Eco-Rebels: New York architects Matthew Berman, left, and Andrew Kotchen won a competition to design "zero energy" housing for New Orleans. | Photograph by Dean Kaufman
Mazria, a 6-foot -- 6-inch gentle giant, was no newcomer to the green-design movement. In 1979, he published The Passive Solar Energy Book, which has sold more than half a million copies. But catalyzed by his firm's findings, he vowed to ramp up his efforts to get out the message. Like an Al Gore for the building trades, he began traveling the country with a multimedia presentation and a white paper entitled "It's the Architecture, Stupid!" It lays out, in urgent prose, the case for the building sector's culpability in climate change.
Every time an architect designs a building, Mazria explains, his decisions about orientation, materials, windows, and heating and air-conditioning systems affect energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions for 50 to 100 years.
And size counts. The average new U.S. home now measures around 2,400 square feet, up from less than 1,000 in 1950, a 140% increase. The average new house in Canada is only 1,800 square feet; in Japan, 1,000; in Britain, 815. "It's a one-to-one ratio," Mazria says. "If you're living in 4,000 square feet instead of 1,000 square feet, you're using four times as much" of everything from wallboard to flooring and furniture.
Mazria eventually left his practice to found Architecture 2030, a nonprofit organization that has challenged the building industry to reduce emissions by 50% by 2010 and be carbon-neutral in new construction and major renovations by 2030. The American Institute of Architects, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and even the federal government have signed on to his goals.
With a little imagination and a few billion bucks, Mazria now contends, the government could address both the struggling housing industry and the bigger problem of global warming. Speaking to the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference in Pittsburgh in March, he argued that a one-year investment of $21.6 billion targeted to increasing energy efficiency in the building sector would produce 216,000 permanent jobs, trim CO2 emissions by 86.7 million metric tons (MMT) annually, and save consumers $8.5 billion in energy bills. Extend that level of investment for five years, he says, and we'd create more than 1 million permanent jobs and save 433.5 MMT annually.
"The economic and global-warming crises are the motivation we need as a nation to retool our thinking," Mazria says. "If we're smart enough to jump on this opportunity, we will not only solve global warming, we will set up the U.S. for unprecedented economic success."
The house where Steve Glenn lives in Santa Monica is about as close as it gets to green-housing nirvana. Designed by noted California modernist architect Ray Kappe, it's a showplace that also produces its own energy, uses gray water to irrigate the lawn, and produces little waste and near-zero greenhouse-gas emissions. It's the first home in the country to be certified Platinum according to the USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.
One of the original partners in the tech incubator Idealab, a founder of enterprise-software company PeopleLink, and the director of an AIDS project in Mozambique for the Clinton Foundation, Glenn says he once wanted to be an architect, but by college had determined he had neither the talent nor the temperament for the profession. Later, he had an epiphany: "I realized that developers, not architects, control what gets created in the built environment." He confesses that he still finds his adopted industry, well, frustrating. "This development business doesn't scale as elegantly as technology," he says. "The clock speed is different."
Glenn's extreme-green house is both his own residence and something of a prototype for a line of homes he's now rolling out with Philadelphia architectural firm KieranTimberlake, already an industry leader in sustainable design. The venture is an ambitious attempt to make green and cool coexist. The biggest challenge, Glenn says, is not environmental features or high design. It's cost. At a pricey $250 per square foot for 2,500 square feet, plus another $40,000 for the foundation, his house cost more than $765,000 to build. And that doesn't include the price of the land.
His solution: prefabricated construction. It may have a bad rep with many consumers, but architects are increasingly enthusiastic. "Prefab allows you to build a house with smaller thresholds for tolerance," Glenn says, "and a tighter energy envelope." It also allows the high up-front R&D expenses for green components to be amortized across many homes and mitigates one of the biggest environmental offenses of conventional home building: the rubble left behind. Construction waste makes up 30% of landfills.
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Recent Comments | 20 Total
July 7, 2008 at 12:53pm by Carel Two-Eagle
I'm ordinarily opposed to blanket statements on the premise that one size never did fit all; at best, it fit 'some'. But - Smaller has ALWAYS been better, and it always will be; particularly when we're talking about buildings. (a) There are too many humans on the planet. (b) Humans of the western majority culture behave like spoiled brats when it comes to the environment that keeps us all alive. (c) Those same humans are adamantly opposed to taking responsibility for their numbers, their activities, and their effects - and "Americans" are the worst of them all. Bigger may be better if you're hunting bear, but never when you're thinking in terms of your environmental footprint. The days of cheap fuel and building materials are gone and with them, the freedom to be irresponsible. Humans did this to us all who share this planet, so humans have to get busy and fix the mess they created. Ostentatious is 'out'; tasteful and respectful are finally coming back 'in'. I rattle my tongue for this.
July 9, 2008 at 1:57pm by Benjamin Wojcikiewicz
This was a great article and does bring up some great points. What I still find rather disturbing is that in the United States we rationalize square footage beyond our needs mentally and then want the feel-good of an energy-star appliance to make it all better. The resource costs of maintaining these huge structures is something that is sapping our natural resources and increasing our overall carbon footprints...it's not just the materials, but the operation and upkeep.
According to the NAHB/ANSI Guidelines as well as the LEED guidelines, there are point reductions for homes sized over, I believe, 2500 sq. ft. The reason is the energy consumption for conditioning the space...you can have all of the green appliances in the world, but if that structure is poorly constructed, meaning leaky and not well insulated (hello shoddy construction of the McMansion), all of the green appliances, reclaimed timber or recycled glass countertops in the world aren't going to stop you from conditioning that space and using a lot of gas/electricity.
We all need to realize that it's beyond flashy materials that a structure can be constructed of and understand that true greening comes in performance. It may not be something that you can show-off to your friends like Ice Stone, Richlite, or low-VOC finishes; but until we rethink performance as luxury, we're all going to fall into the same trap.
July 16, 2008 at 4:07pm by Jim Salmons
This is an interesting and timely article. I was reminded of a '3R' (reduce, reuse, recycle) project of some friends of ours at an eco-village in western North Carolina. They built a multi-purpose B&B, conference center and extended family home structure using waste shipping pallets that were traditional burned rather than reused or recycled!
Check out 'Lay Your Pallet Down, Don't Burn It!' at the Sohodojo web site.
July 17, 2008 at 7:54am by Catherine Li
a eco-friendly,rewable constrction and decro materials--bamboo pole
Bamboo is a natural grass family plant, but it has hardwood texture and tapers from base to tip, Bamboo has fantastic merchanical properties, it shows average hardness of 1642kg/cm2, Density--720kg/m3 , tensile strength of 4340kg/cm2, bamboo is in its size, lightness and strength an extreme product of nature. It is stable and because of its cavities an extreme light and elastic decoration and building material. The reinforcement by diaphragms and its physical conditions cause its enormous superiority compared to other wood materials. It also was widely use for furniture, decoration materials as well.
Useful link http://www.chinabamboogarden.com
November 2, 2008 at 3:22am by Yeves Perez
I happen to deeply agree with the wisdom of Tom Friedman (that we cannot consume of way out of this mess and “Have you ever been to a revolution where nobody gets hurt?”). The fact is that the current economic conditions will cause a lot of companies to close their doors (websites too), and will die off altogether due to lack of understanding the competitive landscape. Those that will fight to stay alive will need to figure out — What’s Next?
I believe that the New Green Economy will include the Rise of Green Real Estate Markets paired with the continued success of Cleantech, Clean Energy Markets, and large scale shifts toward Clean Transportation, and the Greening of the IT Industries (plus a fourth quarter of record investment!!), which will lead to a boom in “American Made” Green Collar Jobs and the creation of new wealth. The trick is: “who will get it right??” Execution makes all the difference for most of these opportunities and green investors need to pay more attention to the items that management claim they can achieve.
I'd like to ask Mr. Mazria, Mr. Matthew Berman,and Andrew Kotchen if they had ever heard of the Eco Investment Club before? And if he would like to join us! The Club has hosted several high impact, educational meetings that cover these “newly hot topics” such as: “The Economic State of Green Building” with Guest Speaker Harvey Bernstein, Vice President of Industry Analytics, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives for McGraw-Hill Construction and Hosted by Citi Smith Barney’s Bruce Kahn, and the First Annual “Green Leaders Week”, which was a week-long buffet of events for investors, who were interested in getting face-to-face time with the Green Business Leaders of Southern California. The events of this highly successful week were designed to give Accredited and Institutional Investors, who were interested in getting a first-hand look inside the minds of Cleantech leaders, the opportunity to witness operations of some of the fastest growing companies by attending a series of “open houses”, starting with Envirepel Energy, Inc., a clean energy (BioMass) company in Vista, CA.
And as a special surprise: Ask Oren Jaffe, Co-Founder of EcoTuesday.com, your toughest questions on Nov 5th, 2008, as the Eco Investment Club attempts to provide direction and positive outlook for green investors and business leaders seeking answers before creating more Green Collar Jobs! The event is called, “What’s Next For The Green Economy??” Submit your questions at ecoinvestors@gmail.com and join the webinar at:https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/124526391 (Click here to register or learn more)
February 15, 2009 at 7:25pm by Tim Tessman
Quite an interesting article. Being GREEN, to me, doesn't mean diminishing a lifestyle so much as being smarter... doesn't have to cost a fortune either. It can pay for itself.
I am very interested in SIP's - Structural Insulated Panels, for greatly reducing energy use. Also LED lighting seems to be a quantum leap ahead of incandescent and CFL's. Heat pumps for heating and cooling.
Regarding SIP's, I would suggest you take time to look at LEEP Inc's metal-skinned SIP.
The 4" panel has an R25 value and is rated Category 5 for hurricanes.
Working on getting Certified GREEN in California.
> http://www.leepinc.com/product/specifications/
Good Luck.
March 11, 2009 at 11:19am by Neil Palmer
This is the way forward, I agree that green appliances only get you so far. We need to think further down the line than efficient cookers
May 8, 2009 at 3:57pm by Sam Small
Hey, how about another revolutionary new home construction method that's greener than anything yet? A house built almost entirely out of construction-grade structural bamboo! Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on the planet. Bamboo has been used for home construction since man moved out of caves only now is it available as graded and rated Code Certified construction material. Hunter Lovins talks about it in this interview on you tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ-Cz32_x6Efeature=channel_page
And you can see many of the over 150 code-certified, prefabricated homes they've built at the Bamboo Living web site: http://www.bambooliving.com