Day: December 11, 2009

Monthaversaries

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Hi Folks:  Very, very early on in our relationship Marcia and I decided that Anniversaries are too far apart, and so while we celebrate every day together, every month we honour our Monthaversaries as well.  A couple of months ago we celebrated the 200th Monthaversary of the day we met, on a wintery hillside very early one morning.  But that’s another story.  We generally have four Monthaversaries every month – the day we first met, the day we became a couple, the day Marcia proposed to me, and the day we were married.  If you want another reason to celebrate the gift of love with those who are close to you, we recommend Monthaversaries very highly!

Love,
Us.

P.S.  I made this for Marcia today, and I wanted you all to be the first to see it:
Forever and For Always

Now go ahead and make your own!!

Being Green – Education

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Hi Folks:

Last Friday I decided to dedicate one day a week to information related to green building on the basis that I subscribe to (and hence receive) several different e-newsletters every week.  This week has been quiet in that department, but that doesn’t mean I’ve run out of things to share.  Not by a long shot…

First though, the November 2009 issue of Environmental Building News is now available, here.  And GreenBuildingAdvisor.com has a white paper available titled, ‘Stand Out from the Pack: How to Position Yourself as an Expert Eco-Builder’.  It’s available for free download, here.  Also, recently announced are the final specifications for the US EPA’s ‘Water Sense’ program.  More on that here.

Last week I wrote a little bit about Greensburg, KS, and I wanted to insert a reminder that part 2 of a webinar on Greensburg is coming up next Tuesday, December 15, 12:00–1:30 PM EST.   ‘Admission’ is free, but you do need to register in advance, here.

There are a number of places where one can learn more about green building online.  The Canadian Home Building Association (CHBA) has developed the Canadian Home Building Institute (CHBI), and they have a series of courses one can take on a number of aspects of construction, some of them online and some ‘in person’.  This includes ‘Built Greenâ„¢ BC Builder Training‘.  For more information, check out http://www.learnyourliving.ca.  Both the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) and the US Green Building Council (USGBC) offer on-site and online courses as well, including information on becoming LEED certified.  Two sites where one can take free online courses and earn AIA-certified credits are http://www.aecdaily.com and http://www.architectces.com.  There are webinars concerning a wide variety of products and systems, and a test at the end of each session.  That’ll get you started…

One aspect of  green building that I hadn’t thought about until I heard of it is green-certified real estate professionals.  Ecobroker.com was the first that I heard about, but since then I’ve come across some others.  GreenRealEstate.com offers courses to certify real estate people, and the National Association of Realtors has developed the Green REsource Council to offer their own certification programs and courses.

Finally for today, according to Environmental Design and Construction magazine, 29000 people visited this year’s GreenBuild conference.  There’s a series of short videos on the ED+C website, including this one, entitled, ‘Why Green?’  The others are here.

Have a great week, and if you have a link to share, post a comment here!

Mike.

P.S.  If you have people asking you why this is important, I highly recommend the TED talk by William McDonough on ‘Cradle to Cradle’ design.

P.S. II, the sequel:  Came across this short article today: “Perspectives on Sustainable Design – Sustainability is More Than a Scorecard“, by Dan Heinfeld FAIA, LEED AP