Mainstreaming green construction: Presentations and resources

Presentations sponsored by MPCA

Since mid-2005, the PCA's Sustainable Development unit has sponsored events on green building, featuring national speakers to raise awareness and increase the capacity of Minnesota builders, designers, architects, contractors, product suppliers, local governments, and state agencies to green the built environment. Presentations, supporting information, and speaker information are provided here.

• May and June, 2010: Smart Remodelig: It Begins and Ends with Performance. Faculty from the University of Minnesota’s Cold Climate Housing Program and the Center for Sustainable Building Research conducted a day-long training for remodeling professionals on building performance and building science and their particular application to the green remodeling process.
  
  Program evaluation of the Smart Remodeling Workshops was conducted by Merit Consulting Solutions. The consultant developed a survey of knowledge, attitudes, and practices, using a retrospective pretest format, in consultation with MPCA green building specialists and the workshop faculty. The paper survey was administered at each site to all workshop participant
  
  Results of the survey show the workshops were successful in creating intended behavior change among the participants. Generally speaking, most participants started the training as unlikely to engage (or unsure about engaging) in Smart Remodeling practices and ended the training with the intention to change their behavior and adopt many of the Smart remodeling practices presented in the training. For more information, see the  Smart Remodeling Workshop Evaluation final report.
  
  A follow-up survey of 2010 Smart Remodeling workshop participants was conducted in the summer of 2011 by Catalyst Consulting Group, LLC. The purpose of the survey was to ascertain if pollution prevention practices that were taught in the workshop are being implemented in the field. Overall, it was discovered that the workshop did influence many attendees to make positive changes in their work practices that ultimately result in less polluting, more energy-efficient and healthy homes. For more information, see
  Smart Remodeling Year 2 Follow-up Report.

• January 2008: LEED & B3: A Green Building Workshop for Local Governments featuring Rick Carter and David T. Williams (LHB).
  
  
• April 2007: Zero-Energy Design for Commercial Buildings in Minnesota was a day-long seminar identifying and illustrating methods for integrating components of high performance building design.
  
  
• February 2007: David Eisenberg spoke at a series of events in the Twin Cities about greening the building codes, and redefining risk to encompass the longer-term environmental consequences through our regulatory framework and the way we build.
  
  
• January 2007: Green Remodeling Forum | Carl Seville spoke on the advances and growth in green remodeling, and how to get ahead of the curve.
  
  
• May 2006: Greening the Supply Chain workshop | David Johnston (What's Working) and Judi Ettlinger (Truitt & White Lumber) presented on the rapidly expanding residential green building market and how to develop an effective company-wide green building program targeted at builders and contractors.
  
  
• September 2005: Workshop for local government | National green building expert David Johnston explained how communities can benefit from residential green building, the key role that local government plays, and how best to advance green building practices on a local and regional scale. He also touched on national programs such as LEED for Homes, NAHB’s Model Green Home Building Guidelines, and the Green Communities Initiative that promote and mainstream residential green building.

January 2008: LEED & B3: A Green Building Workshop for Local Governments

This workshop, featuring Rick Carter and David T. Williams (LHB), introduced sustainable design concepts and explored how LEED® and the Minnesota Sustainable Building Guidelines can be used to understand, track and implement green building.

LEED & B3: A Green Building Workshop for Local Governments (BIG! 8Mb)

Rick Carter, AIA, LEED-AP, is the Senior Vice President in LHB’s Minneapolis office. He has 20 years of experience with LHB and has specialized in sustainable design, co-founding LHB’s Green Team in 1992. Rick helped develop the Hennepin County/Minnesota Sustainable Design Guidelines and currently manages the state Buildings, Benchmarks and Beyond (B3) project. Currently on the board of the U.S. Green Building Council Minnesota Chapter (USGBCMN), Rick is past chair of the chapter’s Education Committee and a past chair of the AIA Minnesota Committee on the Environment. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota where he teaches a graduate-level sustainable design course at the College of Design.

David T. Williams, PE, LEED-AP, is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a degree in mechanical engineering while studying passive and active solar energy systems for buildings, microclimate, and soil thermal conductivity. He has over 20 years of experience in architectural/engineering firms integrating high-performance energy systems with architecture. Williams is currently Building Performance Leader at LHB, a 160-person A/E firm in Duluth and Minneapolis.

April 2007: Zero-Energy Design in Minnesota

Presentations by Joel Loveland, David Eijadi, and Tom McDougall covered key performance issues that must be considered for designing, constructing and operating zero-energy-consumption commercial buildings in the upper Midwest. This day-long seminar identifed and illustrated methods for integrating high performance building design components, including building load reduction strategies, high-quality interior environments, energy-efficient systems, and renewable energy generation systems.

Zero Energy Design for Commercial Buildings in Minnesota (BIG! 13Mb)

February 2007

David Eisenberg spoke at a series of events in the Twin Cities about greening the building codes, and redefining risk to encompass the longer-term environmental consequences through our regulatory framework and the way we build.

State and Local Government Leadership in Response to Global Warming, Peak Oil, and their Impacts (MPCA presentation) (5.5Mb)
Local Government Leadership in Response to Global Warming, Peak Oil, and their Impacts (St. Paul & Minneapolis presentations) (6.2Mb)
Green Building and Codes: The Broader Context (USGBC Minnesota Chapter presentation) (5Mb)

David Eisenberg, Executive Director, Development Center for Appropriate Technology (DCAT)
David co-founded DCAT in 1991. He has well over twenty years of construction experience including troubleshooting construction of the steel and glass cover of Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona, building a $2 million structural concrete house, a hypo-allergenic structural steel house, and building masonry, wood, adobe, rammed earth, and straw bale structures. He is co-author of the Straw Bale House book, and helped write the first loadbearing straw bale construction building code for the city of Tucson and Pima County, Arizona. Much of his time is devoted to developing relationships with members of the building, design, and building regulatory communities, promoting a sustainable context for building regulation, offering trainings on alternative building approaches, and guiding alliances with partners in specific activities, such as the ASTM Earthen Materials Task Group and chairing the Greening the Codes Committee of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). David served two terms on the USGBC National Board and five years as Vice-Chair of the ASTM E06.71 Subcommittee.

January 2007: Green Remodeling

Green Remodeling: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way (C. Seville) (1.1Mb)

Carl Seville, Seville Consulting
A green builder, educator, and consultant on sustainability to the residential construction industry, Carl Seville founded and served as Vice President of SawHorse, Inc., an Atlanta-based design/build firm, for 25 years. Under Seville’s direction, SawHorse renovated the pilot homes for EarthCraft House Renovation, a voluntary green building program of the Greater Atlanta Home Builder Association and SouthFace Energy Institute.

May 2006: Greening the Supply Chain

David Johnston and Judi Ettlinger presented on the rapidly expanding residential green building market and how to develop an effective company-wide green building program targeted at builders and contractors.

Green Building in the Twin Cities (D. Johnston) (900Kb)

David Johnston, President, What's Working, Inc.
Author (Building Green in a Black and White World) and consultant, David Johnston is a leading thinker behind the green building movement. His approach to green building has been embraced by municipalities, homeowners, building professionals, and sustainability advocates nationwide.

Recognized as one of the top 50 building contractors in 1990, Johnston now focuses his efforts on developing residential green building programs for communities across the country. He currently is creating a national green certification program for the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. Johnston lives and works in Boulder, Colorado.

Judi Ettlinger, Marketing Director, Truitt and White Lumber
Previously a professional carpenter, licensed general contractor, and co-owner of a remodeling company in the San Francisco area, Ettlinger joined Truitt and White, a pro-builder yard in Berkeley, California, in 1991. Ettlinger was instrumental in the development of a highly successful green building program at Truitt & White. Most recently, she was instrumental in the growth of Build It Green, a professional, nonprofit organization in the Bay Area, from a local to a regional organization.

September 2005: Benefits of Residential Green Building

David Johnston gave a series of presentations to local governments, the Twin Cities remodeling industry, and the Minnesota chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. David explained how communities can benefit from residential green building, the key role that local government plays, and how best to advance green building practices on a local and regional scale. He also touched on national programs.

An Integral Approach to Residential Green Building (D. Johnston) (850Kb)

Green Building in the Twin Cities (D. Johnston) (750Kb)

Green buildings are not more expensive to build, and the lifetime benefits of these buildings are significant.