Commercial Buildings

Last entry I talked about how updating our homes and offices to be greener can help reduce the emissions that ooze from buildings. Unfortunately, the equivalent of the energy saved by your efforts at home can be gobbled up by a department store or factory in under a second. Yet don’t forget that you, the consumer, are for whom these businesses exist. So if you are concerned about climate change then do your best to support only businesses who employ sustainable practices (of course it is better to avoid consuming much at all, then support these businesses for your needs). Last week I went to Hopworks Brewery in Portland to meet some Oregon Environmental Council people, which gave me the idea for another pledge. Other OEC interns had organized this event at Hopworks because the brewery implements sustainable building practices. Their website describes these efforts as:

• Building professionally deconstructed- all useable material recovered and sorted
• 1/3 all framing material used recovered from deconstruction
• Ceiling blasted with corn cob instead of sand-eliminates risk of silicosis for blasters
• Booths constructed entirely from ceiling joists
• Finish trim constructed from recovered trim
• Bar base constructed from recovered framing, office paneling, and ceiling joists
• Bar foot rail made of old boiler pipe
• Tables recovered from restaurant remodel
• Low and zero VOC finishes
• 93% efficient gas furnaces
• Insulated, low-E window and door upgrade

• Low flow toilets- 1.28 GPF
• Native species used exclusively for landscaping
• South Parking lot features 5000 gallon retention/settling pond
• Rain barrel captures roof run-off used for irrigation, general wash down, and future green house

My pledge for the week of July 26 is to support green businesses whenever I can. I found a great directory online for sustainable businesses in the Portland area: http://www.redirectguide.com/Portland_Vancouver/index.asp . Another green pages directory for locations across the U.S. can be found at http://gengreenlife.org. You can also keep your eyes out for LEED buildings (stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a government-certification for energy-efficient buildings. I couldn’t find an online directory for LEED-certified businesses in the U.S., but it is a very coveted certification that businesses will certainly show off.

The other thing you can do to influence the commercial world is to encourage businesses to turn off their lights at night. It’s estimated that they lose $5-10 billion dollars a year to stay lit up at night, so it’s in their financial interest to flip the switch. I couldn’t find any nonprofits currently working toward this, but I did find out about Earth Hour, a WWF-sponsored event where buildings across the world turn off their lights on March 31 every year. Sign up to turn off your lights during Earth Hour here: http://www.earthhour.org/Homepage.aspx#, and watch the official video for Earth Hour here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FovYv8vf5_E#at=61.  I signed myself up, also as part of this week’s pledge.

While I encourage supporting green business over plain old-fashioned business, it's more important to remember, as Mahatma Gandhi said, "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed."  We have to be able to think for ourselves and exercise restraint to avoid excess. But when we do inevitably seek what we need, there are ways to do it more sustainably.

The nature photo for this week comes from Klamath Falls, Oregon and was taken in 2010.

(This blog is inspired by the summer internship I am doing with Oregon Environmental Council. Their website has a plethora of resources for becoming greener, from making non-toxic cleaning products to choosing more sustainable wines: www.oeconline.org)