Green Studio Blog

Build Green

The Greenbuild Conference is coming up Nov 6-9th in Chicago. It's the mother of all Green Architecture, Design and Construction conferences, put
on by the USGBC (US Green Building Council) and I'll be attending. I hesitated to go due to time commitment, expense, and personal energy expenditure; not for long though.

Imagine in 4 days learning the latest products, construction materials, technology, LEED for Homes thinking, vendors, potential clients , and materials for my Casa Concept Green Home Showroom that I'm in the midst of launching, all in one huge McCormick Place! I'm counting the days. I will be podcasting, blogging and writing articles for my website. I will interview the leaders and players, and put forth sound thinking on how we can all be a part of the green movement.

I'm hoping to come back with a fresh outlook on how affordable it is to go green in home construction and design, given that I'm finding out, during serious discussions with clients, that expense is the #1 hurdle encountered for thoughtful, intelligent people to jump into the Green Home (LEED Home) movement.

I'm an advocate of green, healthy homes that should be available to all people who value them, therefore I will make it my mission to come back with -and share with you- answers on this dilema.

Come back soon. We can engage in further discussions about green homes and sustainable living.

Hitting the wall

Have you seen the famous wall, the Great Immigration Wall? I hadn't seen a visual, until now.

photo by Defenders of Wildlife

I wrote a blog earlier, IMMIGRATION AND THE WALL, which had nothing to do with the real structure.

It is about structures that it is necessary to talk about.
Houses in particular, are the genre of the built environment that I study.
The ultimate dream in any society, anywhere around the globe, is to own a home. Homes come in different shapes and sizes, with views to the ocean or mountains, or none at all, but what they have in common, these structures from around the world, is that they are built to last generations, if not centuries. Of course I don't mean the nomadic type structures, or the temporary ones built out of cardboard, hay and mudd. The materials used are non-biodegradable, meant to withstand the ravages of wind, sun, rains, and in many countries, seismic activity.

They are sustainable.

Wow! That's a concept!

It's a basic concept, and yet in our own towns and cities in this great United States we continue to build como caja de fosforos, like matchsticks in Spanish. It is almost impossible to explain to immigrants from all cultures who also want to have the American Dream of owning their home here the why of these matchsticks that become fake brick walls or thin stucco, or for that matter, rotting wood skins.

I'm proud of the residential design I've done through the years, and yet, nobody like my own family to look at these homes with disdain.

If I have to describe sustainability, it would be the passing down of formidably built houses to the new generations to alter and repair to sustain modern life as they live it, and to amass value through longevity.
Translation: structures that are better built would have more value than those that are disposable.

The idea of unbuilding, building and re-building, words from Rice University's former President George Rupp, is fit for certain parts of the built society such as highways that get re-routed or expanded. We shouldn't do this to houses.

For the moment, there are no external forces such as laws or ordinances that force us to build 500 year structures. I contend that this is why we blog, green bloggers, to further the thinking about what is good for the larger society and for the planet.

How many ways can we define sustainability? If you read my blogs, you know the answer: multiple ways.
Consider this one:
"In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development developed a definition
of sustainability that was included in its findings, which became known as the
Brundtland Report.

It stated that:

Sustainable development meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

What is your definition of sustainability?

Sustainability a game?

We are experiencing a massive societal movement towards environmental consciousness. This movement has different faces to it, including Hollywood and the fashion industry, who make up their own definition of green, and brand their interpretation of sustainability. This has given rise to a new consumerism. Think about it: we are now to replace everything we own for green, organic, recycled? How about just keeping what we own, or recycling it? Doesn't that count towards sustainability?

Let's play a game. It's the sustainability game. It's about how many planet Earths would it take to sustain the population of the world if we all live...like you!!!! You input your choices, the way you live, your type of housing, in an easily interactive way, and at the end it gives you the result in # of planets.

I failed at 3.7 planets.

I come from Central America, I know about poverty and limited natural resources. I'm an advocate for green architecture and living, I built my dream green home, I recycle everything, I live a healthy lifestyle, I walk three miles every day and don't commute to work. And I failed.

Actually, the real failure here is our government. We can and should ask that they do better at leading the environmental cause. Our leaders, all the way from presidents of our neighborhood organizations to city council, to the presidency of the United States, can effect change at the scale that we, doing the right thing, can't.

Thomas Friedman, in his article in today's Houston Chronicle and NY Times, gives the example of the change that NYC's leaders have been able to effect that will hugely impact the well-being of it's residents. According to Friedman, the fleet of Taxi cabs in NYC is comprised of 13,000 old, high emission-producing, gas guzzlers. Thanks to elected officials using vision and common sense, the fleet is changing over to low-emissions, hybrid cars, against all odds and wills. They are now putting pressure on the companies that hire the fleet of 12,000 limousines and town cars, to ask for hybrid cars.

Now, that's what I call change. Having lived in NYC I can tell you that that fine black debris that one breathes not only cloggs pores but gets deposited in all fine creases, hair, nose and eyelashes. Of course you look the other way, after all your get to live in the Big Apple, but you pay a price. And for children, the elderly, and the infirm, the price is too steep.

All the green blogs in the world can't effect change so huge and catalytic. So vote. Research your candidates, and lets ask questions of them that make them take a stance on the environment. Our lives depend on that.

As for the sustainability test, would you please post your score in # of planets that it would take for all of us to live in your lifestyle? Don't be ashamed, because the other thing we can do is re-visit the questions on how we live, and do better each day.

Did you know

I know a lot of things. So do you.

I know that I'm doing what I can do, and striving to do more every day, to preserve our earth, to create a better built environment, and to promote a healthier balance between the two.

I didn't know that this is what I would be doing with my architecture degrees, with my knowledge of many languages, with the information that my brain has consolidated (literally during my sleep I found out from Dr. JoAnn Deak) during my trips abroad.

Do you know what your children, the new generations, will be doing in their lives? Probably not. But you gauge that for yourself.

Enter You Tube, a genious of the modern world, a great way to disseminate stuff, art, but also knowledge.

I entered that world recently by posting my daughter Gabriella's view of her multiculturalism...Mi Gente(My People) of El Salvador. It is 2 minutes of a young powerful look at our country, using my photography and our young buddy Charlie's.

Now, if you care about the world, about our children, about the new generations and sustainability of the world, check this one out, and please let me know if it leaves you as profoundly thoughtful as it did me. It's about 9 minutes long, I'm not even going to tell you what it's about, because it is a discovery process, and the end is not to be missed. If you think you know lots of things, you should know what I do now. Don't forget to breathe at the end. Have hope.

I hope you will share this with your children and other parents who are trying to do the right thing, so forward it on!!!!