Building Alive, Designing to Thrive

Chicago Cultural Center's Tiffany Dome My first trip to the Windy City did not disappoint; I was pleased overall with session content and have some takeaways from each below. Teslas vs: Duck Curve This session touched on something that we in the New York City Living Building Challenge Collaborative have been discussing . In California, high energy efficiency and solar PV requirements have lead to high renewables production mid day to the grid, and an exponentially higher demand on the grid towards late afternoon hours when everyone is heading home. At the same time, Electric vehicles could potentially charge mid day while people are at work, and 'sell' some of their battery charge to the grid in the early evening when people are home and won't need their full remaining capacity. The grid here on the east coast isn't well suited to accept power, I am curious to see this theory grow. Building the First LEED Platinum City Washington DC announced last year...

Hello peers! Yes, I realize this is super late- but better than never! This year, I participated in Plastic Free July  with about a dozen people from my former office. I made a pledge to do my best to reduce the amount of single-use plastics I used throughout the entire month. July snuck up on me, but I made a few immediate changes : Get a bigger purse- It may feel like you're saving space to have a compact bag where nothing else fits, but having a larger purse allowed me to refuse a plastic bag and place things directly in my handbag like: fruit, convenience store groceries, etc. Carry a reusable tote-You'd be surprised how many times people use a plastic bag because they forgot their bags at home. Best way to avoid that? Carry one in your now larger purse, leave a couple in the car, an one in your work desk- voila! You've always remembered now! Carry a reusable straw- I am very excited about my Final Straw (image below) that I ordered- but they won't be f...