Now that President Obama has officially declared he will be attending the climate talks in Copenhagen, hundreds are flocking to the Huffington Post’s green webpage to participate in the Hopenhagen Ambassador contest. Witness actor Bradley Whitford encourage Huffington Post readers to submit their candidacy below, or go to the contest page here.

Yesterday President Obama made his goals for the Copenhagen talks clear (kind of)—though he did not move beyond the 17% carbon emission reduction goal set forth by Congress months ago, an ultimate goal of an 83% reduction by 2050 has been bandied about and will be proposed in Copenhagen. Read Huffington Post’s take on his speech here, or read the latest press release from the White House regarding the President’s trip on December 9^th, which includes the following schedule of events:

Wednesday, December 9th: Taking Action at Home, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson

Thursday, December 10th: New Energy Future: the role of public lands in clean energy production and carbon capture, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar

Friday, December 11th: Clean Energy Jobs in a Global Marketplace, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke

Monday, December 14th: Leading in Energy Efficiency and Renewables, Energy Secretary Steven Chu

Tuesday, December 15th: Clean Energy Investments: creating opportunities for rural economies, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Thursday, December 17th: Backing Up International Agreement with Domestic Action, CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley and Assistant to the President Carol Browner

One of the many groundbreaking events to occur during Greenbuild 2009, DC architectural firm Perkins+Will’s release of a “Precautionary List” promises to “catalyze marketplace change”. The list consists of 25 common building materials and chemicals, their origins, where they are normally used, their impact on the health of those who use them, and most importantly, alternatives—eventually, the firm plans to expand the list to cover all available construction materials.

Potentially a very effective deterrent, one can only hope educational tools like this will be catered to sub-contractors and appraisers as well, most of whom are still woefully ignorant about safe (and green) construction practices. Jetson Green quotes P+W’s Robin Gunther: “Amazingly, it’s hard to fathom that as architects we don’t always know what (chemicals) are in the building materials we use. It’s time for this to change; time to bring a standard for care to building design and construction by starting with the elimination of toxic chemicals in building materials.”

Perkins+Will is a large firm that specializes in commercial architecture and interior design, mostly for mass transit and healthcare institutions—for more information about their business, visit their webpage. For more info about the Precautionary List, visit Treehugger’s post here, or to view the list itself go to the P+W Precautionary page.

With the UN Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen only a month away, President Obama is being confronted with yet another conundrum—should he commit to a significant carbon emission reduction and regain his seat at the international “cool kids table”, or wait for Congress to back a less ambitious goal months from now and look like a chump? 

It’s no help that the UK Green Building Council announced today its own concrete target of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020—or that Housing Minister John Healey confirmed that the UK will be the first country in the world to mandate that all new homes be zero carbon from 2016 on. Our own target is expected to be announced in “a number of days” and, due to the current legislative stalemate over a climate bill, will likely propose several alternatives rather than a single figure.

As of right now, we’re not the only bad guy—China, the world’s most culpable carbon emitter, is also keeping mum. Yet though the UN is looking to the US to set an example, we can’t get past the 20% goal set by the Senate last month. And (as if it couldn’t get worse) an unnamed official quoted in the NY Times today points to the lengthy debate over health care as the distraction contributing to the climate change stalemate—“we would have preferred that health care be done a long time ago, and we’d be having an energy debate today”.

It’s an uncomfortably sharp double-edged sword, but really it all comes down to leadership. The White House has taken some important steps with Vice President Biden’s recent green building proposal and a tentative Cash-for-Caulkers plan—let’s hope we can continue the trend and pressure Congress into coming up with an emission reduction goal that makes us all proud.

For more information on the upcoming target declaration, visit the NY Times here. For more details on the UK’s recent legislative declarations, click here.

Succumbing to a newfound addiction to TED Talks, I came across a video posted last month that I found intriguing. Below, TED fellow Rachel Armstrong proposes that we evolve beyond “inert” construction practices and begin using “metabolic materials” to ensure true vitality in our cities. Definitely not something achievable in the near future, but certainly innovative enough to warrant a thoughtful ponder.

To watch more pertinent TED speeches, visit their “Greener Future“, “Architectural Inspiration“, and “Power of Cities” themed pages– or visit their general blog at www.ted.com.

We knew it was coming—yesterday the NY Times posted an article about a tentative plan making the rounds in DC to fund the weatherization of houses. John Doerr, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and former President Bill Clinton have each suggested versions to the Obama administration (the latter points to the success of a similar program in Houston, in which the local government pays $1,000 for home weatherization). 

The author of this article, David Leonhardt, does a good job of targeting both the good and the bad in a program like this. On the plus side, we’d have more jobs for currently unoccupied contractors and construction workers, more money that would have been spent on higher energy bills, and less of a detrimental impact on the environment.

On the other hand, as Mr. Leonhardt accurately points out, weatherizing a home is a much more complex procedure than buying a car. Finding an auditor, choosing which projects to undertake, and how to go about getting them appraised (a mess unto itself) and then funded (federal or state?)—these conundrums will all have to be ironed out before the release of any successful bill. While Clinton’s plan seems as though it makes more of an attempt at comprehensive action, Mr. Doerr’s assertion that he would “keep it really simple so we can do it really fast”, as quoted in the article, doesn’t inspire too much confidence.

And of course there is the same argument made against Cash-for-Clunkers—would the program be necessary? Would the public be weatherizing their homes anyway? In answer to this, take a look at some stats from a survey performed by NBC and the Associated Press, published by the Huffington Post—in my opinion, the ratio of good “green” intentions to legitimate action points to an all-American need for an incentive.

But please, government officials, take some time to do this well. Incorporate educational efforts (and it would help if you, yourselves, learned what you were talking about before you started teaching us), and pay attention to the details.

To read David Leonhardt’s article, click here. For a more detailed explanation of the logistics of the proposed plans (cost, structure, etc), check out his “Economix” post here.

Tonight I attended a Green Building Institute sponsored class at the Sidwell Friends School (yes, it’s where Malia and Sasha Obama matriculate) and took copious notes as Eugene Swier, IAQ expert and inspector, discussed what it is we’re all breathing, and how to clean it up.

The lecture began with regional assessments—cities with high humidity (where bacteria and fungi thrive) and low (where the number of viruses increases) were featured on an “asthmatics, be warned” list. Next came an overview of strategies used to detect the air contamination caused by air moisture; “black boxes”, thermal imaging detectors, duct blowers, etc. The importance of visual assessment was also emphasized by Mr. Swier, who proceeded to show us apocalyptic images inside the mold-filled ducts of a three-year-old house.

Stats on gas pollutants such as Radon, CO, and CO₂ were even more worrying. Where once I boasted that Maryland has one of the most comprehensive state energy efficiency codes in the country, now I must fault Baltimore—with approximately one contaminated site for every thirty individuals (88,284 total), ours is the #1 most toxic city in the nation.

Lessons I walked away with?

-         Test before buying your home. If you can’t afford a couple hundred for the professionals, there are some DIY methods that cost a little less (ie charcoal canisters to detect Radon—less effective than the E-perm detector, but it’s something).

-         Continue to maintain high standards with energy efficient techniques and appliances. CO detectors, HVAC units, more efficient air systems (air flow should move from ceiling to floor), and Energy Recovery Ventilators for fresh air exchange were only a few of the several discussed.

-         If you have an older home that you’d like to tighten up, keeping track of indoor air quality becomes that much more important—older materials and older construction strategies lend themselves to moisture, mold, and harmful gases, which are sequestered inside (with you) once the house is armored against the outdoors.

Eugene Swier offers due diligence inspection, energy auditing, and environmental assessment services for commercial and residential buildings, and also performs in a consulting capacity for the Department of Defense (the Pentagon) and other governmental entities. If you are looking to have your home or business inspected, check out his webpage here. For more information about classes sponsored by the Green Building Institute, take a look at their online calendar.

A new AIA (American Institute of Architects) report, “Green Building Policy in a Changing Economic Environment,” was released last week to coincide with the 2009 Greenbuild International Conference & Expo in Phoenix. According to surveys, 138 cities have green building programs, compared with 92 cities in 2007 – an increase of 50 percent.

Other interesting stats from the report?

- All but one of the 25 most densely populated US metropolitan areas are built around cities with a green building policy.

- Cities out west have the most green building programs (56 cities in 6 states).

- Cities on the eastern coast are catching up—they have witnessed (collectively) a 75 percent increase in green building programs in the last two years.

Also factoring in VP Al Gore’s Greenbuild prediction that the U.S. market for green building products and services will grow to $60 billion by 2010, it looks as though we’re in the right market.

Read the full AIA report for more details, or simply visit the AIA website for an overview. To learn more about Greenbuild and the events that transpired this past weekend, check out our recent blog post for the appropriate links.

Matt Petersen with Mikhail Gorbachev

Yesterday, Treehugger.com posted Part 1 of their interview with Matt Petersen, President of Global Green USA—in it, Petersen answers questions about the Holy Cross Project, an adopted offshoot of his non-profit organization and the winning initiative of a design competition chaired by Brad Pitt.

Following the eradication of much of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Petersen acted on an epiphany that sounds all too familiar: “Two weeks after the storm, I began to push people to join with us to try to accomplish adopting a neighborhood, bringing it back, and greening the schools that needed to be rebuilt, with the goal of training 10,000 people to rebuild homes”. Their intended legacy? “To show the credibility and enhance the credibility of green building, and show that this wasn’t just folks with a bunch of good ideas and a Hollywood star. [It’s] the education that the people have received.”

Even though what we at One Green Home are achieving in Baltimore neighborhoods can be easily distinguished from the Holy Cross Project (we are rehabbing existing homes, while they are focused primarily on new construction; they rely on some government funding, we do not; etc), it is encouraging to know that our ideas are echoed (however faintly) across state lines.

To read Part 1 of the interview with Matt Petersen in its entirety, visit Treehugger.com here. For more information about Global Green USA and the Holy Cross Project/Neighborhood (and to take a virtual tour of a completed house), visit their website here.

*Warning* The above promotional video contains footage of adorable children mispronouncing “sustaina-na-bility” and “urban rede-de-de-velopment”. Factor in a cheesy soundtrack and you’ve got green marketing gold. It’s no wonder thousands of green experts have flooded Phoenix for the 2009 Greenbuild Expo (November 11-13). Okay, so some of them probably came to see keynote speaker Al Gore… and maybe some of them to attend the kickoff concert by Sheryl Crow. And okay maybe the hundreds of workshops, the film festival, the Green Building Job Fair, and the family activities (golfing, hiking, horseback riding, etc) were also attractors. 

Joking aside, this years’ schedule of events promises to satisfy all 20,000+ attendees. Local green building tours are given on all three days of the expo, as are seminars on green renovation, LEED certification, energy efficiency tax credits, and so on. And, in addition to Al Gore, the USGBC (United States Green Building Council) has brought in seven other prominent master speakers, any one of whom would attract hundreds of enthusiastic listeners:

           – Daniel Wildcat (Director, Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center)

           – Sylvia Earle (Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society)

           – Peter Gleick (President, Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security)

           – Arthur Rubinfeld (President, Global Development, Starbucks Coffee Company)

           – Paul King (Chief executive, UK Green Building Council)

           – Josh Bernstein (International explorer, author, survival expert, and TV host)

           – Christoph Ingenhoven (Principal and founder, Ingenhoven Architekten)

For a full list of the goings-on (because there are far too many to include all of them here), visit the Greenbuild calendar of events, their day-by-day schedule, and their educational session grid. If, for whatever reason (the hefty registration fee, cough cough), you can’t make it but are dying for access, you can stream some of the events online (live and some 72 hours later)—visit the News section of the webpage to find out what you can watch and when.

We’ve all seen amazing pictures of the world’s most remarkable treehouses (if you haven’t, I recommend perusing Inhabitat.com’s archives)—yet Wisconsin architect Roald Gunderson has accomplished something quite unique with his company, Whole Tree Architecture and Construction. Fusing together aesthetic innovation and livability, his houses are semi-traditional in form (a simple A-frame, for example) but are built from whole, unmilled trees, many of which have been felled by wind, disease or insects.  

The benefits? Whole, unmilled trees can support 50% more weight than the largest block of milled lumber. In addition, the natural curvature of an unmilled tree lends itself to a stronger foundation—arches can laterally brace a structure from all sides. Whole trees also hold in carbon, while producing an equivalent amount of steel would release somewhere between two to five tons of the greenhouse gas. Not to mention the amount of gas it would take to transport it. Finally, clearing trees that have fallen from natural causes limits unnecessary clearing of healthy wooded areas for lumber.

Roald Gunderson is joined in managing his company by his life partner, Amelia Baxter, who has a long history working for community organizations and environmental initiatives. Currently, they are also managing a project which harvests other sustainable resources from their local forests. Members of the project can choose from approximately 1,000 trees to build their homes, all of them locally inventoried and paid for with a $150,000 grant from the US Department of Agriculture.

To see a full gallery of images, visit the NY Times here, or go to Roald Gunderson’s homepage for more interesting stats on the benefits of local and sustainable construction practices. Photo by Paul Kelley of the NY Times.