Corpsmembers speak at the Salmon Restoration Federation Conference.

By C-1 John Griffith

The Salmon Restoration Federation has been holding an annual conference for the last 26 years. The conference is four days long and includes field tours of restoration sites, networking opportunities, an award ceremony for restorationists, and several workshops. This year, one of those workshops was titled, California Conservation Corps-California’s Future Restoration Workers. The featured speakers were two corpsmembers, a C-1, and two committed CCC sponsors. The corpsmembers were David Atchison a natural resource specialist from Fortuna and Zac Williams a tool specialist from the Ukiah campus. Both corpsmembers spoke to a packed room about the personal transformational experiences they’ve had in the CCC. David and Zac delivered their talks from the heart as they recapped the challenges they’ve met and the progress they’ve made while in the CCC. Misty eyes and smiles from the audience spoke to the power of their success stories. Other speakers at the workshop were John Griffith C-1 from the Fortuna campus, Allan Renger from Department of Fish and Game, and Leah Mahan from the NOAA Fisheries Program.

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Green Building = Green Jobs

Basic changes in building design and construction could slash greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent in North America, said a joint Canada-US-Mexico report Thursday.

The report, “Green Building in North America: Opportunities and Challenges,” was released by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation at an environmental trade fair in Canada. .

Jonathon Westeinde, a Canadian developer, chairs an advisory group for the commission, which has the mandate of environmental cooperation under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The report recommended that engineers and architects abandon old, proven designs in favor of emerging building technologies, and also called for urban planning with increased population density and access to public transit.

It touted basic measures such as thicker insulation and more energy efficient windows, minimizing energy-intensive heating and air-conditioning and avoiding use of some synthetic building materials that cause indoor air pollution by releasing volatile compounds.

The report noted that North America’s buildings release more than 2,200 megatons of carbon dioxide each year, some 35 percent of the continent’s total.

But the industry has a long way to go. Less than four percent of new buildings meet stringent new environmental, health and energy-saving goals under the continent’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard. Many of the ideas in the report, from urban design to boosting insulation, are not new. “What’s different with this report is there is science behind it,” said Westeinde.

Evidence for the possible energy savings is contained in technical background papers based on laboratory tests, and show that the targets in the report are achievable, he said.

The CEC is an international organization created by Canada, Mexico, and the United States under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). The CEC was established to address regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts, and promote the effective enforcement of environmental law. The Agreement complements the environmental provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Read the full report here: Green Building in North America: Opportunities and Challenges
More on Green Building: Green Building

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