Yes, you heard right. Among the many intriguing green innovations at last weekend’s West Coast Green were the new Plug n’ Save Solar Shutters, a rather simple solution for homeowners hoping to cut utility costs.

Mounted onto gorgeously crafted bamboo shutters, the flat PV panels collect power from the sun and channel it directly back into the home’s electrical system. The shutters need only be plugged into a wall outlet to operate.

Created by father-son entrepreneurial duo Dan and David Curran, the shutters feature clever inlays to hide the electrical wiring and cords, leaving clean post card-sized panels. The panels themselves can only be seen from the outside.

The idea is that as a homeowner goes about their day, they will open or close their shutters to shield extra-bright sunlight. The panels waiting on the other side, however, will be harvesting that solar energy at peak hours of the day. It’s genius, really.

For more, read about the Currans on Examiner.

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I recently attended the West Coast Green conference in San Francisco and came out enthused and confused.

I was enthused about the progress the green building industry is making. That over 14,000 people from all over the country came to learn about the new innovations in green building is huge for an industry, which in many ways, is in its infancy.

I listened to speakers from all sides of the business, real estate experts, government officials, green building consultants, and contractors to list only a few. They all provided interesting insights on where the industry was and should be going and a bit about it how it was going to get there.

There were also more numbers thrown around than a mathematician could handle. The amount of the money that was being directed to the industry from the stimulus bill, CO2 reduction goals, energy efficiency performance goals, and more and more goals.

One thing I didn’t hear enough of was specific ways to connect money to goals. People were so excited to learn that the government was finally sending money their way they forgot to ask how it would actually be implemented and with what oversight.

After the opening remarks I decided to spend the next three days focusing on one thing, how to get actual changes implemented. I decided to break down this task into two areas. First, I would focus on how conferences like this could teach and encourage people to start changing the built environment to stop negatively effecting the natural environment. Secondly, I wanted to know how to get money to these newly educated people to carry out the ideas they learned.

Interview with an Environmental Consultant

To figure out how conferences like West Coast Green affect change I decided to talk to a presenter who led a session at the conference. Matt Macko is a principal at the San Francisco based green building consulting firm Environmental Building Strategies. He led a session titled Deep Retrofits of Commercial Buildings along with Jose Guevara, Property Manager at Cushman & Wakefield of California, Inc.

CleanTechies: What was your talk focused on?

Matt: I discussed the potential to flip the current green building conversation from its current state, littered with defensive reactionary discussions mostly focused only on conservation, to one where we work on the offensive to create demand in the marketplace around sustainable decision making. I targeted some economic and financial evaluations that a handful of firms are providing their clients as highlights of the quality work being done in the sustainability industry.

CleanTechies: What were the three most important things you think people got out of your talk?

Matt: People walked away with an understanding that demand must be created to tip the marketplace in order to meet our GHG goals. They also left with a better understanding of the financial value that can be derived through intelligent sustainable decision making. Lastly, they should have walked away understanding that investing in energy efficiency is as at least as lucrative if not more profitable than investing in Google.

CleanTechies: How do you think people will use the information you gave them to improve the green building industry?

Matt: I hope to generate more intelligent conversations around how we value “green.” If I had one main objective to relay it would be that we have the tools to prove the value of sustainability but we are just not doing a good enough job to date. I hope from there people will find ways to carry the message along and encourage others to join the movement.

CleanTechies: What is the focus of your firm’s work and how are you trying to change the conversation?

Matt: My firm focuses on making the business case for sustainability. We are a consultancy that uses tools such as discounted cash flow and energy models to prove the value of energy efficient decisions to our clients. Many of our clients come to us looking for efficiency through the LEED process. Our development of the LEED EDGE tool has helped several firms realize significant efficiency gains through making the LEED Certification process easy and virtually paperless.

Why I was confused?

Throughout the three days, and from almost every person I talked to, people had an encouraging outlook on the future of green building. They cited the mass amounts of money headed its way and they mentioned the new standards mandated by the government as proof that green building is here to stay.

One of the most exciting talks I heard was Panama Bartholomy’s talk on “Greening Existing Buildings: The Biggest Piece of the Low Carbon Puzzle.”

In it he mentioned the importance of the existing building retrofit market on reaching all of the carbon emissions goals being sent down from the politicos in Washington and Sacramento. He also outlined where some of the stimulus money was headed, but very little about how exactly it was going to be used or who was in charge of oversight.

I wouldn’t call it lack of foresight but clearly the infrastructure is not ready for all the money flowing in, though there are signs of life. Panama mentioned one specific financing optioned that would encourage homeowners to improve their home’s energy performance. PACE districts allow homeowners to implement energy efficient measures with no upfront cost to them. They pay for the measures with increased property taxes, which should be more than offset by the resulting energy savings.

Some recent success.

Joe Biden recently announced his contribution to the movement. He asked the Council Of Environmental Quality, earlier this year, to come up with a study on how the government could guide the development of a home energy efficiency retrofit market. They produced the “Recovery Through Retrofit” report. It offered several recommendations: more access to information for homeowners, more transparent and accessible financing, and a plan for worker training.

All these things are necessary and important but this report fails in going far enough in its scope. It doesn’t hash out any programs or concrete plans on how to bring all of its recommendations to fruition.

The “Retrofit Ramp-Up”, a program recently drawn up to fund retrofit programs, has started receiving applications for qualified projects to receive funding but this program also has its flaws. It helps facilitate funding but only for those who go looking for it and have the knowledge and expertise to get it.

Compare this approach to the one the government has taken with auto industry. The government does not offer funding to improve average MPG of automakers’ fleets to meet more stringent standards; instead they mandate the new standards. Why couldn’t the government take more of a hard-line approach, similar to this example, with the existing home and building retrofit market? I like the idea of money going to the right people but couple that with some mandated standards that have teeth, then everyone will be forced to see what they sometimes are too stubborn to realize, that green building can save them money.

My solution.

California already has a leg up on most states and could act as an example for the nation to follow. State government officials could begin by using the power of AB 1103 to get  ENERGY STAR scores for all commercial buildings in the State.

The “Recovery Through Retrofit” report also called for an ENERGY STAR program for homes to be created, which could provide later structure to update this solution.

After compiling all of the ENERGY STAR scores, the government could mandate and directly fund the retrofit of the worst buildings, possibly the lowest 10% of ENERGY STAR scores. These buildings would then go through an energy audit where the best energy conservation measures could be identified.

Payback could be formulated in either of two ways. Either the government could get paid back with the energy savings resulting from the increased efficiency or they could increase property taxes and have the building owner get the energy savings, similar to PACE districts. In both cases retrofits would be mandated, but the key is that these changes would not cost a dime in the end.

Energy savings in these wasteful buildings would be very high and would easily pay for the retrofits within a couple of years. The government could then use the projects as an example of the potential of the industry, further enticing interest and generating new projects. These projects would also create numerous jobs. Connected to the program would have to be a mandated education curriculum to get contractors up to speed on how to implement the upgrades. This education would further improve the future of the retrofit industry by increasing the stock of qualified workers.

[photos: Environmental Building Strategies, ENERGY STAR, E>mar]

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Article by Amy Hengst appearing courtesy of Matter Network.

Termite mounds may look like ugly piles of dirt, but they provide important clues for architects designing energy-efficient buildings.

Termite mounds are built six to 30 feet high off the ground in hot ecosystems and are riddled with tunnels at their peaks that provide passive ventilation, allowing cool air to flow through. Architects in Zimbabwe have used the termites’ model in building a large, beautiful building with a similar ventilation system.

By imitating nature’s model, they were able to save 90 percent in energy costs because they didn’t need to install any air conditioning, according to designer Jeremy Faludi.

This process of emulating nature is called biomimicry. Speaking at the West Coast Green conference last week in San Francisco, Faludi said biomimicry could help us create products and buildings that are more material and energy-efficient, robust, flexible, and long-lasting.

“Nature uses sophisticated organic chemistry that we’re just beginning to understand,” he said.

Where natural systems tend to use simple and readily available components like hydrogen and carbon, human structures use bulk metals that are stable over time and resist fatigue but that require too much energy to produce.

“We’ve started using Kevlar, carbon fiber, and other composites in the last 20 years, but our processes are still too energy intensive,” Faludi explained.

Organic structures tend to be more flexible and bendable than human structures, and many living systems can repair themselves or reclaim wastes in ways that our creations can’t.

Faludi explained ways that designers and enthusiasts can incorporate biomimetic principles in their upcoming design projects, for example by inviting biologists to provide insight at the design table, attending workshops, or hiring expert consultants who can help them do research. Designers should compare and contrast at least a dozen different strategies, find common solutions, and translate them to a design strategy relevant to their project, he said.

Faludi warned that designers should carefully define their problem before embarking on research. In some climates, most of the costs for maintaining cool buildings are focused on dehumidification rather than temperature, so a designer who looked only at temperature concerns could miss critical information.

Further resources for designers are available through the Biomimicry Guild and the Biomimicry Institute and through AskNature.org, an open source resource that provides examples from the natural world and explores how they might apply to designers.

[photo credit: Flickr]

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Article by Amy Hengst appearing courtesy of Matter Network.

Once upon a time, the levies along the rivers in Sacramento, California were becoming unstable, so the city planted Eastern white oak trees to help root and hold them in place. The trees grew to maturity, but eventually the city re-evaluated them and realized they were no longer stabilizing the levies. The trees needed to be taken out.

Such is the story from Earth Source Forest Products, an organization that stepped in and bought up all the old oak wood, to recycle and resell. The company claims to be one of the first companies certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an independent, non-profit organization that strives to make sure its members harvest and manufacture their hardwood products responsibly. According to Earth Source, the FSC is the strictest of the standards-setting bodies for responsible forest management.

As I spoke with a representative from Earth Source at the West Coast Green conference about their reclaimed wood, I was distracted by a giant pyramid of wooden boxes being raised up in a nearby booth, reaching maybe 10 feet up toward the ceiling.

When I wandered over, a man in a stylish bowler hat started a spiel about the dovetail boxes in the pyramid, all made in different sizes and colors of wood. This was Max Hunter with Western Dovetail, a company that creates custom drawers for commercial clients.

When I asked Hunter if it was all recycled or reclaimed wood, he paused for a second and said no. Then he explained that recycled woods were not really available for those types of woodwork and cabinetry. Instead, the company uses new materials that are also certified by the FSC as well as compliant with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards , to create their custom boxes that they sell to commercial clients.

He agreed that the FSC is a strict standards body and said it was good to have strict oversight. Companies who want to be certified must pay a membership fee and undergo an annual independent evaluation. Each member is awarded a number, which is stamped on each piece of wood as it passes through their factories or mills. At each step, their customers know that they are purchasing FSC-certified wood, he said.

But FSC isn’t the only standards body available. Another vendor, Chuck Kuhn with Jeld-Wen Windows, explained that the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is a competing organization that provides standards for responsible forestry as well.

According to Kuhn, the SFI is newer than the FSC but the two organizations have a different focus as well: while the FSC concentrates on hardwood forests, the SFI is more focused on softwoods. He said that Green Building Council’s LEED standards originally included the FSC standards as part of their certification, but have recently revised their verbiage to include SFI standards as well.

[photo credit: Flickr]

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Like many Americans who don’t realize that every time you flip the switch on a television or light, it results in the burning of coal or natural gas at a power plant, Britney Spears does not prioritize the use of energy in her life.

Why? A) She is crazy, B) Like so many others she doesn’t recognize that she personally is responsible for the pollution that is generated through her energy use, or C) All of the above.

If you answered A or C, shame on you. Similar to you or myself, without recognizing that she has a problem, it wouldn’t occur to Britney to change her behavior.

Oops, she did it again, she left on a light…

However many people think differently about energy and the consequences of its use.  Some 14,000 of them attended West Coast Green, described as “the premiere conference and expo on green innovation.”

Planners, presenters, exhibitors and attendees came together to exchange information and help perpetuate a growing awareness that there are big changes underway in local, state and federal government policies in terms of energy efficiency, clean technologies, building standards water use and social innovation and that those policies will shape the business landscape for the next several years.

She’s not that innocent. Are you?

The first day of the event was exceptional. “We are on a steep learning curve,” said Christi Graham, West Coast Green founder and CEO. “Each of us has more value and greatness than we realize. Our brilliance is best expressed collectively.”

Others, like keynote speaker Dan Kammen, explained the value of collective thought a little differently.

“This is the anti-Las Vegas; what happens here should not stay here,” said the renewable energy expert, explaining how California’s passing of bill AB32 in 2007 helped quadruple the growth of renewables from 2007 to 2008, illustrating that for business to thrive, it needs guidance and goals. (Does your state have an equivalent to AB32? Make it happen.)

Someday she will understand

What is going on in the world of green innovation? In a presentation about greening existing buildings, Panama Bartholomy of the California Energy Commission discussed why buildings represent such a great opportunity.

California gets the majority of its energy from natural gas, followed by large hydro, coal, nuclear and renewables, a relatively “clean” mix of sources compared with most other states.

In California, the “energy mix,” the amount and type of energy produced and delivered by utilities, is well-documented and explained. (If you don’t know how your energy is produced, ask your utility company. You may be surprised with what you find.)

Bartholomy explained that of the energy delivered by utilities, a great deal is used in buildings that aren’t operating efficiently. And if we could reduce the energy wasted through energy-efficiency measures, such as sealing the building “envelope” (the “skin” that covers the inside of a building), reducing leaks in duct work and improving the lighting and using energy star appliances, we could cut 25 percent of the demand for energy in buildings overnight.

Brian Gitt of BKi Consulting discussed how energy efficiency could happen at the residential level. Innovative financing programs throughout California and other parts of the country can make energy efficiency more affordable.

For example, the countrywide Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) initiative enables a homeowner to have energy efficiency measures performed. Rather than the homeowner paying for them out of pocket, the city or county pays and puts a tax lien against the property. The homeowner can repay the tax lien over 20 years at a fixed interest rate and payment, which will normally amount to less than the savings from the reduced energy bills.

When the home is sold, the lien stays with the property and the new owner receives the benefit of an energy-efficient home with the work already done. This program is active in some form in Los Angeles County (88 cities), Sonoma, Alameda and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Still not sorry…but she’s coming around

During a session about “Looking at the House as a System,” architect Peter Pfeiffer described himself as practicing green building principles or, as he called it, “common sense” for more than 30 years. He used his home as his guinea pig with a $26,000 investment in rooftop solar electric panels. Installing solar without understanding all the systems on a home is ridiculous, he said.

For instance, when Pfeiffer installed an efficient pool pump, he made changes to the system such as large diameter pool jets and pipes that curve at smaller intervals than 90 degrees so that flow isn’t restrained. His investment of a few thousand dollars reduced more energy than his $26,000 solar system produced.

The message: Look to conserve energy before taking the extremely costly step of producing energy. For example, white counter tops in kitchens can reflect light and reduce the need for electrical lighting, awnings over windows reduce heat yet allow in natural light, and planting trees can reduce sunlight or wind.

Someday

In a session about “passive” houses, Prudence Ferreira of Integral Impact Inc, Nabih Tahan of Bau Technologies and Graham Irwin of Essential Habitat discussed what is happening at  Passivhaus in Europe. Passivhaus is a building standard that requires a home or building to meet a plethora of features far more stringent than the U.S. LEED standard.

A passive house works by sealing the building envelope so that no air leaks in or out. A heat recovery ventilation system runs, continuously drawing the air out of the house and replacing it with outside air. The only difference is that all air passes through the heat recovery ventilation system so that any heat coming out of house is captured and sent back into the house.

By sealing a home properly, the owner knows that all air comes through a filter. By reusing the heat (or summertime coolness) from the outgoing air, the system is much smaller than a normal house would use. A solar electric panel array can be slapped on top of the house to reach zero net energy, and a solar hot water heater is standard.

There are more than 20,000 Passivhaus homes throughout the world in warm, cold and temperate climates. They normally cost the same or up to 11 percent more than a standard house. The operating costs over the life of the home more than make up for any premium paid in the initial build.

Bad Girl. Are you a bad boy?

In a session about green remodeling standards was Tenaya Asan, Program Manager of Build it Green, a Bay Area nonprofit that educates and trains people on rating many areas of a home that can be designed intelligently to reduce energy & water use while improving the indoor air quality and health of the occupants.

Asan said home owners should be as concerned with the air leaking through their attic and walls as they are with remodeling their kitchen and bathrooms. She described how many people replace windows in their home because they want to reduce energy use, only to realize that windows are rarely the main culprit. Instead, it’s the things you don’t see, like insulation in the walls and attic, leaks in ducts and inefficient appliances that actually cause huge energy bills and waste.

Build it Green staff members are traveling to parts of California where this type of training is in demand. As more people learn about the importance of energy efficiency, Asan said she expects Build it Green to continue to expand in their education of professionals who support high building standards.

Do Somethin’

In addition to the speakers who are already finding their niche in the new economy, many companies who offer products and services are making the idea of sustainability and green synonymous with good business. These people have already taken the risk to start a business in a terrible economy and are finding that doing what they love without harming the environment is something others value and are willing to pay for in any economy.

If only Britney Spears could find the same passion for getting plugged in by unplugging. Given her past, she could probably make energy conservation sexy, scandalous and cool while influencing millions at the same time. That’s my kind of crazy.

[photo credit: Jared Friedman]

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With the recent surge in money going towards renewable energy research and implementation, many people are forgetting a key factor in reducing our impact on the environment: energy efficiency.

Utilizing renewable energy in your home or commercial building is great, don’t get me wrong, but before this expensive option is employed, you should first look at the efficiency of your home or building’s energy systems.

If your building wastes energy, you should prioritize improving this aspect and use the money that you had set aside for a renewable project to accomplish the task.

Once you have collected enough savings from the efficiency retrofits, you can look to implement a renewable energy generation system. By following this succession your system can be sized accurately, and your benefit to the environment, the ultimate goal of all these measures, will be significantly better.

Benefits of Energy Efficiency

In the United States, buildings use 72 percent of electricity consumption, 39 percent of energy use, and produce 38 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions.

If we, as a nation, are looking to decrease our C02 emissions and conserve energy and electricity, we should look no further than the existing buildings in our country.

Recently, as new construction projects have been on the decline, the opportunity to retrofit existing buildings has been increasing. There is vast potential for energy savings in these buildings, which makes them prime project candidates.

A study done by a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist claimed that commissioning all of the nation’s commercial buildings would yield the greatest energy savings per dollar spent of any option, including wind and solar energy production. Commissioning involves fine tuning a building’s existing energy systems to improve performance and eliminate wasteful energy use.

After commissioning the building, and saving tons of CO2, energy and money, you can determine what systems need retrofitting.

The fact that commissioning alone has the potential to save the most energy per dollar spent just shows the prospective savings that upgrading a building’s energy systems would create. In the near future, all existing building upgrades should be green focused, as it not only makes environmental sense but economic sense as well.

The same Lawrence Berkeley study claims that $30 billion dollars in energy costs and 300 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions can be saved a year by existing building retrofit projects with paybacks of one year or less.

Renewables

Let’s be honest, renewable generation doesn’t always make economic sense. This is why federal, state and local municipalities have set up generous rebate and tax credit systems to offset the costs. Even with these savings measures, many solar and wind projects have long paybacks.

Take San Francisco, for example. On top of the 30 percent federal solar rebate and the California Solar Initiative rebate (currently at $1.10 per watt for commercial and residential solar installations), San Francisco offers a $1,500 rebate per kilowatt up to 10 kilowatts.

With all of these rebates you are still looking at 10 to 15 years or more to recoup initial costs. Ten years is not bad, but compare this to energy efficiency retrofit projects, which typically have paybacks of one to five years and produce significant energy and cost savings, and it doesn’t seem to make monetary sense to choose solar installation first.

What does make sense is to evaluate and implement efficient upgrades into your building or home and then look to install renewable energy generation down the line. That way, when you do implement the photovoltaic cells or wind turbine they can be smaller, less ambitious projects that still produce the same percentage of your buildings energy use as was initially desired.

If you use 30 percent less energy after the retrofits, you can make the renewable installation 30 percent smaller.

Success

There has been some success in getting government money to the energy efficiency sector. On September 14 the Department of Energy announced that it would allocate $454 million from the stimulus bill to a new program called “Retrofit Ramp-up.”

The initiative will save $100 million dollars a year in energy savings, according to the Department of Energy. It’s initially focused on whole-neighborhood efficiency retrofit programs that will produce significant cost effective solutions, especially ones that incorporate both public and private buildings.

The department’s hope is that these projects will provide successful sustainable business models for the rest of the country to follow.

The program provides funds to states, U.S. territories, counties, cities and Indian tribes to improve energy efficiency in the building and transportation sector. These entities have to fill out documentation explaining their project and how it will improve efficiency in their community. The applications are then reviewed by the Department of Energy and accepted or declined based upon the merits and potential energy savings of the project.

This is one of several programs funded by the stimulus bill that can be applied to energy efficiency retrofits. There is also a specific appliance upgrade program for residences that is quite comprehensive.

The future

The future seems extremely promising for all the green industries as many policy makers are starting to jump on the sustainable bandwagon. My hope is that the energy efficiency sector does not get overlooked. It may not be as flashy or exciting as renewable energy production but it is equally important. It is also a great place to start improving our eco-friendly practices and it is where money should begin funneling to first.

Once improvements are made in this sector it will be easier to move forward with renewable energy generation, especially small-scale on-site generation. As many buildings start to follow this model, the public will see renewable energy as a more viable and inexpensive solution to our current environmental situation.

In addition to energy savings, the energy efficiency sector has the potential to create a huge number of jobs. At a time when unemployment is rising above 10 percent in many states, job creation is exactly what our country needs. Estimates are that the existing building retrofits market is likely to be a $400 billion dollar industry, and it only makes sense.

Wouldn’t you move forward quickly with a project if you knew it would pay for itself in five years or less? Considering a huge portion of the existing 5 million commercial buildings in the United States could undergo retrofit projects and each project would employ construction workers, engineers, architects, project managers and planners, this industry alone could ignite job growth nationwide.

In light of the recent CO2 reduction benchmarks that are being pushed by President Obama (which will hopefully be more robust after the Copenhagen Conference), we need to act now. If the future of energy production is rooted in the success of renewable generation, the means to get to that end is energy efficiency retrofits.

[photo credit: Flickr]

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Next week one of the premier events in the world of green building, water, energy, clean tech, social innovation and what many call the “new economy” will occur in San Francisco at the Fort Mason Center.

Billed as the “world’s largest conference on green innovation” for buildings, West Coast Green runs from Oct 1-3. It’s packed with presentations such as “Greening Existing Buildings: The Biggest Piece of the Low Carbon Puzzle,” “The Smart Grid Meets Smart Buildings” and “The Water & Energy Nexus.”

The conference is expected to draw over 14,000 attendees and a veritable who’s who in the world of green and clean technologies. Authors, CEOs, government representatives, entrepreneurs and inventors will show off and discuss innovative new products that can help us create a more sustainable world.

Planned keynote speakers include San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Interactive displays will include a self-sustaining, off-grid relief structure that fits inside a shipping container and comes equipped with enough supplies to sustain a family of four for a week without any external infrastructure. Watch the video to see the structure below:

The recent New York Times story, Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering, has me very interested in meeting the people from Atmospheric Water Systems. They’ll display their water filtration system that pulls the moisture out of the air to create drinkable water. With no pipes connected to water and the unit standing only four feet tall, this is a product I have to see to believe.

If you can’t make the event, stay tuned as our team from CleanTechies will provide coverage of many aspects of the event.

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