Rex Beasley is creating a highly innovative house he calls Fountainhead that is as gentle as possible on the land, in the Morongo Valley outside of Palm Springs. So why would he be opposed to LEEDs certification, which he seems likely to win with ease? Beasley shared his thoughts with Whole Life Times.
If the goal is to avoid the calamity of rapid climate change occurring on the globe, LEED is mostly a roadblock, writes Beasley, and here’s why:
• Many of the things that are identified as green actually take more energy to make than if they are made from scratch. Aluminum and glass, for example, recycle efficiently and do save a lot of energy and landfill. However, many LEED-certified products are being made from recycled materials but take so much energy to produce they are further warming the globe.
• LEED-certified products typically cost more than “new” products. Why would this be? Again, they take more energy to produce so the manufacturer must charge more. So the manufacturer gets kudos for “being green” but the net result is we are all buying into and financially supporting a global warming phenomenon.
• The preponderance of the LEED (mis)direction is recycling. Recycling is a good thing but is raindrops in the Pacific Ocean relative to what we need to do to meaningfully get a handle on global warming.
The Flip Side
Things that have a large impact toward saving humanity (as it’s becoming very clear we are being sucked down a vortex into floods, drought and runaway viruses) could include:
• If we put the extra money we pay for LEED-designated products into renewable energy instead, we would fund vast amounts of energy production and truly change the direction of climate change. A 100-square-mile block of land in the southwest deserts of the U.S. would provide the electricity that we presently need for all our land-based energy requirements. We produce 20 percent of the world’s CO2, so would literally change the direction of the globe.
• If a home that is 1000 sq ft has the performance and livability of a 1500 sq ft house, or a 2000 sq ft house performed like a 4000 sq ft house, the saving to the environment by building these smaller, yet way cooler homes, is genuinely huge in reducing global warming. This can be done with fluid architecture products (15 of which are will be built at FountainHead) creating a quality of life that does not presently exist in static architecture. LEED gives no accounting for this, a direction that is not drops of water in the Pacific but a groundswell of change.
• Buildings can be designed more like sailing yachts. For example, FountainHead in Phase Two will have a large concentrating collector that tracks the sun, focusing the sun’s energy on a Sterling engine, producing electricity for five homes. This could be in the center of Beverly Hills and not be seen by neighbors. This same movement of the “roof top concentrating collector’” (same expense) also allows the house to have 12 different floor plans, each created in seconds. The house “by design” also breathes, which allows it to bring in cooling fresh air or expel stale hot air.
Villains and (Potential) Heroes
Architects are one of the largest causes of global warming. Architects are trained to be 3D artists, not scientists, engineers or even pragmatists. They want to create spectacular 3D art and only their client holds their polluting direction in check, i.e. the higher budget, which 99 percent of the time means more polluting. Dubai (the new Mecca for architects) is the place of some of the most recent, most wasteful architecture to date in terms of energy CO2 contribution.
The website MediaMatters.org reports that: “With today’s commercial systems, the solar energy resource in a 100-by-100-mile area of Nevada could supply the United States with all of its electricity…This area is available now from parking lots, rooftops, and vacant land. In fact, 90 percent of America’s current electricity needs could be supplied with solar electric systems built on the estimated 5 million acres of abandoned industrial sites in our nation’s cities.”*
If photovoltaic were installed at the above-referenced “abandoned industrial sites,” it could be be positioned to create shaded areas, improving our quality of life and further reduce cooling needs. I have proposed to WalMart that they create shade cover in their parking lots with photovoltaic panels and in this manner create vast amounts of electricity and also provide a more pleasant environment for their shoppers, i.e. shade in summer and protection from rain. (Most people do not realize Walmart is one of the most progressive green companies on the planet. They likely will be the first to implement this on a large scale.)
LEED does not consider these things, yet it is these sorts of things that create powerful evolutions in architecture—to turn the tide on global warming. LEED is largely (but not totally) a distraction from a crisis that has the potential for wiping out mankind.
More about sustainability…
