Clean Energy Conference 2011 - Designing for Energy Efficiency and the Bottom Line

[Double click any picture to enlarge it]

David Johnson, West Coast Director, William McDonough + Partners, San Francisco
I had trouble tracking all this.  The room is too bright to see the slides well.  He basically talked about a couple of his projects - a NASA building in Mt. View California and a Bosch building in Holland and in general terms the need to use energy and material sustainably.  Much of this is, it seems, chronicled in a book called Cradle to Cradle.


As affliuence grows, your energy footprint increases.  What energy footprint, what if the world consumed as the people in Alaska.

Book Cradle to Cradle

Biological nutrient vs. Technical nutrients = is it composable, where does it go?  As architect, planner, look at what happens to materials in buildings.  If we start with LEAD checkbooks.  If all were in LEAD platinum, we'd be in trouble.  How can you plan for a platform of continuous quality improvement.
Over time, decreasing use of fossil fuels and increasing renewable resources.
Want to define beneficial outcome, not just reducing the bad.

Efficient building - NASA - keep all the trees.  Locate building to get most efficient environment - optimized for wind and sun, retain existing landscape.  All office is passive ventilation.




[My notes here on Kim Matsoukas, Sustainability Manager at Bentley Prince Street, Industry, California got wiped out.  Sorry.  Her talk was on Energy Efficiency as a Corporate Mission outlined how her company had invested in and saved from energy efficiency in California where energy is also costly.  They aren't worried about greenhouse gas regulations because they have already reduced their footprint.]

[UPDATE 11:30pm:  I found some of my notes from this presentation. 

Kim Matsoukas, Sustainability Manager, Bentley Prince Street, Industry, California.  She's talking about Ray, the founder of Prince Street, as background for her talk.

Our mission is Mission Zero.  Goal since 1994.  Thought we could do it by 2000, Wasn't possible, now by 2020.  We have seven principles:

Eliminate Waste
Benign Emissions
Renewable energy
Closed Loop
Integrated sustainability
Redesigned Commerce

Our approach:

1  Measure energy use and GHGs both facility-wide and by total product footprint (including suppliers)
2.  Look for conservation opportunities
3.  Look for energy efficiency opportunities - change lightbulbs, upgrade equipment to be more efficient
4.  Use renewable energy
5.  Offset unavoidable emissions
6.  Educate our associates, customers, and suppliers - life-cycle principles means it happens before it gets to our doors.

There was a lot more. . . ]






Rob Pratt, Chair and CEO of Greener U, Waltham, MA.

Keys to Using Energy Efficiency as an Economic Stimulus.

What I wanted to do with Greener U was show that Colleges and Universities could reduce energy consumption - you have students pushing, presidents' commitments, etc.  Help colleges implement large scale efficiency programs.  Mechanical equipment side together with people.  It's all about people.  Student engagement.  Colleges are doing phenomenal things.  Reducing carbon footprint by 25% - goals much higher.  Could do the same here.

60-70% cheaper
Creates Homegrown jobs
It's everywhere - all organizations and buildings
National Security - reduce energy use, not sending $ overseas

Building Blocks
Big Energy Savers
 







Cogeneration  - can really get efficiency up - I suspect big opportunity in Alaska.  Also can use multiple fuel sources.  Natural gas, Methane, wood chips, etc.

Paying for Energy Efficiency - can pay with savings  example:  put 1.2 over five years (big university) based on that got $2million in utility incentives.  Instead of using savings, reinvest them.  Then, over 5 years, $3million in Green donations, then take some out of endowment.  You get a $24 million project with no debt except $3million endowments.  Lots of ways to be creative.  In Alaska lots of possibilities.

It just calls for us to do it.

Economic Engine for Alaska, just waiting to be turned on.  Create jobs, catelyze economic development.  Big picture, as Murkowski alluded to, Alaska is rated as 37th in US, up from 41.  Alaska doesn't spend much, 5th from the bottom, on energy savings.  But Housing efficiency program is good.  Creates a lot of jobs and companies.  Lots of opportunities in homes.  A lot can be done in homes.  Heating, insulation, windows, etc.  Then in commercial, industrial, etc. 

Plumbers and electricians do well working on energy efficiency.  You've got housing energy rebate program.  Lots of opportunities at University of Alaska.  Energy program for villages.  A lot can be done on efficient appliances.  Lots going on you an take advantage of. 

They are asking questions now.  One was about how cutting consumption would hurt manufacturers.  That's a basic contradiction in our national economic model - we need to save and we need to spend.  There are those who are developing models for more sustainable capitalism. 

Business of Clean Energy in Alaska Conference 2011 - Murkowski

 I'm at the Business of Clean Energy in Alaska conference at the Denaina Center. 


Lisa Murkowski just spoke following welcome comments from  Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell and Renewable Energy Alaska Project executive director. 

She began by saying the key is to both more energy production and reduction of energy use.  There are more than 27,000 homes that need weatherization upgrades and sorry that this wasn't funded again.  Better in helping homeowners affording jumps in energy prices.  Live heat did relatively well in the budget.  The debate going ahead in Congress will be with critical eye to the budget, it will be tough for us here in the state.  Whether weatherization, live heat or federal money to advance our clean energy technologies.  We need to be independent to futher build out our renewable energy technologies.  It's not a shortage of resources.  Was in Chevak and Hooper Bay to see the wind turbines beginning to offset those energy prices - not there yet, but will be.  We have best hydro electric potential in the nation.  Already 28 projects in state which provide about 24% of our energy.  Ocean potential.  These could potentially produce 3 times more than we currently consume.  We have 33,000 miles of coastline.  We need to learn to tie into it.  No shortage of resources, but turning them into energy.  We've seen CIRI's frustration with getting energy companies to sign on on Fire Island.  Red tape by NEPA for Naknek projects. 


Three hydro bills - last one calls all environmentally acceptable?? projects as renewable energy. 


We're onto the first panel now. 

Bridgman/Packer Ticket Contest

Myrna Packer

I got to talk with Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer at a gathering tonight at SubZero.  And with Scott Schofield, the Out North executive director.

So, Scott has given me a free ticket for one of you readers.  Since you all know there is no such thing as a free ticket, here's the deal.

Art Bridgman

Simple contest rules:

First person to email me a copy of your receipt for nine tickets* to Bridgman/Packer gets a tenth ticket free.  But you have to buy them after this post is published.  Just get nine of your friends (enemies are ok too, but after this they may not be enemies) to pool together to buy tickets as a group, and I can add the tenth ticket if you are the first to email the receipt showing you bought nine tickets after the time of this post.  Include a name, email address, and phone number.

Note for  whiners and troublemakers (not that any read this blog): One receipt for nine tickets, not several receipts that add up to nine tickets.  Let's not make this complicated, though I know that people can think up all sorts of contingencies I haven't thought of.  If you do, I reserve the right to determine the fair winner. 

(Note:  if no one sends in a receipt for nine tickets, I'm guessing Scott might let me give that ticket to the first person to email me a receipt for the biggest block of tickets over five or six. For example, someone sending a receipt for seven tickets at 5pm on Wednesday will beat a person with a receipt for six tickets at  2pm Wednesday.  The contest ends when I verify a purchase of nine tickets or about 4 hours before the performance of the largest block purchase below nine.  So, if the biggest block is for 8 for Saturday, I'll announce about 3pm on Saturday.)

Think of this as a party with your friends.

And as I was preparing this I found some Bridgman/Packer video.  I wasn't going to post video because the best way to go is with no expectations, but watching the video I was reminded why I am so excited about seeing them again and I thought it might spur some folks to get their friends together to see the Friday and/or Saturday performance.  I'd recommend Friday, because when you see how amazing they are, you'll still have a chance to see them again on Saturday. 

This video is from a piece they did last time they were here.


Bridgman/Packer Dance: "Under The Skin" (composite video) from Bridgman/Packer Dance on Vimeo.



 Ticket information here.

 What's in it for me?  First and foremost, I think it would be a waste if the Discovery Theater weren't filled up both nights.  The only reason someone shouldn't be trying to buy tickets is that they don't know these performers are in town.  And I want Out North to make money off this so they will take similar financial risks in the future to bring great performers to Anchorage.



And there were light tricks coming home along the Chester Creek bike trail.

Bethel and Glennallen - Your Turn With the Redistricting Board Today

Wednesday, March 27, 2011

Bethel folks - Board Members PeggyAnn McConnochie and Marie Greene will  be at the Yup'itPiciryarait Culural Center in Bethel from 10am to 12 noon.    Bethel is in District 38 in both of the Board's options.  This district goes all the way from Kwigillingok through Bethel to Lime Village and Tyonek and Sleetmute on up to McGrath and then to Anderson, Ferry, Healy and Cantwell.

Click the + at the bottom of the map frame to enlarge.

AK Redistricting BoardOp1Dist38



Glennallen folks - At the same time (10am - 12noon)  Board member Jim Holm and board executive director Ron Miller will be at the Glennallen Legislative Information Office in Glennallen.
In the draft plan, you are in District 6, the largest district in the state (I believe in the USA).

It goes from Southwest Alaska (Holy Cross, Anvik) up north (Wiseman, Venetie) over and around Fairbanks (Nenana, Manley Hot Springs, Ester) and then down along the Canadian Border (Eagle) south to Chitina and McCarthy.)

AK Redistricting Board Op1Dist6


Even if you don't understand any of this, if you have time, I encourage you to go to the meeting, look at the maps, and ask questions.  When they aren't taking testimony, you can talk to them one-on-one. 

Matsu Residents Sound Unhappy with Redistricting Board Plans

Andrew Wellner of the Frontiersman reports Matsu people pretty unhappy with the Board's plan, here's the beginning of his piece:

PALMER — Redistricting plans riling up public opinion in the state came to the Valley Monday and attendees almost all seemed to have one thing in common — they don’t like either of the redistricting board’s proposals.

“We don’t feel either option one or option two serve our borough,” said Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss, expressing an opinion arrived at around the assembly table.

Both options call for drastic revisions to the lines carving up the borough, and both would add a fourth state House district. But most agreed that number should be five, and that the two districts representing pieces of the borough — an Anchorage seat also represents the Butte and the Valdez seat includes Chickaloon and Sutton — should be used somehow to make that district.
Steve Colligan, Wasilla resident and vice chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, said both plans don’t serve “any other consideration other than gerrymandering.” He asked that the board look at borough assembly district boundaries.

Board chair John Torgerson noted that the same U.S. Census that prompted the state to redraw its lines will prompt the borough to redraw assembly districts.

“To use those now wouldn’t be worth much,” he told Colligan.

 Read the whole piece here.

Here's part of a PR email I got this morning.  It's for a new Alaska Science site and I'm sure there might be some readers who will be interested in this.

Fairbanks, Alaska (April 26, 2011) – A University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist has launched a National Science Foundation-supported website, Frontier Scientists, to connect Alaska field scientists with those curious about Arctic discoveries.

Frontier Scientists shares first-person accounts and real time insights from leading archeologists, grizzly bear biologists, volcanologists, climate change specialists and other scientists.

The site features fascinating footage of current scientific discoveries in some of the Arctic’s most remote and dramatic landscapes, chronicled in short vodcasts, Twitter feeds, blogs and web reports. The research is organized into six categories:
• Grizzlies
• Petroglyphs
• Paleo-Eskimo
• Cook Inlet Volcanoes
• Alutiiq Weavers
• Climate Change Watch

I believe scientists share blame for the decline in thinking abilities in the US.  They have often been so preoccupied with getting and spending their research money, that, with a few exceptions, they haven't taken responsibility for making sure our schools teach our children to be competent to think like scientists think when appropriate, or even just to understand what scientists do.  Things like:

• basic thinking  skills that people of a democracy need to make good election choices, 
• ability to understand what science and theories are and can and cannot do, 
• understanding the complexity of the world and seeking 'truth' 
• understanding the differences between scientific and emotional truths, and 
• how to spot rhetorical fallacies.  

In short, I think many scientists, caught up in their own career and research pressures,  have abandoned the American tax-payers, who pay many scientists' salaries,  allowing them to fall victim to religious hucksters, political manipulators, business marketers, and media  moguls.  And now a sizable chunk of Americans have slipped into a modern mental dark age in which superstition trumps science. 

So, it's good to see even little efforts such as this new website and hope that it makes a small contribution to recovering some of those lost to simplistic black and white, good and evil narratives of the world.

Delta Junction and Tok, Nome and Kotzebue, Unalaska and Cold Bay - Your Turn with Redistricting Board Today, Tuesday

The Board members are headed out in pairs Tuesday, April 26 and altogether they'll visit 6 locations.  They've completed two options for the draft plan.  Now they have until June 14 to submit a final plan.  So now is your chance to tell them what's good and bad about what they've done with your districts.

The board will have statewide maps to hand out at the meetings and lots of maps on the wall, but if you want the detailed maps of your own districts go to their website where you can download pdf files and print them out.  Click for the option 1 maps and the option 2 maps. 
You  can get maps of the current districts here.

According to staff, board chair, John Torgerson, former legislator from Fairbanks, and board member Bob Brody, a Kodiak Realtor, will be in Delta Junction and Tok.

Delta Junction folks - Your meeting is 10 - 12 noon at the Delta Junction City Council Chambers.   In Option 1 you are in District 2 and in Option 2 you are in District 12.

The proposed districts go from almost Fairbanks along the mainly on the east of the Richardson Highway to Valdez and most of Prince William Sound except for Whittier. 

BrdOp1Dist2

The only difference I can tell is that Option 2 includes a lot of land with few if any people - much of it around the Denali Highway almost to Cantwell. You can get a pdf of District 12 here.


Tok folks - Your meeting is from 3pm - 5pm at the Tok Legislative Information Office.  Your district 6 is the super district.  It goes from Southwest Alaska (Holy Cross, Anvik) up north (Wiseman, Venetie) over and around Fairbanks (Nenana, Manley Hot Springs, Ester) and then down along the Canadian Border (Eagle) south Chitina and McCarthy.)

AK Redistricting Board Op1Dist6


Board members Marie Greene, CEO of Nana Regional Corporation from Kotzebue, and PeggyAnn McConnochie, a realtor from Juneau, will be visiting Nome and Kotzebue.

Nome Folks - 10am - 12 noon at the Nome City Council Chambers.   Nome is in District 39 in both options and in both looks to be pretty much the same.  The district is the far West including Shishmaref, Wales, Diomede, Nome, down to Hooper Bay and Russian Mission.

AK Redistricting Board Option 1 - Dist39



Kotzebue folks - You're scheduled for 3pm to 5pm at the NW Arctic Borough Assembly Chambers.  You're in District 40 which looks pretty much like your old district.  It includes the far North from Buckland and Kotzebue, Point Hope, to Kaktovik.

 AK Redistricting Brd Op1Dist40



The last team consists of Board Member Jim Holms, former legislator from Fairbanks and  Board executive direction Ron Miller.  They're scheduled for Unalaska and Cold  Bay.


Unalaska folks - You're on from 1pm to 3pm at the Unalaska City Council Chambers.  You are in District 37 which looks the same in both options.  You're gaining a chunk of the old District 38 which includes Quinhagak, Goodnews Bay, and Platinum from the 2001 Districts and part of the old 36 on the west which includes: Port Alsworth, Nondalton, Newhalen,  Iliamna,  Igiugig, and Pedro Bay.

Cold Bay folks - Your meeting is 7pm - 9pm at the City of Cold Bay Community Center.  You are in the same district as Unalaska - 37 - so the map above applies to you too.

So, what should you do at these meetings?  The Board hasn't given out a lot of information, but you can check out the criteria they are using on their website and see if the maps meet the redistricting guidelines.  These are things like:  socio-economic cohesion, compactness, and equal sizes for all districts with minimum deviation. 

The Alaska Redistricting Board tab above lists all the other posts I've done on the board with short descriptions.

Why Missing Bridgman/Packer This Weekend Would Be a BIG Mistake

Here's part of what I wrote after seeing Bridgman/Packer the first time in 2008:

You should go if you like at least three of the following:

Watching water ripples in a stream.
Magicians doing really amazing tricks.
Shadow leaves dancing on your sunlit white walls.
MC Escher.
A cello dancing with a human voice.
Surprises.
Precision.
Optical Illusions.
Hand drumming.

Wait. There is no rippling stream in the show. I'm just trying to give you a sense of this show without giving anything away.

If you took this list literally, maybe you shouldn't go see it. Or, if you can't stand stuff that is NOT:

Linear.
Predictable.
Melodic.
Clear and straightforward.

I didn't want to spoil it by giving more details.  What they do is AMAZING!!  Going in without knowing anything about them, other than you should go, is the best way to do it.

Out North just keeps selecting stuff they think is good even if it is on the edge or financially iffy. 

I got this comment from Australia this morning on a 2009 post about Out North's production of Man in the Attic:

"This play won the Patrick White Award, one of Australia's major playwriting awards. Good on you for staging it when not one company in Australia bothered to do so! Congrats"

We have this tiny little theater that does cutting edge local productions and also brings the most interesting and challenging Outside artists to Anchorage where you can get intimate with them.  The theater is so small all the seats are in what would be the $100 and up section in bigger venues Outside.  Not everything works perfectly, but still, you are there with the artists as they push the limits of art.  You can talk to them afterward and ask questions and answer their questions. 

But this Friday and Saturday, they've got an act that doesn't fit in that tiny space.  In fact, last time Bridgman & Packer were here, they performed at the Alaska Dance Theater, where I got to see them and become a fanatic fan. 

This year (this Friday and Saturday to be specific) they will be in the Discovery Theater.  So there will be room for a lot of folks. 

Do you live in or near Anchorage?  Then you should be there too. And bring the kids.  Unless you are bedridden or out of town, you have no excuse for not going to see Bridgman & Packer.  You don't like dance?  Trust me, this is way more than dance.  This is magic. 

Do I sound enthusiastic?  Are you suspicious of my motives?  Am I getting paid to write this?  Actually, after I did a short breathless plug attached to a post on another Out North performance, Scott Schofield, Out North's Executive Director asked me to invite all my friends and offered me a free ticket even.  But that would compromise my blogger ethics so I won't take it.  But, I'm thinking I should offer that ticket to one of my readers.  OK, I'll think about  some sort of contest here - and you can give suggestions.  I'll check with Scott and see if the offer is still open. 

So what are my motives?  This is two humans (plus their helpers) showing what incredible things humans can do if they stretch their minds, train their bodies, and break the rules. I just want everyone to know this is happening in town so they don't miss it.  I also want Out North to make some money on this so they'll keep doing this sort of thing. 

When I first saw Bridgman/Packer I wondered whether I was just an Anchorage hick who just didn't get out much, but it turns out people who know about dance think they are pretty amazing too.  Mike Dunham's ADN story lists some of their glowing comments.


So, if you don't trust me or you don't like surprises, check out the ADN story on Bridgman/Packer.  When Dunham and I are both equally breathless, you know something has to be special. 

To get tickets or just to learn more about Bridgman/Packer and see a video, click here.

And here's a link to Bridgman/Packer's website.

Rosa Parks' Bus, Kennedy Dallas Limo, Lincoln's Ford Theater Seat and More at Henry Ford Museum

Here are some pictures from the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit from this past Monday.  Eclectic is all I can say.  The Rosa Parks bus  (at the end) was the most inspiring exhibit  for me.

As we came to the entrance I had this strange feeling about the entrance.  It's only now as I'm posting that I realized its similarity to the entrance to Auschwitz.  This is the only hint of Ford's anti-Semitism at the museum that I noticed.

The first thing you see when you get into the museum is this:

This massive painting was a bit further along.

 From the Ford Museum site:

Light’s Golden Jubilee Honors Thomas Edison and Dedicates a Museum

On October 21, 1929, Henry Ford hosted an elaborate celebration in Dearborn, Michigan, in honor of his friend Thomas A. Edison. Known as Light’s Golden Jubilee, the date marked the 50 th anniversary of Edison’s invention of the electric light. Ford also planned his event as a dedication of his own lasting tribute to Thomas Edison and to American innovation, the Edison Institute of Technology (later renamed Henry Ford Museum) and Greenfield Village. Here, Henry Ford had moved the Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory where the inventor made his discovery so many years before.

Click image to enlarge

The RSVPs for Light's Golden Jubilee began pouring in to Ford Motor Company by early October 1929. Prominent businessmen like John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and J.P. Morgan, scientist Marie Curie, inventor Orville Wright, and humorist Will Rogers were among those who enthusiastically accepted Ford’s invitation to be part of the landmark event .
A t 10 o’clock that morning, President Herbert Hoover, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison arrived at Smiths Creek depot at Greenfield Village on a steam- powered locomotive, much like the one on which Edison had sold papers as a youth. They were met by invited guests that numbered more than 500. The crowd roared their approval and congratulations as Edison , Hoover and Ford stepped from the train to begin the day’s festivities.
More...

[5. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.;  6. Mrs. Herbert C. Hoover; 7. George Eastman; 9. Marie Curie;  11.  Mrs. Thomas A. Edison;  12.  Edsel B. Ford;  13.  Charles Edison;  15.  Herbert C. Hoover;  17.  Henry Ford;  18.  Mrs. Henry Ford;  19.  Thomas A. Edison; ]  My understanding is that the dinner was in this building we were in.







A DC 3.

This is - I have to believe that they verified this - the chair Lincoln sat in at the Ford Theater when he was assassinated.

 


The Ford tri-motor that Admiral Byrd  flew in over the South Pole.

The Kennedy limo when he was assassinated in Dallas.  (Is there a pattern here?)  I was told the roof was added later.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's inaugural limo.

The apex of American auto making - the 1955 Chevy.

Again, from the Ford Site:

Allegheny Locomotive
Built in 1941 and weighing in at 600 tons, this was one of the largest steam-powered locomotives ever built. Designed for pulling huge coal trains over the Allegheny mountains of West Virginia, this locomotive could reach speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. This powerful behemoth is the centerpiece of our trains collection and a visitor landmark in Henry Ford Museum. The cab of the Allegheny locomotive is now open for public viewing.

C & O Allegheny #1601
Lima Locomotive 2-6-6-6

It's nice that the museum has all this information posted:

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American woman who worked as a seamstress, boarded this Montgomery City bus to go home from work. On this bus on that day, Rosa Parks initiated a new era in the American quest for freedom and equality.
She sat near the middle of the bus, just behind the 10 seats reserved for whites. Soon all of the seats in the bus were filled. When a white man entered the bus, the driver (following the standard practice of segregation) insisted that all four blacks sitting just behind the white section give up their seats so that the man could sit there. Mrs. Parks, who was an active member of the local NAACP, quietly refused to give up her seat.

Her action was spontaneous and not pre-meditated, although her previous civil rights involvement and strong sense of justice were obvious influences. "When I made that decision," she said later, “I knew that I had the strength of my ancestors with me.”
She was arrested and convicted of violating the laws of segregation, known as “Jim Crow laws.” Mrs. Parks appealed her conviction and thus formally challenged the legality of segregation.
At the same time, local civil rights activists initiated a boycott of the Montgomery bus system. In cities across the South, segregated bus companies were daily reminders of the inequities of American society. Since African Americans made up about 75 percent of the riders in Montgomery, the boycott posed a serious economic threat to the company and a social threat to white rule in the city.
A group named the Montgomery Improvement Association, composed of local activists and ministers, organized the boycott. As their leader, they chose a young Baptist minister who was new to Montgomery: Martin Luther King, Jr. Sparked by Mrs. Parks’ action, the boycott lasted 381 days, into December 1956 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the segregation law was unconstitutional and the Montgomery buses were integrated. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was the beginning of a revolutionary era of non-violent mass protests in support of civil rights in the United States.

As I said, this is an eclectic museum.  I'll try to post some more from the museum later.

Biker Trash Parking

Walking home this evening, we went through a parking lot of a small professional building and passed this sign in the parking lot. 



Here's my guess about this sign.  I think one of the professional staff got a motorcycle and the others in the office chipped in to buy this sign to razz him. 

But you're all invited to come up with other explanations.  Maybe even someone from building who actually knows can tell us.