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Selective highlights from a comprehensive seminar presented by Landmark West (www.landmarkwest.org) on 10 December. Presenters at this day-long meeting included:

• Françoise Bollack, AIS, Françoise Bollack Architects (www.francoisebollackarchitects.com)
• Craig Graber, AIA LEED, Viridian Energy & Environmental, LLC (www.viridianee.com)
• Andrew Padian, Steven Winter Associates (www.swinter.com)
• Jean Parker Phifer, FAIA, LEED, Thomas Phifer & Partners (www.tphifer.com)
• Walter Sedovic, AIA, LEED, Walter Sedovic Architects (www.modernruins.com)

Each presenter had his or her own view on everything from terminology to best practices, so this is by no means a consensus document. Just my highly idiosyncratic take on some of the less obvious tips (we’ve all replaced those incandescent bulbs, right?). You can visit their websites for a better sense of individual practices and philosophies.

Landmark West, a preservation committee on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, sponsors seminars regularly for coop board members, real estate brokers and other interested people. Many are accredited for New York State Real Estate License Continuing Education Credits. For more information, visit the group’s events page.

Easy Steps - Practical Advice for Householders

• Stop TiVo’ing - get a life. Connect your cable box, DVD player, television, entertainment center to a surge suppressor and switch it off when you’re away or asleep.
• Count watts. Each watt 24/7/365 is $1.75; the cost of a hundred-watt bulb left on 24/7 is $175 for a year.
• Earmark your ConEd payment for renewable energy. New Yorkers can direct their energy payments to renewable sources through ConEdison Solutions (www.conedsolutions.com). More information about renewable sources of energy in the region can be found at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association website (www.nesea.org).
• Stop showering in the sink. A easy and cheap solution (pennies, literally) with a big effect. Change the faucet aerator in your bathroom sink from 2 gallons/min (sweet for showers) to 0.5 gallons/min (fine for hands).
• Paint healthy, paint cheap. Benjamin Moore EcoSpec, for example, costs less than Benjamin Moore Regal.
• Buy a dual-flush toilet (with a “pee-poo” switch). Read the technical paper.
• Bamboo isn’t necessarily a green building material. Much is transported from the other side of the planet, and much is impregnated with formaldehyde.

A Few Advantages of Green Roofs

• They don’t contribute to summer heat entering the building. Plants transpire, with a cooling effect.
• They reduce storm water runoff. (Fewer subway crises! Cleaner beaches!)
• They gather and cleanse rain water and “gray water,” which can then be stored and used for toilets, radiators, etc. We’re crazy to flush our toilets with potable (drinking) water.
• They moderate the “heat island” effect caused by paving, air-conditioning and other urban/suburban artifacts.

Tips: Call a structural engineer first, to determine how much weight your roof will support. Use native plants for easy maintenance.
Need a cheaper alternatives to a green roof? Use light-colored materials to cover your roof (reflects instead of absorbs summer sunlight). Drain runoff water from roof into a holding tank.

Window Awnings
From the glory days of Riverside Drive. Bring them out of storage. Awnings are elegant and they shade the exterior from direct summer sunlight, keeping the heat from ever hitting the building.

Keep Those Historic Windows
Don’t waste that rare old-growth wood. The replacement window industry has greatly overstated the energy cost savings of ditching historic wooden window frames for replacements made of aluminum, vinyl, etc. Historic wooden frames, usually made of old-growth, densely ringed, durable lumber, can be restored for superior energy efficiency, cost effectiveness, good looks, and sustainability. Download the peer-reviewed article.

Funding Sources
Sources of funding for green buildings in New York State include the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (www.nyserda.org) and nationally at the Environmental Protection Agency website (www.epa.gov)

See also The U.S. Green Building Council website for more resources (www.usgbc.org). And, of course, PlaNYC.

green buildings green roofs energy efficiency sustainability architecture

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