We were happy to help!

Monica gives DOE officials an overview of the project

DOE officials in front of Green Idea House

As contemplated in an earlier post, a carbon neutral Hermosa Beach is the next logical step from the Green Idea House to the Green Idea City!

At 9am and 10am we ran tours (outside only) as part of the South Bay Solar and Green Homes Tour put on by the Environmental Priorities Network.

From 3:30pm to 5pm we presented at the Alt-Build Conference, held in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.  Alt-build is one of the largest and most established green building events in the country and it was great fun telling the GIH story along with good friends of the project: Aravind Batra from P2S Engineering, Charisse Bartholomew from Healing Spaces by Design, Wes Harding of Harding Construction and Arthur Renaud from the ReUse People of America.

Morning tours at the GIH

Afternoon panel presentation with Robert, Arthur Renaud, Wes Harding, Aravind Batra and Charisse Bartholomew.

Also on Saturday at 3:30pm we will be presenting at Alt-Build, held in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.  Alt-build is one of the largest and most established green building events in the country.  It will be great fun telling the GIH story along with good friends of the project: Aravind Batra from P2S Engineering, Charisse Bartholomew from Healing Spaces by Design, Wes Harding of Harding Construction and Arthur Renaud from the ReUse People of America.

Given the recent oil company settlement, it will be interesting to see how we can bring forward the carbon neutral future envisioned in the piece…

How Aarhus Inspired Our House (The Green Idea House)

It is an honor and a joy to come toAarhusto be one of the Pillars of the curriculum for the international innovation school, Kaos Pilot.  To know that the students will be taking the leadership and strategy work we do together and using it to make the world a better place is personally gratifying.

Watching the students change the world also inspired me to take what I preach and fully implement it on a project for which I have great passion.  The project is the Green Idea House (www.GreenIdeaHouse.com), a net zero energy, zero carbon retrofit of our existing family house.  The house is designed to harvest from the environment more energy than it uses on an operational basis and be responsive to the environment in terms of water, waste and toxicity as well.

The project is being built with standard construction techniques and off the shelf technologies that are compatibly priced with similar homes in our area.  We hope that this makes it a replicable model.

As a result of our vision for the project, Southern California Edison has chosen it as the cornerstone case study of their net zero energy program.

The Power of Now

Why should our family undertake a project like this now?  Being trained as an economist, not an environmentalist, what first caught my attention was California’s Public Utilities Commission guidelines that ALL new residential buildings will be net zero energy by 2020 and ALL commercial buildings by 2030!  Great vision, but how would that ever be achieved?

Similarly, about 15 years ago California’s Zero Vehicle Emissions program had an aggressive goal to make 10% of the vehicle fleet in the state zero emissions.  They had 12 years to do it and in the 11^th year the car manufacturers claimed they did not have the technology to do it.  This, of course, was untrue (see: who Killed the Electric Car).  If they had stayed the course those car manufacturers would have owned the burgeoning electric car industry.

We want to make sure that the same thing does not happen to the net zero energy building initiative – that in 2019 builders claim that we do not have the technology to build net zero energy structures.  The only way to do that is to build the case study for it now.

Wouldn’t building net zero energy case study houses be better left to developers, architects, contractors or manufacturers?  Maybe, but we don’t see it happening.  Despite the abundance of sunshine in southernCalifornia, we see few stepping up to the net zero challenge.  Also, we believe we can tell a more unbiased story – a story more families can relate to and avoid the conflicts that are inherent with the other trades.

Inspiration for the Perspiration

KP students and faculty know of my interest in all things sustainable.  Therefore, every time I come to visit they take me on field trips on my time off from lecturing.  These trips have included a visit to the Velux “Home for Life” case study house with Philip Hahn Petersen, Lukas Wassberg’s house in the Eco Village of Friland and most recently, a trip with Director of Studies, Simon Cavanaugh and students Tobias Mikkel Kjærside and Jakob Buchbjerg to Samso Island, an island that makes more energy than it uses and attracts thousands of visitors a year as result of its carbon neutral brand.  They were all incredibly inspirational and the trip toSamsoIslandclearly demonstrated what can be done when a community builds consensus around a great, sustainable idea.

FromAarhusto Our House

How canSamsoIsland’s model for sustainability along with KP ingenuity and creativity be of assistance to a small beach community inSouthern California?

Hermosa Beach, the home of the Green idea house and our residence for 16 years is being hit with a law suit for $700 million from an oil company that is claiming breech of contract when citizens opposed oil drilling in their residential neighborhood for safety reasons.  The city’s annual budget is only $25 million, so any major judgment against it would throw our home town into bankruptcy.

Zero the Hero

Hermosa Beachis only a mile in diameter with no heavy industry.  Would it be possible to useSamsoIslandas the model of what may be possible for a Carbon Neutral Hermosa Beach?  Could the tax credits and carbon credits spun off this type of project be used to settle a 12 year legal fight and help the environment and the economy at the same time?

If anyone could make this impossibility possible, it would be the Kaos Pilots.  We look forward to exploring the opportunity…

Robert Fortunato, President of ForStrategy Consulting Inc. (www.ForStrategy.com), is retrofitting his family’s home into a net zero energy, zero carbon case study (www.GreenIdeaHouse.com) and is working on a Carbon Neutral Hermosa Beach (www.facebook.com/greenideacity)

Green Home Label Rebates.
Even if you don’t win the Sweepstakes, you may still be eligible for up to $2,000 in rebates to help pay for a green home label and up to $8,000 in rebates and incentives to help pay for energy upgrades. Learn more about additional rebates available.

We will be presenting again at the Alt-Build Expo in Santa Monica at 3:30pm on Saturday, May 12th.

It was a pleasure meeting the other award winners at the County Supervisor’s meeting and our son, Carter, was thrilled to get the morning off from school to be there to receive the award!

2012 Green Leadership Award Winners – Press Release

Los Angeles County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Don Knabe (L to R) present the Green Green Leadership Award at the Supervisor’s meeting. Photo by Christian L. Garcia

http://www.tbrnews.com/articles/2012/04/21/hermosa_beach_news/news02.txt

A number of you have asked, so we did want to clarify a few points from the article:

-          instead of radiant floor heating, we used Runtal baseboard heaters.  They are much less expensive and operate more efficiently in our coastal climate.

-          we did not end us using a wind turbine, just SolarWorld solar P.V. panels.  The South Bay has low wind speeds that make it hard to get an adequate return on investment.

-          the green on the building is Vero lime plaster from Merlex – not paint

Special thanks go out to the City of Hermosa Beach’s Senior Planner, Pam Townsend who used her own personal time to submit an excellent application for the award and the judges from LA County who very graciously considered our project worthy of a visit.

Below are links for the video of Councilman Michael DiVirgilio making the announcement of the award at the last Hermosa Beach City council meeting and press releases announcing the winners

LACO GLA 2

2012 Green Leadership letters (6)-5.PDF – Adobe Acrobat Pro

2012 Green Leadership Award Winners – Press Release

The Board of Supervisors will recognize the winners and present the Green Leadership awards at their regular meeting:

What: County of Los Angeles Green Leadership Awards

When: Tuesday, April 24, 9:30 a.m.

Where: Hall of Administration – 500 West Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 – in the Board Room 381-B

Parking: Music Center Lot, 135 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012 – right across the street from the Hall of Administration

In the Board Room (381-B): Please look for the “Green Leadership” sign in the Board Room. It will be on the front-right side as you enter the room. We will meet you near the sign.