Some folks get excited about going to the theater. Some go weak in the knees when thinking of heading to Vegas for a long weekend. Bibliophiles hyperventilate at the thought of finding a pristine first edition of their favorite novel. Gourmands salivate over the perfect piece of prime rib.
Us? We go gaga over green building and sustainable design conferences. And, did you know?! Did you hear? There’s a big one coming to San Diego! Just down the freeway from us. Less than 40 miles away!! Practically next door.
It’s called San Diego Green 2008 and will be held at the Westin in the Gaslamp area of downtown San Diego September 17-19.
We are SO there.
Now, we haven’t decided yet if we’re going to have a booth or if we’re just going to walk around and try not to be too fawning over the fact that our heroes, these paragons of green, these masters of sustainability, these...
Wait. Deep cleansing breaths.....
OK. Right. Onward.
Some very highly regarded and respected leaders, designers and architects in the green building and sustainable arena will be there. Swedish architect Anders Nyquist is the keynote speaker and will talk about “Eco-Cycle Design - Eco-Village Approach.” Jerry Yudelson will speak on “The Green Building Revolution,” while Jason McLennan’s speech will focus on “Living Buildings and the Future of Architecture.”
Conference sessions include “Integration of Ecology and Design,” “Zero Energy Building Retrofits: Methods and Associated Barriers,” “Permitting and Incentives for Green Projects,” and more.
So. Much. More.
So if you’re an architect, building owner or manager, contractor, engineer, product manufacturer (or distributor – hello us!) and “others interested in changing the way we build in San Diego,” we hope to see you there.
And if we catch you drooling as you hear about the latest news in LEED and Greenguard certification, don’t worry, we understand.
Totally. Completely. Understand.
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We haven’t been blogging much about green office design, have we? You’d think we would, being a company with the name of GreenOfficeProjects.com and all. Instead, we’ve been writing about desalination plants, what some other companies are doing in the “green-osphere” (we just made that word up) around San Diego County, and some silly and nifty green “mistakes.”
So with this post, it’s back to the office. More to the point – let’s talk office chairs! (C'mon, you can get excited about office chairs, I know you can.)
Think green and sustainable office chairs must be ugly? Think again.
Take a look at this beauty from designer Zooey Chu. Or this Tamiri Armchair. Or this pretty little non-rolling office armchair, a Tara armchair.
Need small chairs you can easily move around and about? Would you like them to be easy move around and about? The Archer Dolly is for you. Coupled with the armless Archer nesting chair, you’ll be able to whip up a new seating configuration in no time.
Need reception chairs you also can move easily? The Sonic Beam Two Seat Beam/Armless Seat Unit may be just the ticket. It also exudes sleekness and utility.
But what about comfort for my guests? you ask. I like sleek, but what about comfy?
We like the Avenue Armchair. Smooth and glossy, but giving off that “warmth” vibe. Another favorite is the Softcurve. Just imagine your visitors sinking into that leather upholstery. They won’t want to leave (which, we know, could be a good or a bad thing….).
We haven’t forgotten desks and workstations.
Frankly, we’re enamored of this one, the Whitby Workstation I. Makes us think of the best of mid-century style with a touch of the new millennium thrown in.
If understated and elegant is your cup of tea, check out the Correlation Dividers. Law firm? High-end real estate office? Bank? Or any company that wants to exude class, these would do the trick.
Need desks that are simple and clean but with some oomph? Desks that will work for all employees from the CEO on down the corporate ladder? Check out the Adaptabilities A3060DP. Flexible and modern, is how they describe it. And we agree.
OK, office furniture hour is complete.
For now….
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( 3 / 842 ) So the big news out here where we’re headquarted – Vista, CA (about 41 miles northeast of downtown San Diego) – is the decision by the California Coastal Commission to approve a desalination plant to be constructed in a coastal town not too far from us, Carlsbad.
As many of you know, California is going through some tough times water-wise. Not surprising, really, since most of Southern California is semi-desert and we and the millions of residents who call So Cal home wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for a few pipelines and aqueducts that bring us water from the Colorado River to the east and Northern California to the – um – north.
But what we DO have is an ocean at our doorstep. With lots of water. Unfortunately that water is full of salt. Undrinkable.
So some very bright folks thought, “Hmm. We live in a semi-desert. Not much rain in normal years, hardly any rain in recent years. But we’re next to an ocean. Lots of water.. Pity it’s salty. Can’t drink it. Can’t grow crops with it. But if only we could take out the salt...”
And now these very bright folks say they have a way to take the salt out of the ocean water. That little problem of drought and no rain? Solved!
But other folks – many of them “green” in outlook – say this plant will be a fiasco. For one thing, the desalination plant’s owners want to build it – naturally– next to the ocean. And this worries some environmentalists, who fear the plant will harm some of the nearby wetlands and the animals that make that wetlands home.
We’re not going to tell you how we feel about the desalination plant. But we will say this: We cannot but enjoy the irony over the fact that some people want to convert a plentiful and renewable natural resource to solve a vastly difficult and urgent problem – and that this worries some environmentalists....
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( 3 / 817 ) In last Monday's post, we gave a short (and possibly too simple, because it truly can be complicated – but we like simple; simple is good), explanation of carbon footprints.
And we left you with the teaser that we’d talk about the pros and cons of purchasing carbon offsets to mitigate the damage you (and I, and your little dog, too) make to the ozone just by living.
So here we are. Again, here’s a simple definition of what carbon offsets are, brought to you by Wikipedia.com: a “carbon offset is a financial instrument representing a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.”
In other words, you pay money (to a certain entity – more on that in a moment) to pay – or offset – all the carbon footprints your very existence is leaving on this planet.
*Cartoon is from Gary Varvel's Blog - VarvBlog
Some folks say carbon offsets are just the another way for the rich among humans to pay off their guilt, something akin to writing a check to the homeless shelter instead of going down there and bringing your extra food, blankets and – how about this for an idea – actually volunteering your time at the facility.
But others say offsets truly can do good. The Unlikely Activist at his blog had this to say in January 2007 about purchasing offsets:
There are dozens of companies and non-profit organizations who provide easy ways to calculate your footprint, and will offer offsets for any budget, and across a range of projects...For less than $100, the average American can offset their annual personal footprint--as reported in A Consumer's Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers (PDF), issued in late 2006 by the nonprofit Clean Air-Cool Planet.
The sticky wicket comes, the Activist continues, when this comes up, “...the issue of additionality, namely, did your offset contribution fund emission reductions beyond those that were already in a place (in a business-as-usual sense)?”
In other words, is your offset purchase going toward 50 trees that the Sierra Club was going to plant anyway? Or will the Sierra Club now plant an additional 55 trees?
Purchasing the sustainable and renewable office furnishings we sell is one way to help reduce your company’s carbon footprint. Purchasing carbon offsets is another. There are thousands of other ways to help reduce the impact of business and industry on the environment. As long as you are making an active effort to do your part, that's all that matters.
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( 3 / 844 ) We consider ourselves to be fortunate indeed to have our headquarters in San Diego County, particularly in Vista, located in what county residents refer to as North County. There’s still enough rural areas out here to help us think – at least for a moment and if we squint our eyes just right and don’t start hyperventilating on Hwy 78 near Vista Way during rush hour – that we don’t live in the most populous state in the country.
One more thing we think is terrific about this area – out of many terrific things – is how eco-thoughtful so many businesses are out here.
So this post will be one of applause and kudos to a few businesses here in all of San Diego County who are working to live green in the workplace.
* Please give it up for the University of California, San Diego, which recently announced that it has “begun to install the components of a multi-faceted sustainable program,” one which eventually will generate 10 to 15 percent of the electricity it uses.
* Earthportal.org reported recently that San Diego State University’s College of Extended Studies “recently formed a new online certificate program in green building construction.” (The story at the link above is pretty long; the news about SDSU is in the third paragraph from the bottom.) Kudos!
* Applause to our favorite utility, San Diego Gas & Electric for its plans to construct solar panel “farms” at landfills, open spaces throughout the county, even shopping centers – even that icon of consumer excess La Jolla’s University Town Center – in the coming years. The solar panel project could generate enough electricity to send power to more than 50,000 homes.
The three mentioned above are just a tiny number of the businesses in this wonderful county who believe green is the most beautiful of colors.
Congratulations (and thank you!) to all the green-thinking and farsighted owners and managers of businesses in San Diego County who share GreenOfficeProjects.com’s vision of a better planet – and workplace!
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