Our own South Waterfront Sustainable Lifestyle and Transportation Committee, along with the folks with South Waterfront Community Relations have put together a series of talks with local gurus of sustainability. The first talk was in April with Eban Goodstein, Professor of Economics at Lewis & Clark College and author of several books about sustainability and it’s affect on the economy.

The next talk in the series is coming up next week - July 10th to be exact - and will feature Regina Hauser, the Executive Director of the Oregon Natural Step Network. Hauser will pick up where Prof. Goodstein has left off, by presenting on the Natural Step framework, which provides the principals and steps to take to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. For more information on this event, please click here.

The last event will feature Michael Armstrong, the Deputy Director of the City of Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development. The date of this event has yet to be determined - so stay tuned! I hope to see everyone at the upcoming speakers, they are particularly relevant to the culture of the South Waterfront.

November’s issue has a great article about the state of LEED certification in America called “Can LEED Survive the Carbon Neutral Era?” which addresses the challenges that the LEED certification is facing and how LEED standards are evolving. The article even highlights landmark LEED buildings in the USA - including the South Waterfront’s very own OHSU Center for Health and Healing - click on the image to the right of the article. Between those two articles and the article “Beyond the Spectacle,” which describes Dubai’s development plans, of which most will be certified by the UAE’s LEED system, it seems to me that sustainable development is becoming the standard rather than a luxury. If that is the case it still baffles me as to why the Homebuilders Association of Metropolitan Portland has a problem with Portland’s carbon tax initiative (see Oregonian article here). Seems to me that if they are already building green as many developers claim to be they should be excited about the potential tax rebates they could qualify for.

In a recent article published by Kevin Maney in the Conde Nast Portfolio, a discussion regarding the effects of bottled water is introduced. Since water bottles consist of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), aka oil, it is estimated that 17.6 billion barrels of oil are used in their manufacturing. That roughly projects out to the use of enough fuel to power one million vehicles annually.

The EPA monitors municipal water systems and grades them accordingly. Most places in the United States succeed in producing water that is safe and some even add fluoride. The two largest producers of bottled water, Aquafina and Dasani actual do nothing spectacular in the creation of their water. Aquafina’s water comes from filtered municipal taps while Dasani’s water comes from a plant in Canada that also produces cars and paint.

As far as municipal systems go, Portland was recently rated as having the second best drinking water in the nation. The EPA was quoted as saying that the water is so pure coming from the taps that filtration was not needed. Several other cities across the United States can claim almost the same thing which leads us again to question why we are wasting the precious oil on bottling water. Let’s not just hold water responsible. Bottled sodas and juices are also at fault. Imagine how much oil could be saved to heat our homes and power our vehicles if fluids were not plasticized.

The dams that make Hydropower impede fish runs and the reservoirs behind dams warm the water above natural temperature or in some cases release deep reservoir cold water into a normally warmer river. Both these situations harm native river ecosystems. So by reducing the need for more energy we reduce the need for dams built to supply power. Since some dams across the country are reaching the end of their physical life the opportunity to remove them becomes an option. These are serious issues that not only affect the human population of the world but also affect the rest of the world’s wildlife. Without a wide diversity of life on the planet we will have a very lonely planet.

   Next on the hierarchy of transportation is public transit, of which South Waterfront is unparalleled in the US, with the exception of New York City, because of the Portland Ariel Tram. The  Tram makes for a easy connection between one of Portland’s largest employer, OHSU, and the Portland Streetcar. The Tram also allows for OHSU to expand on the land they own in South Waterfront such as they have done with the Center for Health and Healing at the base of the Tram. Also by having the base of  the Tram surrounded by the high density residences in the South Waterfront neighborhood will make for an easy commute for OHSU employees or patients who live there without any other transportation link. The Streetcar loop through the district makes it easy to exit a full streetcar on the southbound trip and do pickup on the northbound trip. The Streetcar also connects South Waterfront in a linear route through the heart of Portland; River-place, Portland State University, MAX Light Rail and multiple Bus routes, Downtown, the Pearl District and Northwest Portland. Bus routes on SW Macadam Avenue provide addition links out of the district. Automobile use in South Waterfront is also easier because of the grid style street-scape just as it is friendly to pedestrian and bicycle use. Flex cars are also parked in the district for those who do not own or those people who need a 2nd car occasionally. 

By our calculations, the average American home uses 10,968 kWh of energy annually. This figure averages data from several sources that provide information about average annual home energy consumption. Instead of using just one figure, we created an average from figures provided by a number of sources. These sources include the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, the US Department of Energy and Underwriters Laboratories By comparing the projected annual energy usage for South Waterfront residences with the average annual household consumption of energy, we calculated the anticipated annual energy savings for South Waterfront. Natural gas use was included in the calculations. Therms - the units of measurement for heat - were converted to kWh to obtain a standard unit of measurement across all of our energy calculations. 29 Therms is equivalent to one kWh.

Energy Savings in Dollars

To get the energy savings in dollars, the energy savings in kWh was multiplied by 7 cents per kWh, which is the cost per kWh of electricity in Oregon and Washington according to the Department of Energy’s Information Administration Website.

This annual water usage for SWF was then compared to the national average water use per person per year, multiplied by the same number of occupants.  The annual water savings was then equated to number of showers saved per year.  The average shower was calculated at 20 gallons of water or 8 minutes of shower time with a 2.5 gallon/minute water flow.

Smartwater.com, npr.org, supplyht.com and the American Water Association were sources for this information.

www.branchhome.com

www.nau.com

www.gaiam.com

www.fabulouslygreen.blogspot.com