Sustainability and energy guide many aspects of life in Florida. There are many green, eco-friendly materials that replace the need for asbestos and can reduce energy costs annually.  

The implementation of eco-construction and green energy home solutions will play an important role in the transformation to a healthier and sustainable world. While we all use energy to power us through our daily lives, many people take renewable and sustainable methods for granted. 

Recently, congress passed an economic stimulus package that promotes energy efficiency for home and business owners. The American Recover and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009 includes incentives for upgrading to more eco-friendly/sustainable methods of energy and insulation. The move to a greener lifestyle will build on the change to healthier methods of building products, home remodeling and renovation.

Some of the measures eligible for tax credits include:

• Sealing cracks in the building shell and ducts to reduce infiltration and heat loss – these should be sealed so as to be consistent with the 2009 IECC.
• Pigmented metal roofs or an asphalt roof with cooling granules must meet Energy Star requirements.
• Window films certified by the manufacturer that the product meets the requirements of a “qualifying insulation system.”

Asbestos was highly regarded throughout the 20^th century as an ideal building and construction material. It’s fire resistant, durable and versatile qualities made it sought out by many industries. Asbestos was used in industrial applications such as insulation, piping, roofing and automobiles. As long term cost and technology continues to evolve, so is the need for environmentally sustainable and healthy materials used for construction.

Many homes, buildings and public facilities built prior to 1980 may still contain asbestos and other hazardous materials. In many instances, the best action is no action at all. Disturbing asbestos in good condition may cause its fibers to be released into the air. The inhalation of asbestos fibers can lead to the development of asbestos-related lung ailments such as malignant mesothelioma and asbestosis. There are a number of factors that can impact mesothelioma survival rate. These factors include latency period, age of diagnosis and cigarette smoking.

Most people are unaware to the fact that eco-friendly products can cut energy costs by 25 to 35 % per year.  Rather than expensive and mal-treated wood, interior walls can be made from steel and concrete, avoiding many of the problems associated with asbestos and other insulation methods. Green alternatives to asbestos include the use of cotton fiber, lcynene foam and cellulose. Cotton fiber is quickly becoming a favorite for home builders and renovators. Made from recycled batted material, it is also treated to be fireproof.

The U.S. Green Building Council conducted a study which estimated a new savings of $50-$65 per square foot for positively constructed green buildings. As education and technology of green sustainable practices increase, the numbers will continue to rise.

Living in a world where environmental sustainability is a vital concern to the future of mankind, it is important to take note of the consequences of improper building materials and environmental degradation. These asbestos alternatives allow for a healthy, safe home, free of health damaging materials.

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I’m Kimberly Miller with Green Cities Media here with Steve Cochran on site in Orlando. Hi Steve, how’s it going?
Hi, Kimberly. Just fine, how are you? Nice to see you again.

It’s nice to see you too. So you just facilitated an open spaces event if you will. Tell me a little bit more about that.
Well what I just did was open space for the participants here at Green Cities Florida. I literally opened the space for them to take advantage of the opportunity to convene individual sessions about topics that they have an interest in that they felt they’d like to explore more from this wonderful conference of two days that they have a concern about, perhaps they have a model they would just like to describe that they see has worked. Perhaps they have a fear they’d like to express, just whatever at this point is on their mind that they would like to take advantage of an opportunity to explore more deeply. So my job as the facilitator which really is a misnomer was just to take that responsibility to empower them to do what they want to do which as you see they’re hard at work already doing. They’ve created probably about twenty 45 minute sessions which will occur in just the next less than two hours.

So give me an example of some of the sessions that have been created.
Some of the folks right now are talking about encouraging electric drive in Florida. One young man I know is talking about bringing sustainability education to public schools. One woman has a very specific model that she wanted to present about the triple bottom line tool. Some people have a question, they said, “I’m looking for someone who knows something about this.” So really to take a look at the marketplace which they’ve created for themselves; it’s kind of all over the map.

So what do you expect is going to come out of this open space session?
Well when I have used these tools with other groups, for one thing I think there’ll be a lot of energy and excitement which at the tail end of a long very packed two-day conference is always its own sort of reinforcement rather than the dribbling end of something. Almost always, too, I’d be very surprised if there aren’t some very concrete commitments where people will have said “I’m going to go forward and do this specific thing” or partnerships will have been formed which will enable actions to occur and they are encouraged in these sessions to have very declarative statements and concrete actions to take.

So how has Green Cities been for you so far?
Oh, it’s wonderful. It’s a great privilege in my work to really only work around groups of people who are mission-driven people, who care very deeply about the work of sustainability and what the entails so the great honor and privilege to be with and share time and serve and support people who care deeply about the common good is just always…I get chills just talking about it. Really it’s quite an honor and really a sacred thing. Also the very concrete and actionable sessions which were created in the conference itself, I’ve heard many people talk about the range and depth and just how usable information they’ve gained and the interactions they’ve had so I know people are going to go forward and Green Cities will help Florida become even more engaged in the sustainability imperatives than they are now so I feel very strongly about that.

So have you learned anything new while you’ve been here?
Oh, sure! I learn from everyone and in this field right now especially, I think I’ve mentioned to a couple people here, anyone who builds themselves as an expert in this or that or sustainability…we’re all on a learning journey anyway but particularly in areas like sustainability which so often are new now to plug in, so I learned amazing things about Florida. I mean I was not nearly aware at all about just how engaged Florida and central Florida, Orlando the kind of political commitment which exists here. The kind of very concrete actions which are occurring already I admit I have sort of the Orlando Megalopolis ya know, Disney World only lots of pavement …

Right I was pretty pleasantly surprised as well. I had no idea what was going on here in Florida.
So I intend to be an advocate for that and help people understand that they are doing some really serious things…really good people down there.

So what do you think it means for Green Cities that they had their first of a series of conferences in Florida in a place where people maybe don’t expect sustainability to be at the forefront. What do you think that means?
I think it sends a wonderful message and just as I described it’s sort of not exactly a paradigm shift for me but learning last week in Huntsville Alabama there was a modified Green Cities which actually was a small version of what occurred here over the last two days within just a few hours where a group of 200 civic leaders in Huntsville Alabama came together to envision Green Cities Alabama over several days which will occur further on down the road in the fall or the first part of next year.

Yeah that’s another shocker right? Alabama
I like Huntsville, Alabama. A lot of people who know the kind of work I do…I’m usually traveling internationally and I’m in Washington lots and as I said I live in Asheville, North Carolina work with energy companies in the southeast so friends were saying “Steve, Huntsville?” and “Orlando?” and “Have you changed careers or something?” and so I said I can go forth and say “no.” I mean these are places which ask us to come in and help because they are taking ownership and responsibility for their region so I think that sends a wonderful message and there’s always the usual places of Portland and Burlington and we all know that so the message is not just hopeful but I mean they’re very concrete things with people very engaged in their leadership.

Does it make you excited about the future of sustainability in America?
Oh absolutely. I’ve always been excited about it but with events like this occurring…not just events, mountain top events, but places like this where people come away and get real tools. They fill up their leadership toolbox and they go forth and they use it so it’s, as many of the presentations showed us here we’ve passed the tipping point you know whatever metaphor it is…this is off and running in a bad economy I mean to have a conference with 500 people in this kind of an economy around a topic like this which used to be kind of esoteric and nice if you can afford it on the side after you do real work type of thing. It shows that this is what is going to enable us to do anything else.

Well thanks so much for coming and for talking with me.
Thanks you. I’m delighted to be here.

If you were asked to transform a notoriously neglected city block in one of America’s most recognizable cities into a model example of sustainability what would you create?  Hundreds of designers, architects, students and engineers entered the Re:Vision Dallas competition to answer this question.  The entries were diverse, imaginitive and showed an incredible passion for the future of Dallas and the world.    Mayor Tom Leppert, Central Dallas Community Development Corporation, and Dallas community organizations have to come together to select a winning design and the top 3 entries are on display here.  Media kits are available for download below each design.

Eric Corey Freed was in the unique position as a juror for the competition.  Imagine the difficulty of narrowing down over a 150 incredibly intriguing and forward thinking entries into 3 winners.  Listen to the podcast or read the transcript below to hear Mr. Freed’s thoughts on the entries and what were some of his favorites.

To learn more about Urban Revision check out the websites www.urbanrevision.com and www.revision-dallas.com.  You can also follow us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/urbanrevision

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May 20, 2009

…Talking with Eric Corey Freed, organic architect, who is also a member of Urban Re:Vision.
So I just spent an hour talking to a room-full of people about urban revision and our entire story of how we started with a series of five competitions that looked at different aspects of sustainability, energy, water. And then our big competition which just closed in May, and we just had the judging yesterday, and we announce the winners next week of a city block in Dallas for a real block, for a real place in a real city that will really get built, and we pick three winners and three honorable mentions, and people can go online at urbanrevision.com and see them next week.

So if you can tell me, not the winners, but name an entry that you found particularly interesting.
There was an entry that I found very interesting that was a building that absorbed carbon and filtered the air, and they had a lot of science and documentation reams of paper showing how this could work, and it was a very intriguing idea of a building that’s truly regenerative not just in terms of providing energy but fixing some of the problems such as carbon emissions. There was one, actually showed it today that took aircraft fuselage, the tubes of the airplane, and cut off the ends and stacked them into a rack and became apartments, kind of a modular housing thing.

Very cool.
So there was a lot of great ideas. I mean the range and depth of the entries was phenomenal. In fact that’s what made it such a long two days because we had to narrow down 100 incredible entries down to three.

So you were impressed with the entries then?
Oh very impressed! It was far above what I ever could have imagined coming in. And they clearly spent hundreds of hours putting these things together.

So was it mostly professionals then who were entering the contest, or did regular citizens and students get involved too?
We had everybody. The entries were anonymous and then at the end we were able to look to see who did what, and there was a range of everything from students to big large gigantic corporate firms to everybody in between.  That was the real intent of the competition was to get that broad range of entries. And you wouldn’t know it by the entries… I mean they were just so overwhelming, but people can go online and look and see what was entered.

Cool thanks for talking with us!
Thank you.

Read Eric Corey Freed’s monthly column.

Question 1: Devil’s advocate question — why bother going green? I’m only one person … does it really make a difference whether I recycle my soda cans or bike to work instead of driving?

Of course 1 person can make a difference. Those landfills didn’t fill themselves, they are the accumulation of individuals. So yes, each one of us has a responsibility and can make an impact. Start small, you don’t have to be perfect, but you do need to get involved. Ride your bike, make your next car gas efficient or try an alternative fuel vehicle, try using mass transit such as a bus, install a solar water heater, make your home more energy efficient, change your incandescent bulbs to CFLs, hang your clothes on a clothes line instead of using the dryer, buy local food and goods, give up single use bags and bottled water and try reusable bags and refillable bottles instead, and recycle that soda can! The choices are endless and you just need to start with one.

Let’s look at a simple example, changing an incandescent light bulb to a compact fluorescent (CFL). This one action can use 75 to 80% less electricity yet emit the same light. The cost of CFLs are now very reasonable, making the switch easy and remember CFLs last 5 to 7 years. EPA states that a CFL will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. Ok, so if each individual, say in 110 million homes in America, replaced one 60 watt bulb, the energy saved could power a city of 1.5 million people or almost all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island! So, a small action by an individual can make a difference because when several individuals do this, the effect is compounded. This one bulb changed, could save enough electricity to close two power plants, or better yet, not build two more. So, now if you have not already made the change to CFLs, go count how many bulbs you could replace in your home and imagine the impact you can have as one person and oh yeah, you’ll save money too.

Each individual taking action is the way we can make a difference.

[ Read entire article ]

Critic’s Pick: Not many sustainability conferences begin with a schmooze session fueled by organic juice and smoothies and continue with organic food buffets and fair trade coffee breaks. But organizers of the Green Cities conference in Orlando know their target – local government entities, business entrepreneurs, students ready to begin careers and students of life – and they promise programming way beyond a “preaching to the choir approach.” Doers, not dreamers, lead the seminars and workshops.

[ Read entire article ]

Editor’s Note: In our recent podcast interview with Lori Cunniff, this project is heavily discussed – listen here.

Center strengthens commitment to environmental change

ORLANDO, Fla. (March 18, 2009) – The Orange County Convention Center, in partnership with OUC—The Reliable One, was awarded a $2.5 million grant from the state of Florida to be used, along with other funding sources, to install a one-megawatt rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system.  The largest PV system of its kind in the southeastern United States, the solar panel project will be complete and celebrated on May 20, 2009, during the general session of the Green Cities Florida 2009 conference at the Center.

In addition to the grant, OUC is contributing $1.5 million to the project and will receive 10 years worth of Renewable Energy Credits in that amount. The PV system will utilize high-efficiency, flat-plate collectors, expected to occupy approximately 200,000 square feet of roof space on the North/South Building.  The one-megawatt solar PV system will generate 1,300 to 1,500 megawatt hours of electricity per year, which is equivalent to the power used by 80 to 100 typical homes, and it will do so without producing any greenhouse gas emissions.  The benefits of generating electricity with solar energy include reducing energy costs, while helping to reduce global warming and dependence on foreign fuels.

This $8.8 million multi-purpose project also features a Climate-Change Education Center (CCEC) inside the Convention Center to promote the many environmental and economic benefits of solar and other renewable-energy technologies.  A grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the CCEC will be held during an evening reception on the first day of the Green Cities Florida 2009 conference on May 19, 2009.

The OCCC has become an industry leader in environmental best practices, beginning in early 2007 when it became the first convention center in the U.S. to become ISO 14001 Certified for its recycling program.  Other green projects at the Center include purchasing recycled products, using reclaimed water for landscaping irrigation, installing Xeriscape plantings, using Green-Seal certified cleaning products and installing waterless urinals and low-flow faucets, to name a few.  In addition to its facility-related green initiatives, the OCCC works closely with event organizers to support their efforts for green events, shows and meetings.

[ Read press release ]