I am a strong believer in the importance of food and drink in helping to bring people together. Nourishment of our bodies is of course a basic human requirement, and ensuring food security is a critical issue for millions around the world. But more than that, sharing a meal (or a snack) feeds our souls. If you’ve read Michael Pollan, watched Super Size Me, or thought at all about where your breakfast came from, you know that all too often what lands on our table is anything but ‘green.’

This month, Sunset Magazine named The Kitchen (in Boulder, CO) the greenest restaurant in the west. In February, the national foodie magazine Bon Appetit included it in a top 10 list of green restaurants around the country.

I can tell you that one of my favorite ways to start the day is perched on the bar at The Kitchen, sipping coffee and reading the newspaper. I can tell you that the food is wonderful, and that they take pride in supporting local food producers. I can even tell you that last summer in hopes of learning more about wine I applied for a job as a bartender there. (Their response: you have a really interesting background, but exactly how much experience do you have in the restaurant business? Needless to say, I now work for USGBC CO, not The Kitchen!)

But green? Here’s their official statement on what it means to to them to run a green restaurant:

“Being “Green” refers to the concept that every action we take has an effect on more than just The Kitchen. We recognize that every decision we make effects our community on a local and global scale. We are striving to make a conscious decision about every aspect of our service, from the hand towels in the bathroom to the electricity we run on.”

Some of the ‘eco-features’ at The Kitchen include:

• Participation in the Clean and Green Program which supplies the restaurant with wind power;
• Participation in Partners for a Clean Environmen (PACE);
• Use of numerous eco-friendly products;
• Recycling or composting nearly all of their waste - including the cooking oil which is used by a neighbor for biodiesel;
• Biodegradable take-out containers
• Food suppliers are almost all local, and are named prominently throughout the restaurant.

There are a number of other food and drink establishments in Colorado that are proud of their efforts to be a more sustainable business. As an organization, we try to give our business to companies that have environmentally and socially sustainable business practices. While that list is growing, it’s still sometimes a challenge to do so. Please help us grow our foodie list by sharing stories of your favorite green restaurant, CSA (community supported agriculture), grocer, brewery…

Salud!

I took a much needed vacation this past week, and headed off to a small eco-operated inn on Isla Holbox, a tiny island to the north-east of the Yucatan Peninsula. This former pirate haven remains relatively undiscovered, although it has now been written up in the New York Times and Adventure Geographic.

You might ask what my personal vacation has to do with this green building blog site? Funny you should ask. We stayed at a small inn - basically a rustic bed and breakfast - that prides itself on its eco-friendly operations. High efficiency lights illuminated our little palapa - a compact fluorescent bulb lit up our sleeping area, and a couple of LED lights helped us find our way around the bathroom. Our vacation home also featured a rain water collection system, an ecological waste water system, and composting toilets.

There is no fresh water source on Isla Holbox - it is piped in from the mainland, a 30 minute boat ride away. Our inn was a 15 minute beach walk from the small town, and had no piped water at all. Instead, water is brought out in big jugs a couple of times a week, making the low-flow water faucets in the sink and shower essential. And it’s not Cancun, so no one cares if there is still salt in your hair when you go out for a night on the town.

These eco-features weren’t limited to the eco-palapa - with the exception of the composting toilet that is. All of the island’s electricity is produced by a huge generator, which we could hear humming away each night as the crashing waves lulled us to sleep. There were absolutely no regular light bulbs on the entire island, and strings of LED lights brought a festive and sustainable ambiance to the town square, the beach bar, and the shop selling crafts. In this setting, perhaps it makes sense to conserve resources, because residents & visitors have such a direct and immediate experience of how precious those resources are.  They also directly experience the cost of procuring those resources.

It makes me wonder how fast we would transition to more sustainable building and living strategies if we were forced to pay a price tag that approaches the real market value of the resources that we consume on a daily basis. If the cost of fuel keeps skyrocketing, we might be forced to make some of these choices sooner rather than later. As long as we strive to make green technologies & products accessible and affordable to all consumers, that doesn’t seem like a half bad thing.

“Open Space Conservation & Green Affordable Housing.” Convener: Kollin Min, Enterprise Communtiy Partners, Seattle, WA. 

This panel was based on the premise that there is an important connection between conservation of open space and affordable housing. Those of us living in Colorado know this phenomenon of “Drive Until You Qualify” - where you start in the city or town center and start driving out until you get to an area that you can afford - increasingly the urban core is priced out of reach for many of us. Therefore, argues Kollin of Enterprise Community Partners, lack of affordable housing is a major driver in the loss of open space.

Kendra Briechle, The Conservation Fund, Arlington VA

The Conservation Fund pairs conservation with community and economic development - which together form the core of their mission. They work with the understanding that smart conservation has to go hand in hand with smart development. The Conservation Fund released the first national study exploring this idea of “conservation based affordable housing.” Check out the report - I’ve uploaded the pdf here. It includes 2 case studies from Colorado: Stapleton in Denver, and The Wellington Neighborhood in Breckenridge.

Ted Harrison, Commonweal Conservancy, Santa Fe NM. Ted Harrison used to work for the Trust for Public Land out of their Santa Fe NM office. Now, he’s in charge of this project - which is the largest project in the LEED - Neighborhood Development Pilot Program. He describes the process and his work as “pursuing a community making process.”

This neighborhood development is the result of the desire to change the impact that land use planning and the local zoning codes were promoting development and new construction. Now, the preserve is mostly open space and the neighborhood is a mix of market rate and affordable homes designed with extensive community engagement and a desire to promote community and sense of place with a focus and commitment to green development and environmental stewardship.

Mr. Harrison said that neighborhoods are defined by the land forms surrounding them and the gathering places within them - and this idea really drove the design and planning for this project.Conservation-Based Affordable Housing: Improving the Nature of Affordable Housing to Protect Place and People.

David O’Neil, The Wellington Neighborhood, Breckenridge, CO. The Wellington Neighborhood is a green brownfield infill affordable housing development in Breckenridge. This neighborhood is located in the Grench Gulch - an area I know for snowshoe hikes with my dogs. This area was heavily mined back in the day, and before the site was cleaned up the EPA was considering making it a superfund site. A diverse group of stakeholders came together under the name of FROG (French Gulch Remediation Organizing Group - I think) - a group that ultimately came to consensus on three priorities for the land parcel: remediation of the contaminated land and groundwater; conservation of open space; and increase affordable housing stock locally.

To date, there are 140 homes built, and another 140 approved. Over 400 residents now live in this former brownfield at 9600 feet. Mr. O’Neil attributes their success to three factors: 1) the emergence of a compelling vision; 2) the willingness of each and every stakeholder to assume some kind of risk; and 3) optimism and faith in their collective ability to make their vision a reality. 

Lots of buzz about LEED for Homes and Greening our Schools!

Check out these two new websites:

www.buildgreenschools.org - USGBC’s website for all matters related to our goal of “greening our schools within a generation.”

http://www.greenhomeguide.org/ - USGBC’s website for greening homes - it includes but is not limited to information and resources related to LEED for Homes.

 While I’m at it - USGBC redesigned their website, check that out too.  www.usgbc.org.

I arrived in Chicago on Monday and it’s been an amazing couple of days. Greenbuild 2007 has attracted at last count 25,000 people - including a former US President and a bunch of Coloradoans. Daniele and Nino - my most terrific communications volunteers - have set up this blog so that we can give you updates from the proceedings. What we can write about is just a drop in the bucket - for every session I go to, there are 5 other ones that I wish I could sit in on.

 USGBC released a new website to help with this embarrassment of riches in activities and opportunities. Greenbuild 365 is going to be an educational portal/online educational catalog. They have President Clinton’s speech available here, and a number of other talks and presentations. Stay up to date long distance at http://www.greenbuild365.org/.