[OKC] Daily Oklahoman' s Sustainability News: GreenBuildings/Green Restaurants

[Jennifer Gooden]

See below for another great story in today's Oklahoman by John Sutter.
The article is about the greening of Trattoria il Centro, our host
restaurant for Green Drinks.  
 
Join us for Green Drinks after work this evening at the Trattoria (Main
and Walker downtown).  The fun begins at 5:30 p.m. - we'll save a lemon
basil martini for you!
 
Jennifer Gooden
Program Coordinator
The Homeless Alliance
 

________________________________

From: osnboard-bounces at lists.oksustainability.org
[mailto:osnboard-bounces at lists.oksustainability.org] On Behalf Of Seneca
Scott
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 2:14 PM
To: ok-sus at lists.oksustainability.org
Cc: osnboard at lists.oksustainability.org
Subject: [Possible Spam][OSNBoard] Daily Oklahoman' s Sustainability
News: GreenBuildings/Green Restaurants



Friends:



In the past two months there's been great coverage of sustainability
issues in the Daily Oklahoman, especially on Sustainable OKC, a chapter
of the Oklahoma Sustainability Network. SOKC is doing some great work as
they prepare to host the 2007 OSN Annual Conference in April. Check out
there informal "Green Drinks" discussion which is held at Trattoria II
Centro, Main St./Walker Avenue, OKC 5:30pm today! For more information
check www.sustainableokc.org 


The articles are posted below, one is about green building in central OK
and the other discusses restaurants going green.


Thanks,


Mr. Seneca Scott

Trivestco Energy, Operations Manager

Oklahoma Sustainability Network, President

3271 E. 2nd St.

Tulsa, OK 74104

918-576-9111

chiefseneca at hotmail.com <mailto:chiefseneca at hotmail.com>  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Local restaurateur discovers it isn't easy being green



John David Sutter 11-21-06
Staff Writer

The trash - onion peels, cardboard boxes, bottles - piled up far faster
than executive chef Christine Dowd ever expected. 

During the first week of business at her Italian restaurant downtown,
the waste accumulated so quickly that her employees filled a large green
dumpster three times to make room for the food waste constantly pouring
out of the kitchen. 

This wasn't Dowd's vision. And she was determined to change things - for
the greener. 

Trattoria il Centro is one of few restaurants in Oklahoma City adapting
even the most basic of environmental strategies to save waste, reduce
energy consumption and promote local foods. 

The gourmet restaurant is not up to green standards as defined by the
respected Green Restaurant Association. But Dowd said what's important
is that she is doing something. 

"They're doing it in California, they're doing it on the East Coast -
there's got to be a way we can participate," said Dowd, 39, who has been
a chef in other major cities, including the notoriously green Portland,
Ore. 

And in a market like Oklahoma City where there's no certified green
competition, she's a bit of a trend-setter. 

Michael Oshman, founder and executive director of the Green Restaurant
Association, a nonprofit organization that helps restaurants go green
and checks their progress, said restaurants can be big polluters. 

"The restaurant industry is probably one of the toughest industries to
try to crack in terms of environmental change," he said. "Every
restaurant is completely different, and a lot of them are run by
mom-and-pops, and they have barely the resources to run their business,
much less make it environmentally friendly." 

Certified green restaurants now operate in 20 states, he said, but not
in Oklahoma. 

The ways restaurants pollute are more varied and numerous than most
consumers likely realize. 

Food waste is one piece of the puzzle. 

Restaurants dispose of left-over foods and oils, as well as the
mountains of packaging that go along with mass-produced goods. 

But there's also the issue of how far your food travels to get to your
plate. Food imported from overseas can carry a great environmental
impact because of the fossil fuels it took to fly the food to your
plate. 

Trattoria il Centro is quickly becoming a hot-spot for local
environmentalists. The restaurant hosts a "Green Drinks" event each
month for an activist group called Sustainable OKC. They make a special
lemon-basil martini for attendees, and last month about 50 people
gathered to chat about local environmental issues. 

That event will be held again tonight, starting at 5:30 p.m., and is
open to the the public. 

And when that's all said and done, Dowd will only have to empty her
dumpster about once a week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

Environmentally friendly techniques begin to catch on in city


By John Sutter
The Oklahoman 10-23-06

Environmentally friendly building techniques are creeping toward
Oklahoma City from the east and west coasts. 

The process may be moving more slowly than some environmentalists want,
but they say certified green buildings under construction in the metro
area will bring fresh energy to a cost-effective but underappreciated
movement. 

"What we need, I think, is an icon building in Oklahoma City," said
Jennifer Gooden, co-founder of Sustainable OKC, an environmental and
social justice advocacy group. "And we need someone to be the first
poster child of green building in Oklahoma City." 

Block 42, a residential complex near downtown, and two buildings at
Oklahoma City University are vying for that iconic status - or at least
for a chance to get the ball rolling. 

The goal of green building is to build structures that create small
amounts of waste. They typically burn less energy for heating and
cooling, are made of materials produced at the expense of few fossil
fuels, incorporate recycled building materials, waste less water and are
built to take into account their natural environment. 

Proponents say owners of green buildings save money over time with lower
energy costs. They also help the environment, as the energy used to run
buildings accounts for 38 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide
emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Only one building in Oklahoma - InterGen's Redbud energy building in
Luther - is certified as green by the U.S. Green Building Council, which
often is referred to as the most respected inspection and certification
program for environmentally friendly buildings. 

Four buildings in the state are working toward Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design certification, said Taryn Holowka, the nonprofit
group's spokeswoman. She said that's few compared with most other states


In 2002, only 38 buildings in the nation were certified green under that
leadership design standard. Now, 640 buildings have earned the
accreditation, and almost 5,000 are being built nationwide, Holowka
said. 

In need of education 

Local environmentalists say the only thing holding builders and
architects back from going green is a lack of education. 

Darren Faires, president of the Central Oklahoma Homebuilders
Association, agrees. 

"Its seems like Oklahoma is just one of those areas that just when it
finally catches on, it seems like a little bit of time has gone by," he
said. "I really don't have any experience with (green building) myself."


He added that he has nothing against the concept. 

Many builders don't know how to work with new green techniques, and many
developers are skeptical of costs, the environmentalists say. 

"Builders build what they know how to build and what they're comfortable
in building - and they hesitate to be the first on the block to branch
out," said Bob Waldrop, a founding member of the Oklahoma Sustainability
Network. That leaves consumers with a "feeling of helplessness" because
they don't know how to make the buildings themselves and don't know who
to ask, he said. 

Donney Dorton of Guaranteed Watt Saver Systems, a local green inspection
and planning group, said many builders don't have time to learn. 

"Some of them haven't found out about it. Some of them build a small
number of homes a year and have all the business they can handle and are
working so hard that they don't really have time to look around and see
what's going on," he said. 

OCU looks to environmental design 

Mark Davies, dean of the Wimberly School of Religion at Oklahoma City
University, hopes two campus projects change that. 

After a visit to Atlanta, Davies visited with officials at Emory
University, who said they recouped the costs of their campus' green
buildings in five years and now are earning close to $1 million in
energy savings. 

He said a dormitory project under construction at OCU will try to attain
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, as will a
building for the college of arts and sciences that is in the design
phase. 

Block 42 banks on green 

Grant Humphreys, a local developer who wears a scruffy beard and drives
a silver Mercedes, is banking on a market for environmentally friendly
housing. His Block 42 complex of townhomes and flats will open to
residents in September. 

He said he is spending less than 5 percent more on building costs for
structures that go for environmental design certification. That move
will pay off, he says, as increasing numbers of customers, even in
Oklahoma City, will start demanding green products. 

"Here, it hasn't gotten as much traction, but it will," he said. "With
rising energy costs and the (green) direction that everything's going,
sustainability is going to be a major measuring rod for development in
the future." 

Block 42 is being built at NE 4 and Walnut Avenue. Parts of the
project's energy-saving attempts are visible now. Concrete slabs are
lined with a layer of pink insulation. That keeps the floors warm even
if the ground freezes. 

Parts of the design certification also deal with what kind of lifestyle
a building creates. 

Block 42 will have a half-acre of green space along NE 4. That space
will incorporate native plants that don't need much water, Humphreys
said. And the area's proximity to downtown, Bricktown and the
Presbyterian Health Foundation means it promotes a pedestrian lifestyle
and, consequently, less smog. 

"It's under the design philosophy of new urbanism, which means it's
pedestrian friendly. You can walk to your convenience retail; you don't
have to have a car - and that's not ever been done in Oklahoma City." 

A range of options 

The U.S. Green Building Council's environmental design certification
program is just one way for buildings to be friendly to the environment
and save energy. 

Other programs - such as the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy
Star program - deal solely with energy savings. Energy Star homes have
taken off in Oklahoma, said Dorton, of the green inspection and planning
group. 

Dorton said much of that is because of federal and state tax credits
given to builders who choose energy-efficient homes. 

Other options are available for any homeowner. 

Waldrop, of the Oklahoma Sustainability Network, said a variety of
products are available to shade windows and insulate homes. 

Major changes are most cost-effective in the design phase, Waldrop said.
Homes can be situated, for instance, to use the sun's rays for heat in
the winter and to block them out in the hot summer. That technique uses
what's called passive solar energy. 

"We're an ideal climate for passive solar heating in the winter because
we have a lot of sun and not a lot of cloud cover," he said. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 


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