In this interview from February 20, Christina Lor interviews Jennifer Languell, who will be speaking at the Green Cities Conference taking place May 19-21 in Orlando, FL.  Jennifer Languell discusses being ahead of the Green curve, incentives for building eco friendly, and the human element of global climate change in this week’s podcast. This is the fourth in a series of interviews with Green Cities speakers. Subscribe to our podcast and make sure not to miss the rest of the interview series.

“My interest is in really looking at the cities and helping the officials look at what they do… and help them learn how to create incentives for people, builders, developers to really start considering the environment more in their future growth.”  – Jennifer Languell

 

 Green Cities Podcast: - Jennifer Languell Interview [14:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

Transcript of Interview
February 20, 2009

I’m Christina Lor with Green Cities Media talking today with Jennifer Languell. Welcome Jennifer and thanks for speaking with us.
Anytime.

Alright, let’s start by discussing what you’ll be talking about at Green Cities. What are some of your interests with the Green Cities Conference?
We’re noticing that cities are really coming together and realizing that in that rapid growth, maybe we weren’t doing as much as we could have been doing to protect the environment. So, as much as the slow down is hurting the economy it’s really giving us an opportunity to evaluate how to protect the environment as we regain traction and start growing again. So my interest is in really looking at the cities and helping the officials look at what they do, their own performance inside their different operations and whether its their operations from an admin stand point or its from an emergency management standpoint or from their own human resources or waste management stand point and really extend that to when the future happens, growth wise again, and help them learn how to create incentives for people, builders, developers to really start considering the environment more in their future growth.

Well I know you have your Ph. D in Sustainable Construction and I would imagine that was ahead of the trend and now you have founded and are the President of your own company Trifecta Construction Solutions. How does that background support some of the projects you’re working on as far as setting the trend for this Green Cities movement?
Well I think the interesting thing is that everyone has heard of cutting edge technology and I have to say that when I started doing green building and sustainable development it was bleeding edge, no one knew what is was, they thought I was completely insane. I had plenty of doors slammed in my face 10-15 years ago, and now of course it’s the hottest topic. So its great to know, at least I have a lot more experience with it than most people, because I’ve been doing it so long. But it definitely was one of those things that getting an advance degree and really creating what the concept was and working with the US Green council when they were first evolving and what their main goals were, really helped form my company as well as helped really drive the Florida Green Building Coalition as well to service the industry, and I left academia. I was teaching in building construction and civil engineering and I moved into pure consulting because I was realizing all the great information and research that we were learning at the University level was never actually making it out into the field. Construction is a very tried and true industry and without someone who could translate the research into what would work in the field, it wasn’t being implemented.  That’s really the role I took on, was taking the information that we were learning and advance technologies and techniques and products and materials and getting that information to the industries so that it could be implemented.

So what’s your take on the current economic situation and the green economy?
Well I have to say quite honestly I don’t think there’s anyone out there who’s happy about the current economic situation. When you look from a stand point of benefits or opportunities, the good thing is that because we’re taking a breather, so to speak, and that will be my positive way of saying, “What’s going on?”  “We’re taking a breather!”  It’s given a lot of individuals time to evaluate what they’re doing and look at how they can do it better. So whether they’re a builder, they’re a developer, they’re a small business a large business, people and companies are really looking at:  What have we been doing? How can we incorporate some of these more sustainable practices into what it is we do everyday and or into our projects? So from that standpoint, I look at this as such an opportunity that if we hadn’t slowed down none of these businesses would have taken the time to learn this or very few of them.  But now that we have, I believe it’s an opportunity for everyone to learn about this so that when things pick up we’re doing and we’re developing in a much more environmentally sustainable manner.

Great, well let’s just say that you as microcosm of the situation lead the parade and, together with education and acknowledgment to the situation it’s definitely spread into the city level. What do you think is the role of cities in the environmental movement? After individuals have been standing up for what they believe in and trying to force progression through change.
Well I think cities play a role as being a leader. We can look to our cities as say, “Well look, if the governments doing it, we can do it.” Most people think inherently, that governments aren’t the most efficient mechanisms for items and so of course if we can look and say, “Well the city figured out a way how to use recycled paper or the city figured out a way how to recycle on a city wide level, we should be able to do that in our own business.” What I look to the cities to do is really to go an incentive route, a positive reinforcement route, much more so than a mandating or requiring or penalizing route. In my opinion it’s very important that we incentivize individuals to do the right thing versus swat them on the hand when they’re not doing what we want them to do. I think it actually makes the builders and developers want to go green, so to speak. I think we can look to the cities for what they’re doing, and hopefully see that they’re saying, “Oh look, we’ll fast track your permitting.  Oh look, we’ll look at the impact fees and realize that you’re developing sustainably, you’re having less of an impact on the environment and maybe you shouldn’t have to pay as large of a fee as others are paying.” or maybe there’s some sort of tax incentive. So, I think there’s a lot of opportunities that we can be researching right now, I don’t know that necessarily all of the cities are in that mind set yet, because of course they’re also struggling with budget cuts. So, right now it’s almost a survival mode but I think once we make it through the survival mode we’re really going to start thinking on a different level of how to incorporate really innovative practices and more environmentally responsible practices in growing.

What are some of the hottest topics or projects happening in your field right now?
I think that if I look at the things that are going on right now, I am seeing affordable housing, obviously being a very important sector in our economy. There’s a huge demand for it, a huge need for it, and we are seeing and realizing that if we provide affordable homes that are inefficient it really doesn’t help the individuals that need the home to begin with.  I’m seeing trends from the cities and the counties saying what can we do to improve the performances of these homes, we want healthy homes for individuals and we want efficient homes for individuals. I’m also seeing a lot of movement from the green lodging standpoint. As we know, the governor passed an executive order that basically said “If we have overnight stays or conferences we are only going to do that in green lodges.” So, we’ve seen exponential growth of the green lodging program. We’re also seeing land developers, because of the new storm water regulations that are coming into effect; those have been postponed till 2010, but of course looking at water quality and I think we look at green and it’s a word we see all the time and we’re use to seeing energy and whether its energy star or energy efficiency, but I don’t think people realize the importance of water when it comes to growth, future growth and sustainability. I think we’re really starting to look at trends on the water quality and water use side as well, and health has always been a driving force. I would say affordability, seems to be affordable housing seems to be one of the trends, definitely more emphasis on water, looks like it’s a significant trend. Of course large planned communities, renewable energies and how do we all work and move that together and forward. And we’re in a unique position from our state because when you look at a national average we’re looking at buildings the maybe use 36% of energy on average in the state. And when you look at Florida, Florida buildings use 83% because our industry is hospitality, our industry is healthcare, our industry is construction so all of those three key industries that we have in the state really go back to large buildings. So they go back to large hotels, large hospitals and so when we look at that we realize we have a unique situation of existing structures, over 50% of our energy in Florida is being consumed by existing single family homes. So from a state level what we’re seeing with the planning for stimulus funds, and how do we really impact and improve what’s happening in our state, we’re seeing a focus on what can we do with the existing buildings. Codes and innovative technologies look like they will be taking care of new construction, but what can we do, how can we create mechanisms and incentives for all of those existing houses and existing hotels and hospitals to help them help us protect the environment.

That’s great. So you also star in the Discover channels newest environmental series, Discovery Project Earth, could you talk about your experience working on the show?
(Laughter) Oh man, the Discovery Project Earth was incredible. The experience itself was well worth the year of no sleep and traveling the globe. It was an opportunity to meet some of the absolute top scientists with respect to climate change and what is really happening and what do we really need to be paying attention to, and if needed can we take these great ideas out of the lab and actually put them into practice and have them work? So, it was just incredible from a standpoint of engineering and technologies. I think one of the things that I didn’t expect, I expected to learn about new technologies and I expected to travel to different places around the globe, but what I didn’t expect was to have the biggest impact on me, be actually from the cultures and the people than the science. I’m an engineer by trade so I immediately go. I look. I see a problem. I try to start solving the problem, and when you’re in Greenland and you realize that 10 generations of individuals have been fishing and that’s been their livelihood and now they’re getting to a point where that’s no longer an option, and they don’t know anything different and that is the industry they have and they’ve grown up with and you’re seeing a culture impacted by a climate change. That I think was the most significant thing for me, much more so than seeing ice melt or glaciers shift or moulins or making clouds, any of the things we did. I think it was actually the human element that had the biggest impact on me.

Wow, that’s really great, really interesting. Well thank you for speaking with us today Jennifer, we look forward to seeing you at Green Cities and you are presenting Standards for Green Homes by the Florida Green Building Coalition. We wish you all the best in all that you’re doing and have a great day!
Thank you so much, I look forward to seeing you there!

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Founder and President of Trifecta Construction Solutions, Dr. Jennifer Languell is a nationally recognized leader in green building education. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Materials Science and Engineering, a Master’s in Civil Engineering and Construction Management, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and Sustainable Construction.

For over a decade, Dr. Languell has been one of the country’s preeminent consultants in the creation of healthy, efficient and sustainable projects in the residential, commercial and, land development sectors and with green building demonstration centers. She conducts approximately 100 educational trainings, seminars and workshops annually for the building and development industries. As a renowned authority on green building, she regularly appears as a speaker at national and international conferences.

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