So, it's one thing to think about reducing energy usage at home or at work. But that's all micro.
But how to get macro? How does a neighborhood or city do the same?
That's what the American Institute of Architects
Sustainable Design Assessment Team is going to help figure out when it performs its audit of Detroit.
SDATs bring teams of volunteer professionals like architects, urban designers, planners, hydrologists, economists and attorneys to a city for a three-day charette and team them up with local architecture and engineering students along with government officials, community groups and other stakeholders.
Diane VanBuren Jones of WARM Training spearheaded the SDAT application and is now coordinating the assessment itself. She says the out-of-town experts will arrive with "a national eye on how sustainability will work in your community."
Jones is particularly interested in mapping the city's energy systems. "We will take it down to the level of each business," she says, citing a tortilla factory as an example.
"It brings in corn and wheat -- some of it from Ohio instead of Michigan -- and the production uses a ton of natural gas. There is people energy and transportation energy and energy to heat and light the building.
A map of all such systems would allow experts to close some energy loops. "How much would be spent on all of those energy systems if we got smart about it?" she asks.
But it isn't just the environment motivating the SDAT process -- it's economics as well. Money saved by increased energy efficiency can create prosperity and new jobs, says Jones.
Which is why her next task is identifying funding sources for entrepreneurs, neighborhoods and developers that are interested in investing in green technologies such as solar panels or
anaerobic digesters.
Jones is currently working with several universities to select the date of the SDAT.
Source: Diane VanBuren Jones, WARM Training
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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