As those of us who reside in Winter Climes are mending the harnesses and stoking the blaze, we can find a time to pause and reflect. It is a time to let our thoughts drift and flow. It is a time to gather closer and to communicate with light and balance.
For those of us who reside in Summer Climes you too can pause and envision your light within, cultivating our daily connections and past coldness and fears overcome.
We would like to wish all the best of reflections and the warmest of connections in this new season, by sharing our IT’s lovely animation of Robert Frost’s Poem: Stopping by Woods.
I am sharing some of my thoughts about green design needs and about why the biking architect’s firm and other small firms are holding on by the finger tips…. and not getting the stimulus work… Just sharing what is on my mind…
I just watched the movie”FOOD, Inc.” and highly recommend it.
I am wondering why the huge firms are getting the stimulus money and the energy efficiency work and nothing is trickling down. This is just like the big financial institutions which created the problems getting the funds and not trickling it down. Now the huge firms, might have some one person holding their feet to the fire on Green Design…energy efficiency and sustainability, but they don’t seem to have many who have actually done this kind of work or produced the results that are needed right now? Whereas the smaller firms that have been doing this kind of work for 30 years are not even being hired as consultants – they are still begging clients to do the right thing.
Why are the folks handing out the projects seemingly not asking these questions?
Why has this firm not been doing these projects before? Or only making surface changes?
How many firms are connected to the big energy – oil users?
Who is covering the Copenhagen meetings? What have they learned from this gathering?
Who is teaching the contractors and engineers about the new products?
Who is understanding the new equipment/surfaces/structures that are needed and designing it?
How many vegetarians are there within the firm?
How many live in situations where they truly recycle, reuse, and monitor their carbon foot print? And who can give a detailed reporting, but they all SAY they do…?
What is the firm’s home base and projects carbon foot print in the last year?
Who uses bikes for transportation? Who offsets their use of computers? Who supports the local economy and CSA groups? Who has changed codes and laws?
Who volunteers to help the less fortunate understand?
Are they connected to Architecture 2030? Or 360. Org? Treehuggers?
Which of these big firms know what is happening and what kinds of development the Green firms have been producing these pasts 30 years?
Yep I know that the world is not fair. I also know that by keeping our work localized that St. Louis firms may not know that there is all this expertise available for consulting or mentoring.
My looking and thinking says that folks are really trying and working hard….but they are not going to solve the problems and make a better world with this same old same old patterns…. (see: David Korten’s book Agenda for a New Economy.)
I started this discussion on my previous post – I just had to keep sharing these good words and the delight I find in them:
Bicycle In The Clouds
“ You know you’re in Copenhagen when a mother in high heels and mini skirt, with a 5 year old on the back and two bags of groceries dangling from the handlebars, blows past you like you’re carved in stone.” ~Unknown author
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.” ~Elizabeth West from Hovel in the Hills
“Nothing compares to the simple pleasures of a bike ride.” ~JFK
“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if your live.” ~Mark Twain
“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom & self-reliance. I stand & rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.” ~ Women’s Suffragist at a movement rally in London
“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.” ~H.G. Wells
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving” ~Albert Einstein
“Newspapers are unable, seemingly to discriminate between a bicycle accident & the collapse of civilization.” ~George Bernard Shaw
Right before my very eyes as I stood on the City Bus heading to the California Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park were the words – DREAMS ON WHEELS.
“Danish cycling Culture for Urban Sustainability” November 19 through December 15, 2009 at the South Light Court of San Francisco City Hall. (Designed by Inger & Jens Bruun of Scan/design Foundation)
Hopped on the Muni train to Van Ness stop and walked a couple of blocks to the city hall. The sun was shining and the morning was crisp. What better thing is there to do on the day before Thanksgiving than to go and look at this display of bicycles?
We also saw an impressive building and no less than 8 weddings being performed on the massive steps up to the newly installed Holiday Tree.
The display consisted of 10 booths each containing a bicycle, which demonstrated the changes and development of the vehicle. One booth was dedicated to photographs of happy Danes wheeling along in the city with the most bike traffic and use – fascinating.
I was amazed by how wide the bike lanes were designed and how skilled the peddlers were.
On each wall of the booths were quotes….and a history, economic or environmental lesson.
Here are my first favorites in order that I collected them from off the walls:
“Without the cycle Denmark grinds to a halt!” Famous Slogan
“Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling.” James E. Stares
“Everything is in the same gear even the old garden church spires, you yourself are the gliding camera. The bicycle is your centre in an entire universe. It’s just like you’re rising dizzily among twisting spires.”
Forgot to write down author
“Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world.” Grant Peterson
“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” Ernest Hemingway
I needed to know more about the Brighter Planet’s 350 Challenge. So I went to the website and copied their answer page. I was pleased with what I found and I wanted to share it with you because it is concise and has all the links.
I am looking forward to offsetting the carbon footprint in my life with my solar panels and by not using the car – rather by walking and biking….here is another way…
What is Brighter Planet’s 350 Challenge, exactly?
The 350 Challenge is a small way to show your support to fight climate change. The more bloggers that get our badge, the better. Thousands of readers will know that the climate movement is spreading far beyond the typical “environmental” realm and into the norm.
Who is Brighter Planet?
Brighter Planet helps people like you measure, reduce and offset their carbon footprints. We are committed to demonstrating that small, day-to-day actions can make a huge difference for the environment.
What affiliation do you have with 350.org?
Brighter Planet’s 350 Challenge is inspired by Bill McKibben’s awareness campaign about the importance of the number 350, the parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere that we must aim for if we want to keep the planet relatively safe. Bill is on our advisory board and the 350 crew are some of our dearest friends from Middlebury College. The 350 Challenge is a way that we can help bloggers spread the word. To learn more, listen to the podcast about the 350 campaign that we did with Bill.
Why carbon offsets?
Carbon offsets play a crucial role in building a sustainable society. Many renewable energy projects are well suited to produce energy and meet stringent standards, but lack sufficient financing. Carbon offsets fill that void by investing in these projects.
What kind of offset projects are you supporting?
Our renewable energy projects in communities across the U.S. decrease our national dependence on carbon-emitting “dirty” energy sources like coal burning power plants. Some are wind power in public school districts or open lands and others are cow power on family farms. They all meet Brighter Planet’s stringent project standards. Learn more about our projects…
Who is paying for these offsets?
Brighter Planet purchases and donates the 350 pounds of offsets for every participant in the 350 Challenge. We feel that’s a small price to pay to help generate awareness for the fight against climate change.
How do I install the badge on my blog?
If you know how to update your blog’s template directly, just copy the badge code and paste it wherever you’d like.
Enjoy this site? Subscribe and keep up with all the updates! Or support this site by promoting us through your favorite network:
(1) An underground garage was being dug on the south side, to a depth of 4.6 meters
(2) The excavated dirt was being piled up on the north side, to a height of 10 meters
(3) The building experienced uneven lateral pressure from south and north
(4) This resulted in a lateral pressure of 3,000 tons, which was greater than the pilings could tolerate. Thus the building toppled
Building Constructed
Underground Garage
Heavy Rain
Building Tilt
Eighth Wonder
Building Base
Building Foundations
Enjoy this site? Subscribe and keep up with all the updates! Or support this site by promoting us through your favorite network:
I would like to direct your attention today to a wonderful talk presented by Rachel Armstrong at the TED conference. The 7 minute video is a great place for ideas… enjoy!
Enjoy this site? Subscribe and keep up with all the updates! Or support this site by promoting us through your favorite network:
With the interesting and colorful graphics and the big words: “WHO BELIEVES IN CLIMATE CHANGE?”
7% of the respondents said “I’m not sure that building green in the US will help the environment when China and India are becoming industrialized so rapidly”
13% responded, “Global warming is a myth perpetuated by the Media, and green building is a fad- it’ll be forgotten in 20 years time.”
34% responded, “I’m not sure that global warming is caused by man, but energy conservation makes economic sense if we’ll be less dependent on the other countries’ oil”
46% responded, “It’s vital that we design and build sustainably, in order to conserve scarce resources and prevent further global warming.”
Now the magazine really had my attention with an article about the Traverwood Branch Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan – I must tell my daughter who is studying to be a Librarian in Ann Arbor about it, she will love the story. There were dozens of dead, infected ash trees on the site, and so the architect used the trees with the help of John Yarema, a local artisan woodworker to dry the trees and use them for the interior flooring and wall panels. The distressed wood keeps the story being told and makes for an interesting texture to the building. The Community needed every penny they could muster so did not pay for LEED certification. Pictures and more of the story.
I just had to continue on as the next building highlighted is a local project that I have been hearing lots of good things about – a hockey and performance center in Kent – you can see the pictures.
My reading took me to research several of the most pertinent ads to my work right now.
I think you will greatly enjoy checking out the links and discovering the survey and some more interesting facts – especially about dealing with opposition.
Look forward to your comments
Enjoy this site? Subscribe and keep up with all the updates! Or support this site by promoting us through your favorite network:
Part of our Solar Panels equipment is a program called Enphase. One of the jobs of this program is to make sure our solar panels do shut down during a power outage and do not electrocute the workers attempting to restore power to the grid.
Enlighten is a program which lets you connect your Enphase information to your computer. Now we are talking great fun here.
The program reads about an hour behind the panel’s production. One can get on and see time lapse what has been happening all day on the roof.
The graph is flat line during the nighttime hours and everyday for 2 hours as the sun moves past the giant Western Cedar Trees in our neighbor’s yard.
We have had a day with heavy, dark rain and some noon time sun breaks – so I chose a 3pm cut off time to share our Stats.
These are on easy to read graphs which are color coded and moving at a readable pace.
Energy Produced = 58kWh
This could power: 176 light bulbs; 58 computers; or 2 homes for one day
Carbon Offset so far produced = 100 pounds
Offset equivalencies of: Planting 1 tree; not driving 3 cars for 1 day; or not consuming 5 gallons of gas
We find ourselves nearly giddy to check out our stats for each day and relate them to the weather and we have a new found enthusiasm of bragging rights until we sit down with someone with 36 panels and no tree problems.
I have to stand on a small step stool to read the meters outside – this is considerably more fun, thought provoking and certainly drier today!
Doesn’t this just make you wish you had solar panels and this program too?
The Table of Contents (TOC) icon will reveal more talk of solar panels and lots of pictures too.
Liked this? You could share it on StumbleUpon or Twitter or Facebook. Thank you.
Enjoy this site? Subscribe and keep up with all the updates! Or support this site by promoting us through your favorite network:
Reflections
