Green Roofs Galore

I took a walk around the campus yesterday.  Most people dread walking around the campus, especially when it gets hot, but I had a mission.  With a map in hand (courtesy of the Library) I traversed the campus taking note of how many buildings appeared, from the ground level, to be flat enough to provide an easy foundation for a green roof (a roof that is covered by plants).  Across the University of Houston campus there are 41 buildings that at the very least appear to ready to be turned into a eco-friendly and financially sensible green roofs.

If we could turn only these flat roofs into green roofs that would be about 2/3 of the entire campus that would have a green roof.  There are also a few others that with a little more work  could be turned into a green roof.  The buildings that would not be easy to transform are largely bunched in the south-west corner of the campus.  This means that there are large sections of the campus that could be bunched together as a “green zone”.

In these green zones people could expect to find several very important benefits.  Obviously with a green roof there are numerous ecological benefits, as is the case any time a plant or tree is inserted into an environment, but there are also several reasons why students and faculty alike would enjoy having these green roofs.

Having a green roof is simply prettier than walking by and seeing tar or gravel or nothing at all.  Being able to surround yourself in a beautiful setting is one of the reasons why the University has gone through so much trouble keeping the grounds in such good shape.  There have also been numerous studies linking mental health with a beautiful and natural environment and who couldn’t use a little better mental health (especially around finals).

We all know that it gets blazing hot in Houston in the summer and as any freshman will tell you there is a lot of walking from class to class in the blazing heat.  Obviously a green roof will not stop Houston from being hot but it might be slightly cooler.  Scientist use the term “urban heat island effect” to describe the increased heat in an urban area over an area that does not have as many buildings or as much concrete.  With many of the buildings targeted for green roofs being close to one another there is a possibility that it may be slightly cooler walking around if there were more green roofs on campus, and that’s good news for everyone that has to sit next to that guy that stinks because he has been walking around outside for too long.

Another benefit of the green roofs would be that they would reduce the amount of water flowing off of the buildings and into the walkways when we have rain storms.  This will reduce the number of times that you have to jump over that massive puddle or slop through the rivers that run rampant when we get a heavy rain.

This can also be an excellent way for the University to save some money by reducing their cooling cost during all of the warm months (which is everything except for like December and January).  By having a green roof the building is then protected from the heat of the sun and thus it requires less energy to cool.  There are also numerous other financial benefits that could be reaped by the school through proper use of green roofs, which hopefully could be passed down to the students in the form of a more affordable tuition.

Dr. Kahtor came to the University of Houston to make a difference for the students, faculty and the city.  With one strong initiative to green the roofs of the University of Houston she could be setting a president that could change schools all across the country and the world.

-Job Tennant

The New Fleet

On Wednesday Tuan Tran, the UH fleet coordinator, was showing off some of his cool new toys.  On display were several electric or solar powered vehicles that UH has been using in order to contribute to a greener campus.  There were a couple of electric powered golf carts, which while not breaking news are still a step in the right direction in terms of our transportation.  However, what was much more impressive were the other vehicles on site.

First there was the Solar Powered golf cart that was generously donated by Brittish Petrolium (BP) to the school.  This looks like a suped up golf cart that has a luggage rack on top but this is much more than a luggage rack.  This is just what you may assume that it would be.  It is powered by the sun and has a small, but useful, storage battery that will save aproximately one hours worth of usage without sun light.  There is also the option of charging it electrically if need be.

However, the most exciting thing on display were the two new MILES cars.  MILES is a car company that is committed to making vehicles that produce zero emissions.  This has recently beome a more popular option around campuses such as Stanford, Yale, California State Polytechnic University, Queens College, UC Irvine, UC Davis and UCLA.  They have also been used at NASA, the US Navy, the National Park Service, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

Here at UH we have the ZX40S, which is a four door S.U.V. that looks like it has been shrunk to something a little larger than a smart car.  In addition to that there is also the ZX40ST which is almost like a miniaturized Ford Ranger.  This has a bed that is large enough to carry almost anything that you may need but, once again, produces no tailgate emission.  This may not seem like a huge deal at first glance.  After all it is only two cars out of the many that UH owns but each gallon of gas used produces over 19 pounds of carbon dioxide.  Over the course of a year that can add up.

According to the web site either of these cars are for sale for $19,900. This may seem like a lot for a car that won’t  be able to make it on to the highway, because it has a top speed of 25 miles per hour, but there is a calculator on the web site www.milesev.com/ that can break down the total savings for their cars.  In the quick calculation that I ran my average cost of driving my car was nine cents per mile and the cost of driving the ZX40S would only be slightly over two cents per mile.  Over the course of a year this would save a total of $700.  Of course my driving is slightly different than what the ZX40S would be capable of (thanks to the devil known as US-59).  While in terms of the functionality there is still plenty of room for improvement but they are almost on par with their luxury items.  The ZX40S has airconditioning and a CD player that makes it much more user friendly.

In the end we have made massive improvements in terms of our technology and our ability to create green machines but we still need to integrate it into our daily lives so that we can reap the benefits of the technology that we now have.  Hopefully we will be able to take this next step forward along with Detroit and it will be a win win situation both for the economy and the environment.

-Job Tennant

Eat your GREENs

Yesterday the GreenUH team was out in force at the fountains with tons of fun and a mission to spread awareness on Earth Day.  Maria Honey, the events outreach coordinator, was celebrating the great success of recyclemania.  The University of Houston recycled a total of 249,328 pounds of recyclable material during the drive.  This was the highest total in all of Conference USA and number three overall in Texas.  There was plenty of fun to be had with a bean bag toss, give aways, badminton, a tug-0-war and a weather balloon launch to watch but for all the fun that was had there was a very serious meaning behind all of this.

It was all about awareness via activity.  There were games ranging from a bean bag toss to a bottle relay where each participant would run around with a previously used plastic bottle and attempt to run the race while making everyone more aware that there are numerous ways for us to recycle.

There are numerous other ways that students as well as the school have been attempting to green up the school.  For example the cafeterias for the dorms have been using to go containers that are naturally biodegradable rather than Styrofoam, which can take up to 50 years to dissolve.  In addition to this they have eliminated trays, which means that students can only take what they can carry, and thus they are less likely to take more than they are really willing to eat simply out of gluttony.    Then to take it even a step further they collect the excess food and take it to a mulch pile.  This pile is then taken care of by the ground crew until it is ready to be used on the community garden.

The garden is 1800 square feet where the grounds crew initially, and hopefully soon students, will grow a wide variety of vegetables and herbs.  These include but certainly are not limited to tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and anything else that you might need in order to make a delicious salsa.  This tantalizing treat will then be sold at all of the sporting events, cafeterias and convenience stores on campus, so that we can all enjoy a being green even if the salsa is as red as the cougars are.

Coogs should be the only red in a green city

Houston needs to step up its efforts to become a greener city.  Houston is currently ranked 36th out of 50 of the largest cities in the country.  The cities ranked about Houston include Chicago (4), New York (5), Philadelphia (8), Austin (14), Dallas (24), Detroit (31) and San Antonio (33).  Of the 16 categories taken into account Houston ranks in the 40s in three categories.

There are numerous ways that the city can overcome this poor rating and some are easier than others.  There are very few supporters of such radical movements as going without your refrigerator but there are many simple ways from “greening your fridge” to installing motion detectors on your light switches that shut off after an allotted period of time without movement.  There are several buildings down town that have already begun this transformation and many more will in the coming months and years.  However, it is not enough to simply allow the “big boys” do all of the work.  Each person can go to Home Depot and find a motion detecting switch for as little as $15, which is $2 more than a standard switch.  This seems so simple but so many people are unaware of the tremendous impact that we the common people could have if we simply chose to be more active.

Ecological Economy

Dr. Majora Carter who came to Rice University Tuesday evening to speak about the potential benefit that the green industries could have immediately on the economy at the local level.  Carter is the founder of B.E.S.T. which stands for Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training.  This is a work study program where people, many of which have recently been released from jail, and teaches them the skills they need to be effective in the green revolution.

Green jobs are especially good “because they cannot be easily outsourced, say, to Asia,” said Van Jones, president of Green for All, an organization based in Oakland, Calif., whose goal is promoting renewable energy and lifting workers out of poverty. “If we are going to weatherize buildings, they have to be weatherized here,” he said. “If you put up solar panels, you can’t ship a building to Asia and have them put the solar panels on and ship it back. These jobs have to be done in the United States.”

One of the most prominent projects that Carter has established is the Greenway project.  In this project Carter raised $1.25 million grant from the federal government in order to establish bike and pedestrian paths that wind their way through the burrow, including up to the newly established waterfront park.  The park was also created by Carter who turned an illegal landfill into a beautiful recreation area.

In the most-often-cited estimate, a report commissioned by the American Solar Energy Society said that the nation had 8.5 million jobs in renewable energy or energy efficient industries. And Jerome Ringo, president of the Apollo Alliance, predicted that the nation could generate three million to five million more green jobs over the next 10 years.

It is hard to gauge the number of green-collar jobs nationwide. Welders at a wind-turbine factory are viewed as having green jobs, but what about the factory’s accountant or its janitors? Workers with Sustainable South Bronx, a nonprofit group that plants vegetation to keep the area cooler and reduce air-conditioning demands, would seem to fit the bill. But so would the employees of Tesla Motors, south of San Francisco, who are producing an all-electric Roadster that sells for $98,000.

Carter is on her way to establishing her own legacy of employment by producing graduates of her program that are working at an 80 percent rate, there are also 15 percent of the graduates that are going on to a higher education.  In addition to creating an active workforce for the community Carter is working on “crime prevention through environmental design”.  One example that she gave was that there was a particular tree that was blocking out the light from the only street light in that area.  Because of this there was an increased amount of illegal activities in this particular area.  With the simple act of pruning the tree the residents found that there was significantly less illegal activity in the area.

Detroit- The Motor City

Detroit has long been a major source of pride, as well as economy, for America.  Or as Chevy would put it; Detroit has been the “Heartbeat of America”.  However, with the current economic crisis Detroit has been beaten and bruised much like a heavyweight champion that has hung around the ring for too long.  Both G.M. and Chrysler have already received a total of $17,400,000 and are now saying that they need more in order to not be forced to file for bankruptcy.

This is obviously a major national concern because according to the Center for Automotive Research (C.A.R.) the total impact on the U.S. economy if the big three (Ford, G.M. and Chrysler) were to shut down would be disasterous.  It would cost the nation almost 3 million jobs in 2009 and would reduce the U.S. personal income by over $150 billion.  The Obama administration has repreatedly used the fact that 600,000 jobs were lost last month in order to spur along the stimulus package.  That is 600,000 from across the nation in all spheres of activity (including the guy that shows up to work late every day).

While that is terrible if the auto industry were forced to go belly up and quit they would be able to essentially sustain that pace for five months if the rest of the economy were all peaches and cream.  But speaking of peaches and cream lets not paint too much of a doom and gloom picture here.  This scenario is the worst case disaster plan.  This is under the assumption that Ford will completely fold up and quit which is not the case.  Ford is currently debating if they even need any government funding, they want to see if they have a chance to survive this on their own.  Also Chrysler and G.M. are in bad situations, but that does not mean they are going to simply quit.  They will cut certain lines (like Saab) or reduce the number of plants they have but that is a far cry from just quiting.  So for now, lets take a collective step back and try to evaluate this from a standpoint of pure reason.  The news throws out terms like “lowest in 30 years” or “Worst since 1974″ like they are beads in the Mardi Gras parade but all that means is that my parents, and many many other people, have lived through worse than this and lived to tell the tale.  Certainly things could get worse and I am not encouraging everyone to stick their heads in the sand but simply to look at this in a broader historical context.

-Job Tennant

$8 for a beer?

Now I love beer as much as just about anybody.  But even I have to draw a line somewhere.  When does too much simply become too much?  This is something people are asking themselves about a lot more than just beer.  Gas, rent, eating out, entertainment, it all is beginning to be questioned and evaluated.  This is the same in the sports world, a world that had been able to resist previous economic lulls but this one may be different.  Because the amount of money involved in the sports industry as escalated so incredibly high (Alex Rodruigez signed a 10 year $250,000,000 contract) they have priced themselves out of the stable and dependable portion of the market and into the boom and bust portion.  If this economic slump follows the way of Bobby Abreu’s power after the Home Run Derby, then perhaps we will see the sports industry come back to earth and we won’t hear of one single athelete making a quarter of a billion dollars.  Who knows maybe that will even be better for the sport.  Everyone complains about the premadonas that seem to be everywhere in profesional sports so maybe this economic crisis will teach people some humility.  Perhaps there is an upside to everything.

-Job Tennant

Funding Failure?

Obviously there are a lot of reasons why this economy is struggling right now.  However, it seems as though a good leaping off point would be the numerous bad loans made by the banks.  Then the goverenment decided to bail out the banks.  Rather than trying to help the banks that had withstood this the government decided to help the banks that had made the most mistakes.  Of the banks that received the most from the bail out people haven’t seen an increase in lending and are beginning to get upset.  “Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he expected the Obama administration to push banks harder to increase lending.”  What I don’t understand is why people get so upset that these banks originally made bad loans and then when they are then given government funds people want to force the banks to give out more loans than they want to.  That is what go us into this whole situation.  How quickly we forget.  “Members of Congress from both parties and several agencies appointed to oversee the program have argued that the government should force increased lending, in part by tracking how banks use the money they get.”  Really?  Force spending?  Briefly allow me to put this in terms of baseball.  If you have Brad Ausmus (a career .251 batting average and as many Astro fans know as close to a sure fire double play as you can find in the majors) you are not going to give him extra at bats, and then tell him he has to swing for the fences.  If you have a player that is struggling at the plate perhaps you sit him down or you bring him in for extra practice or film study.  You don’t just push him up to the plate over and over again and let him see if he can swing himself out of it, especially when you are talking about a bank with billions of dollars invested in it.  With that said you never know whats going to happen, even Brad Ausmus hit .293 in 1995.

-Job Tennant

What are they there for?

“The vote was 244-188, with Republicans unanimous in opposition despite Obama’s pleas for bipartisan support.”  I found this particularly interesting when I was reading House passes “Obama economic stimulus plan” on MSN.  My question here is not about the economic plan itself, to be honest I understand so little of it that my opinion should probably be disregarded, but about the rational behind the voting?  It seems completely unreasonable to think that the entire constituency of every Republican would be against this economic package.  Put aside whether you like the package itself or not, thats not my point.  I want to know why it is that every single Republican would vote the exact same way.  If there are 177 Republicans, the statistical odds of all of them truly representing their followers and not simply following party lines seems remote at best.  If, and I say if, in this instance the Republicans are following only party lines to try and form a singular force with which to oppose President Obama then we must question to what extent they are truly acting as representatives rather than serving their own self interest.  I don’t know what it means but it seems like something we should think more about.

-Job Tennant

Financial Crisis For Those That Don’t Have Finances

There has been a lot made of this economic down turn over the last several months with good reason.  Many people have lost everything that they have worked for and many more have fallen on extremely hard times.  Many people can no longer afford the fancy houses and comfortable life styles that they have become accustomed to.  This is not to exclude the middle class families that have lost their retirement fund or their children’s college savings.  Nor is it to exclude the lower class families that have lost a primary source of income and perhaps should garnish the majority of our attention.  However, for me personally, my experience in this crisis has been little more than something to worry and stress about.  I am extremely lucky in that my finances, though in poor shape for other reasons, have not taken a cataclysmic decline in the last several months.  Sure there has not been quite as much work at the radio station (my primary job) but that is also in part due to the fact that things always slow down around this time of year; and yes there was a hiring freeze but that was not until after I was hired. My second job, doing antique restoration, has seen no drop off whatsoever.  This is in part due to the clientele, my boss works with the finest furniture in the city, the people that can afford the furniture are so well off that this has had a very minimal effect on their day to day finances.  When you start off being broke, i.e. a college student with a five year old son, things slowing down and the stock market coming down are not necessarily the end of the world.  The reason for me pointing this out is that every now and then people need to hear that the entire world is not about to implode upon itself.  I am in no way making light of the situation but simply offering a reminder that regardless of what has happened to us, people have been able to not only survive but thrive in this world and I have no doubt that no matter how bad this gets we will find a peak for this valley.

-Job