GreenBuild Blog
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Learning from Australia’s Continuing Drought
The State of Victoria Plumbing Industry Climate Action Centre in Brunswick is one of the world leaders in training plumbers in new green technologies. Courtesy of the Plumbing Industry Climate Action Centre.
Areas of urban Australia have reduced per-capita daily water use to as low as 34 gallons (130 liters). By comparison the average per-capita water use in California is 135 gallons per day, with a U.S. average of 150 gallons. Australia’s current multi-year drought has impressed a “culture of conservation” on the public. As a result, municipal water demand by the country’s residential customers fell by 37 percent, with some areas seeing reductions as much as 50 percent, during the past five years.
National, state and local agencies responded to water shortages with efficiency retrofits and conservation programs. Private businesses have developed innovative water-saving products; the plumbing industry identified water-saving solutions and initiated training programs; and the plumbing code requires product certifications. At the same time, water agencies have been working to secure new sources of water supply from seawater desalination and urban “sewer mining.”
Drastic reductions in water use require a range of representative programs, including regulatory restrictions and financial incentives for water conservation practices in the non-residential sector. Effective water conservation programs also require public education and technical assistance. This means training the technical resources for water efficiency installations. In February of this year, I visited the State of Victoria Plumbing Industry Climate Action Centre in Brunswick, Victoria, one of the world leaders in training plumbers in new green technologies.
Many U.S. water agencies have successfully implemented similar programs in response to droughts and water shortages. We know that water supply over the next few decades will be significantly affected not only by population growth, but also by global warming. We hope that the U.S. will catch up with Australia and that a similar “culture of water conservation” will wash across the country, preventing future urban water crises.
Posted by Jerry on 06/29/2010 at 01:31 PM
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Green Building News • Water Efficiency • PermalinkMonday, June 21, 2010
I’m in Stuttgart for German Sustainable Building Council annual conference
Looking forward to attending this annual event of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer nachhaltiges Bauen (DGNB), entitled Consense. This year’s conference is titled, “Sustainability: Quo Vadis?” or, “Sustainability: Where are We Going?”, a good subject for any green building meeting. I’ll be reporting on the events as they unfold over the next two days at the Stuttgart Messe or convention and trade center, adjacent to the Stuttgart airport.
Posted by Jerry on 06/21/2010 at 11:07 AM
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Green Building News • PermalinkThursday, June 10, 2010
What’s Your Water IQ?
I’ve crafted a home water audit quiz for you to test your “Water IQ”. You can create your own score and then use the audit to plan measures to reduce your household water consumption. Hope you enjoy it, and please give me feedback!
Here’s the personal water audit tool:
Download PDF (3MB)
Download JPG (1MB)
Posted by Jerry on 06/10/2010 at 06:54 AM
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PermalinkThursday, June 03, 2010
Green Building Growing Rapidly on Campuses
Leading green building consultant, Jerry Yudelson, principal of Yudelson Associates and author of 12 green building books, said that American campuses now host more than 3000 LEED-registered projects, about 15 percent of the total of all LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) projects. Moreover, with nearly 600 LEED-certified projects, American colleges and universities have found a practical and highly visible way to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable practices.
According to the new Yudelson Associates white paper, based on end-of-2009 data from the U.S. Green Building Council, the four leading campuses for LEED project registrations are, in order, the University of Florida, Harvard University, the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Washington. The rapid growth in LEED registrations at leading campuses has come from their adoption of LEED as a way of certifying the sustainability of campus operations.
Jaimie Galayda, PhD, research director at Yudelson Associates assisted Jerry Yudelson in the preparation of this white paper. Galayda says that there is more going on at the campuses than just LEED certification. “Going beyond the LEED rating system, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) recently released its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS). This new campus sustainability rating system incorporates a number of criteria that evaluate green building achievements.”
To view the white paper, go to this link on the website.
Posted by Jerry on 06/03/2010 at 01:58 PM
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