Life as a Green School Fellow at Sacramento City Unified School District

Sacramento Unified was among a few districts selected to partner with USGBC in a new initiative to green school districts.

By Farah McDill, USGBC Green Schools Fellow, Sacramento
 

Over the last six months, my life has changed dramatically. Not only did I relocate from Colorado to California, but I was given a position in an organization that I respect, in a school district that I admire, doing a job that I love. In July of 2011, Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) was one of two school districts in the country to receive a Center for Green Schools UTC Fellow. SCUSD was selected to host a Fellow for three years to help achieve sustainability goals and create change throughout the organization.

Superintendent Jonathan Raymond was introduced to the idea of creating healthy, resource efficient learning environments in November of 2010, while attending the Greening of America’s Schools Summit at the Redford Center in Sundance, Utah with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. Armed with the information received at the Summit, Superintendent Raymond began working tirelessly to guide the District toward a more sustainable future. This commitment demonstrated the District’s need for dedicated staff to guide and assist the green efforts. The top-down support across the District is unmatched, and as the Green Schools Fellow it is my job to initiate the grassroots effort with students, teachers and community members.

GreenFinanceSF-Commercial Program Announced

As part of San Francisco's effort to drive environmental and economic innovation, Mayor Ed Lee and SF Environment Director Melanie Nutter recently announced a groundbreaking program to encourage businesses to undertake climate-friendly building improvements and attract significant new capital to pay for them.

The GreenFinanceSF-Commercial program is a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program designed to give commercial property owners a new form of financing for the installation of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation improvements.

"The commercial PACE program is the next big step forward in San Francisco's efforts to dramatically reduce energy use and carbon emissions," declared Mayor Lee. "We are excited about the potential to unlock an enormous amount of private investment - from a wide range of sources - and create local construction jobs."

San Francisco's 16,000+ commercial buildings account for half of citywide energy use and 27% of the city's carbon footprint. The program strives to help commercial property owners reduce operating costs, improve occupant health and comfort, enhance building value, and mitigate environmental impact while providing financial institutions a new and secure vehicle to finance projects at attractive rates. A similar program was recently launched in Los Angeles County.

For more information about GreenFinanceSF, including program terms, process, eligible measures, and other resources, visit www.greenfinancesf.org.

Greenbuild 2012: Call for Sub-Committee Volunteers

The Northern California Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council is proud to be the Host Chapter of Greenbuild 2012! The conference theme, @Greenbuild, represents the intersection of technology, building and the global sustainability movement. Greenbuild 2012 will bring together the voices and ideas of the green building community as well as cutting-edge technologies – technologies that are critically important to advancing the green building mission. As the globe’s nexus of technology and success, there is no better place to hold Greenbuild than in San Francisco. This conference is anticipated to be the largest ever, and is expected to bring over 35,000 attendees to the area.

This is an exciting time for green building, and we have a great opportunity to showcase our innovative and forward-thinking region. USGBC-NCC will work with National USGBC staff to put together Greenbuild, and we have been assigned specific tasks that will be executed through volunteer sub-committees. We have assembled a host committee to oversee these various sub-committees, and have appointed two Greenbuild co-chairs for 2012:

USGBC - Northern California Chapter's First Ten Years

Contributed by Sharon Refvem, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Founding member and past President

In August of 2001 in Tucson Arizona, at the annual, pre-GreenBuild, USGBC National gathering, a call went out for people interested in forming a USGBC Chapter in northern California. A group of about 30 people showed up the next morning to talk about what it would take to begin a chapter, names and contact information were gathered, and the Steering Committee was formed. The Steering Committee met monthly in San Francisco over the next two years to pursue the establishment of the chapter. During that time the Committee grew and shrank, but a core group of about a dozen people provided the continuity and dedication needed to organize and launch the chapter.

The official 501(c)3 paperwork was submitted to the State and USGBC National as the Northern California Chapter moved from organizing group, then provisional chapter, to full Chapter status in 2004. The Northern California Chapter (NCC) name and the Chapter territory, which includes most of northern California south through Monterey County and east to the Nevada border, were then officially recorded.

Thank You GCI General Contractors

USGBC-NCC welcomes back GCI General Contractors as a renewed Silver Chapter sponsor.

“GCI considers green building and LEED to be central to our business strategy, so it’s important for us to partner with and support USGBC-Northern California Chapter. The Chapter’s role and impact is unique - as a convener, educator and policy advocate, USGBC-NCC engages all sectors of the industry, and has contributed enormously to the growth of green building in the Bay Area,” said James Jenkins, President of GCI.

GCI is a San Francisco based commercial contracting and construction management firm that specializes in commercial interior, corporate facility, and building renovation projects throughout the Bay Area and Northern California.

GCI has been an industry leader in promoting green construction practices and guidelines to the commercial real estate sector in San Francisco and the Bay Area. In 2001, GCI became the first commercial contractor to perfect indoor air-quality systems and material recycling programs in spite of the logistical challenges imposed by high-rise buildings and without significant cost increases to their clients.

GCI has completed 24 LEED construction projects to date: 19 are certified and 5 are in review, including one of the first LEED-CI projects in San Francisco in 2003-2004: the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). ClimateWorks Foundation, awarded LEED-CI Platinum in February 2010, is the highest rated LEED-CI project in California under v2.0 and the 3rd highest ever.

GCI has completed approximately 22% of all LEED-CI projects constructed in San Francisco, and almost 70% of their total LEED projects have been certified LEED-CI Gold or higher.

USGBC-NCC Executive Director, Dan Geiger, said, “We highly value GCI General Contractors’ leadership and support. They’ve always been actively involved with USGBC, and help the Chapter in so many ways. Companies like GCI make our work possible - on behalf of the industry and the green building movement, thank you very much!"

For more information about GCI, visit gcigc.com.

USGBC-NCC’s work is made possible by support from visionary firms like GCI General Contractors. Learn more about sponsorship opportunities >>

Advocacy Retreat and New 2012 Leadership –Get Involved!

Contributed by Ashleigh Talberth, Senior Manager, USGBC-NCC

Advocacy Retreat: December 15th

We are pleased to announce the opening of committee member positions in USGBC-NCC’s advocacy committees. This is an incredible opportunity to advance sound green building policy and build grassroots support for green building at the local level.

Now Recruiting 2012 Committee Members (committee descriptions to follow):

• Green Schools Committee
• Sustainable Neighborhoods Committee
• Green Residential Committee
• Sustainable Healthcare Committee

Become a Green Building Advocate at the kick-off Advocacy Retreat on Dec. 15th in San Francisco at 4:30pm:

• Advance USGBC’s mission of green communities for all within this generation
• Bolster personal and professional contacts
• Develop your leadership experience

Retreat attendance is by application only; please submit the application by November 23rd.

Steven Ehrlich's 'Multicultural Modernism'

Presented in collaboration with AIACV, USGBC Capital Branch and UC Davis.

 

Architect Steven Ehrlich spoke to a full, captivated audience at the Visionary event at UC Davis on October 5th about his personal architectural journey. Ehrlich discussed the foundation of his ideas that he acquired from his travels abroad and has developed to define his style of ‘Multicultural Modernism’.

Out of school, Ehrlich became the first Peace Corps volunteer in Marrakech where he saw how culture and architecture were not simply coexisting together, but defined, aligned, and adapted together with their environment. His time in Marrakech taught him how architecture could not only be simple, but beautiful and sustainable. In his presentation, Ehrlich described Marrakech as a place where there is still no central air conditioning; he showed how the city instead has covered streets and continuous housing with courtyards to take advantage of air movement to keep cool. The city landscape has blended the exterior and interior, people and place, as well as local environment and architecture, and is built of connected structures made of local materials. Abroad, he saw how shade structures of fabric and geometric shapes cast beautiful shadows and can be the only decoration needed while being functionally essential.

With these observations Ehrlich became, as he put it, an ‘architectural anthropologist”. He brought back to the U.S. the idea of applying the insights he saw abroad to modern buildings. His buildings are culturally and environmentally connected, and he stressed that a good building cannot be informed by only one or the other. He is also a realist to the modern means and the global opportunities available for both his built and un-built spaces, while remaining respectful of history, environment and place. He imbeds sustainable decisions through passive design, and innovative global technology. With this vision, Steven Ehrlich has designed modern buildings which serve to reinvigorate communities by connecting architecture, culture, people and place with clean lines and great beauty.

For further information, browse Ehrlich’s website where you will find informative write ups and images of his stunning designs.