Since this is the send home edition of The Chronicle, it seems appropriate for the ‘green devil’ column to go home, too.
Most of the year I use this space to explore ways in which Duke is making progress toward its climate neutrality goal. Using the University’s Climate Action Plan as a road map, I’ve covered issues relating to energy, transportation and carbon offsets.
Why does it make sense to focus on what happens off campus? Of the four end-use consumption sectors measured by the Annual Energy Review 2008: Energy Consumption, a report published by the statistical arm of the U.S.
Since this is the send home edition of The Chronicle, it seems appropriate for the ‘green devil’ column to go home, too.
Most of the year I use this space to explore ways in which Duke is making progress toward its climate neutrality goal. Using the University’s Climate Action Plan as a road map, I’ve covered issues relating to energy, transportation and carbon offsets.
Why does it make sense to focus on what happens off campus? Of the four end-use consumption sectors measured by the Annual Energy Review 2008: Energy Consumption, a report published by the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, transportation and residential energy use make up the second and third largest sectors in the U.S. respectively. So what Duke thinks about and does on campus, you can think about and do at home too.
Take for instance the Duke policy to build new buildings to a minimum standard of LEED silver certification. In addition to new construction guidelines for buildings that Duke might build, LEED has guidelines for residential construction as well called LEED for Homes. Both systems give points for environmentally sound choices like site selection, using sustainably grown products and installing energy efficient appliances and water saving fixtures.
Not in the market for a newly constructed home? Perhaps you’re doing some home renovation—I know I am. In that case, the U.S. Green Building Council has some ideas for you there, too. They offer two tools that both provide advice and information: the REGREEN program (www.regreenprogram.org) and the USGBC’s Green Home Guide (still in beta at greenhomeguide.com), which also aims to connect you with professionals. For local organizations, I found Clean Energy Durham (www.cleanenergydurham.org). They aim to empower local volunteers to educate neighbors about energy efficiency. There has also been a proliferation of companies in the area offering sustainability assessments and services to homeowners looking to renovate.
You can level all the criticism and disgust at the bad design decisions homeowners make on HGTV, but the reality is renovation decisions involve some amount of personal taste. The solution: Don’t like it? Change it. From wallpaper to countertops to whole kitchens. This thinking however, leads to a different kind of resource waste when materials that haven’t reached the end of their useful life are discarded. It also eliminates some of the savings factored into the initial calculation to purchase a greener product.
Granted, most of us are not in the market for a new home and don’t even own something to tear apart. In fact, if you’re renting or living on campus, the biggest decisions have already been made for you. The appliances are in place, the walls are built and you only get to set the temperature on the heating and cooling systems.
Where do we go from here? To light bulbs? Not in this column. In this column, we get in the car and head to school, or work, or the grocery store, or even home.
Without dwelling on the fact that we are all a bit more aware of our gasoline consumption this summer due to the national disaster that persists in the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, I did mention earlier that transportation is the second largest end-use energy sector. Instead of getting in the car, could you get on a bike? What about a bus or a train? Even good old fashioned walking will do just fine most of the time—although it’s been too hot for moving at all here in Durham.
So after all that fuss about sustainable construction, finishes and design, it all boils down to the old real estate adage: location, location, location.
If you’re interested in following more at-home adventures and digesting other ‘green devil’ fare, follow along at my blog: dukegreendevil.wordpress.com. I’ll be back in print when you’re back from all your summer adventures this fall, and we’ll pick right back up on that Sustainable Duke mantra: “bleed blue, live green.”
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