Amy Levin and friends photo: Heidi Glenn, NPR

The best way to learn more overall about this amazing project is to hear the story that recently aired on NPR's All Things Considered.

But BuildingGreen LIVE decided to talk a bit more with Amy Levin to learn just how and why a realtor took such a deep plunge into the world of green building.

Coming from a family of realtors, Amy has been involved in housing, property improvement, and property investment most of her life. But about two years ago, she became convinced that building green presented a real opportunity — that building green can pay builders back, even though there may be some additional up-front cost, because the public is willing to pay for the small premium. She set off looking for an existing property to prove it.

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The 96th annual meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) starts today in Houston, TX, and continues for the next three days. Chances are good that you're not there. Neither am I.

However, the conference proceedings — a tome titled Seeking the City: Visionaries on the Margins — is available. Now. To anybody. All 976 pages. Free.

There's a lot here to be interested in... from "Traveling Professions: How Local Contingencies Complicate Globalizing Tendencies in the Standardization of Architectural Practice" (which not a few of us probably think is a good thing), to "Freeze / Thaw: A Menacing Line and Humble Resistance," by way of "Architecture and the Cinematic Window: Hitchcock's Rear Window and the Fantasy Frame."

I haven't read it all. I think I can safely say that I'm not going to. But I've been happily picking and choosing my way through this big collection of unexpectedly diverse five- to ten-page papers, and it seems like there's going to be something rewarding, or at least sort of interesting, for just about everyone.

"Instead of waiting for green roofs to come to the Twin Cities [St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota] as a product for mass consumption, RoofBloom was created to empower individuals with the knowledge and materials needed to install green roofs themselves. A collaboration between the Minnesota Green Roof Council and the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, RoofBloom is taking action at a grass roots level, while focusing on improving the sustainability and effectiveness of green roof construction." — RoofBloom builds a green roof in 7 minutes

At their website, RoofBloom offers a downloadable 19-page booklet introducing their concept, Green Your Garage: Volume One. Excerpted:

Why small green roofs?

Garages and other small outbuildings may not seem like the place to start promoting green roof technologies. These are the smallest roofs in the watershed, and make up only a small fraction of total rooftop area. Garages are generally not heated or air conditioned, and cannot take advantage of the reduced energy demands that are provided by green roofs.

But garages are a great place to start:

• Even though green roofs have a proven record spanning several decades in other countries, they're still an unfamiliar idea to most Americans. Few people risk using unfamiliar technology on their homes; more homeowners are willing to experiment with green roofs on their garages.
• Garages and other outbuildings do represent a significant land use in urban areas. As an example, fifty thousand two-car garages, each with a 480-square foot roof, represent 24 million square feet of impermeable surface. That's 550 acres of green space.
• Garages in Minnesota generally have roofs sloped between 20 and 30%. This is shallow enough to support many different green roof systems. Many single family homes in our region feature roofs sloped at 50% or more, which is too steep for most green roof systems. Also, garage roofs are usually simpler and easier to roof, with fewer complicated valleys and penetrations.
• Garage roofs are visible. People will be able to see a green roof on a garage. This is in contrast to many commercial green roofs, which are often inaccessible and invisible to the public on top of a building. A garage with a green roof sends a clear message that green roof technology can be used economically on a wide range of building types.
• Once green roofs are established as a viable means of reducing roofing costs and energy use, all while protecting our watersheds, homeowners will find ways to use green roofs on their homes. For now, though, garages and other small outbuildings present an ideal place to demonstrate the possibilities of green roofs.

After months of hard work and collaboration, they're ready: the Regreen Residential Remodeling Guidelines, produced under a partnership of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Foundation and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The guidelines were developed by a technical committee of diverse industry experts, and refined by public comment, to synthesize product selection, systems integration, and proven technologies. Organized according to the ten most common types of remodeling projects, the guidelines address scope, integrated pre-design issues, and environmental considerations, and provide a topical library of strategies as well as case studies of successful renovations.

Download it now if you haven't already.

A hearty handshake to the following people from BuildingGreen for the tremendous effort they gave to this project: Peter Yost, Amie Walter, Rachel Navaro, Julia Jandrisits, Alex Wilson, and Jennifer Atlee. Phil Scheffer isn't acknowledged in the document, but he did the tedious and valuable job of adding all the clickable links. These folks did a vast amount of work. (And I watched them do it. I did take the photos on pages 31 and 43, though, and they're clearly the most important pictures in the guide. Yep. I ain't proud.)

The "Gut Rehab" shot was taken during our office expansion in the old Estey Organ Factory buildings in Brattleboro, VT.

Environmental Building News first reported on the Regreen project in December '07: Guidelines in Development for Residential Remodeling.

Jerelyn Wilson — who has the inadequate title of "Outreach Director" for BuildingGreen — came down the hall and into my office a few minutes ago, bright-eyed and holding the current issue of YES! magazine in front of her, folded open. "Have you seen this?!" she asked, holding it out for me:

About that photo:

"Tsewang Norbu lives in the village of Digger across the 4,500 meters high Khardungla pass in the Leh District. He is twenty-eight years old, has five children and keeps goats.

He was selected by his community to be trained in the installation, repair and maintenance of solar photovoltaic units. All the solar units he installed were brought to the village by Yak and on the backs of people from the village. He was trained on the job: he installed fifty-nine units himself, taking three months to complete the work.

The units were installed in 1992. They are still working."

Photo by Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia
Copyright 2008 Barefoot College, Tilonia, India

(More pictures and words.)

Being around and working with people to whom not just an enthusiastic and positive world future, but an enthusiastic and positive here and now, matters, is inspiring and humbling. People who celebrate goodness, and strive for it.

It's not a new idea, but this book is less than a year old. From the blurb for Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto, by David Tracey:

"In the case of guerrilla gardening, the soldiers are planters, the weapons are shovels, and the mission is to transform an abandoned lot into a thing of beauty. Once an environmentalist's nonviolent direct action for inner-city renewal, this approach to urban beautification is spreading to all types of people in cities around the world.

These modern-day Johnny Appleseeds perform random acts of gardening, often without the property owner's prior knowledge or permission. Typical targets are vacant lots, railway land, underused public squares, and back alleys. The concept is simple, whimsical and has the cheeky appeal of being a not-quite-legal call to action."

Just sowing some seeds. Spring is right around the corner.

Press release:

U.S. Green Building Council to Co-Sponsor Nationwide Carbon Webcast Focusing on Global Climate Change

Face It Webcast to be Broadcast Live at 9:00 AM on January 30, 2008

Washington, DC (January 28, 2008) — The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) will co-sponsor a nationwide webcast on climate change, called Face It, hosted by Architecture 2030, a research organization that focuses on the role of buildings in global climate change. The educational webcast will cover Architecture 2030's approach to halt global warming and will unveil two new student competitions worth a total of $20,000 in prize money.

"Buildings account for 39% of all CO2 emissions in the U.S., and building green is an immediate and measurable solution to mitigating climate change," said Michelle Moore, Senior Vice President of Policy & Public Affairs, USGBC. "Educating the construction leaders of tomorrow is a core part of USGBC's mission, and our support of Architecture 2030 in this essential webcast is a critical part of that."

The Face It webcast will be broadcast live at www.architecture2030.org at 9:00 AM EST on January 30, 2008, with video available later for download on the site. This webcast kicks off the Focus the Nation simultaneous educational symposia to be held across the country on January 31, 2008. Focus the Nation is a national effort to engage students, faculty, administrators, citizens and government officials in discussions to address global warming.

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I'll be interviewed about GreenSpec and Green Building Products this evening on Santa Fe Public Radio, KSFR, at 7:10 p.m. (Eastern time), for 15 or 20 minutes. Tune in if you'd like — 101.1 FM if you're in New Mexico (pretty much anywhere between Taos and Albuquerque)... or streaming on the web (looks like you'll need Windows Media Player, which is free, and available for Macs). The show is The Journey Home, hosted by Diego Mulligan. It's not a call-in show, sorry.

"There's one thing worse than being young and full of stormy tantrums, and that's being old and backward-looking and crotchety."

So said Bruce Sterling (author, thinker, critic, doer) in this year's annual rollicking and roving discussion of the state of the world at The Well — the still-kicking "Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link" founded by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant in 1985 (more than 20 years ago!) for the writers and readers of the seminal, sadly defunct Whole Earth Review. Among much else, Bruce is the instigator of the Viridian design movement, described as a confluence of "environmental design, techno-progressivism, and global citizenship," from which grew the popular Worldchanging website, and more recently, book of the same name.

The turn-of-the-year conversation is still unfolding. A freewheeling email discussion presented chronologically, it can be slightly trying to follow — but the thoughtful, informed, witty participants make it so worth the effort.

After the jump, I've excised some quotes from Bruce Sterling that range from insightful to wry to what some might find abrasive, depressing, and contrary. It was not only difficult to choose which to include here, but also took strength limiting myself to just the "headliner." There's a lot of thought-provoking material throughout from others.

Thanks to the lovely and brainy-hilarious Jeanine Sih Christensen of greenbuilder.com for reminding me of this once-a-year treat.

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I mentioned this in passing the other day, but it deserves to be given more attention. Following up on its February 2007 webcast, "The 2010 Imperative Global Emergency Teach-in" that reached an audience of a quarter-million to illuminate the role of building design education in global warming, Architecture 2030 — the non-profit research organization founded by Ed Mazria — will host a free 30-minute webcast at 9 am (EST) on January 30 to present the next steps forward.

Called "Face It," the presentation — the first of several events planned for 2008 — will address not just energy demand, but also energy supply, as "the heart of global warming," and what to do about it. Additionally, two student graphic design and video competitions offering $20,000 in prize money will be announced.

The 2030 Challenge issued by Architecture 2030 is to reduce the fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of all new and renovated buildings by half by 2010 — and that all new buildings should be carbon neutral by 2030. The Challenge has been adopted and supported by the US Conference of Mayors, AIA, National Association of Counties, USGBC, California Public Utilities Commission, California Energy Commission, EPA's Target Finder, many individual cities, counties, and states, as well as architectural firms and other professional entities. Notably, the federal government will require these energy reduction targets for all new and renovated federal buildings beginning in 2008.