Menlo Green Ribbon Citizens' Committee

Residential Green Building Summit in San Jose

  The city of San Jose, along with several cosponsors, is organizing a Residential Green Building Summit on Thursday, June 7, 2007 from 7:30 am to 2:00 pm at the San Jose City Hall Rotunda. The $100 cost includes continental breakfast, lunch and parking validation. The Summit's target audience is builders, developers, designers, architects, brokers, and financiers according to conference organizers.  

Conference sessions specific to residential development include:   

 

• Sustainable rating systems;
 
• Green building financing; and
 
• Methods of incorporating green building products and practices

  

Register by June 1st at www.sanjoseca.gov/esd/greenbuilding.html. For more information email GreenWorkshop@sanjoseca.gov or call (408) 535-8550.

 

Green Building Summit in San Francisco

On Tuesday May 29 the 2nd Annual Builder-to-Builder Green Summit is being held at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Sessions provide information on energy efficiency and green building for multi-family projects:

• Heather Larson, project manager of the California Multifamily New Homes (CMFNH) program sponsored by PG&E, will present case studies and analysis of qualifying highrise and lowrise projects, in Climate Zone 3, with and without Air Conditioning.  The California Multifamily New Homes Program  offers cash incentives and technical design assistance towards exceeding the code by at least 15%. Achieving this threshold opens the door to additional opportunities including ENERGY STAR® marketing benefits, the New Solar Homes Partnership and Green building certification. 
• Tenaya Asan of Build it Green will cover the GreenPoint Rated program,  a third-party rating system providing an evaluation of green practices  within the multifamily project.  She will discuss what it is, how it works and the benefit to the builder and community.  She will give some  case studies of GreenPoint Rated projects.

The 2nd Annual Builder-to-Builder Green Summit
9:00am - 6:30pm Tuesday, May 29th, 2007
Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco
http://www.pcbc2007.com/main.aspx?websiteid=07PCBC&mainsectionid=2&pageid=125

 

Land use and Building, 3/28/07

Attendance: All members present

The Committee has a fairly wide experience base:

• Landlord

• San Mateo County Planning Commissioner/Former Mayor of Menlo Park/ PG&E Energy Attorney

• Menlo Park Housing Commissioner

• Realtor

• Landscaper / Menlo Park Environmental Quality Commissioner

• Residential Developer

• Commercial Developer

• High Tech Executive / Entrepreneur

• Environmental / GreenBuilding Expert

• Environmental Parks Specialist

• Geologist

• Menlo Park Planning Commissioner’s Spouse

The group is seeking to reach out to fill in missing expertise/get input:

• Big tenants / businesses customers – what do they want? Cost effective strategies

• Arborist

• Architect / Designer

• Sunset Magazine

• Certified Green Builders

Informational needs/Outreach to follow up on:

• Review other reports: Palo Alto Green Ribbon Task Force, etc.

• Learn more about and get links to: standards/point systems for sustainable building:

  • LEED, Build It Green, U.S. Green Building Council

  • BuildItGreen and LEED – H residential point systems (LEED-H is coming soon)

  • Alameda County Green Building Ordinance , San Mateo County Green Building Program ; implementing similar point systems

  • Swinerton Builders presentation on LEED

• U.N. Urban Environmental accords  

• Get city staff involved, understand what has been done already

  • Diane Anderson – City/County green information

  • Ask City Planning and Building staff where THEY see the greatest need; what they would like to see considered by us (how can we help!)

• McGraw Hill SmartMarket Report

• Life cycle analysis / cost-effectiveness of measures

• Community education – existing programs advocating

• Good listing of best home and business change-outs, energy star rated appliances, low flow toilets, etc.

  • Top 10 list – talk with Acterra about their Green@Home energy audits program

• Amory Lovins – presentations at Stanford in late March at Stanford/see webcast

Other topics we discussed briefly:

Land use

• Parking lots – what material, dark urban island effect, permeable concrete (Rich has sample), “up” stacked/, solar panel installation possibilities, trees to shade lots

• Transit-centric development – infill, putting people close to transit, MTC brochure

• Open space and agricultural preservation

Building Design/Energy Efficiency

• Net zero energy use buildings – internal gyration – Singapore project

• Instant hot water

Water

• Landscaping and water use – smart meters – Hydropoint technology

• Information on water, capturing gray water sources, understanding Redwood City’s details on curtailing water (if City achieved 20-30% reductions, how?)

• Cisterns and grey water use

• C3 (point source) laws – management in perpetuity

Trees

• Urban canopy management, reverse net loss. Going forward one (or more)-for-one tree replacement, diversity

• Tree removal violations/enforcement possibilities – pros and cons (what do illegal action signal about current incentive structures)

      Regulatory Options

• What may have worked in other places that Menlo Park doesn’t yet do?

• Incentive programs: expedited permits for green building, lower fees, density bonuses, rebates for energy friendly materials and products

• Consider point-of-sale (required retrofits at time of property transfer to new owner), other options (for even earlier action – either “push” or “pull”)

Next Meeting:   Breakfast 4/11 @ 7:30 am – 9 am Sharon Country Club (thanks Dave!)

Action Items before next meeting: 

• Read Palo Alto Green Ribbon Report (at least Exec Summary and Build Environment sections)

• Think about what areas you want to get started on diving into (possibly get started and report back results briefly to group)

• Do you know of specific people to invite to talk with or join us, or reference citations/sources for the above info we should compile/consider reviewing?  (Start listing/networking and bring lists)