Choosing to Participate:
A Social Justice Service Project on Sustainability

After months of work, the day finally came. At 9 o’clock, when staring at 11 5-7^th graders it was time to begin… and pray the workshop would be a success.  When out workshop started rolling one group was a lot more productive then the other.  The reason of this is because the productive group was with candy and a graham cracker house and forced to design a house before building.  The other group was just carelessly throwing on candy.  When the productive group started they were great and I was really impressed.  While getting ready for the next session, without even a secound of though all three of my partners and I knew that for the next group we would make them follow how the productive group went about.  As expected they secound session went smoothly.          For next year, with the workshops I think they are a great idea, but they have to be longer.  Also if possible, not taking away from how well our Panel and the guest speaker for our grade, I think when learning about something like this if we could incorperate more hands on and less sitting down listenin to someone speak it would be even better.  

On April 17th Quinn and I visited the Grimshaw Architects to see how they incorporate going green when going green.  After explaining how our school is focusing on sustainability they told us about their unique way of green design.  At Grimshaw they are not the protocol designers who settle for only good.  They base their designs on the climate around the building and find ways to use the climates energy year round.  Most buildings don’t go the lengths they do when designing a building.  They look for the building impact of humans, natural resources, water, air in the atmosphere, land and soil, community, cultural features, the transportation used to build it, the clean energy, minimizing energy loss, embodied energy, and the climates issues.  The woman we talked to was named Alice who went through a power point explaining each slide.  A couple that stuck out to me was that if the whole world had the same ecological footprint as the U.S. then we would have to have 5 earths. Another slide said 12% of water use, 39% co2 emissions, 65% waste output, and 71% electricity consumption is from buildings.The company has building across the globe and has shown us that you can be green in unique and different ways.    

Today, Tuesday April 8^th, I was not able to go to the Center of Architecture with my partner Quinn because I was sick and absent from school.  Sometime before the April 30^th cut off date I will go back alone and post about it at after.  The post I am making now is about how I can change my life at home from what I have learned about green architecture.  I was talking to my dad about what we can do at home and I suggested a green roof on top of our garage.  He said he will definitely take it under consideration but in the mean time he has purchased many plants he has put around out driveway.  Also when I learned how buying rugs in squares is sustainable because if there is a stain you can replace the individual square instead of taking the whole rug out and putting it back in.  In part of the research I have recently done for my expose has been about how to go green at home but also be green. According to the Cincinnati Post some handy tips of going green at home are* A two-stroke, gasoline-powered lawnmower releases as many hydrocarbons into the atmosphere in 30 minutes as a car does in 90 minutes. Switch to an electric mower, which costs $8 to $10 a year to operate. * An LCD flat panel TV uses as little as a third of the electricity of conventional tube-based models, saving you on your power bill the equivalent of leaving a 50-watt bulb on all year. * If you feel woozy after painting the bedroom with latex-based enamel, choose a product low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) instead. New designer colors and improved quality make these safer paints equivalent to standard ones and they benefit your health as well as the planet’s. * Manufacturers of low-flow toilets use advanced computer modeling to deliver more flush power with less water, trimming around $90 from your annual water costs. * Like to linger in a hot shower? Stand under your shower guilt-free with a solar hot water system. A solar water heater cuts around 12 percent off the average household’s monthly electric bill. * Replacing old light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones can trim 5 percent from your monthly electricity bill. But this doesn’t mean you have to live beneath the ugly glow of low-end fluorescent bulbs. Go for the premium fluorescents that cast a pure white or buttery golden light across your interior. * Local recycling practices vary, but there are some universal no-nos. Don’t put plastic shopping bags, broken glass or food scraps in your bin. * Skip the pesticides and use nature’s method of bug-eradication: other animals. Install birdhouses to shelter feathered friends who dine on pesky beetles and grubs.

Today. Thursday April 3rd, Quinn and I went to theCenter For Architecture on Bleaker and McDougal Street. The place we went towas an exhibit open to the public that had a gallery about the new green basedon the Bank of America Tower. The architects of the building are the samearchitects that Quinn and I visited before break.  When showed up todaywere uncertain of how to go about the building.  There was no guided tourof even someone who worked there who was there to answer questions.  Aftera while of walking around in confusion we found what we were looking for whichwas an exhibit on the Bank of America Tower.

The exhibit was filled with green statistics aboutthe building.  Quinn and I collected some that stuck out to us.  

Such as,

-The air inside the building is cleaner then theair outside of it

-56,250 tons of CO2 prevented from entering the atmosphere 

-Roughly 40% of the building materials come fromwithin 500 miles of NYC

-67% of the buildings debris is recycled

 -Since of the buildings main goals is to beenergy efficient their energy use is self generated so is uses around 300% lessenergy then the typical building

-The tower uses waterless urinals, which conserve 3million gallons of water each year.

-The building uses a lot of sunlight for light andit shows 16% of students test scores raise due to daylight

-The building aims to contribute zero output ofstorm water in the cities sewer system

-The building only has 23% energy lost compared to73% or the typical building

-83% of the construction waste is recycled

-90% ofsmug is made from 50% of power plants 

On Tuesday Quinn and I visited Cook and Fox architects on 6^thavenue between 19 and 20^th. When we walked in and talked to the receptionist we were relived thattoday we actually were having a tour and that we wouldn’t be disappointagain.  The layout of the officewhen you first walk in feels very free and open.  The offices side has mirrors that make that shape of a ¼circle facing northeast.  There are not offices; except everyone has there own area to work, whichgive more equality around the office instead of the person who makes the mostmoney, gets the window.  When wemet out tour guide Alice Hartley right of the bat we could get the sense thatthe people there are happy about the place they work in. 

When we walked around the office there were several things Inoticed that I’ve seen before. Such as the carpet they used on the ground was the same that is in mybasement.  The woman explained whythey use that carpet she said because carpeting is what is taking up mostlandfills and if there a rug gets stained instead of having to throw away thecarpet completely you can just remove a square and put another in.  Something else I saw was the LEEDrating system.  Without having agood understanding of what it was, Quinn and I asked out tour guide.  She told us that there are differentcertifications you can get for being green, which are, certified, silver, gold,and platinum.  Platinum is thehighest certification you can get which is what they have.  As we continued to walk about theoffice I was impressed by all the model buildings they had and all of thedetails and patience it must take to build one.  There was a board, which showed all the differentpossibilities that they could choose from to make for the Bank of AmericaTower.  Out of everything there,the one part of the building that stuck out to me the most was the waterlessurinals.

The tour was very satisfying and was definitely helpful inanswering a lot of question we had and informing us on things we didn’t knowabout.  The tour even told us aboutmaterials we can use in regular things at home.

- Cole 

On monday Quinn and I went to the NRDC building on 20th street between 5th and 6th avenue. We had a scheduled tour at 4:30 and we were told that we should just show up and there’s no need to contact them before we come. When we arrived at the building, after waiting for several minutes, we were told that our tour guide left early to go to class and that we would have to reschedule.
-Cole

On Saturday Quinn and I traveled to the Queens Botanical Gardens to have tour and to learn more about sustainable architecture.  When we arrived Quinn, two others, and myself were taken on a tour.  I was surprised of how much the Garden focuses on being sustainable before looking pretty.  For example when the wether gets warmer there is an area that is put aside to be swampy which will clean the water.  Another thing that stuck out to me was the bathroom. First they had a shower in the bathroom, which is there for people who work there who want to ride their bike to work.  Also the toilet stuck out to me.  The toilets water was not completely clean.  It wasn’t drinking water but it was recycled water.  What I was most impressed with was that everything at the garden was based around sustainability from all the plants, to the green roof, to a structure that saved rain water into what could be toilet water instead of overflowing into the sewer, or lastly to the structure of the buildings side.  The buildings side had wooden shades on the outside,which would bring the heat into the building during the winter, and be able to shade it in the hot seasons based on the suns angle.  The tour guide was very helpful to us and gave us a packet full of information about the garden. I think that this is a great place from both gardeners and architectures to go.  Lastly while we were there, there was another group that our tour guide said was of teachers because the garden wants to help teachers learn how to teach sustainability.   

-Cole 

Quinn and I were unable to find any times a green building could give us a tour.  We have scheduled two vistits to two different sustainability locations.  We realized that the information for the NRDC building would only give us one visit.  Therefore we have launched a search as I said ealier for other possible locations.  Our first visit to the NRDC building is scheduled for a week from this monday.Cole