I am the product editor here at BuildingGreen. I, along with a several team members, research products and then write and update listings for our GreenSpec product guide. I also help with overall category research and write an occasional product review for Environmental Building News. Prior to working for BuildingGreen, I was the associate editor for Green Builder magazine, where I wrote feature articles on a variety of topics related to green residential construction. After grad school I worked as a carpenter and freelance writer, among other jobs, and spent years searching for the perfect location to live, work, and enjoy the outdoors. I lived in the nearly every state along the spine of the Rockies, running high altitude trails from Taos to Glacier and doing my share of cross-country ski racing along the way, but about eight years ago I landed in Vermont by accident and I've been here ever since. I now live in Montpelier, the nation's smallest state capital, with my wife and two young children. I love the winters in Vermont, but making our 1860's home energy efficient is a major challenge. When not juggling home repairs, work, family, and diaper changing, I still try to sneak in as much running and cross country skiing as possible. I can't say I'm getting in a lot of miles.
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Recent Entries by this Author
Over the years I've held a lot of job titles and have done most kitchen jobs, from cleaning a large supperclub's grease traps in mid-July after the obligatory upper-Midwestern Friday fish fry (I don't recommend that as a career path) to picking herbs and edible flowers from the garden that I'd use in lobster salads at a Relais & Châteaux restaurant (that was a pretty good job).
So when I started writing the article Commercial Kitchens: Cooking up Green Opportunities for Environmental Building News I knew there wasn't enough space to adequately cover all the stories, equipment, and processes encompassing sustainable commercial kitchens.
Kitchen size and demands vary enormously; each piece of equipment is worthy of a feature article; and don't get me started on menu choices and sustainable agriculture. Yet I hoped to give at least a cross section of the some of the more important issues.
Despite the economic downturn and the trend toward smaller crowds at building trade shows, Efficiency Vermont's 2009 Better Buildings by Design Conference was a great success and actually increased attendance this year. The enthusiastic response is a tribute to the sustainable building community at large and to Efficiency Vermont, which put on a conference that was well organized, informative, and pragmatically optimistic. The quality of the presenters and workshops was impressive. William Miller from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Steve Selkowitz from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Kevin Dowling from Philips Solid State Lighting Solutions, John Straube from Building Science Corporation, and others, spanned topics ranging from high-performance roofs to the latest in LED technology.
I attended a commercial kitchen ventilation (CKV) workshop featuring Don Fisher, co-founder of Fisher-Nickel and the Food Service Technology Center (FSTC). Administered by Pacific Gas and Electric, FSTC is a pioneer in the testing of water- and energy-efficient commercial kitchen appliances. (Anyone interested in commercial kitchens has to visit www.fishnick.com). Fisher's presentation was geared toward experienced kitchen and/or HVAC professionals and discussed his company's work improving the efficiency of existing ventilation systems. For background information, commercial kitchens require massive CKV systems to remove heat and fumes generated by gas ranges, broilers, fryers, and — the biggest emitter — the grill (think of a large, white-hot barbecue burning indoors for 12-18 hours a day).
Finding an energy-efficient air purifier technology that actually works can be a tricky proposition. Most purifiers use ionizers that generate ozone or have HEPA and carbon filters that require inefficient fans that run constantly. Oh sure, you could try to keep toxins out of the house in the first place, but if you should find yourself living with a cigar-smoking roommate with a humidor made from non-CARB-compliant urea-formaldehyde particleboard (and, honestly, who hasn't?) and happen to be searching for a purifier, what are ya gonna do? As we look to the future of air-purification technology, maybe we need to take a look back to the Middle Ages for a possible solution. Zhu Huai Yong, from Queensland University of Technology, studied medieval stained glass and found that windows colored with tiny gold particles work as a "photocatalytic air purifier with nanostructured gold catalyst" (see article in Science Daily). When sunlight hits the windows, an electromagnetic field is formed that destroys volatile organic compounds, with only small amounts of CO2 as a by-product. Sure, gold mining is an environmental disaster, the long-term environmental impact of nanotechnology is unknown, and the frames of the stained glass windows were probably lead, but still — this is as viable as some air purifiers we've seen submitted to GreenSpec! Now if someone can market a cost-competitive, triple-glazed, krypton gas, low-e version with a U-factor of 0.20...
One summer day a few years ago I was standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon expecting to look down and across at light and shadows melding with multicolored layers of bedrock, the whitewater from the Colorado River calmly glistening a mile below as it carves through rock and time itself... etc etc. Instead, I found my gaze drawn to a line of gray clouds blowing in from the west. They didn't look like rain clouds, and it wasn't long before I discovered it was smog carried on the wind all the way from Los Angeles. I did spend part of that day contemplating the vastness of nature and the power of time, but it was done through a haze of personal guilt. I had just come from a wedding in LA and was sightseeing my way back to Colorado. Part of that cloud was most certainly mine, just as the 3-D explosions of CO2 shown here engulfing most of the U.S. and beyond are collectively ours.
Text accompanying the video: "A new, high resolution, interactive map of United States carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels has found that the emissions aren't all where we thought. The maps and system, called Vulcan, show CO2 emissions at more than 100 times more detail than was available before. Until now, data on carbon dioxide emissions were reported, in the best cases, monthly at the level of an entire state grid. The Vulcan model examines CO2 emissions at local levels on an hourly basis. Purdue researchers say the maps are also more accurate than previous data because they are based on greenhouse gas emissions instead of estimates based on population in areas of the United States."
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