Ronnie Das

Our home, our castle, our little fort in San Diego is very highly guarded. Windows, doors, walls and everything else to keep the elements out and protect the contents inside.

That castle also holds on to VOC’s or Volatile Organic Compounds which are unhealthy to breath in. So open the windows and unlock the doors to get a good breeze going through as you build your knowledge with ‘De-constructing Construction’

All your bags are packed your ready to go, can’t steal anymore lines or I will owe, so here we are in San Diego International Airport. After a relaxing flight your stretching out your legs in Sunny San Diego grabbing your bag on the way to a car to explore the city. Take a second before you get to far along and realize your in the Green Build a billion dollar project at the airport making the entire place more efficient, effective and environmentally friendly.

Now that you’ve aired out and seen how we fly in San Diego take a trip up top to get a great view of San Diego’s greenscaped future. Above San Diego are green roofs providing all sorts of benefits in our community.

Tired from being so high, take a load off and relax as we head to North Park to Olive Branch Green Building Supplies and find out how Skyy Vodka and beer bottles can be countertops in a beautiful home not just a frat house.

Take a back seat as Lisa cunningham the owner of Olive Branch takes us to a home where they’ve really bringing the environment indoors to make a great house a long-lasting home.

Time to get busy as we head to picturesque Del Mar and help Dave Nash of the United States Green Building Council’s – San Diego chapter with a Re-Green home. This small home has big potential in saving the environment.

Finally the grand jewel of Green Building, the Neptune Green Home. A Platinum LEED certified home in Encinitas, California. Explore it with us and get ready to be amazed.

So take a trip, grab a seat, ride along, and get comfortable for De-constructing Construction.

Originally Aired Friday June 17th at 6pm on ITV – Channel 16.

We’re Up, Up and Away with this Season of How Can I Help? Pleased to announce our latest accomplishment, Episode 3: De-Constructing Construction is featured on the San Diego International Airports Official Website. This is a major accomplishment, check it out…

37 real statistics that could use real answers

Statistics are useless without real solutions and a lot of times stats are unrecognizable because they don’t relate to your life which makes them useless tidbits of information. Let’s change that….

The statistics listed are challenges I offer you, take a problem and devise a simple, cheap low-cost (under $25) to no-cost solution on how anyone can make a difference to lower there environmental impact.

Ex.
1. Buildings accounted for 38.9 percent of total U.S. energy consumption in 2005. Residential buildings accounted for 53.7 percent of that total, while commercial buildings accounted for the other 46.3 percent.

Solution: Family Time. Ditch the TV and play a board game or enjoy the Cool San Diego Summer with a backyard BBQ, be sure to turn off indoor electronics when you do. Cost: FREE or cost of BBQ -(Your name here) Date

OR

Solution: Energy Conservation. Remember to turn off lights and electronics. Cost: FREE -(Person who gave answer) Day they told us

OR

Solution: Improve Lighting. Buy CFL lightbulbs to switch out your old inefficient incandescent bulbs. Cost: $1-$2/bulb -(Your name, nickname, sn, or anonymous) Day you thought of it

No one wants to be ordered around or told to buy a product, so try to keep your ideas interesting, innovative, creative and FUN!!!37 Real Statistics, Need Real Answers
Energy Use
1. Buildings accounted for 38.9 percent of total U.S. energy consumption in 2005. Residential buildings accounted for 53.7 percent of that total, while commercial buildings accounted for the other 46.3 percent.

2. Buildings accounted for 72 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption in 2006 and this number will rise to 75% by 2025. 51 percent of that total was attributed to residential building use, while 49 percent was attributed to commercial building usage.

3. The average household spends at least $2,000 a year on energy bills — over half of which goes to heating and cooling.

4. Out of the total energy consumption in an average household, 50% goes to space heating, 27% to run appliances, 19% to heat water and 4% goes to air conditioning.

Air and Atmosphere
5. Buildings in the United States contribute 38.9 percent of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions, including 20.8 percent from the residential sector and 18.0 percent from the commercial sector (2008).

6. The annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8–5.4°F (1–3°C) warmer than its surroundings. In the evening, the difference can be as high as 22°F (12°C). Heat islands can increase summertime peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution and greenhouse gas

Water Use
7. Building occupants use 13 percent of the total water consumed in the United States per day. Of that total, 25.6 percent is used by commercial building occupants, and 74.4 percent by homeowners (1995).

8. Between 1950 and 2000, the U.S. population nearly doubled. However, in that same period, public demand for water more than tripled! Americans now use an average of 100 gallons of water each day—enough to fill 1,600 drinking glasses

9. Faucets account for more than 15 percent of indoor household water use—more than 1 trillion gallons of water across the United States each year. Showering accounts for approximately 17 percent of residential indoor water use in the United States—more than 1.2 trillion gallons of water consumed each year.

10. A leaky faucet wastes gallons of water in a short period of time. A leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons per day.

11. Of the 26 billion gallons of water consumed daily in the United States, approximately 7.8 billion gallons, or 30 percent, is devoted to outdoor uses. The majority of this is used for landscaping.

12. The typical suburban lawn consumes 10,000 gallons of water above and beyond rainwater each year.

13. Currently, about eight percent of U.S. energy demand goes to treating, pumping, and heating water and is equal to enough electricity to power more than 5 million homes for an entire year. Water heating accounts for 19 percent of home energy use and 13 percent of the average utility bill.

14. $4 billion is spent annually in the U.S. for energy to run drinking water and wastewater utilities. If this could be reduced by just 10 percent through better efficiency, that could save $400 million a year.

Land Use
15. Total land area in the U.S. is 2.3 billion acres. Urban land area quadrupled from 1945 to 2002, increasing at about twice the rate of population growth over this period. Estimated acreage of rural land used for residential purposes increased by 21 million acres (29 percent) from 1997 to 2002 (2002).

Indoor Environment
-General
16. On average, Americans spend about 90 percent or more of their time indoors. Indoor levels of pollutants may be two to five times higher, and occasionally more than 100 times higher, than outdoor levels.

-Schools
17. In the mid-1990s, one in five of U.S. schools reported unsatisfactory indoor air quality, and one in four schools reported ventilation as unsatisfactory.

Homes
18. In 1992, EPA estimated that nearly one out of every 15 homes had radon concentrations above the EPA recommended action level.

-Indoor Pollutants
19. Sources of indoor air pollution may include: combustion sources; building materials and furnishings; household cleaning, and maintenance.

20. Many homes built before 1978 have lead-based paint, which can expose people to contamination through paint chips, dust and contaminated soil.

Health Effects of Indoor Environmental Quality
-Cancer
21. EPA estimates that out of a total of 146,400 lung cancer deaths nationally in 1995, 21,100 (14.4%) were radon related.

22. Environmental tobacco smoke (also referred to as secondhand smoke) is a known human carcinogen, estimated to be responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths in non-smokers each year as well as posing significant respiratory health risks to young children, including bronchitis, pneumonia, and asthma.

-Asthma
23. Indoor contaminants such as dust mites, molds, cockroaches, pet dander, secondhand smoke and some chemicals can trigger asthma attacks.

24. More than 20 million people, including over 6 million children, have asthma, accounting for over 10 million outpatient clinic visits, nearly 2 million emergency department visits and nearly 4,500 deaths annually (2000).

25. In 2003, an estimated 12.8 million school days were missed due to asthma.

26. The estimated cost of treating asthma in those under 18 is $3.2 billion per year.

Materials and Waste
27. The U.S. generated approximately 254 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2007. Excluding composting, the amount of MSW recycled increased to 63.3 million tons, an increase of 1.9 million tons from 2006. This is a 3 percent increase in the tons recycled.

28. Municipal solid waste generation in 2007 was 4.62 pounds per person per day. The recycling rate in 2007 was 1.54 pounds per person per day.

29. Building-related construction and demolition (C&D) debris totals approximately 160 million tons per year, accounting for nearly 26 percent of total non-industrial waste generation in the U.S. Combining C&D with MSW yields an estimate that building construction, renovation, use and demolition together constitute about two-thirds of all non-industrial solid waste generation in the US.

30. Sources of the building-related C&D debris wastestream include demolition (accounting for approximately 48 percent of the waste stream per year), renovation (44 percent), and new construction (8 percent).

31. An estimated 20 to 30 percent of building-related C&D debris is recovered for processing and recycling. The materials most frequently recovered and recycled were concrete, asphalt, metals, and wood.

32. Architects and builders typically do not design homes with easy renovation or deconstruction in mind. The average U.S. family moves every 10 years.

33. Homes often undergo many renovations over their lifetimes, or complete building removal is carried out to make room for a newer home.

Storm Water Runoff
34. Impervious surface coverage (paved or roofed surfaces where rain rainwater does not soak into the ground) in the U.S. is 83,337 square km. This is an area as big as 75% of Ohio.

35. 65% of this impervious area is due to transportation surfaces (roads, parking lots, sidewalks, driveways) and 35% is due to roofs of offices, homes, stores and patios.

36. Buildings and the transportation infrastructure that serves them replace natural surfaces with impermeable materials, creating runoff that washes pollutants and sediments into surface waters.

37. Urban runoff is the sixth leading source of impairment in rivers, ninth in lakes, and fifth in estuaries (2002)

37 chances for correct choices.

Facts
Schools
Nearly 84 million Americans (including 73.7 million students) spend their days in approximately 124,110 colleges, universities, public and private primary and secondary schools (2007).

Commercial Buildings
Nearly 4.9 million office buildings existed in 2003 in the U.S.

Every year, approximately 170,000 commercial buildings are constructed, and nearly 44,000 commercial buildings demolished (1995).

Residential Buildings
Nearly 128 million residential housing units existed in the U.S. in 2007.

Approximately 7.188 million new housing units were built between 2005 and 2009.

Overall
In the U.S. there were 223,114 establishments/businesses in the building industry, representing more than $531 billion in annual revenues, nearly $62 billion in annual payroll, and more than 1.7 million employees in 2002.