and fuel production required for support… We find that total life-cycle energy inputs and greenhouse gas emissions contribute an additional 64 percent for on road, 155 percent for rail and 31 percent for air systems over vehicle tailpipe operation.”

YIKES!

NewScientist explains the train vs. plane item: passengers on the Boston light rail, an electric commuter train, were found to emit as much or marginally more than those on a mid-size and large aircraft. This is partially because 82 perent of electricity in Massachusetts is generated by burning fossil fuels.

Occupancy also turned out to be a deciding factor. The researchers found that traveling 1 kilometer on a nearly empty bus during off-peak hours emits eight times more per month than taking the same bus at rush hour. Busses with only five passengers were less efficient than cars, including SUV’s and pick-up trucks.

Interesting, huh?

To read the study, click  here.