An event for anyone in the construction or building trade, ‘The Day Of Reclamation’ takes place in Brighton on 27th March 2009

Hosted by Tiger Enterprise Ltd this event has pulled together key industry experts leading a packed schedule of talks and discussions about the important issues in sustainable construction. Including  how to save money by using reclaimed materials, how to use reclaimed building materials and how to implement your site waste management plans efficiently. The varied and entertaining seminars will provide some of the main talking points for the event.

This event will also include a selection of interesting and interactive stalls including BRE and Remade S.E, Brighton’s Green Centre and Brighton and Hove City Council.

For more information about attending or having a stall contact event@reuseitdontloseit.co.uk

This is a free event with limited places, so book early to avoid disappointment. To find out more and to register visit www.reuseitdontloseit.co.uk

Grand Designs LIVE

The Grand Designs LIVE event in Birmingham (UK) this year will be featuring several seminars focusing on environmentally friendly building and design.

Running from 10th to 12th October these seminars will include talks on reducing the negative environmental impact on self-builds, the eco credentials of prefabricated houses and furnishing your home with eco interiors.

In fact friend of Green Girls Global and Treehugger editor Leonora Oppenheim will be speaking in the ‘Best Eco Footprint Forward’ debate.

For more details visit the Grand Designs LIVE website

The Big Debate Birmingham

Another eco event in Birmingham this Autumn is The Big Debate organised by Birmingham City University.

The debate on 15th September ‘Young leaders or green saviours?‘ considers the issues faced by up and coming managers in implementing green strategies in the workplace.

Visit The Big Debate Birmingham website for more details.

There are so many green building conferences, expos, and tradeshows that it’s hard to keep of track of them all. For the past two years I’ve attended West Coast Green here in San Francisco, which to me, is a rather important one to go to, as they put everyone together under one roof!

The conference is still a month away yet everyone is abuzz with its keynote speaker this year, former Vice-President, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Eco-Warrior Extraordinaire Al Gore! Also not to be missed is Sarah Susanka, best selling author of the book The Not So Big House , and author David Suzuki who is also the TV host of The Nature of Things.

This year the conference has moved to the San Jose Convention Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. It will be held on September 25-27. One of the unique things that sets this conference apart from others is the “Homeowners Day” on the 27th. Most conventions are geared toward the professionals in that particular industry; West Coast Green offers a day that’s open to the public and all of the events and speakers are formatted for homeowners and their interests.

(If the price of admission is a little too steep for you there are volunteer opportunities available which give you free pass to all of its events.)

It looks to be another fun-filled, educational event. I hope to see some of you there!

Hi Everyone-

I’m back after a very long break. I wasn’t on vacation or anything; just trying to finish up school and get through this wretched exam. I’ve been working on my certification in sustainable building, and can now officially say I am a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor (CSBA). This distinction was hard earned – the test was the equivalent to passing the bar exam and you only had three hours!

In addition to finishing school I had begun teaching as well at the local city college. This summer I taught a hands-on construction course to adults looking for a career change and to young students hoping to get into the trades. I’ve also been approached to pen a green building textbook!

I am happy to be back to normal (somewhat) and look forward to resuming posts on what’s going on here in the US of A as well as any and all things related to sustainable design and building as I am up to my eyebrows in it.

Ciao for now,

Arcadia Maximo, CSBA!

PS: If you have any questions or comments regarding green building please feel free to drop me a line.

There is a fantastic new building being built here in San Francisco! The California Academy of Sciences (CAS) is well underway and is slated to open in late 2008.

The CAS is the fourth largest natural museum in the United States and if all goes according to plan its new facility will be the largest public building in the world to have a LEED: Platinum rating!

[Leed stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is THE top standard established by the US Green Building Council. There are different levels you can achieve, Silver, Gold and of course Platinum being the highest.]

This really piqued my interest, as I was working on an article about green roofs for my environment column. Side bar: I must congratulate Europe for having already made green roofs popular much like your natural swimming pools. We here in the US are slowly starting to catch on! Anyways, during my research I discovered the CAS is installing a “living roof” which will have approximately 1.7 million plants blanketing its top!

Other Green Efforts Being Made:

• 90% of the demolition from the old academy was recycled
• Saltwater for the aquariums is being piped in from the Pacific Ocean
• 100% of the building’s steel is recycled steel
• Recycled blue jeans will insulate the walls
• Reclaimed water will be used for flushing toilets thereby reducing the use of potable water for the wastewater system
• Too much other stuff to name!

I’m actually trying to organize a tour for my women’s construction association, so if I’m able to get pictures I’ll post them later, as this is turning out to be one amazing project!

*Architect: Renzo Piano, General Contractor: Webcor Builders

I really know nothing about construction or renovation, that’s Arcadia’s area of expertise, but I wanted to show you this great video sent to me by Will at RiverWired.

The video shows the materials and methods used by a green builder in New York renovating an abandoned brownstone into a family home.

I much prefer older houses to new builds because of the attention to detail and character that they hold but they are often much less efficient when it comes to saving energy.

Here the builder, Blake Holden, takes an already beautiful building and uses reclaimed wood and other natural materials – which seem to be more in keeping with the house’s original style – with the aim of creating a less toxic living environment and a sustainable home.

I would love to see how the house turned-out and have asked Will if there’s a follow up video.

Take a look at how Blake did it:

Greening a Brownstone
Uploaded by RiverWired

I was really interested to read about affordable ecohousing for first time buyers in the west of Scotland in this week’s Sunday Herald.  I suppose it does depend on your idea of affordable, I know this is one of the few decent housing schemes my boyfriend and I could buy into, but we’re not too far under the average national wage.  I was sad to read about a couple buying some up to use as holiday lets, if they are supposed to be affordable first time homes, then they should be just that.
Anyway, these house look great and I’m really glad to see some good ecohousing being built.  The company responsible, Living Space 21, are based in Oxford (and were set up by the founder of the Green Party, Michael Benfield) and anyone can buy their studio kits to live in.  You can choose to build it yourself (cheaper) or have all the construction done for you.  And for every tree used to build the homes, two are planted.

I’d like to see some more detailed plans but they look reasonably spacious, and definitely worth thinking about if you want an affordable ecohouse