Registration will be announced soon. If you are ready to book your stay, check out The Hotel Northampton, where a block of rooms is available at a special conference rate. I recommend making arrangements early; the conference will be held during peak foliage, and accommodations may be hard to come by at the last minute. I’ll post additional details as they are available.

credit Paul Petrone

Our latest LEED consulting project broke ground last week. Read all about the Waterford High School groundbreaking ceremony and see the video here. The project is pursuing LEED certification under the 2009 LEED for Schools rating system.

Norwottock Rail Trail Bridge

The Western Massachusetts Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (WMAIA) presents a film series each year, usually with some off-beat and quirky selections. The 2011 series looks pretty juicy:

2/7/2011 Trouble the Water (2008, Carl Deal, Tia Lessin) + The River (1938, Pare Lorentz)

3/7/2011 The River (1951, Jean Renoir)

3/28/2011 Apocalypse Now (1971, Francis Ford Coppola)

4/25/2011 Burden of Dreams (1982, Les Blank)

Are you sensing a theme here? The river’s prominent role is coordinated with the Riverscaping project at the Five College Architectural Studies Program. The project is a one and a half year exploration of the river and its impact on community, with the Pioneer Valley and Five Colleges partnering with peers in Hamburg, Germany. From the film series description: “The river is connection and separation. It is passage and obstacle. It is community and battlefield. It is music and noise. It is art and function. It is power and vulnerability. It is local and global. It defines our past and will define our future.”

All of the films are shown at the Pruyne Lecture Hall in Fayerweather Hall (which is an 1894 McKim, Mead, and White building) at Amherst College at 6:30pm. CEUs are available to AIA members.

The Lorax can be purchased at the Springfield Museum store. Check out the Dr Seuss sculpture garden while you are there.

I frequently read The Lorax by Dr Seuss to my son. In the story, The Once-ler develops a new business; chopping down Truffala trees to make Thneads (which everyone needs). As more and more trees are used, the Bar-ba-loots, who depend on the Truffala trees’ fruit, no longer have enough to eat. The Lorax pleads with the Once-ler to stop chopping their trees, but the Once-ler responds “business is buisness! And business must grow regardless of crummies in tummies you know. I meant no harm. I most truly did not. But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.”

Last night, I watched our President’s State of the Union Address. As expected, much of the content focused on the economy and job creation. There was no mention of climate change. After noting that China now has the largest solar research facility (non-government) as well as the fastest computer (the Tianhe-1A), he stated: “And now it’s our turn. We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time. We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”(Applause.) An admirable goal, and yet it sounded quite a bit like the Once-ler’s desire to keep ‘biggering’ and ‘biggering.’ Economic growth and job creation are critical in our time, but just as critical as avoiding the fate of the Bar-ba-loots.

I’m not a political commentator, but I do experience first hand how government policies impact green buildings. As state incentives and funding for on-site renewable energy has dwindled, clients are opting not to install these systems. When the state of Connecticut began requiring state-funded buildings over certain budget thresholds to meet LEED-Silver or equivalent, there was a trickle down effect. Clients who were not required to meet the standard were still inquiring about it. Last night,  I was relieved to hear these 4 goals and challenges related to green building, technology, and energy. Let’s hope that some of them come to fruition. We should’t keep ‘biggering’ just for ‘biggering’s’ sake.

High Speed Rail in Taiwan

1. “With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. (Applause.)… And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies.”

2. “I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: By 2035, 80 percent of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources.”

3. “Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail.”

4. “We’re selling acres of federal office space that hasn’t been used in years, and we’ll cut through red tape to get rid of more.”

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Our membership base is the area of the Glacial Lake Hitchcock region, which was formed 15,000 years ago when the Laurentide ice sheet began to retreat northward along the Connecticut River. At its maximum extent, Glacial Lake Hitchcock expanded from Rocky Hill, Ct to St. Johnsburry VT. Similarly , our green building community expands beyond the boundaries of the pioneer valley.

This winter we hosted a LEED Green Associate Study Group at UMASS amherst, and our first two graduates passed the LEED GA exam.  We will be announcing spring events and networking opportunities soon. Let us know if you’d like to be included.

By the way, Amherst College’s free Museum of Natural History has a neat exhibit on Glacial Lake Hitchcock.

A progress photo:

Next year, Cooper Green Design will work with community organizations in the Northampton area to construct a Sukkah using discarded plastic bottles.

Wall splatter below a dryer surface mounted on painted wall board.

I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about toilet rooms at work. I’ve had meetings and dedicated to waterless urinals, pressure assisted toilets, and a variety of toilet room smells. The latest round of conference calls has focused on high efficiency hand dryers in several projects.

First, high efficiency hand dryers are the new-ish models that are popping up in restrooms around the country. They are powerful yet efficient, and dry our hands in about 10-12 seconds. Excel and Dyson are 2 of the major manufacturers. Using dryers is more sanitary than paper towel dispensers or push button dryers, and cleaning staff no longer need to clean wet paper towels off of the floors. With lower annual costs when compared to paper towels and lower energy use when compared to standard dryers, there are clear environmental benefits and they are (finally!) becoming industry standard.

Some of my clients are becoming reluctant to install them because of occupant complaints about noise and appearance. In my own travels, I’ve seen many poor installations, and I’ve witnessed quite a few small children cry at the sound of the dryer. After too many conference calls, I’ve come up with this list of easy steps to include high efficiency dryers in toilet rooms without scaring the children or disturbing the adults:

• Include the noise reduction nozzle! This is an option when ordering the Xlerator dryer, and it significantly reduces the noise.  Without it, the device is likely to frighten small children or disrupt conversations in adjacent rooms.
• Inform your users. Excel has a simple online calculator that determines annual cost savings and environmental savings. Many users who complain about the dryers are not aware of their benefits.  Use the calculator and include a small sign that shows the actual savings for your dryers. A sign may read:

“By using these dryers instead of paper towels, we eliminate 550lb of waste, save 12,331 gallons of water, save 10 trees, reduce our carbon footprint by 1278.58 kgs CO2 eq., and save $1,260.00 each year.”

I always carefully consider the tone of any signage and I craft it to be appropriate for the building, client, and users. Most occupants will appreciate being “informed” but will resent being “educated” in a public toilet room.

• Ditch the paper towel dispenser. If you include both a dryer and a paper towel dispenser, many users will choose paper towels. This can negate the cost savings that you will realize if you only install the dryer.
• Pay attention to the wall material. Many small toilet rooms have dryers that are surface mounted on painted wall board. With these dryers, the velocity of air is greater, and water from hands will splash on the wall. Some occupants complain about ‘unsanitary conditions’ when in fact, what they are seeing is this unsightly wall splatter.  I recommend including a stainless wall panel, tile, or other cleanable surface at the location of an Xlerator dryer and training cleaning staff to wipe the surface. The Dyson Airblade is self contained and usually does not have wall splatter problems, but because it is accessed from the top, different mounting heights may be needed in toilet rooms that serve both children and adults.

This paper towel dispenser is conveniently installed on a partition adjacent to the sink.

The Dyson Airblade is on the opposite side of the partition. Shame on them!

I took my toddler son to see the Hawi wind farm. He was amazed, I was amazed. We drove up the spine of Kohala Mountain (EL = 5,480′), then descended to the small town of Hawi. Located at the northern tip of the Big Island, this place is certainly windy. You can find wind maps on Hawaii Electric Company’s website. Dozens of cows are nestled beneath 16 wind turbines.  The wind farm is adjacent to the Upolo Airport (How do the pilots handle the wind?) and the island of Maui looms in the distance. It was a fantastic place to wander around.

There are sixteen Vestas turbines providing a total output of 10.56 Megawatts. The wind farm came online in 2006 and provides power for Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO). (data from the American Wind Association).

PUBLIC Bikes - mmm, juicy

I suspect that many people don’t bike to work because it doesn’t “look” cool. Enter PUBLIC Bikes. They are releasing a new line of European style urban-cool bikes. I haven’t been able to try one out yet, but they do look juicy… as in a sweet drippy tangerine or kiwi.

If you are in San Francisco, you can test ride one at their shop. Bikes can be pre-ordered, and the line will be available online this month and at Tretorn in Soho. By the way, if you will be in New York for Metropolis’s ICFF 2010 (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) May 15-18, join PUBLIC on their Design Ride Manhattan celebration on Sunday. The ride travels from the ICFF to the Tretorn Store.

Yakkay Bicycle Helmet & Cover

Keeping your pretty little heads protected is a must, and now there are a few options for doing so in style. Yakkay has been getting lots of press for their Danish designed helmet covers. Very cute, but they come at quite a price. If you are one of those people that can handle  riding in a suite, it makes for a perfect accessory. A DIY option that is actually quite easy is to personalize a Bern bike helmet (Bern helmets are shaped like french motorcycle helmets) with paint or decals. See an example here. Bern’s Watts helmet is pretty sleek on its own.

“We can see our planet earth with detachment, with tenderness, with some shame and pity, but at last also with love.” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Earth Shine, 1969.

Earth - NASA satellite image

1946 was our first glimpse of the earth from space. Grainy black and white photos were taken with a 35 millimeter camera on a V-2 missile. (Smithsonian Air & Space has a great description along with a photo gallery and video). These images and others taken in the following years had a profound impact on how we view ourselves and our home.

The above image is one that I’ve used for years in education and training workshops. It is a NASA satellite image that was given to me by a colleague from Australia. I love using it in the United States because the image is so dynamic, allowing North Americans to view it without the distraction of identifying our own geographical home on the Earth. (This image shows Africa, the Middle East, and Antarctica.)

For more earth day eye candy, check out NASA’s Visible Earth site, which contains a catalog of images and a composite Earth: The Blue Marble, a composite image with exceptional detail and color. For more quotes, check out this site.

Happy Earth Day!

On a separate note, Cooper Green Design | The Blog has a backlog of posts, including the remaining posts in the World Expo Series. I’ll correct this soon and have them up this week. Thanks for your patience and as always, thanks for following.