All Posts Tagged With: "LEED"

“If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.”
African proverb

I have been listening to Riane Eisler’s brilliant book, The Real Wealth of Nations.  It is a miraculous synthesis of her life’s work in the study of cultural values, gender relationships, and economics.

One framework that resonates particularly strongly is her characterization of cultures on a spectrum between two opposite modes: domination at one end and partnership at the other. This framework allows her analysis of current economic theory, policy and practice to be independent of political or social ideology. Any culture can be one of domination or of partnership, and never are they purely one or the other.

As she characterizes them, domination requires insensitivity, competitiveness, cruelty, and destructiveness. It inhibits the partnership qualities of consciousness, caring, and creativity. Human beings have the biological capacity for the full spectrum of all these traits. Whatever model our culture orients to will bring out, express, or inhibit these tendencies.

Domination systems are rigid, top-down rankings that are maintained through physical, economic, and psychological control. A superior / inferior worldview ranks men over women and humans over other species, leading to other rankings of in-group over out-group, which applies to anything including race, ethnicity, or religion.

By contrast, partnership systems value and support participation, empathy, equity and caring. Continued

Sidwell Friends School is the greenest school on the planet. Its middle school is the only Platinum LEED institution of its kind to have been brought to fruition. Most of the materials used in construction were either recycled or salvaged, like cedar wood re-used from wine casts. And 78 percent of the materials were manufactured regionally (within 500 miles) to minimize energy from transportation. All plants for landscaping purposes were native. The rooftop houses an array of photovoltaic panels. Low-VOC paints, glues, and adhesives were used in classrooms to improve air quality.

Passive solar design reduces the air conditioning load through natural ventilating and shading. A green roof reduces the "urban heat island effect" and removes pollutants from rainwater. And about 95 percent of the school’s water is recycled through perhaps the most impressive feature of the middle school: its artificial wetlands. Continued

JG Architectural supply was founded in 2006 and specializes in Green Building materials. Apart from eco-friendly materials, JG offers a LEED Accredited Professional to assist you with any of your Green Building needs. Offering numerous high-quality eco-friendly materials and energy-conscious expertise, JG aids in finding the best materials that will keep long-term energy and maintenance costs low.

“A contractor’s perspective on residential greenbuilding”

Affordable and accessible methods and materials that can be used in remodeling and construction projects

This presentation will be offered by Dr. Polly Bart, president of Greenbuilders Inc, on April 22nd at 7:00PM at the Waldorf School of Baltimore. 4801 Tamarind Road Baltimore MD 21209

Subjects of discussion will include site, water, energy, materials, and indoor air quality. High profile techniques like green roofs, composting toilets, and solar will be discussed. However, sometimes the greenest thing you can do is to make just small changes, and to learn to love and better use what you have. Dr. Bart studied architecture at Harvard University and was the third woman to receive a Ph.D in City and Regional Planning from Berkeley. She has been listed in Who’s Who in America since 1986.

Greenbuilders, Inc. was founded in 2004 to do remodeling and additions using green methods and materials. Greenbuilders also acts as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) consultant for commercial projects.Affordable and accessible methods and materials that can be used in remodeling and construction projects.

Capitol Greenroofs provides design and construction administration services to homeowners, developers, public planners, facility managers, and architects interested in developing a program for a greenroof facility, and helps them understand how the appropriate systems are installed and maintained. They can assist in the creation of a project’s development program, prepare cost estimates and landscape planting plans, and generate construction documents and specifications. To ensure quality control, they oversee project installations, can provide cost vs. benefit analyses, life cycle cost and energy savings projections, and assist in the LEED certification process.