Please forgive the initial commercial message from CBS, the story that follows it is very important to understand if people have questions about “why should I use a low flow toilet, shower, faucet……”

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Seems like I’m always googling topics or looking for an article I read somewhere, but can’t find now. Unfortunately many of the Green Building articles out there, don’t seem to google very well. To find many articles it often works best just to visit the online magazine and use their search feature. Some content is available for free, some requires a subscription, but here are some of the resources available. None of these are “lifestyle” magazines, they are technical journals, trade publications, and business magazines geared toward people with professional experience and interest in green building. They are in no particular order, click on the image to go to their website.

Home Power Magazine covers solar, wind, hydro, design, and build articles

Green Source is a McGraw Hill publication

Building Green covers a wide variety of product reviews and building science. It also lists articles and products by CSI number so it’s easier to incorporate back into specifications.

Published by the Cascadia Green Building Council, this magazine covers people and design in the northwest that pushing the cutting edge of the industry.

Sustainable Industries covers green building, green manufacturing (lean manufacturing), and other business topics of sustainability

Please feel free to suggest more resources. I find it’s hard for client or company to choose green, when they are unfamiliar with it, and so these resources are often critical in helping people make decisions to choose green or choose between green options.

Happy Holidays! May your holiday season be filled with good company, merriment, love, and peace.

I’ll be away from the office until Monday December 28.

It’s been a good 2009, and here’s hoping that everyone has an even better 2010!

See you real soon,

Heather McNeill

I visited the greenhouse project today. I finished the designs last spring, but as with so many things, life got in the way and construction was postponed for awhile.

Today they put the rafters in place. Just a few sticks of wood are nailed together and it feels like a sheltering space. I say that even though it was nearly dark and sleet was coming down from the sky. There is still nothing like standing in the middle of a space that had just been an idea on paper, and is now three dimensions. Now we can walk through doorways, see all the framing for the windows. Its ample enough for a wheelbarrow, for working space, for planters, benches, and even the hammock that Randy and Carol are thinking about buying. They are wonderful gardeners and artists. I can only imagine how this little glass garden temple of salvaged windows will be decorated and overflowing with life by next spring.

And what they don’t know is that everytime I stand in a skeletal framing of a newly hatched building , I remember each fort I built as a kid. I remember being 7 years old watching my Dad and Uncles putting walls in place for the addition to our house. I remember running through that new space imagining all the things we would do there and it was just studs standing awaiting so much more, but there was that joy of really seeing how something that had been drawn, becomes a place we live and work.

It was a great afternoon, freezing sleet and all, standing in a newly framed space is still something hopeful and joyful. Thank you Randy & Carol! I never would have pictured that in a wintry mid November in Central Oregon, we’d be laughing in the sleet, imagining the soon to be planter boxes and hammock, and next springs garden.

Just call if you need anything in the next few days.

I’m thrilled to be working with Batzer Construction in Medford Oregon! We’ll be tackling several big projects during the next year. I’ll be in Medford working with them about half of each month, which is just right to go on helping clients in Bend too.

So the company dog McKenzie, and I will be traveling and I am considering adapting the post office motto “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this company from the swift completion of greening tasks!” I know it will be an adventure during the winter and it’s lucky for me that I love the state of Oregon and getting to see it in all her glorious seasons.

I highly recommend this series on the Sundance Channel. It’s well produced, useful and inspiring ways people are affecting sustainability in all walks of life.

Some of the series is available on Netflix if you don’t get the Sundance Channel.

Event Announcement from The Environmental Center

Thursday, July 30th
5:00-7:00pm
G5 Search Marketing
In the Old Cigar Building
906 NW Harriman Ave, Bend

Did you know that Green Drinks is an international movement with nodes all around the world? There are nodes in virtually every country from Algeria to Vietnam!

Celebrate the summer at Green Drinks on July 30th. This is Bend’s Best Green Networking event for anyone or any business interested in sustainability. Join us and have a green drink or two!

We’ll be at G5 Search Marketing, an innovative company that has implemented many green initiatives in their operations.

In an effort to have a truly “green” drink, bring your own cup!

For more information, contact the Central Oregon Environmental Center- Katy Bryce at 541-385-6908 ext. 16.

Solar Oregon is a good organization to watch for workshops and they’ll be holding workshops in Bend August 15. Please register for their workshops on their website, by clicking the links below.

Residential Basics of Going Solar - 8/13/09 - Bend (Bend Community Center 1036 NE 5th Street, Bend, from Aug 13, 2009 06:30 PM to Aug 13, 2009 07:30 PM)
Learn the Basics of Going Solar in Oregon. Learn about Solar Thermal and Solar Electric systems and how Tax credits can pick up more than half of the cost.

How to Buy a Solar Electric (PV) System - 8/15/09 - Bend (Central Oregon Environmental Center, 16 NW Kansas, Bend (Audobon Room), from Aug 15, 2009 09:00 AM to Aug 15, 2009 11:30 AM)
Learn about your options for turning sunlight into electricity. You can power your home or business, and get credit for putting your extra power into the grid.

How to Buy a Solar Hot Water System - 8/15/09 - Bend (Central Oregon Environmental Center, 16 NW Kansas, Bend (Audobon Room), from Aug 15, 2009 01:00 PM to Aug 15, 2009 03:30 PM)
Solar Hot water is one of best ways for home owners to “Go Solar”

Passive Solar Building Design - 8/15/09 - Bend (Central Oregon Environmental Center, 16 NW Kansas, Bend (Audubon Room), from Aug 15, 2009 04:00 PM to Aug 15, 2009 06:30 PM)
A practical “how to” workshop for builders, designers and individuals who are planning to design or build a passive solar home.
poster-for-bend-3-hr-workshops_8_15_09

In addition to the workshops being offered, Solar Oregon has some great case study resources that you might find helpful in considering your options for green buidling.

Sometimes I bemoan the fact that there are not many workshops or continuing education options for green building in Central Oregon. Then, I find out through the grapevine about events. I have to wonder how many events have I never heard about? I think it would take me hours and hours a week to go hunt down sources from all the possible organizations and well, frankly I have a business to run.

I so wish for a green building organization that would post any and all green building and education events for Central Oregon. An organization that wouldn’t get partisan about that event not being produced by them, but would post the information and let the viewers decide if they wanted to attend or not.

The Bend Bulletin website is complicated and slow to use. Unlike many newspapers, most of the content is for subscribers only. With the current economy, I’m not a subscriber, nor are many folks. So the Bend Bulletin is not a source.

There is The Source, but as primariliy and entertainment newspaper, green buidling events get buried.

Then there is the The Green Building Council, the strange stepchild of COBA (The Central Oregon Builders Association). Many folks in the green side of the industry won’t join this organization, because COBA itself has so actively lobbied against many of the sustainable building legislation pieces.

The Central Oregon Environmental Center has the tools, but this really isn’t their mission, and their events page is buried pretty deep in their website, so it’s not easy for people to use google to find events.

There are e-mail newsletters from Cascadia Green Building Council, but they primarily focus on events in Portland. Email newsletters also come from Solar Now, Earth Advantage, Energy Trust of Oregon, and several more…..

Until we figure out how to have a really effective communication system for the construction industry, I’ll do my best to post some of the green building events that I hear about here. When I post these type of things, Please make sure that you contact that organization to register or ask questions.

As of June 29, Heather McNeill is a LEED AP!!!!

According to the US Green Building Council, this professional credential signifies a demonstrated and thorough understanding of green building practices and principles.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental design and is an internationally recognized building certification system. LEED certification of a building provides third-party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies that improve energy savings, water efficiency, air quality, and stewardship of materials, including emphasizing use of local materials.

Adding this credential will help me better serve clients. The business mission is to promote efficient and durable building techniques. All projects in Oregon deserve to be as efficient and cutting edge as the design and construction in Willamette Valley. It’s very likely buildings in rural Oregon will have to last over one hundred years. Making sure they are as efficient and durable as possible is an important aspect of LEED buildings. Taking the exam and becoming a LEED AP, is helping to accomplish that goal.

After working in this field for 15 years, this credentialing process was still surprisingly demanding. In addition to running the business, I was studying from April through June this year. The format of the test was similar to mathematical story problems that I always hated. It was challenge since I’ve become so visually oriented to creating construction drawings and documents or reviewing them. I’m just used to having pictures. Having to read long complicated word problems, with no diagrams had me terrified. I truly had to wonder was this more about test taking skills, than about actual knowledge. In the end though, I have to say that preparing for the exam forced me to visualize concepts backwards, forwards, and sideways. I’m thrilled it’s done.

I’m so grateful to the women that made up our impromptu study group. Thanks to architect Wendy von Kallinowski, contractor Jane Bowerman, and designer/contractor Audry Allen for sharing study techniques and all the time we sat together gong through flashcards. You gals are wonderful, Congrats to all 4 of us!!