By Alison Alford

Energy efficient and high performance green buildings are quickly becoming the standard for new and renovated buildings.   Traditionally-built homes and office buildings account for 40% of the world’s total energy consumption and approximately 40% of our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  However, by incorporating energy efficient and green technology into buildings you can reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions per building up to 70%.  Buildings that are considered “green” are defined by McGraw-Hill Construction as, “one built to LEED standards, an equivalent green building certification program, or one that incorporates numerous green building elements across five category areas: energy efficiency, water efficiency, resource efficiency, responsible site management and improved indoor air quality.”

According to a study by McGraw-Hill Construction, in 2011, green buildings in residential areas made up 17% of new construction, totaling $17 billion in economic growth.  This survey also concluded that the value of the green building market is expected to grow up to 38% of the market by 2016, with new construction projects making $87–114 billion of economic growth in the construction industry.  Not only are green homes swiftly becoming the leading project in new construction, but 46% of homebuilders say that green design services makes it easier to receive new contracts, and 71% of contractors that exclusively build green homes claim that offering green services gives them a lead in the construction market.

Working towards the goal of reducing our buildings environmental footprint is becoming easier each year. McGraw Hill reports that the cost to build or retrofit a green home is now 7% less than what it was in 2008 and 11% less than in 2006.  The study also showed that by 2016, 90% of homes will have green technology incorporated into the construction process.  Indeed, the shift towards green homes is already in progress.  In 2011, green retrofits of buildings surpassed new construction projects, and over 1/3 of the construction and building industry (661,000 people) say that they have a “green” job.

By promoting sustainable architecture and retrofitting current homes to make them high performance green buildings, we reduce our overall carbon footprint and improve our quality of life in an economical and environmentally friendly way.

By Terrie Clifford

US Capitol

Did you know that the Empire State Building is actually a green building and that a local woman played a key role in getting the well-known NYC landmark LEED – certified? Katrina Managan, a program manager with the Institute for Building Efficiency at Johnson Controls shared her career experiences in green building along with those of two other amazing female building sustainability experts at February’s Eco Hour.

Co-panelists, Seema Wadwha, a LEED AP  and the director of sustainability at Urban Ltd., and Kristin Anderson Arnoldi, a project manager at DC’s Greenshape LLC,  discussed the victories  and challenges of their work with to a packed house on Tuesday, February 21.

Managan, who spent five years doing climate change legislation for the National Wildlife Fund transitioned to a green building role because she ‘wanted to get closer to the ground’ on sustainability issues.  The Empire State Building project has a three-year payback, Managan said, adding that her recent survey of 4,000 facility managers indicated that lack of capital and financing are the chief obstacles to U.S. companies investing in making U.S. buildings more energy efficient.

Seema Wadwha found herself in a cutting edge role when she agreed to lead INOVA Health Systems sustainability projects.  “We had to define what sustainability looks like in the health care industry,” she said. “Green buildings are a strong physical representation of what your organization believes in.  For Inova it became clear that building healthier buildings that use fewer carcinogens and are more efficient to operate is close to their mission of being health care leaders.”   She was delighted to see a surprise manifestation of INOVA’s stated goals of driving employee engagement and community engagement through a healthier, greener building.   During the project some of the hospital’s engineers made a secret garden on the roof using recyclable materials. “It was proof that they were realizing the value of green buildings”.

Kristin Anderson Arnoldi’s work involved overhauling an ancient DC landmark to LEED-Gold standards. “The Department of the Treasury was built between 1839 and 1869, so you can imagine how inefficient it was,” she said.  She takes pride in the fact that the project is estimated to save U.S. taxpayers $3.5 million dollars annually. That project also had an interesting surprise.  “We discovered that the White House was actually stealing their water for irrigation from the Treasury building and no one knew about it,” Arnoldi recalled.

The Green Buildings Panel had some career advice for Eco Women pursuing careers in green building:
Katrina Managan advised – “Reading as much as you can to be the technical expert you want to be as well as networking. There is a lot of free info on websites out there.”
Kristin Anderson Arnoldi concurred. ‘Go to events at the U.S. Green Building Council and network.”
Seema Wadhwa’s advice was almost spiritual. “I don’t think the education is important as the drive to do the work. This work is a calling. “

By Alison Alford

Marin Rose, from Functional &  Fashionable, joined DC Eco-Women February 1 for a presentation on how to get organized in a green and eco-friendly way.

Marin opened up the event to a large crowd with a few inspiring remarks, “Don’t own anything you don’t love,  that you don’t need… or both.”  Marin stressed that streamlining your life can be an eco-friendly process, and when you are organized, your life is ascetically, spatially, and emotionally streamlined—without the need for clutter.  Marin reminded us that useless clutter is emotionally draining, and gives us a false sense of security.

Marin’s 5 Rules for Organizing Your Life:

1.  Know what you have and what you need.  By knowing exactly how many wearable dress shirts you own, or how many boxes of cereal your household consumes in a timeframe, you stop overbuying items that you already have. Marin asked how us, “How many times have you bought an item at a sale, and then discovered at home that you already own a similar item?”  When you know what’s already in your closet, in your pantry, or in storage, you don’t run the risk of wasting money and time purchasing items that you already own.  Marin said that this also applies to perishable goods; when you figure out how many heads of lettuce you can consume in a week, you stop over purchasing groceries and no longer throw perfectly good food (and money) out in the garbage.

Once you figure out how many dress shirts you have in your closet, how do you figure out how many shirts you’ll need?  Marin suggests that you look at how many times you wear or use that item in a week, multiply by 4 to get the number you would wear in a month, and then adjust up or down based on the instance. For example, I usually wear a button up dress shirt to work every day.  I would multiple my 5 shirts a week by 4 weeks to give me the 20 dress shirts that I would wear in a month.  I would then subtract 3 shirts or so, because I can wash and rewear a white dress shirt numerous times a month.  If I have 30 dress shirts in my closet, I now know that I can donate 10 – 12 of my older or outdated shirts without needing to purchase any more shirts.

2.  Donate items frequently!  Once you know exactly what you have in your house, you will find that you have a pile of items that you no longer need.  There are many organizations that will gladly accept your out-of-fashion pantsuit or your ancient pair of tennis shoes mildewing in the closet.   By donating items that you no longer use, you remove clutter from your home and give that item a new life with a deserving recipient.  Marin suggested Soles for Souls, Goodwill, Martha’s Table, Books for America, or Dress for Success as a few organizations that will happily accept your donated clothes, household goods, and food.  You can even write many donations off on your taxes.

3.  Keep a Calendar.  Want to write a book? Run a marathon?  Repaint your living room? Schedule it on your calendar!  It’s easy to commit to a goal, no matter how large or small, if you schedule it on your calendar.  The trick is to keep your appointment with yourself.  Marin says, “If you respect other people enough to keep appointments with them, respect yourself and keep your own appointments with yourself!”  You’ll find that the goal of organizing your bedroom closet “one day” will happen as if by magic when you write in 1 hour a day of cleaning and organizing into your daily planner.

4.  Do the Work Before You Purchase the Solution.  Many times you find that you already own the perfect container for your out-of-season clothes, you just need to organize the clothes.  By committing to doing the work first, you will easily find a solution at hand for many of the problems you face.  Marin suggested re-purposing old shoe boxes to use as storage spaces for scarves and hats, used gift bags for your make-up, and using luggage to store out-of-season clothes.

5.  Determine where to spend money and where to save money.  One pair of expensive, yet well-made dress shoes will last numerous seasons, while those three pairs of cheap “knock-offs” that you bought on sale will disintegrate after the second use.  You don’t need to live a life of austerity; you just need to be mindful of when you should spend a little more to purchase something that will last. Marin said, “If more of us have this mentality, there will be less waste overall.”

Marin concluded the event by introducing Andrea from Repax.com, an eco-friendly moving company that eliminates the cardboard box.  Repax offers predetermined room bundles of shipping containers and eco-friendly packaging supplies. They offer services in the DC metropolitan area, as well as Los Angeles and New York City.  Marin offers her services for organizing or redecorating your home or office, staging your home for a sale, or helping you pack for a move.  She often partners with Repax.com when she helps a client move.

Suzanne Ehlers speaking with a DC EcoWomen member.

Eco Hour Blog – January Speaker Suzanne Ehlers, President and CEO of Population Action International
By Terrie Clifford

The impact of climate change on the developing world is great and it disproportionately affects women. That’s the message Suzanne Ehlers, President and CEO of Population Action International brought to DC Eco Women’s January Eco-Hour. ‘Two-thirds of all market goods in the world are physically carried there by women. Ninety percent of the world’s rice is grown by women. If a woman has to go farther for water due to climate change she is going to encounter more danger. Women in the developing world don’t have time to go to a family planning clinic one day and a climate change meeting the next. They are extremely busy making ends meet’ Ehlers said. Her organization connects women’s reproductive choices to environmental sustainability.

Ehlers realizes that parts of her mission can be interpreted as controversial. ‘The language around what we do is important because of the abortion debate and we pay close attention to it. Sometimes a conversation about women’s reproductive choices is not an easy one to have but it’s impossible not to discuss it’, she said. Population Action International is about a whole range of reproductive choices, according Ehlers. ‘Our model is totally demand driven. There are 215 million women in developing countries who wish they had a pill or an IUD to space their children’s births. I’ve met 19 year-old women on their fourth pregnancy. Some people wonder why these women are not working or contributing more to their communities. It’s because they can’t find a pill pack to save their lives.’ She shared her organization’s belief that increasing voluntary action to contraception saves women’s lives and gives them an opportunity to improve the futures of their families.
Ehlers is a busy mother in addition to her executive position. She recounted being hired at PAI while pregnant. Proof, she notes ‘that you can still grow a family and have serious professional ambition. ‘Her dedication to life of pursuing women’s justice came through a series of ‘defining moments’. On her first paid job at a landscaping company in her native Texas, she operated a forklift and male customers drove away rather than allow her to load their trucks. Later in her youth, she played the part of Jesus in a religious passion play which sent some male members of the congregation out of the church.

She urged the Eco Women’s audience to determine some of their own defining moments in thinking about their careers. ‘Catalogue your stories, she advised. ‘Figure out what from your past got you where you are today and share that. Force yourself to raise your hand in a meeting and make an intervention. Take the mike. Network like crazy. Get on policy makers radar screens.’

‘Keep an open channel, she said. The idea that you can always connect the dots in your career is b.s. Take a chance, try something new. Temp work is not a dead end. I got my job at the Wallace Foundation through a temp agency. I started as a very proud executive assistant.’ The temp job led her to become an Associate Program Officer at the Wallace Global Fund where she broke new ground in the fields of sustainable forestry and the reform of international financial institutions. The position also allowed her to shape the early foundation for philanthropic engagement on climate change. She recommends a book about women’s leadership: How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Life by Joanna Barsh, Susie Cranston and Geoffrey Lewis.

Ehlers final piece of advice? ‘Even if you are not in charge you are leading in different realms. There is no other way to get to greatness if you don’t aspire to it. Start aspiring today.’