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Greening of the American Hard Hat (video)
Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, New York Times
Environmentally sound construction depends on educated workers.
(20 April 2009)
Based on the documentary "The Greening of Southie" film website.
YouTube excerpt. -BA

Why I retired to 'green' my detached 1970s house
Rob Veck, Guardian
Rob Veck talks about how he plans to retrofit his family's three-bedroom detached house to cut energy usage and make it as carbon-neutral as possible
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I'm Rob Veck, 54, father of two and recently retired from a demanding project manager job at IBM. My wife Sue is also a project manager and initially thought I was mad to embark on retrofitting our house to get as near to a carbon zero home as possible, with minimal energy usage. She no longer thinks I'm mad - just eccentric.

It took me two years to read a book that had a significant impact on my thinking on environmental issues – The Party's Over by Richard Heinberg, about the connection between population growth, energy supply, and peak oil. It took two years because it was difficult to accept the consequences of what could happen when demand exceeds a diminishing supply.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to work out what that means for our kids and grandchildren on climate change. This is a "1938 situation" with a need for a "sense of urgency" to take action now.

So I decided to retire to take action on several fronts. Firstly, to help organise the "Greening Campaign" within my village and mobilise other like-minded families that, together, want to make a difference on climate change.

I'm also aiming to make changes to our house that get as close as possible to carbon zero and reduced energy usage.
(20 April 2009)
Related from the Guardian: Alok Jha's DIY green house (video)

Lessons Learned from the Development Boom
Chuck Wolfe, seattlepi.com
..."Green", "sustainable" and "shovel ready"--and their older cousin, "smart growth"--have arrived with a vengeance, albeit often more as separate silos of ideas and inspiration than as interrelated elements of societal change. Even in a now slow real estate market, we now hear often from their advocates and thoughtful critics. How and where should we grow? Will the new residents of our region live, work and travel in a more sustainable way?

...Absent large swaths of single-entity ownership such as South Lake Union, redevelopment of our current urban landscape will not be easy. As the pipeline of permitted and financed projects ebbs, we should take stock of what we have learned during the last boom--and look hard at how the silos and synergies will emerge on the ground.

...Given the drivers influencing infill redevelopment, individual and interrelated projects can prove particularly challenging to assure an economic return and the absence of significant practical and regulatory constraints. From the private sector perspective, land must be accumulated in a rational pattern and permits and approvals obtained to allow for an economically and otherwise feasible project.
(2X April 2009)