Go AIA, Go Green

A few years ago I attended my wife's 20-year reunion for a year that she spent overseas in Florence, Italy. This was an arts and architecture year abroad so many attending the event in Venice (CA) were now architects including my wife. As I cruised around the party I talked with many architects and asked them how often their designs included solar panels. As this event was in Southern California, I was surprised that the response was often: We love solar panels and will include them in our designs as long as our clients as for them.
I was a little taken aback. If architects are not aggressively recommending solar panels, who will? While I was going through this, the AIA (American Institute of Architects) was also taking a look at how green building and sustainability were being taught at architecture schools. Their conclusions were similar to mine: more needed to be done in this arena. Architects need to know about sustainability and green building and need to sell it in the same breath that they are selling good design.

My response to this need has been to push our students at Yestermorrow Design/Build School harder and harder as it relates to these important educational threads--and to offer more courses in these areas. And the AIA's response is outlined below. Great move AIA, please let us know how we can help!

CES Sustainability Requirement – NEW!

During the March 2008 AIA National Board of Directors meeting, it was approved that beginning January 1, 2009 the AIA would require all members to complete four (4) hours of sustainable design. These 4 Sustainable Design (SD) hours would be included as part of the current 8 hour / HSW requirement. They are not additional hours to the 18/8 LU hours that the AIA already requires. This requirement would run until 2012, at which time it will be evaluated.
The AIA is currently finalizing the rules of Sustainable Design (SD) Learning Units. During the course of this summer the AIA/CES will be establishing the infrastructure for CES providers to determine, register, and report their future continuing education courses to qualify for Sustainable Design (SD) learning units. These rules will be based upon the following definition.
Sustainable Design (SD) Learning UnitsSustainable design is achieved through an integrated design and delivery process that enhances the natural and built environment by using energy sensibly with a goal toward carbon neutrality, improves air and water quality, protects and preserves water and other resources, and creates environments, communities and buildings that are livable, comfortable, productive, diverse, safe, and provide enduring value to our community and society as a whole.

To qualify as Sustainable Design learning units, the content must meet 4 thresholds:
It must address the AIA definition of sustainability.
It must be a structured (third-party) program (i.e. no self-study).
At least 75% of program content must qualify as HSW.
Its primary purpose must address at least one of the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Measures of Sustainable Design and Performance Metrics
Examples: Design & Innovation; Regional/Community Design; Land Use & Site Ecology; Bioclimatic Design; Light & Air; Water Cycle; Energy Flows & Energy Future; and Materials & Construction to reduce product-cycle environmental impacts and optimize occupant health and comfort.

If you feel that your CES Provider courses will qualify as Sustainable Design (SD) learning units please plan on providing that information to the AIA/CES Records Center this fall once we announce the procedures. Additional progress reports will be offered in coming issues of the CES Provider Connection as well as the AIA/CES website. NO action is necessary at this time.

Invest in Something Positive

The coming paper flurry known as the economic stimulus checks will tempt many Americans to apply those checks towards the frivolous and ephemeral. We at Yestermorrow would urge all to take a moment and take a breath before casting this "bread" on just any passing waters. Our counsel would be to invest that money in change for the better. So what would that be? How about plunking it down to support your local farmer's market or a non-profit trying to make a difference in your neighborhood or the world (hint: Yestermorrow)? Or how about investing in yourself through taking a class at somewhere that will change your life (hint: Yestermorrow).

This idea of enriching the world or your small chunk of the globe with these funds is catching fire and groups such as Keep it in Vermont (http://www.keepitinvermont.org) are full of great ideas of how you can invest these funds locally in a manner that will last much longer than that cashmere sweater or weekend at the spa. Pony up and be the change.

Meet our current staff and interns

Here's a shot of the current Yestermorrow crew (with apologies to Carol, our bookkeeper, who wasn't here today for the photo). From left to right: Back row: Adam, Scott, Josh, Erin, Bob, Austin, Lawry; Front row: Dave, Heidi, Kate, Dan, Monica, Ted, Courtney.

Bill McKibben Strikes Again

Bill McKibben--Advisory Council member and general friend of Yestermorrow--is launching a new initiative that all folks should pay attention to. Check out the below for a message from Bill and links to his new intiative:

http://www.350.org/

A Letter From Bill McKibben

Dear friends,

350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth.

We're planning an international campaign to unite the world around the number 350, and we need your help. We need to make sure that the solutions the world proposes to climate change are to scale with the level of crisis that this number represents. Everyone on earth, from the smallest village to the cushiest corner office needs to know what 350 means. The movement to spread that number needs to be beautiful, creative, and unstoppable.

What we need most right now are your ideas for how to take the number 350 and drive it home: in art, in music, in political demonstrations, in any other way you can imagine. We will connect actions all around the world and make them add up to more than the sum of their parts–but we don't have all the ideas and all the inspiration. We need yours. 350.org@gmail.com
We could also use your help spreading 350. Can you contact anyone you think might be interested and willing to help–in every country on earth–and send them our way? 350.org@gmail.com

Many thanks,

Bill McKibben and the 350.org crew.

Yestermorrow Plays Key Role in Local Actions to Fight Global Warming

From the Feb. 27th edition of the Barre/Montpelier Times Argus:

Valley Towns Tackle Global Warming

February 27, 2008

By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau

WARREN – From abolishing nuclear weapons to impeaching the president of the United States, Vermonters have long used their town meetings to weigh in on matters of national scope.

On Tuesday, in the Mad River Valley, at least three towns will tackle the issue of global warming. But for Warren, Waitsfield and Fayston, the ballot measures have a decidedly local focus. According to backers of a plan to reduce carbon emissions in the Valley by 10 percent, this rural Vermont enclave is as good a place as any to start solving the international climate-change crisis.

"We wanted to test out a prototype approach for organizing people and getting them to start changing behaviors," says Bob Ferris, head of the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren. "… The assumption is that towns, and the elected set of officials representing our government, should take a leadership role in this, and people see what's going on and adopt it in their own lives."

Ferris is among the founding members of "Carbon Shredders," the coalition of Valley residents that petitioned to have the carbon-reducing articles on town meeting warnings in Warren, Waitsfield and Fayston. Moretown may consider the measures from the floor.

All three towns will consider a nonbinding resolution to reduce the energy use and carbon emissions of residents, businesses and institutions by 10 percent by 2010. Warren will also vote on two additional articles: one mandates town participation in the so-called "10 by 10" effort; the other asks voters to appropriate $600 to Carbon Shredders to help fund the group's Valley-wide effort.

Gregor Barnham is head of the corporate responsibility division at the Burlington-based company Seventh Generation and a Carbon Shredders founder. As a Valley resident, Barnham wanted to incorporate the firm's "footprint" mitigation efforts into his own community.

"I thought it'd be fun to start this group and use it as a launching pad – Can we get the whole valley to reduce its carbon footprint by 10 percent by 2010?'" Barnham said.

It's still unclear exactly what Valley residents are signing on for. Barnham says the carbon-reduction mandate will assume whatever form its participants choose.

"It means something different for everybody," he says. "How many showers you take a day, the insulation in the house, buying food locally … You can actually find ways to reduce your energy consumption just by paying attention to what you're doing."

Calculating the amount of energy saved – and carbon sequestered – means voluntary participation in a Web-based carbon-tracking system. By inputting various behavioral changes into a tracking site, Valley residents as a whole will be able to quantify their impact.

"We can have this whole thing reported, and it becomes inspirational in the rest of the country," Barnham says.

Barry Simpson is a longtime selectman in Warren. He says he supports the underlying concept behind the articles but is wary of the measure that mandates 10-percent energy reduction in town facilities. While the town will continue to pursue good environmental practices, Simpson says, selectmen cannot do so at the cost of Warren's fiscal health.

"I believe they're going to amend that so that rather than mandating it, it would be expressed in terms of the town's ability to accomplish that within future budget constraints," Simpson says.

Still, Simpson says environmental and economic interests often overlap. The town has already sought energy efficiencies in its operations, and he says it welcomes the expertise of the Carbon Shredders in finding even more.

"This is a group that certainly has a lot of creditability in terms of what its members have done and achieved previously," Simpson says.

Barnham says the Carbon Shredders will follow the Town Meeting Day vote with a March 18 event preparing residents for the carbon-reducing program. Teams of about 10 people will be sent off to train other Valley residents on carbon-reduction measures.

"We'll begin to see if the ripple effect actually works," Barnham says. "We'll have a Web site, and we're looking at a marketing-buzz strategy to keep people going."

By reframing global warming as a local-warming issue, Ferris says, residents may recognize the benefits, or hazards, of their own personal behavior.

"I think may people think it doesn't really matter, or it's such a big issue they may feel disempowered," Ferris says. "But when they see the needle start to drop on their own carbon usage, it gives you hope … The point is to get people to start thinking."

Yestermorrow on the Today Show!

Well... our banner showed up on national TV. Many thanks to our intrepid volunteers, interns, and staff for braving the zero-degree mountain top temps early this morning.

January 2008 Newsletter Archive

Check out our January 2008 e-newsletter!

In This Issue
Yestermorrow Profile: John Abrams
Hands-on Education: Cabinets and Built-ins
Yestermorrow on YouTube

Yestermorrow Welcomes New Facilities Manager Dave Warren

We are very pleased to announce that Dave Warren has come on board as Yestermorrow's new Facilities Manager. With a firm belief in the importance of a creative collaborative relationship between design and building, Dave has found a home at Yestermorrow. He has over 35 years experience in residential and light commercial construction in Oregon as owner/operator of a custom building company and most recently in Vermont as carpenter to project manager for a couple of local contractors. In addition to the use of hand tools and the employment of responsible building practices, Dave enjoys making music, sailing, and politics. He looks forward to sharing this with the folks at Yestermorrow. We are very pleased to have someone of his experience and caliber on our staff.

The Prickly Mountain Gang Rides Again

If Yestermorrow is the tree of all design/build knowledge--and we think there are strong arguments that it is--then it also should be argued that this metaphorical tree has its roots firmly buried in Prickly Mountain. The boys and girls who have called that hallowed mound home are the stuff of legends and are still deeply involved in Yestermorrow. To learn more about their exploits please visit:http://www.wishtank.org/magazine/commons/prickly_mountain_gang_freedom_in_architecture/

While reading the story you will see names of folks who have served on our board, taught our classes, lent their children to us a interns, and helped us refine our mission and master planning process. Thank you Prickly for feeding our roots and leading by example. Long live Prickly Mountain!



Bob Ferris

Doing Good In and Out of the Classroom/Studio/Shop

One of Yestermorrow's great strengths is our steadfast commitment to community exemplified by our own work in the Mad River Valley and by our courses in responsible community development and design. There is no true measure for the impact of these activities, but one indication that what we are doing is being noticed are mentions of our work and actions in The Valley Reporter--our Valley's weekly paper (http://www.valleyreporter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=5&Itemid=38).

And this week was a big one for Yestermorrow:

Page 6: Article on Yestermorrow's new catalog for spring/summer classes

Page 11: Nearly full-page coverage with one article on taking personal responsibility for your carbon footprint and another on the actions of the Mad River Valley Carbon Shredders in putting forth climate change resolutions in 3 out of the 4 Valley towns in preparation for town meeting day. The Carbon Shredders were brought together by a team of folks from 7th Generation, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and Yestermorrow. The Carbon Shredders use Yestermorrow as their clubhouse.

Page 12: Covers the recent developments regarding the purchase and conservation of the Kingsbury Farm. Here again, Yestermorrow was involved and we have provided meeting space for the steering committee and are currently managing the farm property until suitable buyer or buyers can be located (http://www.kingsburycommunityfarm.org/).

Page 14: Has a full page spread on the Souper Bowl which was a fundraising event for the Mad River Valley Localvore Project. If you look close on the page you can see a picture of Yestermorrow's own Dan Eckstein. Kate Stephenson is very active in the group and they frequently use our conference room for meetings (http://www.vermontlocalvore.org/).

We do all of this because we believe in what we teach at Yestermorrow and we hope that others will follow these examples and undertake similar efforts in their own backyards.

Good luck on your efforts!

Bob Ferris

Doing Good in the Dominican Republic

This 17-day design/build adventure is focusing on a rural community project for the Women's Club of the Future of El Rincon. The Women's Club is dedicated to strengthening their community by creating opportunities for their residents, especially their young adults. Their projects include utilizing the nearby Laguna Del Diablo as a guided tourist hike through steep mountain farmland offering an experience of rural Dominican culture. They also offer public sewing machines (with instruction), and rainwater harvesting for public use.

The class project is to create a gathering area where both the local community and a burgeoning eco-tourist community can congregate. The design challenge is to make the site inviting for tourist vehicles that pass by on their way to famously beautiful Rincon Beach, as well as create a shaded public place for the residents of El Rincon. The site is in the middle of the small village.

See pictures of the class in action, and read more about the impact the class is having here.

Moving forward

As planet earth begins a new rotation, and the calendar signifies a new year, my thoughts naturally turn to the lengthening days ahead, despite the bitter cold temperatures that seem to have frozen everything, including time, in place.

A new year means many things. Resolutions. Tax time. Time for change. Fresh starts. Personal reflection. Opportunity for growth.

It seems that I'm not the only one looking ahead. The phone here at Yestermorrow has been ringing non-stop. Our new Spring/Summer '08 Course Catalog has just been sent out and posted on our website. Late winter and early spring is a great time to dig into oneself: learn a new skill or hone an old one; push a boundary or comfort zone; or turn a dream into a reality.

Yestermorrow is stretching its wings as well. Out of our 79 courses for the '08 Spring/Summer Semester, 14 of them are new, including Ecological Water Systems, Deconstruction and Material Re-Use, and Designing Small Living Spaces. We constantly make efforts to improve our offerings and respond to the learning needs of our students. As our mission says, we strive to inspire people to create a better, more sustainable world.

Like I've said here before, change is good. Each one of us has a fresh opportunity to change our world and make it a better place, and make ourselves better along the way. Happy New Year and Carpe Diem!

Yestermorrow Instructor Bert Yankielun's Book Hits the Streets

Yestermorrow is excited to announce that instructor Bert Yankielun's book, How to Build an Igloo, and Other Snow Shelters is hot off the presses. Bert has been teaching the Igloo Design/Build course at Yestermorrow since 2004. He's been featured in a recent issue of Architecture Week with an excerpt from the book, and in 2005 his Yestermorrow class was featured in the NY Times Travel section. In his regular day job, Bert is an electrical engineer designing and using ground-penetrating radar with the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, NH, or participating in scientific expeditions to Arctic Alaska, Greenland, and Antarctica. Yestermorrow will offer its annual 1-day Igloo Design/Build workshop on Saturday, March 1, 2008. The course is open to students of all ages and the tuition is only $50 per family.

Friend of Yestermorrow offers Internship in Ghana

This from Anthony Broese, a Yestermorrow grad from Australia who is doing some great community development work in Africa.

"I'm writing to inform you of the project commencing in January 2008 in Ghana. Basically the project is about peace building through food security. This means that it has many faces. Landscape design and restoration will be addressed through permaculture. There is also an aspect of peace building and conflict resolution and using art as a form of expression. I wanted to offer the opportunity to people interested in these issues to intern/ volunteer on the project.Within the scope of permaculture we will also address water and sanitation, and hopefully, if the right skilled people present themselves, building. We are in the midst of registering this as an NGO but in the mean time the project is also being run by the two other NGOs I am working with whom are registered. They are, Aliamos an Australian based NGO and Self Help Initiative for Sustainable Development (SHIFSD) a local Liberian NGO (we are working with the Ghanaian branch). "

For more information, contact Anthony directly at abroese@gmail.com.

3rd Annual Exhibition and Sale

We are busy this week getting ready for the 3rd Annual Yestermorrow Exhibition and Sale: Art from the Yestermorrow Community. Once again we will feature an amazing lineup of artists from Yestermorrow's talented crew of instructors, interns, staff and board. Our Main Studio will be magically transformed next Saturday into an art gallery and we will celebrate with a public reception and opening with wine and cheese from 6-9 p.m. on Saturday, December 15th. The show will stay up for one week and is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through the 22nd.

This year's show includes furniture from wood and metal, functional ceramics, photography, jewelry, watercolors, prints, wood carvings, stained glass, collage, light fixtures, mixed media, and oils. Featured artists will include Michael Sullivan, Benjamin Cheney, B'fer Roth, Yumiko Virant, Art Schaller, Monica DiGiovanni, Carl Bates, Dave Sellers, Robin Foster, Randy Taplin, John Anderson, Ted Montgomery, Carrie Burr, Dick Montague, Diana Nicholas, William Schnute, Larry Jacquette, Nadia Khan, Chris Gabriel, Anya Domlesky and Dan Wheeler.

This featured piece is stained glass by Nadia Khan, a former Yestermorrow intern from 2005. In addition to creating custom stained-glass pieces in her spare time, she is also a carpenter and treehouse builder.

John Abrams Returns to Yestermorrow in 2008

After last year's "Thinking Like a Cathedral Builder" workshop with John Abrams from the South Mountain Company attracted nearly 30 students, we were thrilled to have him back on the schedule for 2008 to present another weekend workshop, this year entitled "Redefining Small Business". In John's words, this course is "a radical business primer full of stories, activities, and information about making everyday business a thrilling adventure" which covers everything from designing and building a business to issues of philosophy and practice, and will tackle employee ownership, growth issues, personnel issues, benefits, community service, multiple bottom line thinking, and long term business planning and succession.

You can view an 8 minute clip from a 2006 lecture by John Abrams' lecture here at Yestermorrow on Chelsea Green's website- check it out!

Change is Good

A few weeks ago I attended in the first ever Behavior, Energy and Climate Change conference, hosted in Sacramento, CA, by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency at Stanford University, and the California Institute for Energy and Environment at the University of California.

The conference, which sold out at 500 participants, focused on the work that so many of us do, without really knowing that we do it: figuring out what it takes to get people to change their use of, and attitude toward, energy. It turns out, that while many organizations and government entities spend their time on the front lines working through trial and error to implement programs that promote and encourage behavior changes, that there is a burgeoning scientific community spending their time studying what actually works and what doesn’t in terms of getting people to care about energy use and conservation, and the impacts of climate change.

Several universities and think tanks are using quantitative and qualitative research to refine messages and strategies targeted at encouraging individuals and communities to be more aware of the energy they are using and to reduce consumption. They're finding out some very interesting things about what motivates us to change.

We all know, at least on an intuitive level, that change can be perceived as risky, threatening and confusing; in other words, unwelcome and something to be avoided. Moreover, addressing global warming may seem like an insurmountably huge task, and many of us may believe that our individual actions won’t make a difference. As a result, countless people choose to do nothing. However, what scientists have learned is that even small changes can make a big difference.

Sure, we’ve been hearing environmental organizations say such things for years. But now there is research to back it up.

Swapping out one incandescent light bulb for one compact fluorescent won’t eliminate enough greenhouse gas emissions to save a polar bear. But what it will do is lead by example. Research has shown that our neighbors and friends are much more likely to take similar steps – and are even likely to attempt to “one-up” our own green measures – if they see that those around them have made those changes. This makes your one compact fluorescent turn into one or two in every house on your street, which turns into one or two in every house in your town, and so on. Therefore, if you make positive changes- even small ones- those around you are likely to make those positive changes as well, giving your small actions a huge multiplier effect.

So change is good… really good. Especially if you let your light shine and become a leader by example. We all know the famous quote by Gandhi “be the change you want to see in the world.” It’s more true perhaps than he even realized. Even small changes made by individuals can make a big, global difference.

To view the BECC conference program and presentations click here.

Step It Up II: Don't Be A Fool...Carpool

On Saturday morning November 3rd at 11:00 AM Yestermorrow will host our second Step It Up event. This one--the Pre-event, Local Lunch and Valley Carpool Rally--will start with some very short inspirational speeches; continue with a group picture and a local food tailgate feed; and end with carpooling to the max to get folks to the Step It Up II: Who are the Leaders in Montpelier. Check out what's going on at: http://stepitup2007.org/ and if our 05674 event is not in your neighborhood, find one that is!

Barn Raising Sunday October 27, 2007

Costa Rica class graduates Gillian and Russell Comstock are hosting a barn raising this Sunday at the Metta Earth Institute in Lincoln, Vermont. The structure composed of hand-hewn, on-site harvested timber and materials recycled from a post and beam barn will be transformed into one of the new buildings at their retreat. So come one and come all and help them raise their barn. For directions, details, contact information and to learn more about MEI visit: http://www.mettaearth.org/

We wish them well!

Friends of Yestermorrow offer Thailand Workshops

Our friends at Seven Generations Natural Builders will be offering two natural building courses in Thailand this winter. Read on to learn more about these opportunities:

In less than a decade, earth building has been embraced by many Thai communities as an appropriate building technology---economically, environmentally, socially, and spiritually. The speed by which earth construction has been adopted, the community support and training, and the number of homes and structures built provides an outstanding example and inspiration for those of us in industrialized countries. These two two-week natural building courses in Thailand will bring together Thai and non-Thai students to work on the building of a kitchen and children’s play house at the Whispering Seed community. As a collaboration with Whispering Seed (http://sgnb.createsend3.com/t/1/l/dittu/ptljlt/www.whisperingseed.org ), a children’s home and community living and learning center on the Thai-Burmese border, students will spend two weeks learning the fundamentals of earth construction, gaining an understanding of the characteristics of different sediments (clay, sand, silt), and how to use a variety of techniques to create earthen building materials----from abode block, to cob, to wattle and daub, plaster, and more. The Thailand courses are unique in several respects: the student body will combine Western students and local Thai, Burmese and Karen students to facilitate cross-cultural experiences and learning; construction of a kitchen and children’s play building using earth and local resources at a Thai children’s home is one of the purest examples of the possibilities and benefits of natural building in bringing people together as a community to help others; unlike most cob courses in temperate and desert North America, students will learn techniques for earth construction in tropical and subtropical climates incorporating bamboo, thatch, and round wood carpentry. Tuition covers room and board at Whispering Seed, as well as subsidizes the Thai, Burmese and Karen students’ participation. Tuition for one of the two-week courses is $1000, for students that wish to enroll in both classes the total tuition is $1500. Enrollment is limited to 10 foreign students per workshop and because of travel/logistic issues the enrollment deadline is December 7, 2007. For more information, or to register, visit the Seven Generations Natural Builders website, http://sgnb.com/workshops.php.