A
The Year of 2008
What has
this year meant to the New Mexico Building Industry and to CASA? It has been a
year of changes, both for the commercial and residential sectors. A lot of
these changes involved an intensification of what it means to consider the principles
of saving energy and creating buildings that are based on sustainable design
principles. In a year that ended much differently than it started, leaving all
of us with a lot of fear about the coming years, we are still doing much better
than other states.
New Mexico
has not had as much of a down market in its building construction industry as
other Western states, and this means we can look forward to planning for new
work, though it might be less.
CASA has
been working on providing the New Mexico building industry with an opportunity
to come together and share opinions and needs for the development of the
future. In April of this past year CASA held its annual Green Building Summit,
the third program. We enjoyed the keynote address Lt. Governor, Diane Denish gave and learned
about her great concerns for energy saving buildings and the need for a better
mortgage system that would award Green Building design, and energy saving
measures in our state. We developed four directions for the industry; Building
Codes, Education for a Sustainable Future, Making Green Building the Norm, and
Legislation.
In brief, the most important direction the industry wants
to take is to revise the composition of the:
Construction Industry
Commission,
·
Making Green
Building the Norm
·
Making the Public
more aware of what a green building is and does. Provide more information
schools and libraries
·
Legislative:
create bills from the governor's EO for buildings, HERS Ratings for all
buildings, fund the green codes development program
We also want to thank
those organizations again who sponsored this event:
·
AIA New Mexico
·
USGBC New Mexico
·
Mesa del Sol
·
National
Association of Industrial and Office Properties
·
GreenBuild New
Mexico
We have
begun the process of another Green Building Summit in September of 2009. The
program will focus on the design of a new Green Building Code. This will be a
different format, with guest presenters and the formation of a Taskforce to
create the codes.
We have
developed a project called the CASA Code Initiative. This is a long-term
action, which will take a lot of work. It has been obvious for some time that
the building codes need to 'green up'. The
Architecture 2030 Challenge paved the way for many considerations of Greenhouse
Gas (GHG) reductions to get as close to the minimum as possible, a neutral CO2
status by 2030. This means that through a series of reductions in 2010, 2015, 2025
and 2030 there is a clear guide for buildings to achieve greater energy
savings.
If we
accomplish this, CASA will help New Mexico save many thousands of dollars and
employ many new people in Green Jobs related to new skills and technologies. 'It
takes a village, however'. We must get the state agencies on line and then we
can get the CCI going.
This past year Howard was asked
to present at four conferences:
·
The New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority's
annual conference: The Governor's Housing Summit; talking about the Cost of Energy in Housing.
·
Lorman Educational Services; Incorporating Green
Designs into Your Project, his topic was Leed
Overview and Regulatory Issues of Sustainable Development.
·
He talked about Green Building: the Key to the Global Warming Solution at the New
Mexico Public Health Association conference.
·
At the USGBC Sustainability Week Lecture Series,
Howard spoke to a consumer audience on the topic; Why Build Green? Economics and Climate Change.
CASA was also represented on the
radio! Howard was a guest on the Santa Fe talk program, Journey Home, hosted by
Diego Mulligan on KSFR-FM, discussing the State of Green Building in New Mexico
and the eed for Green Building Codes in New Mexico.
Howard also authored a short
paper, "The Building Community has Spoken, Green Codes Are It".
The concept was to establish awareness
for the state to begin a process to develop green building codes and adopt them
over the next coming year.
Another important initiative
CASA has undertaken is to apply for a Grant to support a High School Mentorship
Project for Sustainable Technologies. This would provide at-risk high-school
juniors and seniors with real-time exposure in a professional engineering,
architecture, and product development environment and also engage them in a
project of their own. We hope that CASA can contribute to the next generation's
interest in the upcoming Green Revolution.
The target population may not
have a significant person in their life; might not have a parent or lives with
a single parent. This will be an opportunity to provide a participant with view
of life as it can be, and to develop their skills and talents to have another
kind of life through successful employment.
CASA looks forward to 2009 and
hope that we can share a little bit of
satisfaction in getting the 'Green Economy' going in New Mexico.
rticle Headline
|
Phyllis Kaplan
CASA: A Center Advancing Sustainable Architecture |
