Air Conditioning: Not as Cool as You Think

passive cooling diagram

Check out Stan Cox's opinion piece in this past Sunday's LA Times. I wish his book, "Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer)" had been published just a little bit earlier this year (published May 25, 2010). Looks like it might have been incredibly useful when I was trying to write my paper for Intro to the Built Environment in the U.S.!

The Future of Urbanism -- Great Videos

About six weeks ago, the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan hosted a major conference, Future of Urbanism, to discuss a comprehensive range of issues concerning the built environment in the 21st century.

The good folks at Taubman have now helpfully posted videos of the proceedings, which include a collection of speakers drawn from around the globe.  Check out UCLA's own Ed Soja arguing for the need for a geographic perspective and pushing his theory of regional urbanization. Dana Cuff of the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design made an appearance, as well.

A Green Bike Tour for UCLA Students

RSVP with rbaerg@gmail.com

Food 2.0

(Heard about this from Heart Beet Gardening but haven't found anything else about it)
Food 2.0, a symposium on Sustainable Agriculture, Social Entrepreneurship and the Future of Food at UCLA on May 5th. Food 2.0 is a first of its kind, this path-breaking event will cast a spotlight on the thought leaders and social entrepreneurs who are reinventing the food we eat, the beverages we drink and the systems that nourish our communities. It is a rare opportunity to explore the connection between profits and purpose and how we can strengthen community through sustainable business.

More details to come (please post 'em if you've got 'em), at least two panels mentioned: "The Future of Food", and Sustainable Food Initiatives on the LA food Scene.

When & Where: May 5th from 4-8pm at the UCLA Anderson School of Management in Westwood, California. Panel events will be held in Korn Hall and the Farmer's Market will take place just outside Korn Hall in Alumni Plaza.

Real-Time City from SENSEable City Laboratory,

A completely must-see for us planners!! (From tracking emotions, garbage, immigrant communities, and cyclists!)

Assaf Biderman is the Associate Director of the SENSEable City Laboratory, an MIT university research group that explores the “real-time city” by studying how distributed technologies can be used to improve our understanding of cities and create a more sustainable ways of interacting in urban environments.

Permaculture, anyone?

The 1st lecture is this Sat. April 3. Larry's classes have everyone from mayors to developers to teachers as students. If anyone's interested, I might be able to get us in free for part of the day. Or possibly we could arrange for Larry Santoyo to come speak on campus? Let me know if there's interest. -Marta

From the website for the next Permaculture Design Course taught by Larry Santoyo.
"A Certificate Course for Design Professionals, Land Managers & Homeowners
• ReDesign with Nature
• Water Harvesting & Conservation
• Natural Building & Property Development
• Urban Food Forestry
• Re-Localizing Food Production
• Economics of a Sustainable Society
Using an ecosystems design approach, this course will teach you the possibilities of the practical and the profound. It will introduce you to the people and resources that will help you create a new ecosystem, one that goes beyond your home and garden and all the way out into your community."

Does energy efficiency lead to more consumption?

An article from time.com (click here) suggests that as energy efficient appliances are installed in homes, people use them more. They may leave the lights on, raise the temp on their thermostat, or run the dishwasher more often. All in all, these behaviors could reduce energy savings by as much as 10%.

U2 Guitarist’s Plans Don’t Find Green Harmony

What do you guys think?

Moving Toward Sustainable Transportation | 16th UCTC Student Conference 2010 at UC Irvine

Information is up online for the 2010 UCTC Student conference, hosted at UC Irvine. This year's theme is Moving Toward Sustainable Transportation. Now that I have graduated, I won't be going, but I wish to encourage current students to attend. The UCTC conference is attended by such a diverse cornucopia of students and professors who are studying transportation from different disciplines.

[Admittedly I had some trouble wrapping my head around the high-level engineering work being done at UC Irvine].

But I found the scholarship being one through the geography department at UCSB and the ITS center up at UC Davis (particularly Susan Shaheen's work on carsharing) absolutely fascinating.

The event is free. There is travel money for those who present and for undergraduate students.

Website: Moving Toward Sustainable Transportation | 16th UCTC Student Conference 2010 at UC Irvine

City official gives up his Hummer in a race to City Hall - latimes.com

City official gives up his Hummer in a race to City Hall - latimes.com

Posted using ShareThis

Chilled by Choice

This was a neat little piece on people who choose to live in unheated homes from a couple of weeks ago in The New York Times. An extreme manifestation of green urbanism, perhaps? They certainly minimize their home heating-related emissions, but the experience of the woman on the last page seems to imply a tradeoff (she has to keep her sink dripping and toilet constantly running so as to keep the pipes from freezing).

Of course, these people could avoid both high heating bills and frigid temperatures just by moving to LA... ;-)

Photo credit: Beatrice de Gea/The New York Times

UMore Park: a master planned sustainable community

The University of Minnesota is planning a 5,000 acre development that will house 20,000-30,000 people when it's all said and done. The street layout is a modified grid that includes mixed land use. The plan also includes a jobs and housing balance which will create better walk-ability in order to reduce auto dependency. It's set to be fully built out in 25-30 years. So will it be the northern Seaside, Florida?

Take a look here: http://www.umorepark.umn.edu/

Active Design Guidelines by NYC DDC

http://ddcftp.nyc.gov/adg/downloads/adguidelines.pdf

Holland's Plan to Tax on Every Kilometer Driven

Holland's Plan to Tax on Every Kilometer Driven

11/21 - Garden School Foundation

Take a break from paper writing and get your hands a little dirty in the garden this Sat., 11/21!

Thanks,

Sasha

SUN Local/Organic Potluck

The Sustainable Urban Network is having a lunch-time potluck on our Veteran's Day Holiday, Nov. 11th. The theme is local and/or organic foods, so go explore your local farmer's market and make something yummy to share. All are invited to attend.

It will start at 1pm, and be held off-campus at Stephanie's house:

3532 Hillcrest Dr. LA, CA 90016

Alex Oster will be coordinating carpools for those who would like - sadly, public transport to this neighborhood is not that easy right now (until they get that Expo line up and running!). Email her at the SUN address - sunetwork@ucla.edu

We hope to see you there!

Mobile Garden in Chicago

A MFA student in Chicago (UIC) is planning this mobile garden project - that takes a flatcar (normally used by the transit agency to move around large equipment via rail) and installs a garden of native plants on it. The garden will then run with the regular transit service for hopefully three weeks in April/May (still in the proposal process)in Chicago.

LEED Lofts at Cherokee Studios

Some of us were lucky enough to get a tour of the Lofts at Cherokee Studios today. They're still under construction but will be opening soon. Here's some text from their website:

Cherokee Lofts is the most advanced and distinctive building of its kind in Los Angeles. It will be the "greenest" LEED Platinum* Certified mixed-use development in the state of California. The building honors the significant musical and Hollywood history of Cherokee Studios, and MGM and Republic Studios before it, and all the artists who recorded music on the site from Frank Sinatra to David Bowie to Dave Mathews. Cherokee Studios represents the premiere in green design, form, and function in the epicenter of the entertainment capital of the world.

http://www.loftsatcherokeestudios.com/

Some quick facts:

-construction vehicles used biodiesel

-all paints voc free

-building materials made from recycled products

-tank less water heaters

recycled aluminum screening on the balconies can open and close like windows

the orientation allows sunlight to travel all the way through the units

great views of the hills from this unit

Take home points from the ULI-LA's Future Build LA

The first half of the conference is over and it's been good! Here are some of the most talked about issues:

1. Occupancy Ratings!! This is a key issue in real estate development financing. And guess what the numbers say, there is a direct correlation between LEED certified buildings an occupancy. Tenants, both commercial and residential, stay for longer periods of time with less turn over. This translates into less risk for financing, which means banks are more willing to lend money for these projects. And in this economy, banks need stability.

2. The ranking from least lending risk to highest is: 1. Public, institutional, and educational buildings. 2. Owner occupied, single family housing. and 3. Multi-tenant. Because of this ranking, the most common LEED buildings are in the first category.

3. LA has the highest absolute number of LEED office buildings in the country. Although, they still represent less than 1% of the buildings in LA.

4. Life cycle and upfront investment. Developers and owners realize that the greater upfront costs related to designing a LEED or carbon neutral project will pay for themselves over the long haul. This concept has been discussed for a long time, but the numbers are now starting to come through that prove this.

Combine these points with the insecure economic climate and LEED buildings keep gaining more and more attention.

Finally, two website for your reference: www.josre.org and www.dsireusa.org

Sustainable Urban Network (SUN) Meeting on Monday

(copied from SUN email)

The SUN meeting next week will be Monday (Oct. 19th) at 5pm. We will be discussing the director positions and working groups for the 2009-2010 school year. Meeting location: 3rd floor student lounge.

Here is a list of possible working group topics and activities. Let's think of this as a place to start our conversation on Monday:

1. EAP Curriculum Advisors

2. Green Building Tour

3. Green Careers Outreach

4. Food Class Participation

5. SUN Poster Session/End-of-year social around sustainable thesis/client projects

6. Critical assessment of trends in sustainability:

o Policy

o Energy

o Transportation

7. Seminar on the classical economics of oil; emphasis on the cost-advantage and why price plus oil infrastructure trump current sustainability options.

8. New policies and technologies that may shift the argument in favor of non-oil options:

o Solar feed-in-tariffs (& funding sources for FITs)

o Chinese ?Golden Sun? as model to emulate

o Where is the Green Revolution? Overlooked companies and programs with good odds for success.

9. Tour of Los Angeles Eco Village (Not a project, but fun).

10. Converting part of the UCLA Campus to native vegitation to reduce water consumption (a project).

11. If the green building class runs again in the spring, it would be nice to offer sun students first crack at getting in. It would likely be competitive among planning students.

12. bike/ped class working group

13. I'd be interested in bringing Larry Santoyo to speak - possibly even organize a workshop with him. He's a very dynamic Permaculture Design teacher. He's also brilliant - and hilarious.

14. Dialog surrounding sustainability. Potential to look at how academics and the press/general public, through contemporary articles and news pieces, are framing the concept.

15. Gated communities publicity campaign?

16. Green landscaping advocacy on campus?