Green Build Bulletin | July, 2010
This is a special “Water” edition of Yudelson Associates’ e-newsletter celebration for the release of Jerry Yudelson’s latest book. It contains announcements about the book and Jerry’s latest keynote speech, as well as insights regarding water conservation success stories, strategies and technologies. Please scroll down and read on!
NEW BOOK:
Dry Run: Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis
Jerry’s latest book, Dry Run is now available on Amazon.com.You can also download the Kindle edition as an e-book.
In our opinion, if you want to understand water issues in the built environment, this is the one essential book on this very important subject. It covers not only the US and Canada, but also water issues in Germany and Australia. It provides case studies of seven US cities and how they’re responded to water crises in the past decade. Many of you may not know that Jerry’s original passion and professional degrees are all in the water field, and, we are pleased to report, that he has put that experience to good use in researching and writing this book.
NEW TALK:
Cool Water: Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis
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Jerry Yudelson presented his brand new talk that is inspired by the research and work on the new book, “Cool Water: Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis,” for the first time to an enthusiastic audience at the annual awards dinner of the North Florida chapter of the US Green Building Council in Jacksonville.
His next public presentation on water will be at San Diego (CA) State University on August 27th. If you live nearby, please plan to attend! You can register by clicking here; Or, if you would like to book Jerry to speak at your organization’s next event, please email Jerry.
Read more about Jerry’s Speeches and Keynotes »
Download Jerry Yudelson’s Speaker Brochure (PDF 180KB) »
Initial Book Reviews:
Initial reviews of the book by leading water authorities are very favorable.
Here are a few highlights:
Throughout his book Jerry is able to explain complex techno-political issues in simple, direct language, making these issues accessible and understandable for a wide readership. I found the conclusion to Jerry’s analysis particularly useful and practical: Ten Steps to Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis. — Tony Arnel, Chair, World Green Building Council | ||
This book is the wakeup call we all needed to realize the grave challenge we face and the potential of the building industry to curb water consumption. I hope all sector stakeholders read it, soon! — Donna McIntire, AIA | ||
Jerry Yudelson’s book, Dry Run, will become an excellent “nonstandard” reference manual for water efficiency. Dry Run provides knowledge and benchmarks for the consumer, the engineer, the operator, and the politician to help us become more water efficient. — Greg Towsley, GRUNDFOS Pumps Corporation | ||
This book provides the most comprehensive overview about water-related knowledge and potential strategies I’ve ever seen. It will boost the reader’s consciousness and will give this topic the necessary attention in building design. — Thomas Auer, Transsolar Energietechnik, Stuttgart, Germany |
Water Conservation Project Profile
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Vancouver (BC) Convention Centre |
The Vancouver (BC) Convention Centre, media host for the 2010 Winter Olympics, has an advanced graywater harvesting and blackwater reuse system. Using a membrane bioreactor, the onsite blackwater treatment system processes the building’s sewage and provides 80 percent of the water needs for toilet flushing in the building and supplemental water for irrigation of a 6-acre (24,280-square meter) living roof. Started up in March of 2008, the system occupies an area of 1,200-sq.ft.; it treats 20,000 gallons per day (76,000 liters) of wastewater from the building. (See more details in Chapter 10 of Dry Run.)
City Water Conservation Strategies
In Dry Run, Jerry highlights the different responses to recent droughts from seven leading US cities: Atlanta, San Antonio, Austin, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. While there are a lot of different approaches, the four main responses can be categorized as Financial Incentives (for new technology), Pricing Changes (to reward conservation behavior), Regulation/Restrictions, and Public Education. Over the longer run, searches for new water supply sources include conservation, use of reclaimed water and sometimes desalination for coastal cities.
National Success Story: Australia Shows The Way
In Dry Run, Jerry highlights what Australia has done to face up to its worst drought on record. Urban water use (per capita) is now down to less than 150 liters per day, while the US average is 150 gallons, nearly four times as much! It takes every conceivable measure, including new desalination plants for every major coastal city, but most of all it takes social cohesion and general agreement on the severity of the problem, something that seems very hard to achieve in US politics! Other countries such as the island nation, Singapore, are facing up to water scarcity issues with 40 and 50-year plans. Why can’t regions in the US do the same?
Solution Watch:
Developing new water technology and service markets
In researching Dry Run, Jerry Yudelson met with engineers from Germany and Australia, who have pioneered water conservation as a viable green consulting business. In Chapter 7, you can read about the philosophy of Guenter Hauber-Davidson, an engineer with a bent toward whole-systems thinking, and head of Water Conservation Group in Sydney. The book also highlights the approaches taken by Transsolar, a worldwide climate-engineering design firm based in Stuttgart, Germany.
