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Emirates Airlines Launches San Francisco Green Jet Service

Published by Keith January 2nd, 2009 in Green Savings, Greenhouse Gases and San Francisco. 0 Comments

At first we had to laugh when we got wind (a tailwind no doubt) of how Emirates Airlines Launches San Francisco Service With World’s Longest Green Flight Trial. Even in their posh business class that’s a long flight and lot of CO2 going into the air. But what’s with the Green aspect? Are they going to sell us carbon credits during the in-flight service? We’ll have two organic gin martinis and 20,000 carbon credits please.

Before we totally write this off as greenwashing, we took a look at their green flight. Emirates created what they call “the most environmentally-sophisticated route and trip possible to help save an estimated 2,000 gallons of fuel and 30,000 pounds of carbon emissions on the 16-hour non-stop service.” The airlines worked with various countries to create a route that heads over Dubai, Russia, Iceland, Canada and the United States and other countries. Maybe these guys should work for the UN. We’ll buy the distance thing. Shorter distance, less fuel, less CO2.

Besides the flight route, Emirates has created several fuel and emission-saving measures such as the new 777-200LR will be specially washed beforehand to minimize drag.
We’re not aerodynamics experts but does washing a plane make that much of a difference toward fuel economy? Think of the precious water use (unless they use graywater) necessary to clean the jet.

The new 777-200LR operates at a 20% better clip when compared to the Air Bus 340-500, so that represents an immediate and tangible green plus.

Emirates also collects all on-board glass, newspapers, aluminum and paper for recycling. Commendable. It’s what happens after the flight that worries us. We have heard but have not yet confirmed that one US carrier that flies international routes collects recycling while in-flight but then the recyclables get burned because the cans and bottles came via an international flight. We wouldn’t want to recycle those cans from Mexico or Canada would we? Maybe the bottles didn’t have there visas?

A lot of the other green factors have to do with routing, wind currents and air traffic management. That all makes sense but don’t all carriers do this? Maybe they don’t. Maybe some airline pilots fly directly into headwinds just for kicks.

Because the flight just kicked off a couple weeks ago, we’ll give it chance to see what the green savings are. It’s going to be difficult to convince us that jumping on a plane and flying half way around the world even remotely resembles anything green but if you gotta go you gotta go.

San Francisco Airport to Offer Green Offsets

Published by Keith December 26th, 2008 in Environment, Money and San Francisco. 1 Comment

The saying “Up, up and away” used to bring excitement for air travelers but certainly not for travelers who wanted to reduce their carbon footprint. We have not noticed any plug in hybrid 747s buzzing through the skies yet, so what can a carbon conscious air traveler do? We know that some airlines now offer carbon offsets but they often offer no verification and it only seems to be a marketing ploy.

All the details have not been hammered out but likely beginning in the spring, travelers flying out of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) will be able to minimize the impact of their air travel (and their guilt) by buying certified carbon offsets at airport kiosks. We know what you’re thinking, those carbon offsets especially here in the U.S. just end up as subsidies to various green entrepreneurs. The difference here would be that San Francisco based 3Degrees will offer more creditability to the program. To us, the difference can be seen as 3Degrees sources VERs (Verified Emission Reductions) that they source from specific projects that result in real, quantifiable, permanent greenhouse gas emission reductions and offer credible and transparent third-party verification standards such as Gold Standard, Green-e Climate and California Climate Action Registry (CCAR)

We understand that these carbon kiosks would resemble the self service airline check-in stations where a traveler would punch in his or her destination. The machine would calculate the carbon footprint and the cost to offset the damage done by the airline flight. With the swipe of a credit card the traveler could help save the planet and receive a printed receipt listing the specific projects that the money benefits.

We don’t enjoy the restrictions, fees and hassles associated with flying but at least if this plan goes though that we can at least not feel too guilty about being jet-setters.

A Green Nights Sleep at Cavallo Point Lodge and Spa

Published by Keith December 19th, 2008 in Alt Energy, Eco Hotels, Green Building, Green Hotels and Photovoltaic Panels. 0 Comments

Sometimes being green means taking on the “less is more” philosophy. Such would be the case with the Cavallo Lodge over in Sausalito. For the recently opened lodge, about half of the current lodge rooms they converted from the previous officers quarters, military barracks and the like. But don’t think of this place like Full Metal Jacket but rather Organic Cotton Robe.

We visited there a few months ago for the Going Green conference but we didn’t get a chance to survey the property much. This time, we got to stay over and even check out the spa. (Life is tough) The lodge, waiting for LEED Silver certification, offers new rooms and the classic ones. Even though the new ones offer radiant heating and the hot water comes via tankless water heaters, which reduce the energy consumed by those dinosaur era traditional water heaters. They installed photo-voltaic panels on 12 of the 14 new buildings’ south-facing, standing seam metal roofs which produce about 75 percent of the electricity necessary to run the buildings.

We cozied up in one of the existing building rooms which offer more charm (like the tine roof ceilings and the detailed antique radiator). By reusing the existing buildings, they already considered their carbon footprint. We can only be impressed by the fact that the brains and money behind the lodge used nearly 100% of the building shells and retained or repurposed roughly 75% of the building cores. We applaud these efforts as they not only extend the life cycle of existing building stock, conserve resources, and reduce waste but it also retains cultural and historical resources.

Although we couldn’t see the insulation we knew that they used blue jean insulation in the contemporary lodging and a portion in the Healing Arts Center. Speaking of the Spa, they constructed the floors and ceilings from rapidly renewable materials such as bamboo, wool or cork. Besides green building attributes they offer creativity by repurposing plastic dry cleaning bags (that come off site) for spa guests to take home their wet bathing suits.

Almost no other plastic can be seen on property and the staff couldn’t be nicer (as well as pretty well informed about the green aspects. Now if they could only get rid of the few incandescent bulbs (in the spa and the lodge) then we would be that much more pleased.

Photo by Kodiak Greenwood

First B100 Biodiesel Station Opens in San Francisco

Published by Keith December 12th, 2008 in Alt Energy, No VOC Paint, San Francisco and biodiesel. 1 Comment

dogpatch-biolfuels.jpgIn a supposed progressive green city, it won’t be until today that San Francisco finally gets its own biodiesel station – Dogpatch Biofuels. It’s been a long time in the making with permits, and inspections and the like. Hasn’t San Francisco seen biodiesel before? You’d think that they were dispensing nitroglycerin the way the approval process worked like molasses.

We’re not counting the Olympic Station that sells B20 to mostly fleet vehicles and trucks or the op-op that used to operate in SoMa. Here, we have an honest to goodness B100 (or rather B99.99999) biodiesel station for autos. All the Mercedes and converted vehicle owners can rejoice at not having to drive to the East Bay or San Mateo to fill up their tanks. Even better, we can all rejoice at the fact that the station owners get their fuel not from GMO corn or switchgrass or any food but rather from San Francisco’s own waste grease program, so we can all be proud when consuming those greasy fries.

Besides purchasing locally made fuel, the owners painted the office using mostly zero-voc paint, and set up and eco-shop using reused desks, cabinets and shelves. The few products they sell (more to come) either fall into the organic, natural or non-toxic categories. They tell us that when things get up and running, that they will offer green auto/hybrid/bio-fuel educational classes to bring a community spirit to the station. Try getting that at your local Exxon station.

What’s up Doc? A New Green SF Chiropractic Office

Published by Keith December 5th, 2008 in FSC, Green Building, Health and San Francisco. 0 Comments

As Bugs Bunny used to say “What’s up Doc?” In the newly opened chiropractic office the reply would be “green”, as in green building. Yes, green building continues its march into the homes and offices across America and some doctors realize that sustainable interiors means healthy patients (or at least healthier). Take for instance, the new Executive Express Chiropractic designed by Martinkovic Milford Architects and built by Peacock Construction. A small place to be sure but the designers make good use of space to mention the healthy additions.

When we entered, we couldn’t help but notice the curved leather wall. We even stuck our grills right against the wall to smell the leather. Yep, it smells like leather. It actually is. But the green minded architects didn’t lose their minds, they used EcoDomo, which uses real leather scraps from shoes, and other leather manufacturing facilities, then grind it into shreds. They use water and other natural binding ingredients (mostly natural rubber and acacia wood bark) then eventually deliver them with a sticky peel-off back that requires no off-gassing adhesives.

We never claimed to be interior decorators but we can appreciate the Maya Romanoff paper wall covering that smartens up the treatment area. The covering looks even smarter when considering that it comes by way of stamping rayon fibers on wet wood pulp, which produce an attractive wall covering that displays both texture and depth. The wall covering comes from rapidly renewable materials, particularly Mulberry, and is 100% biodegradable.

The designers added several other green elements including: Benjamin Moore Eco-Spec paint, the treatment room dividers come from the 3-form “full circle” line that uses a form of fair trade for the families in Nepal who helped raise the silkworms to create the striking panels, and even the artwork and mirror framing employs FSC certified wood.

One thing kind of bugs us. The marble countertops and shelves come from EuroStone which create these products from and combo of 90% recycled marble chips and a polyester resin as binding agent. Excluding the resin as a natural element, it’s walking a pretty thin line to claim that using marble chips from quarries would be considered green. If they didn’t mine the resource in the first place then no chips would exist.

Who’s next in the waiting room?

The Green Festival 2008 - SF Style

Published by Keith November 21st, 2008 in San Francisco. 0 Comments

At the San Francisco pit stop of this past weekends Green Festival, while trying to avoid the masses searching for samples of organic this and sustainable that, one of San Francisco’s green builders Chris Connors mentioned to a few of us attendees, “Wow, this festival has gotten big.” Indeed, for those who haven’t attended in a few years – yes, the festival continues to grow faster than FSC certified bamboo.

For those lucky enough not to suffer from green claustrophobia, attendees could choose from a potpourri of Green rock stars – such as Van Jones who spoke about the new green collar economy, the incredibly interesting and sometimes bizarre Paul Stamets who seems like the Fox Mulder of the mushroom world and the dynamic food sovereignty trio of Raj Patel, Eric Holt-Giménez and Miguel Altieri who, among other things, discussed how the food shortage is an ecological issue not just a political topic.

Taking a break from the speakers, we had to cruise the exhibitor marketplace. With so much to choose from we took a look at the numerous additions to the myriad vender booths. Myriad, as in about 50 percent of these companies use this festival for marketing or promote a “green lifestyle”. Okay, we’re not going to call it outright greenwashing but some of these businesses really milk this whole green thing. Of course we’re happy to see new honest additions (or at least venders that we have not seen before here) such as Mozilla and we can and should throw our support behind the community powered, open source FireFox Browser.

With more additions come some subtractions. Most notably, what happened to Burt’s Bees? We heard that the lip balm buzzers got 86ed from the festival because they happened to be owned by uh — who was that again? – oh yes, Clorox. No problem there but then the green playing field needs to be level right? So, that means no Ben and Jerry’s (even if they switched to all organic ingredients). So, what’s the deal with Honest Tea? The Coke owned or partially owned company had booth in the middle of food sample frenzy. What gives?

San Francisco Green Business Conference Version 2008

Published by Keith November 14th, 2008 in Quotes and San Francisco. 0 Comments

As we walked into the San Francisco Green Business Conference 2008, our expectations rose just a tad when we spied not only the recycling, landfill and compost bins (with Biobags) but also fair trade coffee and organic tea which may seem insignificant but first impressions mean a lot. As is the case with many Green festivals, summits, etc in the Bay Area that a significant percentage of attendees hailed from the local region however it we enjoyed seeing representation and discussion from people in “red” states.

With the economy on just about everyone’s mind, the green business conference made for timely discussion. A panel of Jay Harris, publisher of the still independent Mother Jones, Adrienne Brown (Executive Director, The Ruckus Society) and Paul Ray of Integral Partnerships, discussed the how the recent election will effect the green marketplace which included intriguing topics about “affordable green.” A lot of people (us included) think that with people watching their dollars even more closely that the green economy suffer a downturn. That’s exactly why we need to spend more to dig us out of the hole. However, the green economy isn’t a silver bullet. If it was then businesses such as Whole Foods wouldn’t be experiencing a downturn in profits.

We enjoy numbers and video clips as much as most human beings (maybe even more) so one of the later discussion led by Mitch Baranowski (BBMG) and David Lubensky of Bagatto raised our awareness. These markets awareness gurus discussed, among other things, how “green” is the new “new and improved” and that with all of the green product and service claims, the public wants to see specifics rather than the general generic green claims that appear to have become more prevalent. One particular video clip struck a chord with us clip of a woman in a Midwest supermarket reading an ingredient label. This “box-turner” picked up a product, scanned the label and uttered, “An inch of ingredients, how bad could that be?” For us and many of the green business attendees, that inch spoke volumes.

New Green Building 101 E-book

Published by Keith November 7th, 2008 in Green Building, Green Savings and review. 1 Comment

In the future, there will be no green building as green building will be the norm. It will be like asking an architect to design a “structurally sound” building. To us and many others that equates to a future no brainer. Until then, with many people unaware of the benefits or even the basics of Green building, then books like Green Building 101: A Basic Guide to Building and Remodeling Sustainably makes a good introduction. Even more enticing in this tight economy would be that this book costs nothing.

Green Building 101 makes for an easy intro for anyone not familiar with the green building process. Author Dawn Killough breaks the book down into categories such as energy efficiency, building materials, and construction procedures. Anyone familiar with the LEED system or Green Point Rated certification programs will be knowledable with these topics.

Those in the Pacific Northwest or specifically in Oregon might relate better to this book as the Beaver State based writer uses many specifc examples such as that Oregon is a net-metering state or Energy Star requirements for Oregon.

We think that this e-book makes for an easy and useful although rudimentary green read. Overall, it reads like a tasty appetizer to a main course. Those who want a more in-depth green building experience might check out Green Building for Dummies by Eric Corey Freed. Dummies offers more specifics and easy fixes, not to mention humor, for those who want to get their green building fix on.

In this world of news bites and short attention spans, Green Building 101 delivers what it sets out to do. It creates a snapshot for those unknowing or slightly curious about the green building world. After reading it hopefully readers will be even more motivated to actually DO something with the information.

State Compensation Insurance Fund Building Goes Green

Published by Keith October 31st, 2008 in Alt Energy, Bamboo, Green Building, Green Savings, Health, LEED-NC and Solar panels. 0 Comments

statefundvacaville.jpgLeave it to the State Compensation Insurance Fund, the quasi-public workers’ compensation insurer based in San Francisco, to bring more green building to the Bay Area. Okay, we’re stretching it a little to call Vacaville the Bay Area but what’s a few miles for a true green building.

The fact that the $77 million green campus that consists of three 85,000-square-foot buildings diverted more than 20 percent of the building materials from the nasty old landfills. Much of those materials included concrete and cork and rubber flooring. Not only did the architect HOK and Milpitas-based Devon Construction reduce waste by using recycled building materials, but State Fund diverted a whopping 75 percent of construction waste away from landfills to recycling vendors.

This campus which expects to receive LEED Silver certification early next year, hit a big on the energy savings front with solar panel system, energy-efficient light fixtures, lamps, heating and cooling systems and other electrical equipment; and in the high-tech world they added “server virtualization” technology that reduces the number of servers needed to support the facility. The Green IT people must love that.

We (and probably most of the 750 workers) applaud the use of various low-emitting materials such as adhesives, paints and carpets. They also significantly reduced the building’s water footprint by incorporating low-flow toilets, waterless urinals, and an irrigation system using non-potable water.

We say that that is $77 million dollars well spent.

Photo credit: Steve Proehl

First LEED Certified Green Data Center

Published by Keith October 24th, 2008 in Green Building, Green Savings, LEED-NC and Water Recapture System. 0 Comments

date-center-green-blog.jpgMostly when we talk about LEED certified buildings we think about office buildings or government centers but here we scope out another first. The Advanced Data Center building in Sac-town already became the first data center to be pre-certified LEED Platinum. Surprised? You bet. Most people think that these data centers with all of the computers are huge energy hogs, and they’re right. That’s why the firm had to work extra hard to create efficient cooling systems. They designed a cooling system called an “air-side economizer” that reduces energy use through careful airflow, and water-flow design and to utilize outside air because the temperature and humidity reamin in the correct range for 75% of the year.

Besides being so cool with the air side efficiency, we like their H2O technology savings effort. They utilize recycled (grey) water from a local municipal water system and captured roof rainwater for landscaping, restrooms and cooling tower backup. They even went so far as to install low- and even better no-water fixtures in restrooms.

Someone was either thinking about LEED points, just doing the right thing or perhaps tax breaks but the fact that the ADC built the location on brownfield in the former McClellan Air Force Base shows some real foresight and green thinking. It didn’t even scare them that the site contains polluted groundwater 350 feet below the building.

Perhaps the military should take a clue from companies such as ADC when considering how to use (or abuse) the land that they seem to be protecting.

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