Want a job as the sustainable infrastructure advisor for the city of Seattle Green Building Team and Planning Department? Well the job is open and waiting for you. There’s only one catch: the position closes on Tuesday.

Before you get angry on me for last minute posting, be warned that I just received

Is this the job for you?

this e-mail today. Now it’s your responsibility to move quickly!

The e-mail says the job is “a mid to senior level position.” Salary range is $32.42 to $48.63 per hour. The job that requires the person to have:

• Technical expertise in low impact development, district energy/thermal distribution systems, on-site water and wastewater processing and other decentralized technologies.
• Strong communication skills.
• Financial skills to develop the business case for solutions that may provide distributed benefits to a variety of business units and stakeholders.

You also have to have a BA degree and five years experience in government policy and public utilities. To apply, click here. Happy hunting!

I’ve spent the last two days at two very different but very intersting conferences. The first, King County’s Green in Place: From Policy to Practice conference, featured Gary Lawrence as the keynote speaker and during his talk (discussed at length in an article in the Sept. 19 DJC.. read it if you’re at all intersted in ths subject) he said something a little out of the typical routine:

 “If you’re involved in sustainable design and (not) addressing issues of equity and justice, you’re not involved in sustainability.”

Arup's Treasure Island project in San Francisco

He defined social equity or social justice as considering the impact your building and designing choices have on other humans. So instead of putting on that green roof, you consider how the extra steel needed to reinforce the roof will affect the lives of the people who will mine the steel. Basically you look at your choices from an all inclusive roundabout way.

It takes a lot of thinking. And for those people just entering into green building or sustainable design, it might be too much work to add on (at the beginning stage of the game).

But intrinsically, is Lawrence right? Can you, Mr. Architect or Ms. City Planner really call your work sustainable if you don’t consider all the different people your choice will affect both in the past and in the future? Or is it just too much to handle?

The question in itself is fascinating, and one that I, by my lonesome, cannot answer. What do you think?

P.S. (Lawrence’s resume could make most people’s eyes widen. He has been a former DPD planning director, UW professor, adivsor to the Clinton Administration’s Council on Sustainable Development, the United Nation’s Habitat II, the Brazilian President’s Office, the British Prime Minister’s Office, not to mention currently running Arup’s sustainable urban development globally.)

For more information, it turns out King County Executive Ron Sims has already tapped this topic in a keynote talk of his own. Read the press release. I don’t know much about the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, but it has some interesting definitions here.

The end of summer has been a big month for trees in Seattle. First, there was the Ingraham High School Debacle (if you missed it, read the Seattle Times story here). Then three trees on the Burke Gilman were murdered (see my colleague Shawna Gamache’s blog SeattleScape here). Now, Mayor Greg Nickels has announced interim

Trees at Ingraham

Trees at Ingraham

regulations to better protect our green leafy friends.

Now, for background, trees are one of the city’s priorities this year and both DPD and the Seattle City Council have been looking at ways to increase urban tree cover. But it seems like these two issues - Ingraham and the Burke Gilman - were the last straw to break the camel’s back. (Or just a shrewd move on the mayor’s part, either way.)

Chambers Bay carnage

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The new regulations, which would need to be approved by the city council to take affect and would only last until the official string of regulations are proposed, deal with an “exceptional tree.” Before, an exceptional tree was one with unique historic, ecological or aesthetic value, and was an important community resource. If the council passes this interim regulation, an exceptional tree will be one with substantial tree canopy, as well as groves of trees. The regulations will then prohibit the removal of all exceptional trees unless the removal is associated with a corresponding development permit.

For other trees, the regulations will prohibit the removal of more than three non-exceptional trees, 12 inches or greater in diameter in one year when not associated with a permit.

It will also increase penalties for willful or malicious violations of tree protections. Think this doesn’t happen often? See the gruesome cut in the tree above? That happened last spring at Chambers Bay (to read more click here).

Will make people think twice or will they keep employing gardeners who “accidentally” remove the trees in the backyard that were coincidentally imparing a view?

If you’re a developer who’s been asking for “expedited permitting” for green buildings in Seattle… you’re not going to get it any time soon. What you are going to get, however, is “facilitated permitting.”

Facilitated permitting means that for pilot projects accepted into the program (like Bruno Lampert’s Capitol Hill project pictured at left), you get one contact person at DPD who will identify problem code areas and help work through the issues with you. Only super green projects (comparable to LEED gold or platinum) will be accepted into the program… sorry LEED silver, you’re just not green enough. 

There are a number of code issues that sit in the way of going after really green systems. In fact, they pretty much run the gamut of topics depending on what you’re looking to do.

Bradley Khouri, architect with b9 Architects, is working on Urbansight, a project in the Priority Green pilot program. He said to really encourage green building, permitting needs to be quicker for green projects, it needs to be easier to deconstruct a project and the city needs to better recognize the use of stormwater on site. He also said zoning for infill development needs to be rewritten, but that’s another story.

What do you think are the code issues that need to change? (To read a past post on this topic, click here).

The city has been talking about launching an expedited permitting process for months, but when it came down to it, they didn’t want to guarantee projects going through the program would get through quicker than others, because they would have tougher code issues to deal with. For more on this topic, read my story in the DJC here.

So Seattle developers, if you want ”expedited green permitting,” you’re going to have to go to Kirkland…. they’ve got it for single-family green houses and are looking at it for commercial buildings. If on the other hand, you’re willing to pursue super green systems and are cool with the “facilitated” title, Seattle’s just the place for you.

This week, I (and a packed crowd at Seattle City Hall) heard Svend Auken, Denmark’s former minister for energy and the environment, speak about everything from energy to economics to the U.S.’s responsibility in a climate-conscious world (sign a post Kyoto agreement, lead the way).

Then, I sat down with him in a one-on-one interview to focus his attention a little bit more on buildings. What should we do, I asked? How should the construction industry attack the problem of a changing world?

His answer?  Government.

Government, he said, needs to make very, very strict rules and make it clear to people what they want out of a building. A good way to encourage that, he said, is by requiring an energy goal per square foot of a building rather than a whole-building goal. Once the goal is set, the industry will follow.

Of course government in Denmark is managed differently than government in Seattle and Washington. On multiple occasions, for example, Diane Sugimura, DPD’s director, has expressed exasperation at creating a balance between energy codes and letting untested technologies be used.  As a city government, she’s said, you don’t want to just start using something that might be more efficient but hasn’t been adequately tested. In Denmark, you can be fairly creative as long as you achieve the end energy goal.

But Auken said government has to be very strong on this. Yes, people will moan for a while, he said, but in the end it will make them more creative and will be more profitable (especially in an age of rising oil costs where energy bills are sure to “skyrocket”).

“Once you let architects think in terms of energy efficiency, they get more creative,” he said. “Architects love to do low energy, it’s so much more fun.”

How about it architects? Are energy efficient buildings (like London’s BedZED project above) more fun or a pain in the bum?

For more on Denmark, read my post from last week (click tag ‘Scandinavia’ below). For more on Auken’s talk, what Denmark did and how we could do it, check out my story here.

Face it: everyone who’s anyone in green design says the U.S. is way behind Europe. And one of the areas outpacing us further and further… is Scandinavia. 

Scandinavia’s sustainable strengths are no new feat in Seattle. Local group International Sustainable Solutions has been taking local building and city professionals there for years on a whirlwind eco-tourist trip. It is just about getting ready to kick of a Portland version of the trip,  more here.

Scandinavian speakers have also graced the Seattle scene every couple of months to teach us what we don’t know. One of them, Svend Auken, is going to be in Seattle again on Monday from noon to 1 p.m. He will be speaking at Seattle City Hall in the Bertha Landes room.

Scandinavia also reared its green head when I attended a forum at the UW a couple of weeks ago. At that forum, Jayson Antonoff of Seattle’s green building team (formerly with ISUSTAIN) spoke about how Scandinavia has focused on energy efficiency by looking at different energy producers, varying it’s idea of energy, and requiring buildings to meet an energy requirement per square foot.

For more on that story, and to learn what other sustainability leaders in the Pacific Northwest think about green solutions, check out the story in the DJC here. (more…)

Looking for a job in Seattle at the forefront of the city’s sustainability push? Do you have lots of experience with sustainable projects? Well, opportunity just came a knockin’. 

Lynn Barker, a mover and shaker in green building politics and policies, pictured at left, is leaving her post as sustainable community planner for the city of Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development’s  green building team. The grape vine says she’s joining ICLEI. What’s a sustainable community? Check it out here.

Do you want the job? Here are some highlights from Barker’s resume to see what kind of qualifications you should have. In 1995, Barker created a sustainable building program for Sellen Construction Co. In 1996, she co-chaired the U.S. Green Building Council’s committee that helped launch LEED. She served on the USGBC board for six years, and co-founded the Cascadia Region Green Building Council. GOOD LUCK APPLICANTS!

Technically though, you’re required to have a bachelor’s degree in urban planning and design, architecture, engineering, construction management, environmental science, economics or a related field. You also need five years experience in project management, planning and research related to urban planning, urban design, or climate protection and green building. It’s preferable for you to have LEED accreditation.

The job pays between $28.92 and $43.38 per hour. The filing close date is June 3, so get on it! To apply, press here. GOOD LUCK!

Dear reader, it is time to put your analytical (or more likely guessing) powers to the test: what exactly is it you see in the photo to the left?

If you said a mini-mansion, most likely inhabited by a couple or prim family of four, you are dead wrong. Instead, it’s a model of dense urban living that houses ten people in eight bedrooms.

This is where I stayed last week while attending Cascadia’s Living Future Conference in Vancouver, B.C. It’s a charming space that a developer bought, renovated and began renting out to young professionals and students in January.

It’s bright, daylit, airy and dense. It’s clean and well lit and is filled with amicable students and young professionals, including my sister. It’s within walking distance from a number of shops, bars and restaurants in a trendy family neighborhood. It’s a street away from a bus line and only a couple of the house’s inhabitants even have cars.

My only question? Why doesn’t this happen more.

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Want to be a critical member of Seattle’s green building team? Now’s your chance because the city of Seattle is looking for a new green building coordinator.

The person will “oversee and lead planning of market transformation strategies related to integration of City Green Building programs and awareness,” according to the job description.

But that’s not all. The person will also work a lot with the mayor’s office, be a spokesperson for the City Green Building Program, manage media relations and develop consultant contracts, among other activities. Whew!

If this person is you, you’ve got to have three years experience in one of a variety of fields that connects directly to planning and development.

Here’s the rub, I don’t know who you’re supposed to contact if you are interested. But you can always start with the DPD Green Building Web site here. Happy job hunting!

Hang onto your hats Seattle, our neighbor Vancouver, B.C., is gearing up to require all private developments in the city meet LEED silver.

Does this news make you go doe-eyed and giggly or does it stop your heart like a cold shower in January?

Either way, take a deep breath. It isn’t going to happen anytime soon in Seattle.

Diane Sugimura, director of the Seattle Department of Planning and Development, said Seattle is “looking at a wide range of things” to make buildings more efficient and will be watching Vancouver closely to see how it works with the planned LEED policy and developers. So it is a possibility, but not in the near future. Seattle also tends to take its time with these decisions, so there will most likely be a long lead time, should it ever come to be.

In Vancouver though, Brent Toderian, director of planning for the city, is instigating some major changes. To read Toderian’s blog, press here.

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