City of Kirkland launches green building blog

This marks the inaugural posting for the new City of Kirkland Green Building Program’s blog. The goal of this blog is to virtually bring professionals and the general public together to discuss the latest in green building topics. The Kirkland Green Building Team hopes that the discussions here will help to inspire both veterans and novices to practice green building in their current and future projects.

We hope to initiate online conversations about why and how to build green. Postings will be initiated by city staff members and are intended to generate perspectives about various topics. Comments, experiences, recommendations and ideas are welcome. But as with any blog, your comments will be reviewed by this site’s administrators for appropriate content.

We look forward to you joining the green building conversation with the City of Kirkland. Please send us your suggested topics and questions to greenbuildingteam@ci.kirkland.wa.us.

I read this article in the New York Times: “A Stimulus That Could Save Money” (11/17/09) which talks about a new stimulus plan for home weatherization, ‘Cash for Caulkers.’ The article describes a rebate program for weatherization of buildings, a proposal drafted by John Doerr, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and Bill Clinton. What interested me was that the article, while very supportive, had an interesting critique of the proposal:

“Many homeowners could already save money by weatherizing their homes. And they are not doing so. That’s in large part because the projects can seem so daunting. To date, energy experts, in the government and the private sector, have not done a good job of distributing useful information.”

A report published by the National Academy of Sciences points out that the U.S. has the potential to see a 30 percent energy savings, in buildings, transportation, and industrial sectors. Buildings represent 40 percent of this potential energy savings. The report concludes that cost-effective energy improvements are the cheapest and quickest way to move toward a sustainable energy future. But once again the largest roadblock found from achieving progress in energy efficiency comes from uncertainty of the consumer that cost savings from energy efficiency technologies can be achieved.

What’s worse, as the report reflects, that as U.S. consumers invest in inefficient buildings and appliances it locks in patterns of high unsustainable energy use for decades to come. 

I cannot think of a better topic for this blog to discuss. As world leaders debated and failed to draft a unified and binding agreement of our sustainable future in Copenhagen, it is more important than ever that we don’t fail to act at the local level.

Kirkland’s Green Building Team is here to provide education to the public about green building. Team members are professionals from the Planning, Building, and Public Works Departments, who are all accredited by LEED®, and are available to discuss your green building project.  Our website is designed as a gateway for those seeking information about green building. 

Recognizing the need to continue to provide information about green building to encourage more sustainable development, we pose the following questions:

• How can we work together to secure an energy efficient future?
• What’s stopping you now from pursuing sustainable building practice in your current projects? 
•  And, for those in the green building industry, what would you recommend as the first steps for someone who desires to build sustainably but doesn’t have a clue where to begin?

We look forward to hearing from you.
  – Kirkland’s Green Building Team