Sustainable Site - King Library LEED Certification part 1

I realize the green tips of the week are meant to be helping us to think of ways we can be more green...but I've found all the work that's been going into making the King Library itself more green to be rather fascinating.

I thought I would share some of the different segments of the King Library LEED certification process as a series over a the next couple of weeks.

What is LEED certification?

LEED stands for 'Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design' and is an internationally recognized green building certification ratings program.

Using a system of points, the program evaluates the design, construction, and operation of a building with regards to environmentally responsible resource efficiency like water/energy savings, as well as human and environmental health, such as reduced pollution/chemicals/land degradation.

Since environmental standards are constantly changing, LEED certification awards are only valid for 5 years. Buildings and facilities can then apply for recertification, but will need to adhere to any new or upgraded environmental standards.

There are four levels of certification based on the point accrual system: Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum.

The King Library was built according to silver certification standards for a new building.

We are currently pursuing the certification process under the standards for an existing building, based upon the King Library's operation in an environmentally friendly manner.

There is a LEED certification team working on a checklist for the King Library that is tracking areas in which we may earn points in various categories.


One of these categories is a Sustainable Site.

What is a 'Sustainable Site'?

A 'Sustainable Site' refers to the management of the land, location and building in a manner that will not deplete natural resources, degrade the surrounding environment, or be toxic to workers and the surrounding areas.

Here are some ways in which the King Library is working to earn points for LEED certification in this category:

*Planting less thirsty plants near the building will use less water and prevent soil erosion by rain and wind.

*Selecting a building exterior that does not require paint or cleaning

*Choosing a location in an already developed area (reusing an existing library site)

*Combining the City and University Library into a single building freed up the former buildings for other departments to use (reusing buildings)

*Easy walking access to local essential services such as banks, grocery stores, parks, post office, museums, gyms, senior and child care centers.

*Easy access to alternative transportation such as bus, light rail, carpools, vanpools, electric car charging stations, and public/employee bicycle racks.

*Reducing solar heat in the local area by using light-colored materials for the library roof, more planted areas, and multi-leveled parking areas (as opposed to a single parking lot made of blacktop asphalt that would hold, instead of reflect, heat.)


Green Tip of the Week: Consider if any of these ideas can be applied to a sustainable site near you.

Are you planning a construction project at home? Maybe think about having it built out of light-colored materials?

Have you thought about getting more plants in your living space? Maybe consider ones that don't need as much water?


Here's the campus webpage that discusses the Sustainable Site category for the King Library:
http://www.sjsu.edu/fdo/energy/sustainability/king_lib_leed/kingleed1ss/

Here's a webpage that describes Sustainable Site in more detail:
http://www.nps.gov/dsc/d_publications/d_1_gpsd_5_ch5.htm

A Way Forward For Water

The King Library hosted a panel discussion a few months ago called "A Way Forward for Water: Understanding Water Supply, Use, and Reuse" that was part of the SJSU Sustainability Matters Lecture Series.

There was some interesting local water information that I wanted to share with all of you.

Santa Clara County receives 30% of its water from local natural groundwater from reservoirs, 55% of its water is imported from outside areas, 5% of its water is from recycled water, and 10% is saved from conservation.

90% of King Library's water usage goes to flushing toilets.

At the time the King Library was built, it was dual-plumbed for both regular water pipes and recycled water pipes...but there was no pipeline in existence yet to actually bring recycled water to the library site.

When City Hall was built a few years later, the pipeline for recycled water was built along with it.

Construction to connect the King Library to the City Hall's recycled water pipeline is targeted to be completed by mid-summer.

Once connected, the King Library would save about 5 million gallons of potable water per year by using recycled water to flush toilets.


Regarding drinking water on campus, the SJSU Sustainability team has conducted several blind water taste-tests at different campus events throughout this academic year.

After sampling water from all three identical numbered dispensers, testers would vote for the dispenser containing the water they thought tasted best.

The water types tested included campus tap water, bottled water (Crystal Geyser), and reverse osmosis filtered tap water.

Katherine Cushing, the SJSU Director of Sustainability, shared with me some preliminary data from the water taste test events.

The preliminary data show that 55% of taste testers prefer the reverse osmosis filtered tap water, 38% prefer the bottled water (Crystal Geyser), and 7% prefer campus tap water.

In order to reduce plastic bottled water sold at campus events and dining services, the Sustainability team are collecting signatures on a "SJSU Take Back the Tap Pledge" petition.

The pledge asks the campus community to support policies that promote/protect local access to clean water, limit/eliminate use of botttled water on campus, assess retrofitting reverse osmosis filters on existing campus water fountains, and provide all new incoming freshman with reusable water bottles. If you're interested in signing the pledge, Katherine sent me a form and I can provide it to you.


Green Tip of the Week: Consider how you can use water wisely and conserve our water resources.

Do you use a reusable/refillable water container at the library?

Did you know if you shorten your shower by 5 minutes you can save 15 gallons of water?

Have you considered planting drought-resistant plants in your yard?


Here are some water savings tips from the Santa Clara Valley Water District:
http://www.save20gallons.org/tips.html

Here are some helpful water conservation tips from the City of San Jose's Environmental Services website:
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/esd/water-conservation/residents/resident-actions.asp

Here is information on recycled water:
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/sbwr/

(Thank you to Tung, Katherine, and Jennifer for helping me with the water information and statistics.)

Downtown San Jose Events Promoting Bicycling and Green Living

Today was "Bike to Work Day". I'm sorry that I didn't get the word out earlier.

There are two events that are coming up that I will tell you about....the first one you will need to register today if you're interested.


Get Back on Your Bike!
A free lunchtime presentation on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 in the King Library providing practical tips to get re-started in bicycling.

Topics covered will include: what to look for when buying a bike, how to ride in traffic, taking a bike on public transit, and more.

Free helmets will be provided and fitted for the first 25 registrants.

When: Noon-1:00pm, Tuesday, May 18.
Where: Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library, Room 255/257,
150 E. San Fernando Street in downtown San Jose.
Advanced registration required. To register, email john.brazil@sanjoseca.gov no later than today, Thursday, May 13, 2010.


San Jose Via Velo Downtown Event
From 10:00am to 3:00pm this Saturday, May 15th on San Fernando Street between Highway 87 and Third Street.

This event is part of a global movement to open up city streets for the community to use for walking, cycling, and other human-powered fun presented by the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition and the City of San Jose.

All ages are welcome to enjoy the celebration, which will feature casual bike rides, live bands on two stages, bicycle tune-ups, green living demonstrations on recycling and composting, organic food cooking demonstrations, high tech scavenger hunts on bikes, yoga, and other fun activities.

For kids there will be children's cycling activities (kids bring their own bikes), Kaiser Permanente Kids Course (indoor/outdoor obstacle course), button making, carbon footprint games, nutrition games, native plant and tree games, and yoga classes for children.

Here' the link to the flyer:
http://sanjoseclassic.com/images/Viavelo-poster-final.pdf

Here's a link about the activities and vendors that will be at Via Velo:
http://bikesiliconvalley.org/content/1241


Some good news!

Last October, the San Jose State University issued the SJSU Ecological Footprint Challenge to students, faculty, and staff.

750 participants took a short quiz that asked questions about their energy use, food habits, transportation, and recycling habits for baseline data.

From October 2009 until March 2010, participants tried to reduce their energy use and have more sustainable eating, transportation, and recycling habits.

In March 2010, participants were asked to re-take the quiz challenge to see if their ecological footprint was reduced.

In a campus presentation this afternoon, it was announced that the winner of the lowest ecological footprint from the challenge is Sstoz Tes from the King Library's Center for Steinbeck Studies.

Sstoz has an ecological footprint that is 43% less than the average of the 750 people that took the challenge.

Congratulations, Sstoz!!

Banning Paper and Plastic Bags in San Jose

Earlier this week, there was a public meeting in the library for information and public comments about the City of San Jose's proposed ban on free disposable plastic and paper bags for retailers.

It's one of the strictest bans proposed, banning not only plastic, but free disposable paper bags, too.

Pending an environmental impact review, the ban is scheduled to take effect in 2011.

San Jose retailers would be able to sell paper bags made out of 40% recycled paper for between 10 and 25 cents each.

The City of San Jose plans to implement a public educational outreach program to encourage people to bring reusable bags for use at retailers.


Most of us have heard that San Francisco banned plastic bags in 2007.

I was amazed to find out that many other cities, counties, and countries have also reduced their plastic bag usage through extra taxes on plastic bags, purchase fees on plastic bags, or outright bans on plastic bags.

Some of these cities and countries are Los Angeles, Mexico City, Washington DC, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bhutan, China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Kenya, Norway, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Taiwan, and Uganda.

Maui County, Hawaii is also banning plastic bags starting in 2011.



Why ban plastic and paper bags?

* Plastic bags end up jamming and clogging machinery at recycling facilities and the workers have to pull them out of the recycling stream to send them to a landfill. Since the plastic bags not biodegradable, they break down into smaller and smaller pieces and end up polluting our soil and water.

* Plastic bags are so light, they're easily carried by the wind and end up in our communities or waterways as litter.

* Animals, both aquatic and terrestrial, get tangled in or eat plastic bags with deadly results.

* Plastic bags are made from petroleum....a non-renewable resource that has high risks, such as the recent oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico that is affecting ocean/terrestrial wildlife, beaches, and people/businesses along the Gulf Coast.

* Paper bags are made from tree pulp and their production impacts our forests. 14 million trees were used to produce 10 million grocery bags by the U.S. in 1999. Our forests reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that lead to global warming, so using trees for disposable paper bags is not desirable. Most paper bags are made with virgin tree pulp (not recycled wood) for bag strength and elasticity.

* The production of both paper and plastic bags uses many chemicals that end up polluting our air, soil, and waterways.



Green tip of the week: Consider putting some reusable cloth or tote bags you already have at home in your vehicle to use at the market or store, instead of disposable plastic or paper bags.

Some retailers are already offering incentives to customers for bringing their own bags....Target, CVS, and Whole Foods.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/33430303

Do you know of any other businesses offering incentives or money back for bringing your own bag?

Here's a link about San Jose's ban on paper and plastic bags:
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2009/09/21/daily106.html

Here are some links that discuss in more detail about the different regions banning or taxing plastic bags:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKPEK17044520080527
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7178287.stm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080404-plastic-bags.html

Here's a link about the paper bag information:
http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id=7

Governor Schwarzenegger has dropped plans for the offshore oil drilling project near Santa Barbara, CA after seeing the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/03/BA1Q1D8SRP.DTL

(Thank you, Theresa, for sending the notes on Monday's public meeting in the library.)