Kitchen & Bath Sustainable

West Coast Green opens at the San Jose Convention Center out in California tomorrow and the buzz is that the show is going to be bigger than ever. Now in its third edition, the expo will feature many of the usual suspects: inconveniently truthful Al Gore, Sarah Susanka, author of The Not-So-Big House, and David Suzuki, winner of the UNESCO Prize for Science and the host of “The Nature of Things.” The show runs until September 27 (which is Homeowner Day, when the show is opened to the public at large).  Registration is ongoing, and more information can be found at the West Coast Green Web site, here.

News on the East Coast isn’t as immediately encouraging.  For those of you who haven’t heard, the Green+Design expo has been “indefinitely postponed” along with this year’s NKBA MasterClass: Industry Perspectives.  The events, which were to be hosted in tandem at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta at the beginning of October, were abruptly canceled earlier this month.  The NKBA has said it plans to refocus its energies on the 2009 Kitchen/Bath Industry Show, and that many of the promised speakers at the MasterClass have been added to the K/BIS speaker roster. K/BIS 2009 will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center.

The canceling of Green+Design is a setback for us greenies who were psyched to go (all 12 of us, apparently), but it does go to show that ours is a growing movement, still gaining momentum on this coast.  It’s a good reminder for us in the Central and Eastern time zones that we’ve got to work harder to get the word out.

Next stop: Greenbuild in November!

Greetings, Greenies.  In my search to bring you evermore comprehensive green resources, I realized I’ve neglected to include a link to David Johnston’s What’s Working, Inc. WW is an independent green building consultant firm, and Johnston is himself an expert on the subject, having published Green Remodeling: Changing the World, One Room at a Time, a thoroughly researched guidebook from New Society Publishers on converting to more sustainable spaces.

Why am I directing you here?  On the WW Web site is a terrific resource guide to an assortment of building-related green links.  Check it out here.  I’m also adding it to the blogroll at left, for your convenience.

The west coast is moving at the speed of light—at least that’s the view of this east coast-based editor.  Last week, whilst I was away on vacation, admiring this view from my hotel room, the Department of Energy released news on San Francisco’s revised building codes. The city’s Mayor Gavin Newsom recently approved a tough new green building ordinance that uses Build It Green ratings called GreenPoints. 
 
The new standards have a variety of implications for individual residences and apartment complexes, but the toughest standards are reserved for commercial structures which will be required to achieve LEED Silver certification (or the equivalent amount of GreenPoints) by 2010.
 
Read the U.S. Department of Energy’s release here, where you can click through to the San Francisco Mayor’s office.

There are a growing number of communities making these broad strokes to improve building codes–Austin, Seattle, Albuquerque, Boston, Cleveland.  Are you seeing this kind of legislation where you’re designing/building?  Is it impacting the way you’re doing business?  Don’t keep us in suspense!  Leave a note in the comments.

As for the photo, who doesn’t love windpower?  No, this isn’t a small fishing village in Scandinavia, it’s Atlantic City, NJ. The east coast might be slower than the west to catch up, but these turbines, if anything, look like a good sign to this editor!

An interesting comment appeared a few days ago on the subject of green certifications:

mpisano says:
“I think the Green initiatives are all fantastic. I just have an issue with some of the certification costs. During our certification process we found that we had already set in motion certain Green standards and were basically 100% doing what we were supposed to do to be Green, but we had to pay a third party to tell us that we are Green - I know Kudos for us. I know Greenwashing happens, but we are Green.

“There is one organization in California that we would have to pay $5,000 to be certified green and $50,000 to be a gold vendor. Something sounds wrong with that. What I am getting at is, we are doing the right things, yet it feels like we are being punished for it.”

So what is the worth of third-party and second-party certification in concrete terms? Does having a designation like ‘LEED AP’ after your name give you a certain green pedigree? And how many clients will know exactly what the Greenguard or Blue Angel or KCMA ESP designations mean in concrete terms?

This week’s question is: How are you using/not using these seals/designations/certifications? Do you feel that you have easy access to information about the programs, or do you still have questions? For example, the USGBC’s LEED certification process is a points system, and that is fairly common to certifying methodology. As a green professional, do you feel confident in explaining these programs to interested clients?

In addition, do you believe that mpisano’s issues regarding certifications and their associated costs need to be addressed?

Leave your thoughts in the comments.