Salem Green + Solar Tour 2010

Be inspired by your neighbors!

Saturday, October 2nd, 2010

9am-4pm

This year's Salem Green + Solar Tour offers an incredible lineup of nine cutting-edge projects: the first Passive House certified home in Oregon; the first net-zero energy commercial building in Oregon; an existing home solar remodel in McNary Estates; downtown's newest green commercial-retail building, WaterPlace; the first home to receive a Solarize Salem Co-op installation; the green update to Frank Lloyd Wright Gordon House; and ABC Extreme Makeover's newly-completed LEED Gold dormitory at the Oregon School for the Deaf, among others.

Architect Nathan Good will begin the event at 9am with a preview of the tour sites and a presentation on building and design -- key terms, costs, features and benefits. Tour sites across town will be open 10am to 4pm.

Each site will be hosted by an owner, architect and/or builder who will explain the green features of the project, and benefits, costs, and lessons learned. Tour participants will have the opportunity to learn about energy efficiency, passive and active solar systems, daylighting, on-site energy generation, rainwater harvesting, innovative construction systems and building materials, and a lot more.

Registration: Begins at Painters Hall at 9am, Pringle Creek Community Click here for a map & directions http://tiny.cc/paintershall or go to http://www.pringlecreek.com

Cost: $10 per car, carpooling encouraged. Bicyclists free. Organized ride leaves at 10:15am.

Special thanks to our sponsors!

Pringle Creek Community, Salem AIA (American Institute of Architects), Marion County Environmental Services, Nathan Good Architect, Wild Pear, Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center, Tanner Creek Energy, Zena Forest Products, Solarize Salem, Lifesource Natural Foods, Barnwood Naturals, Mahonia Vineyards & Nursery, Bilyeu Homes, Spectra Construction, and City of Salem.

Hey bicyclists! what better way to travel to Green + Solar Tour sites than by bike, especially when it's free! If you're ambitious, visit all the sites. We've also put together a shorter route that focuses on sites within the City of Salem. Bicyclists can take a self-guided loop or let Patrick and Jenny lead the way with a group tour. Group tour departs Painters Hall at 10:15am.

For more information:

Call 503-315-1055 or info@pringlecreek.com

Salem Green + Solar Tour is part of a state-wide tour in 14 communities across Oregon, all happening on the same weekend. According to Solar Oregon, which oversees state-wide coordination, "the Oregon Green and Solar Tours are one of the biggest events of their kind in the nation" and "each tour reflects the unique interests of the community, yet all share a common goal: to educate the public about green and solar strategies." You can also read about the National Solar Tour overseen by the American Solar Energy Society.

Hope to see you there for this great event!

Green jobs coming to Salem

Recent Statesman Journal article: City aims to become hub in green jobs Attracting Sanyo's solar-cell plant may be first step to goal

Sanyo's coming to Salem is a great step to a better future. They will build an $80 million solar-cell manufacturing plant at the new Salem Renewable Energy and Technology Park at 5475 Gaffin Road SE. Two hundred "green jobs" producing high tech components for renewable energy--it reflects the growing recognition that we need to be more responsible in our stewardship of the environment, our community and economy.

Pringle Creek Community is excited about this successful recruitment and that Salem, and Oregon, aspire to foster green products and services. This is Oregon taking advantage of its environmentalist brand and becoming a center for green manufacturing. As PV Tech online magazine puts it, More Trees Planted in Oregon's Solar Forest:

The news that Sanyo plans to build a silicon ingot and wafer manufacturing facility in Salem, OR, is the latest solar win for the northwest U.S. state, which has become one of the country's major photovoltaic manufacturing areas. Published reports suggest that several companies are looking hard at Oregon for their planned facilities, as the state continues its quest for renewable-energy industrial development.

This article goes on to talk about Solaicx (Portland) and Peak Sun Silicon (Salem) making next-generation polysilicon, Solar World (Hillsboro and Vancouver) and now Sanyo fabricating ingots and wafers, Solar World and Intel spinout SpectraWatt (Hillsboro) building or ramping solar-cell production plants, and thin-film PV start-up XsunX (Portland).

Oregon can be a leader in sustainability

Almost a year ago we wrote about, with some excitement, the Oregon Leadership Summit #5 and how the business leaders in Oregon were committing to branding our state and region as world leaders of sustainable development. Summit #6, held earlier this week in Portland, focused on “taking this commitment to the next stage of action.”

The big topics of the day were “moving forward on transportation” and "proposals to gain green advantage." Dignataries participating in the summit included our governor, both US senators, and several state representatives and senators. Several new initiative proposals were prepared for discussion, such as Oregon as a Center for Sustainability Learning by Mark Edlen of Gerding/Edlen Development and Sue Bragdon of the Oregon University System.

The Oregonian article about the summit is not particularly encouraging. I like this part:

Attendees were asked to vote electronically on the question, "Do you support the Oregon Business Plan's strategy to distinguish Oregon as a global leader in sustainable economic development?"

Of the 600 or so who voted, 96 percent clicked on their remote-control voting machines that they supported or strongly supported the move. Three percent said they were neutral, while 1 percent was strongly opposed.

With that kind of support, we should be moving full steam ahead. But the article goes on to focus on participants who are concerned that promoting sustainability won’t bring in many manufacturing or other middle class jobs. To me, new manufacturing opportunities are part of the solution, but I thought the whole idea was to brand Oregon as sustainable and green in order to attract the new generation of green businesses and manufacturing jobs. Transportation alternatives, innovation, energy-efficiency, local food and a healthy environment are even more critical factors as we move forward into the knowledge and experience economies.

Let’s hope Oregon’s leaders came away from the conference with new energy. With Oregon's green reputation, leveraging a statewide mission and vision is just sitting in front of us. Pringle Creek, with its national green development award, has proven itself a showcase for this vision. I would like to see the rest of Salem doing more to connect to this huge movement. Oregon’s capital should be emblematic of sustainability and connected to this mega-trend.

Trillion Dollar Storm

I heard a powerful presentation the other day (Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury on global warming at a SEDCOR forum) and was reminded of another. Storm Cunningham, author of The Restoration Economy, one of our book selections, made a big impression on me at an Urban Land Institute conference in 2002.

Mr. Cunningham was a Green Beret SCUBA medic and is an avid recreational diver. He described the degradation of the coral reefs he had been returning to over many years. He then described a happy snapshot of environmental success when he saw some of the coral reefs being restored from near extinction by the commitment of governments, business, NPOs and ordinary citizens.

Cunningham put two and two together and discovered a trillion dollar economy that he believes is still largely unrecognized: the Restoration Economy. We really aren't building new highways and dams, we aren't building new cities (except in China). Professionals today are busy designing new solutions to old problems. Historic restoration, urban renewal, and restoring wetlands are examples. We are just beginning to face the need of repairing, restoring and revitalizing our existing infrastructure, environment and communities.

In no uncertain terms Cunningham told his ULI audience that their days of developing bare land--turning farms, fields and forests into subdivisions--were numbered. The good news: opportunities to make money were growing in “restoration,” this unrecognized trillion dollar industry.

In Oregon, businesses and governments are recognizing the economic benefits of leading the restoration economy. Being known for expertise in environmental stewardship, urban development, land use planning and progressive infrastructure development is gaining Oregon a prominent role.

But, like raising children, you can never rest on success. New challenges--and new opportunities--face us every day.

The economic gold of the times

This piece from American Prospect Online, Sustainable Cities: Smart growth is newly fashionable. But what will it take to turn fashion into national policy? touches on issues I think are very compelling (as did this article, where Oregon business leaders described "Sustainability as Oregon's Brand and Niche," written about in this blog post). Peirce is a highly regarded Washington Post columnist on community and development issues.

From Philadelphia to Seattle, Boston to San Diego, city officials agree that green urban settings are a critical draw in an era when highly educated, mobile professional workers -- the economic gold of the times -- gravitate to attractive, welcoming, and healthy places.

What's more, claim the apostles of green, property tax yields from homes and apartments near parks are significantly higher. Tree-lined streets alone increase property values some 15 percent.

Quite quickly in this decade, the familiar definition of "green" has advanced from trees and plants and parks to a much more inclusive vision of city and metropolitan planning. Moreover, it now comprises an array of environmental issues . . .

Smart Growth, sustainable development, watershed restoration, green building, parks, walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use, placemaking: this is happening in places all over the world. Cities and regions are competing to attract educated workers and creative citizens with commitments to the environment and the social fabric of their communities.When it's all connected it produces even more value and will be a revolution in how we build and develop our communities. Pringle Creek is putting it all together and is on the leading edge.

OR Business Community Attains Enlightenment

We are calling this not a mere trend, but a tipping point: Oregon’s business community just went over to the green side. Our evidence is below: articles about the recent business summit and the Oregon Business Plan.

Sustainability is Oregon's claim to fame. We have a reputation, and it rests on the shoulders of progressive leaders going back many years--Tom McCall and Neil Goldschmidt come to mind first. It’s a reputation that can be marketed, branded; using Oregon’s livability and sustainability to bring about more livability and sustainability.

Exhibit A, "Oregon Plan is Tinted Green," Ted Sickinger, Oregonian 1/05/07 [no longer available]:

If one asset defines Oregon internationally, or could make its boom-and-bust economy more globally competitive, it is the state's identity with environmental stewardship and sustainable business practices.

Believe it or not, this message is sponsored by your statewide business community, which is collectively vowing to go green.

Sustainability was the new rallying cry for more than 1,000 business, academic and legislative leaders who packed the Oregon Convention Center on Thursday for a fifth annual leadership summit on Oregon's economy.

It also has become the unifying theme of an economic-development master plan and legislative playbook called the Oregon Business Plan.

Sustainability means different things to different people. But authors of the plan think the concept plays to Oregon's core strengths. Furthermore, it can be infused into many of their initiatives for education, tax reform, health care and economic development. (emphasis added)

The new focus is an outgrowth of last year's leadership summit, where Harvard Business School professor and business-strategy guru Michael Porter urged business leaders to focus their laundry list of initiatives on a competitive theme that would complement the state's economic and cultural strengths.

Porter suggested sustainability as a potentially compelling theme in a state that already has an international reputation for land-use planning and recycling initiatives, specialized expertise in areas such as green building, and large employers, such as Nike, Intel and Hewlett-Packard Co., that have folded sustainability into their strategies and brands.

That’s almost enough that we could rest our case. Oregon business is going green, and this new course will magnify Pringle Creek Community’s influential role as a place, a neighborhood, where every decision is about the future. Here's more from the article:

"Economic development in harmony with our planet is not only the right civic thing to do, it's the right business decision," said Allen Alley, chairman of Tualatin-based Pixelworks Inc. and chairman of the business plan's steering committee. "Many of the keys to how this can be accomplished already exist in this state."

At the summit, Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced that Alley would become his deputy chief of staff focused on technology, energy, transportation and economic development.

Okay, the article does bring up a few bumps in the road.

The business group didn’t endorse the governor’s plan to use the corporate kicker for a rainy day fund.

The business plan praises a sales tax that was proposed by a bipartisan group. Good luck with that--we can only hope.

The plan wants spending on roads to go from $300 million to $500 million (without saying where to get the cash), not a pet project of mine.

Some business groups oppose Governor Kulongoski’s proposal to require utilities to provide 25% of retail energy with renewables—because it will make energy too expensive.

And finally, there’s widespread agreement that the health care system is unsustainable.

So maybe we don’t have an open and shut case for imminent ecotopia. But a lot of folks like the idea of Oregon getting more famous for it’s environmentalism. We can run with that.

Here is the other article, "Sustainability, Oregon’s brand and niche," Aliza Earnshaw, Portland Business Journal, 1/4/07

Oregon can--and should--seize the moment and capitalize on its worldwide reputation for sustainability. That was the recurring theme of the opening remarks and first panel discussion at Oregon's fifth economic-development summit, held Thursday [1/4/07] at the Oregon Convention Center.

The article provides “testimony” in support of our case from these illustrious business persons:

John Carter, president and CEO of Schnitzer Steel Industries: sustainability is not an expensive luxury.

Dennis Wilde, principal at Gerding/Edlen Development: “building sustainably has become an export industry for Oregon.”

Al Gosiak, CEO and president of Pendleton Grain Growers: invest in R&D of biofuel; if a tricky chemical problem can be solved, cellulosic ethanol can be made from grain or dead and diseased wood products.

Nancy Floyd, managing director of $400 million firm Nth Power, an energy technology investor: Oregon can be a leader in clean energy.

Not necessarily a perfectly representative selection of Oregon business persons. But there is no disputing that more and more Oregon businesses are embracing Oregon's legacy--and creating our heritage. From small community organizations to large corporations, our fair state has leaders showing the way. How cool that we have Nike and HP and not Monsanto and General Dynamics. Oregon has visionaries, pioneers—prime example, John Emrick of Norm Thompson Inc.

Now Oregon stands at the tipping point, say we. It is a very exciting time to be involved in sustainability. However the opportunity comes to you, embrace it.