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Measure for Success

November 9th, 2011 by Andy

Contributed by Andy Wolverton

I recently spent two weeks on a honeymoon in New Zealand. What a trip! Travel was easy (the company of a new wife was awesome), the Kiwi people are genuine and generous, and the landscape is breathtaking.

Precisely because of the natural resources and beauty of the New Zealand islands, Kiwis have a deep respect for their country. They also recognize their environment plays a vital role in their economy; the country is filled with different ecotourism options – our favorite was a Ziptrek tour in Queenstown (see video below!). Plus, there are more sheep than people on the islands, so they better take care of their resources!

I was reading about New Zealand’s sustainability efforts and came across the NZahead program. Born from the New Zealand Institute, this program produces an overall report card on three different aspects of the country: social, economic and environmental. NZahead takes an honest assessment of the state of the nation in order to make attainable three-year goals.

Why? According to Rick Boven in the NZahead video (2:10), it’s because “what gets measured gets managed”.

That comment got me thinking about Green Canopy and how we measure for the success of our retrofit process. Home buyers, and the residential housing market in general, will only believe we’re making homes more efficient if we can prove efficiency gains. Of course, we can take pictures of new windows, caulk, insulation and even heat pumps, but how does the market know they’re getting a good deal? By measuring.

Green Canopy has third parties perform energy audits – one before construction and one after – in order to produce an Energy Performance Score. The score provides the average number of kilowatt-hours and tons of carbon the home will use in a year. We set the pre- and post-construction scores next to each other to show how we improved the efficiency of the home. For example, The Grady Place, a recently finished home on Beacon Hill, started with an average usage of 25,000 kWh per year, but after our retrofit work reduced to 12,000 kWh per year – and we nearly doubled the square footage of the house! The score tells us, and our buyers, that we were successful in increasing the efficiency of the home.

Finally, there is an additional step we feel is just as important to finish the efficiency loop: ongoing energy monitoring. Our buyers can maximize our work by being as efficient as possible with their energy habits. In each of our homes, we install an energy monitoring device, like the PowerCost Monitor™, to help homeowners measure and manage their electricity usage. Without continual measurement (and behavioral change), our efforts become neutralized.

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The Human Side of Homebuilding

October 6th, 2011 by Krystal

Contributed By: Sonja Gustafson

One of the things I love most about working at Green Canopy Homes is the great people here. In particular, how folks around here are truly nice people. (I think the proper Yiddish term for this kind of person would be mensch.) The other day was a good example: during a recent team meeting one of our construction managers, Garret, talked about his interactions with a neighbor. We had been discussing a tree that needed some care and we were wondering how the neighbors might react to the noise and dust. We asked the foreman about the neighbors’ reactions so far to our project, and Garret mentioned that “Joe”, the guy next door, would be cool about it – and in fact that Garret had spent about an hour that week talking to Joe alongside the fence, neighbor-style. That really caught my attention: here is a guy who has a super busy day filled with tons of responsibilities and deadlines, yet he is the kind of person who will give some of that time to a neighbor. He mentioned someone off-handedly that this neighbor might not get a lot of opportunity to chat with other folks, so he didn’t mind at all hanging out with him a bit. That is what it means to be a mensch.

During the same meeting, we were also talking about a possible acquisition of a home. This home currently belongs to the good friend of Kevin, another one of our construction managers. Kevin told us that this friend was delighted to be able to sell her home to someone who was not going to tear it down to create some banal, cookie-cutter type home. She is so happy that we are going to preserve the original character that has made the home fit so well in the neighborhood, and she is specifically happy that Kevin gets to work on the place. The neighbors, who also know Kevin and think it’s so great that he’ll be working on the home, are also thrilled that their neighborhood gets to stay “intact.”

One morning recently Andy got a voice mail from a neighbor of the Felix house, who was unhappy about the dust that some of our work had settled on a car he had washed only the day before. Practically before the voicemail ended, Andy was out the door, getting two gift certificates to Brown Bear car wash so that the neighbor (and his wife) would not have to worry about that dust anymore.

Lastly, at today’s team meeting, Aaron spoke a bit about how we are progressing and that by bringing on some new labor to the homes that we all have the opportunity to use our wits and smarts to create the best home possible within our budgets. “Respect each other and the work you are doing,” he said, so that we can meet our goal and stay sane. Inspiring.

As we complete the sale of our 4^th home (yeah!) and have some 6 more in progress (yeah again!), I think about how the pressures of the construction and sales cycle can really make folks stressed out and grumpy. At Green Canopy Homes, we’ve managed to not only keeps our wits about us, but also our humor, our spirits, and…I suppose I can just say it…our humanity.

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My Other Car is My Feet

September 6th, 2011 by Krystal

Contributed by Krystal Meiners

Does it really cost less to live in a walkable neighborhood? Is a neighborhood considered more desirable if there are restaurants, shops, parks, and (of course) a bar minutes from your doorstep? Are accessible sidewalks often overlooked as a home amenity? These can all be answered with an emphatic “YES”!

But why?

The real value added to real estate in walkable neighborhoods can be measured both economically and qualitatively. And choosing a walkable neighborhood to live in can be easy… or difficult. Here are some facts, tips, tricks and people that we rely on at Green Canopy to help us build in the best locations. We want to offer our home-buyers more than just a well-performing home – but a home that people will want to stay in for generations because a whole world is just steps away.

Facts: Where walking makes cent$

Some of the most substantive incentives for purchasing a home in a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood come in the form of higher property values and lower transportation costs. A study released in 2009 called Walking the Walk, compared over 94,000 US homes in 15 different cities and concluded that homes with a higher level of neighborhood and pedestrian accessibility had a direct link to higher property values in 13 of those 15 cities (with Las Vegas and Bakersfield, CA. being the oddballs). This is an astounding figure.

“Even in a turbulent economy, we know that walkability adds value to residential property just as additional square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms and other amenities do,” said Joe Cortright, author of Walking the Walk. “It’s clear that consumers assign a tangible value to the convenience factor of living in more walkable places with access to a variety of destinations.”

While it’s clear that walkable places provide more value to home and business owners, is it more affordable? Affordability can be measured not only in real estate costs but also in transportation costs – which can be substantially lower in areas where you are more likely to leave your car at home.

A neat online tool called Abogo allows you to plug in your address to calculate the average household cost for transportation according to your regional statistics (available from the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index). The tool also calculates the average CO2 emissions associated with your location. Abogo helps shed light on true “affordability”.

Blogger, Siel from Green LA Girl is quick to dismiss complaints from people who claim that they have to drive because of the high cost of walkable neighborhoods. She says “it’s not the high rent of walkable ‘hoods keeping them in the car; it’s the high cost of the car keeping them out of walkable ‘hoods.” I would have to agree.

On another note, do healthier people save money? They do on medical care at least. New studies on the effects of neighborhood walkability on health have shown that people who walk more live an average of a billion years longer. Not really – but here is a link to some actual facts from the Sightline Institute that may help to make the connection between human health and walkability.

Tips: Where are all the Walkable Neighborhoods?

Walkscore, hands down, is the best online tool available for finding out where your feet should hit the pavement. Their online service measures “walkability” by calculating the distance to shops, restaurants, schools etc. from your address and providing a score based on this measurement – the closer to 100 your score is the more walkable your neighborhood will be. This makes it especially easy for home buyers who may not be familiar with an area and it is becoming common-place for savvy real estate agents in making the value-case for home sales.

Access to transit can be another indicator of neighborhood walkability and these days Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is typically a sign of Smart Growth – a proactive approach to neighborhood development where a mix of transit, housing and commercial areas are clustered to prevent sprawl. Neighborhoods in Seattle like Columbia City (pictured at right) are now reaping the benefits of planning for smart growth around the Link Light Rail Station. This area, like many others along the new Light Rail are now becoming very prominent. They are rich in character and diversity and offer an array of amenities such as parks, ice cream and coffee shops all within walking distance to transit.

Tricks: Discovering the Next Walkable Neighborhood

If you can’t quite swing the purchase price for the house next to your favorite bakery – consider some of these tips for choosing nearby neighborhoods and ways to discover the next pedestrian hub.

Biking – The next best thing! Living within biking distance of your favorite neighborhood may seem like we are pushing the limits – but the average cyclist travels about 15mp/h. This means living as far as two miles from you desired location still puts you in the center of everything in less than 10 minutes! So perhaps you don’t want to cough up that sweet $900k for the sleek home near the Alaska Junction – but the bike lanes go all the way to SW Southern St! With infinite mpg – it’s still cheaper (and healthier) than driving!

Main Street - chances are that even a small cluster of shops and restaurants may end up being the perfect site for a vibrant neighborhood center. Downtown Burien (pictured below) is a great example of this. Their downtown strip is now easily accessible by transit due to their fancy new park-n-ride (it really is fancy), and new development is springing up all over. While this area may be hard to find amidst the Fred Meyer super highway know as 1^st Ave S, it actually has a very “urban” and human scale when you travel (by foot) down 152^nd Ave SW. With several blocks of shops, restaurants, a brewery and fantastic ice cream – you won’t need to walk far for any amenity. (Did I mention the brewery?) Walkscore 92!

Think like a planner: Neighborhood development and walkability doesn’t happen overnight. It can take years before an area will see its first transit stop or bus line – but lucky for home buyers these things are planned far in advance. To get a better view of what an area will be like in a decade – you can browse the Department of Planning website to learn all about future light rail locations, bus rapid transit and neighborhood revisioning. Hopefully when a home-buyer makes a new home purchase they are considering what that area will be like in the future.

People: Advocating for a Walkable neighborhood

If a decade seems like a long time to wait for walkability, you can always become a pedestrian advocate in your new neighborhood! Our favorite peddlers of pedestrian persuasion are the folks over at FeetFirst. They have initiated some of Seattle’s most successful programs for increasing neighborhood accessibility and walkability and have published amazing and detailed pedestrian maps for a dozen neighborhoods in Seattle.

They have several programs currently underway, and perhaps the most notable is this summer’s In Motion program. Feet First has partnered with King County Metro to get people out of their cars this summer by offering discounts, prizes and events all over West Seattle. To reap the rewards, you must first register at King County Metro’s In Motion web page, and then pledge to walk, bike or take transit at least twice a week. You then log your trips to earn a chance to win a staycation and some super sweet free ride passes for metro. Additionally, metro and FeetFirst have partnered with a ton of neighborhood businesses who are also giving In Motion pledgees great deals on things like ZipCar, Alki kayaking tours and more!

In just 8 weeks, 1061 West Seattleites that have joined In Motion, have logged 6,484 trips, clocking 92,413 miles (Equal to 57 trips between Seattle and Portland). They have saved 4,620 gallons of gas and 89,640 pounds of CO₂ from the atmosphere!!

There are several more events taking place in West Seattle through October, and a chance for you to log your trips and win more prizes. Check out this link to join the In Motion program and become a pedestrian advocate in your neighborhood!

Posted in Leadership in Real Estate, Seattle Real Estate Market, Sustainability & Carbon Footprint, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Boots on the Ground for a Clean Energy Economy

August 10th, 2011 by Krystal

Contributed by Aaron Fairchild

Green Canopy is excited to be highlighted by Climate Solutions as one of their Solution Stories. Each of these stories was chosen because the companies are all combining their approach to tackling solutions to climate change with a for profit business case. Green Canopy has long supported Climate Soltuions and our mission of inspiring resource efficiency in residential markets is a direct response to their mission to accelerate practical and profitable solutions to global warming. Thank you to Climate Solutions, Green Canopy considers this a great honor.

Below is an article written by Climate Solutions and a video of their latest Solution Story. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter @greencanopyhomes to get updates on the Solutions Stories project!

Working in partnership with the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and Idaho Power, the J. R. Simplot Company is whole-heartedly embracing energy efficiency. From management on down to floor workers, each employee has taken on the energy efficiency strategies with dedication and drive.

How did they do this? In 2008 the Northwest Food Processors Association (NWFPA) set a goal to reduce energy intensity by 25% in 10 years and 50% in 20 years. As an NWFPA member, Simplot is supporting the association’s energy goal by reducing their own energy intensity and working toward a unified energy efficiency goal.

The Oregon Association of Nurseries was also grappling with the issue of energy use. In the process of finding ways to cut their energy bills, they turned to NEEA. The organization, through strong partnerships with regional Northwest utilities, is helping maximize energy efficiency to meet the region’s future energy needs.

Aaron Fairchild, CEO of Green Canopy Homes, didn’t set out to be an “eco-capitalist” but with his work on retrofitting homes to save energy, that has become his mission.

“I want to transform the housing market to consider energy efficiency when homes are bought and sold,” said Fairchild.

From every home retrofit, each Green Canopy Homes saves, on average, enough energy equal to taking one car permanently off the road, and employs an average of 50 people in the process.

These and other stories are part of the new Solutions Stories Project aimed at capturing and communicating clean energy economy success stories in the Northwest, including progress on clean energy and energy efficiency. Climate Solutions, a Northwest-based clean energy economy nonprofit, is spearheading the project. There are multiple partners and sponsors. NEEA joined the project as a founding sponsor, and Green Canopy Homes is another sponsor for the launch. The editorially independent online news organization EnergyNow.com is media partner.

Claire Fulenwider, NEEA’s executive director, talks about their work with J.R. Simplot through the Northwest Food Processors Association: “NEEA has been working with executives in the Northwest Food Processors Association to help them integrate efficiency into their corporate planning process, to increase the productivity of their output and increase their profitability.”

“The clean energy economy is happening now, with real gains in clean energy and energy efficiency projects that at the same time show how we are building the economy,” said Gregg Small, Executive Director for Climate Solutions. “Illuminating solutions stories at scale bolsters the work we’re all doing to build bright, bold future for our communities and country.”

The project launched when members of Congress return to their states and districts for the August recess. Three pilot videos feature different stories in distinct industries and states:

J.R. Simplot, a food processing company headquartered in Idaho, is proving that the food processing industry, the 2^nd largest industrial consumer of energy in the Northwest, can profitably focus on energy efficiency.
Oregon’s Fisher Farms is a plant nursery that has committed to NEEA’s 25inTENsity Challenge by reducing their energy intensity by 25% in 10 years with help from the Oregon Association of Nurseries; and
Green Canopy Homes, based in Washington, is a small but growing residential retrofitting company that focuses on energy efficiency in all its properties.

All three stories, including the video vignettes and additional information, can be found at the www.solutions-stories.org.

Freeze Fries from Climate Solutions on Vimeo.

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Heat Pumps: 270% Efficient or Hooey?

July 27th, 2011 by Andy

Contributed by Canuche Terranella:

We get asked all the time: “Are heat pumps really 270% efficient or is that a bunch of hooey?”

We are excited about heat pumps. They save energy, they save money, they are more than 100% efficient (is that even possible?), they seem to work like magic and they are one more real world example of the Ideal Gas Law.

Figure 1: My inner chemistry geek loves this stuff!

Hopefully this blog will dispel some of the magic for you.

The equations can be complex (and are usually ignored) but the science can be simplified and understood.

First remember that air is made of molecules that vibrate at a frequency that we can measure as temperature. All molecules are moving (even relatively cold ones) and the energy of that motion we call heat. Heat naturally flows “downhill” from warmer areas to cooler ones. What that means at a molecular level is that particles moving faster collide with those moving slower so that the higher energy parts of the collection of particles goes down overtime. So far so good, right? So how does this turn a 33 degree rainy night into warm and cozy couch time in a house with a mini-split Ductless Heat Pump?

The next piece of the puzzle has to do with how many particles you have in your particular space. The analogy of a dance party comes in handy here. When the dance floor’s empty that one guy can really move without getting the party started but as you add more people to the dance floor and the party reaches a critical mass, the energy of the room changes.Likewise when you add more mass of particles to the same box the energy of the space goes up.

The last piece has to do with how much space you have for the party. Ever been to the karaoke party in the really big room with a small group? Feels better to crow in the crowded booth doesn’t it? Smaller space with the same number of particles will increase the movement of the particles. More particle movement means more heat.

Overview: Remember that the cool wet air outside still contains particles that are vibrating with heat energy. If you can get the energy of enough of those particles together in a tight space you can harvest heat from them. A heat pump is a device that simply moves heat from one location to another. Since heat pumps simply transfer heat instead of burning fuel to create it, they have an eco-friendly efficient edge over their competition. Heat pumps, when properly installed can provide 1.5 to 3 times the heat energy than electric energy it consumes (the baseline energy consumption is the energy a traditional electric heater would use to create the same heat). Over a 12 month period using a heat pump can cut the amount of electricity you use for heating compared to conventional methods by 30%-40%, adding up to huge dollar savings in the long run.

Heating: Heat pumps often contain a refrigerant in liquid form that is pumped through coils in the outdoor unit. Next a fan pulls outside air over the coils which absorb the heat energy in the air, turning the liquid refrigerant into hot vapor. The hot vapor is than fed through a compressor which increases the pressure and heat of the gas, allowing the vapor to flow into the indoor coils. The heated air is pumped throughout the house as the refrigerant cools and flows back outside to start the process over again.

Cooling: The simplicity of a heat pump is that it can act as a heating and cooling device, cutting out the need for two separate systems. In cooling mode a heat pump simply reverses the process. A reverse valve is used to turn the system from heating to cooling. The refrigerant is now pumped through the indoor coils absorbing the heat and expending it outside.

Extra Efficiency of a DHP: Duct losses can account for more than 30% of energy consumption for space conditioning, especially if the ducts are in an unconditioned space such as an attic. Therefore, a ductless heat pump (DHP) moves the heated refrigerant through insulated tubes to the room where the heat is needed instead of heating the air in one central location and pushing it through long metal ducts to where the heat is needed.

But sometimes the air blows cool? Since the DHP head is located in the room where the heat is needed it only heats the air slightly above the target temperature set at the thermostat as it does not need to overcome the heat-loss of the ductwork. When this air blows out of the heat unit directly on a person it can even feel slightly cool as moving air feels cooler on the skin than still air. However the house stays warm, as the heat pump continually regulates the air temperature.

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The Green Canopy Experience

July 14th, 2011 by Kyle

Contributed by Green Canopy Intern, Kyle Shurtleff

As I write this I am approaching the end of my second internship at Green Canopy Homes.

I am a sophomore at Tufts University, and for my summer break I decided to come back to Green Canopy following my successful high school internship here. Through the last two years, I have had the amazing experience of being part of this wonderful company and people. I’ve spent a lot of time on the office’s roof deck in Fremont, been to staff meetings on an electric boat in Lake Union, and helped out for the summer community BBQ at one of our homes. But it hasn’t been all playtime at GCH. Over the last few months I have helped to streamline the company’s digital Home Owner’s Manual that is published with each home. It is an innovative new concept for a “Smart Home” feature that acts as a repository of information for the entire home’s building systems and appliances. I have helped to develop a whole new section designed to deliver maintenance reminders via email. In addition the digital HOM I also worked on the GreenCanopy.com website behind the scenes and ended up being the go-to wizard for the marketing team

With the Home Owner’s Manual, I have focused on improving the ease of in-house production while at the same time, creating a robust product aimed at increasing the value for the home owner. The home owner’s manuals are now easier for us to develop; which has set the groundwork for future improvements and easier scalability. I’ve created a design template so that all of the bare structure and static content does not have to be replicated each time.

The largest part of my time has been spent developing a new portion for the Home Owner’s Manual: the maintenance schedule. The start of the maintenance schedule was a simple idea—what if your house could remind you that something needed to be done? These events could be maintenance (replacing filters, cleaning gutters), reminders (taking out trash, recycling and yard waste), or simple checkups: check that your fire extinguishers are charged and your smoke alarms have batteries. In all, we have nearly 100 events that occur from every week to every decade that you can be reminded about.

The maintenance schedule is just entering in-house testing, so the final product is still a ways off at this point. I’m glad I’ve been able to be part of Green Canopy’s work and been able to contribute to it. I hope I will be able to return next year to see where the maintenance schedule I started has ended up and see the difference I’ve made.

In the meantime, readers, I’d like to ask you: what single feature would you most like to see in our Home Owner’s Manual?

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A Not So New, New Concept…

April 5th, 2011 by Andy

Contributed by Aaron Fairchild:

Last year, 2010, Seattle did $2.7 billion in homes sales, $51 million more than 2009, but still substantially lower than the market high of $4.4 billion in 2007. Since 2007, we have seen a large increase in the number of certified Built Green new home sales. In 2007, 10% of new construction sales were certified Built Green, and in 2009 and 2010 that number ballooned to 35% of all new home sales. Clearly, homebuilders understand buyer’s demands for green and resource efficiency, as well the cost effectiveness of incorporating measurable resource efficient methods and materials to differentiate a home. Homebuilders that are building green today are ahead of the curve in figuring out their supply chain, and driving down the costs of building a more resource efficient home.

Given the statistics above, it just makes sense that National Homebuilders like Meritage Homes and KB Home are launching efforts to create measurable resource-efficient homes with every home they build. While these builders don’t compete with Green Canopy in the in-city building environment, we are extremely pleased with the rise in awareness that it brings to the overall market. I love the quote from the CEO of KB Home, “Over the last several years, we’ve been pushing the envelope on making our homes more energy-efficient. We do it for one reason: Because we have to compete with resale and differentiate ourselves. That’s our biggest competitor. New homes tend to be more energy-efficient than existing homes, but resale and foreclosed properties often have a much lower overall price.”

Now that you know the numbers it just makes sense that Green Canopy is in this business… but consider this, in 2010 there were only two homes sold in Seattle certified as a Built Green Retrofit home. Both of those homes were Green Canopy homes. The existing housing market is a long way from catching up to the new construction standard. Wish us luck… we have a long way to go!

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Centennial Update

March 24th, 2011 by Andy

Here’s the latest update on the Centennial House!

Even though the house looks like it’s mid-construction (which it is), we are still very excited about some of the cool things going on! Just last week we finished hanging drywall, blew foam insulation under the house and finished siding around the house. Speaking of the siding, we’re hosting our Centennial House Color Selection Event on Saturday, March 26th (THIS Saturday) from 1-3pm. Stop by during the event to walk through the home and vote on its future color! We’ll post the winning color on our website immediately after the event.

Here are some of the cool energy efficiency features of the Centennial House that are completed so far:

Ductless Heat Pump

A ductless heat pump offers an amazingly efficient (and quiet) way to heat and cool a home. They provide a comfortable environment for any home and we’re proud to have one in the Centennial House. Here’s a video of our site supervisor, Coburn, talking about the external unit of the heat pump.

Comprehensive Air Sealing

An important aspect of making a home more efficient involves reducing the ways air flows in and out of the home. Our construction manager, Tony Case, narrates what Green Canopy is doing at the Centennial House to prevent air leaks through the floor.

Insulation

While air sealing is a great way to prevent drafts coming through the house, proper insulation insures the home stays at the desired internal temperature. In addition to non-allergenic, high-density fiberglass insulation, we also use rigid foam insulation to make the home more comfortable and efficient. Tony describes our insulation story here:

Overall, we’re extremely excited about this project and love telling our efficiency story. Follow our updates on Facebook and we hope you can come to our color event this weekend!

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Kevin wearing old clothes found in the basement at Keaton (hat and all!)