Integrated design and build solutions
On May 19 and 21, the greenLIFEproject brought Rock Band, Guitar Hero II, Live Earth and An Inconvenient Truth to the 6th grade science classes of Greenville Middle Academy in an effort to help increase climate awareness. On June 8th, Northpointe Church held a Guitar Hero III Save the Planet tournament to help fund the green efforts of Greenville Middle Academy.
2 Years in the planning… It’s been worth the wait! The greenLIFEproject is set to raise the bar on affordable housing. The new 300 O’Conner Court home is a partnership between the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority, Greenville Technical College, Aaron-Kelli Builders and GreenArch Design Group. This Energy Star certified affordable house is modeled after the ‘Erin Cottage’, a Pocket Neighborhood plan book house designed by Ross Chapin Architects of Seattle, Washington. The ‘Erin Cottage’ plan book house is $150/sqft 3 bedroom 2 bath 1,302 sqft house designed for the temperate climate of the Pacific Northwest and didn’t even have air conditioning! Our challenge was to ‘affordablize’ and acclimatize the plan for the hot humid Southeast. The result is a 4 bedroom 2 bath 1,363 sqft home that is being built for $66/sqft.
5-16-08 Construction Photos
“We have only three options: mitigation, adaptation, and suffering. We will have to do all three.” Strong words from Harvard professor John P. Holdren in a BusinessWeek article titled Battening Down the Hatches.
But what exactly is mitigation, adaptation, and suffering? According to the article mitigation is the part of being ‘green’ that we are all familiar with. It’s driving less, recycling or using compact fluorescent light bulbs. It’s the things you can do to lessen or mitigate the damage to the environment. Reducing one’s carbon footprint is a great example of mitigation.
What is adaptation? According to the article, adaptation is all the things we need to do now to prepare “for a world reshaped by climate change.” The City of Annapolis, Maryland is planning to spend $9 million to raise the city’s dock located on Chesapeake Bay. Florida is exploring ways to protect 1,300 miles of coastline. You know its serious when Washington starts spending money. According to the article, “Congress is considering nearly two dozen bills with provisions for funding research and helping communities cope.
What is suffering? We are all familiar with Hurricane Katrina and the expense of rebuilding. The article mentions the Alaska town of Newtok. Diminished sea ice that once protected the town is leaving it vulnerable to erosion by the sea. The Alaskan town of Shismaref is “literally being battered to the point of falling into the sea.” – excerpt from July 17, 2006 BusinessWeek article, Business On A Warmer Planet. These towns are being moved. This is suffering!
Don’t you just hate all those styrofoam peanuts that you get in packages Or those styrofoam blocks around electronics and the like.
Well, I received an email about recycling styrofoam and some tips on how to do just that. Some of the tips I had not heard of before but were good ones.
I had heard that you can take the peanuts to places that ship packages and they will take them. Just bag them up and take the bag to them. I think the smaller shipping places would appreciate them more than the “big named” ones.
Click on the link below to read the article.
On Friday, April 18th, Rock Port, Mo., became “the first city in the country capable of meeting 100 percent of its electricity demand from wind power, according to Wind Capital Group, the developer of the wind power facility in Rock Port.
St. Louis-based Wind Capital Group’s Loess Hills wind power facility, located in Rock Port, produces up to 16 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, which exceeds the 13 million kilowatt hours Rock Port uses each year.
“By generating enough clean, renewable electricity to meet all of Rock Port’s energy needs while also generating additional revenue for their tax base, the Loess Hills facility is a shining example of the benefits of wind energy development,” Tom Carnahan, president of Wind Capital Group, said in a statement.
Electricity generated from Loess Hills not used by homes and businesses in Rock Port will be purchased by the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission (MJMEUC) for use in other communities across Missouri. As part of this arrangement, MJMEUC will supply Rock Port’s power needs when the wind turbines are not generating at capacity.
Rock Port and 31 other city-owned utilities across Missouri receive their electric supply as part of the Missouri Public Energy Pool (MoPEP). MJMEUC coordinates the joint action of Missouri’s publicly-owned utilities, including aggregated power purchases for MoPEP cities.
To celebrate being America’s first wind-powered community, Rock Port, which is located in the far northwest corner of Missouri, will host a “Green Switch” celebration on Friday.
Wind Capital Group, a wind energy developer, was founded by Carnahan in 2005. Carnahan’s brother is U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan and his sister is Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan”. – Excerpt from Baltimore’s bizjournals.com.
P.O. Box 31249
Greenville, SC 29608