Environmental Program

There are three major environmental goals that I feel that will greatly please the client, in regards to budjet savings, consideration for the building occupant's comfort and well being, along with an appreciation for environmental stewardship.

Major goals:

reduce the amount of water required cool/used in the building

heat loss - maintain/controll thermal gain/loss

daylighting - maximise the use of natural lighting and control secondary light usaage

Minor goals:

light control - maintain a low glow, if any glow at all

eco-friendly materials - materials that have a cradel2cradel approval

air quality - floor duct air system

Carbon Footprint

As a member of the USGBC - Nevada chapter, I find myself frequently surfing all over their site as well as the sponsors and affiliated sites. The new technologies that have provided advances for conservation across the realm is remarkable! A probable need is driving the construction and design world.

According to earthday.net, I have a Carbon Footprint that would require 6.2 planets per person if everyone in the would "lived like me" and I have a size 28 footprint.

This is very interesting... I don't have any clue as to what parameters are used to determine these results but I am told that if everyone in the world lived like me, we would need 6.2 planets... What are these 6.2 planets for?

Here are some great tips that everyone can do to reduce their carbon footprint:

1. Holidays - Don't go by air

2. Electricity - Sign up to renewable energy

3. Gas - Try using solar water heating - this can reduce your gas bill by up to 70% over a year.

4. Travelling around - Use public transport as much as possible. Find out about your local bus services and then use it.

5. Car Share - Sign up to a car share scheme to reduce your travel footprint

Many in this class, if not all, know that I question global warming... I, on the other hand, welcome most of the advances that have come along due to this phenomena, such as wind energy, tankless water heaters, waterless urinals, etc, etc, etc. I do question how buying trees to plant in some obscure part of the world (only way of getting there is by plane to plant the trees) will help offset my footprint. Based off the questions in this poll, I wounder what the answers would be to get down to one planet needed for everyone to live like me? Is this really obtainable?

I think that is would be great to have everyone living with a larger footprint than I to change their lifestyles and come to my level (no buying of offsets to help... just life style changes only). For instance say a 51-65 year-old female living in New York often eating animal based products and half of the food consumed is from far places. Owns a freestanding house with running water and is energy efficient that is larger than 2,500 s.f. with 2 persons living in it and only producing the same amount of trash as her neighbor. Her main mode of transportation is by car, usually traveling with a companion in a car that gets 15-25 miles to the gallon for up to 300-400 miles a week and seldom walks to get place to place, yet spends hundreds of hours flying here and there. Her Carbon footprint would be as follows:

That is... a footprint of 47 acres and would require 10.7 planets. In comparison to this person I look like a saint.