You’ve probably heard the old adage about “ASSUMING” things, you know, the one that breaks down the spelling of the word to (ass–u–me). 

Assuming things based on old habits and practices is a big part of continuing the problem. 

We are now at a stage of our technological civilization where the cumulative choices we make about our buildings and settlement patterns have huge consequences, and the wrong choices will produce ill outcomes to the economy and the environment .  Assumptions based on ”the way things have always been done” are too often the starting point in the design of most buildings, even today. It’s becoming clearer that many prior assumptions are now obsolete and uninformed and at the outset, new kinds of questions need to be asked when conceiving any new building design. That’s why we need to cast out the old assumptions and consider all the new increasingly available options “at the beginning” of our design. The magnitude of the Building Sector in our economy and in the consumption of resources by our buildings is of paramount importance. The best estimate is that the Building Sector consumes 48% of all energy used in the US , a country where 5% of the world’s population consumes 25% of the world’s energy (up to this point.)

(Note! this 48% is very predominantly from hydrocarbon sources and includes all the energy used in building materials, construction, and the ongoing utilities used to condition, operate and maintain buildings.) 

Let’s look at a hypothetical example:

Say, ten years ago a wealthy Me Generation person is designing their dream home and thinks to him/herself… “Hey, I have plenty of assets and income, I can afford to build a 9,000 SF house with 20 foot cathedral ceilings and I can afford to drive a large military style SUV to the grocery store and soccer practice and the fuel costs for my lifestyle are not significant when compared to my income. No biggie. I have an image to maintain.”  These days that same person would have good reason to ask… “Can I ALSO afford to lose my $950,000 beach condo due to stronger storms rising sea levels and bankrupt insurance companies?” The new question centers not so much on whether “I” can afford to make these choices but whether Planet Earth can afford my choices. If Planet Earth can’t afford it, sooner or later we’re talking - GAME OVER.  

Sustainability defined - “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” 

According to NASA’s head honcho on climate, Dr. James Hansen, we are facing the prospect of Earth becoming a different planet, with a different climate, less species diversity from increasing extinction and submerged coastal habitations and cities. In addition to exacerbating security issues by buying fuel from hostile, unstable, parts of the world and funding terrorists at the same time, we are facing near certain global climate change from increased CO2 levels, and the usual environmentally unsustainable suspects: deforestation, fouled air and water, the death of reefs and sterility of the oceans, mountain top removal, famine, war, etc. These things will only be exacerbated if we “stay the course”. 

We have the tools to make a real change to sustainability, but in addition to employing them rapidly, we need to be conscious that our most diligent efforts can easily be overwhelmed by rapid population growth, so population growth will be of prime importance to our ultimate success in avoiding global scale disaster. It will of course be preferable if population control to within the ecosystem’s carrying capacities is achieved voluntarily, rather than through the Malthusian forces of war, famine and disease.

The good newsis: not only can we do something about it, but that it also makes dollars and sense to do something about it. It’s not so much about pain and sacrifice; It’s about doing more with less. It’s about taking ACTION in the face of INFORMATION. This is about changing the inertia of the status quo, remembering that our goal is not to purchase kilowatt hours and therms, but rather to capture and use energy effectively to live in comfortable/safe houses, take hot showers, and drink cold beer.  

Here’s what I advise you consider when you design any new building or renovation:  Look at the problem from two sides (The Demand Side and The Supply Side).  I have suggested a toolkit for each side.

 With each “toolkit” you can select an assortment of strategies which will work best for your particular site, budget, or the level greenness desired.

They are to be used as a kind of decision tree for starting with better assumptions and avoiding design mistakes made at the outset. You should consider not only how much each option will cost to build or install from your bank balance but also think of the triple bottom line of your project with these considertions-

ECONOMICS- ENVIRONMENT- SOCIETY  

(NOW MORE THAN EVER) in mind.  

Aside from achieveing a high degree of energy and water useage efficiency, you should also consider used and salvaged materials that you can employ in the design, utilizing new materials with recycled content, wood and forest products that are grown with certified sustainable forestry practices (look for the FSC or SFI label -see my links page), efficient ventilation for indoor air quality, non-toxic and non-allergenic building materials, cabinets and furniture, permeable paving, water and energy conscious landscaping, materials that are derived nearby or locally, reduction and recyclying of the construction waste stream that goes into your local landfill, the density and pattern of your development project (clustering buildings to create more open green spaces) and the location's distance to employment, goods and services.

Demand Side Design Toolkit -

designed to maximize energy and resource efficiency with features most appropriate to the building type and the particular site conditions.

1)    Super-insulated walls and roofs

2)    High performance glazings, window insulation,  and south facing glazings

3)     Radiant barriers

4)     Airtight construction and sealed attics (always accompanied by intentional ventilation systems whether direct or with Energy Recovery Ventilators)

5)     Air lock entry often doubling as a mud room

6)     Interior thermal mass

7)     Intentional daylighting with suntubes

8)     Optimized overhangs

9)     Clerestory windows

10)   Light shelves

11)   Natural ventilation by design 

12)   Efficient shower heads, toilets, appliances and lighting

13)   Infloor radiant hydronic systems

14)   Gray water systems and rainwater capture and reuse

15)   Energy efficient digital thermostats

16)   Energy efficient landscaping with windbreaks and shade tree placement

17)   Thermal destratification

18)   Spray on ceramic insulation 

19)   Many others 

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P.S. - I organized this into (by no means complete) lists of tools (design and feature options) in order to explore or debate individually any of these design tools in future blogs and I would welcome your participation, questions and comments.

Supply Side Toolkit -

designed to provide green kilowatts, Btus, and horsepower from renewable non-carbon extracting sources  

1)    Solar Thermal- Hot Water and Process Heat

2)    Passive Solar Gain- Direct Gain, Mass Wall, Isolated gain with attached Solarium/Greenhouse

3)     Solar Electric (soon to be more competitive with coal fired electricity, with third generation thin film CIGS technology, see Nanosolar website at http://www.nanosolar.com/ThirdWaveSolarPower.htm)

4)     Wind Generation - already competetive and investor backed and often a good combination with a solar electric system

5)     Hydro and Small Hydro- Individual or community systems

6)     Ground Source Heat Pumps (uses earth as a heat source or heat sink)

7)     Biofuels- look for genetic strains of organisms, algae based fuels, cellulosic sources to create breakthroughs.

8)     Purchasing Green Power/ Carbon Offsets-  note! possibly some reason to be skeptical here.

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Remember to always first reduce the DEMAND for resources by doing everything practicable on the Demand Side of the equation BEFORE you do anything to determine your Supply Side options.  i.e.- Extra money spent on insulating the building envelope will have the result of saving money on the size of the mechanical system  and the energy needed to keep the building comfortable. The SUPPLY tools determination should always be secondary and in sync with the reduced DEMAND you intentionally create.

Call DARRYL DUFFE at

 904-557-6855