Thank you so much to everyone who came to the first neighborhood meeting on February 12th for our little Bamboo Grove pocket neighborhood! Your encouragement and great questions made it an educational and fun experience. I wish that we had more time to talk, but as always if you have any other questions or comments please contact us.
Here are the presentation slides that framed our discussion:
The Charlottesville Climate Collaborative empowers individuals and businesses to be climate leaders with strategies to take action. This presentation will provide practical solutions to help you make a positive impact and achieve sustainability goals in your lifestyle, business, and community.
Speakers:
Andrea Bostrom
Andrea is the Charlottesville Climate Collaborative’s Residential Program Manager. Andrea began her journey into advocacy as a high school student in the Deep South, holding the enviable title of President of the Students for Environmental Awareness club. A native of Alabama, she grew up eating home grown tomatoes, communing with horses, and riding her bike through peach orchards. She took her passion for the environment towards a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Louisiana State University and a Master’s Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Texas – Austin. Andrea has spent almost two decades as an engineer, policy maker, and program manager in both the public and private sectors. She served as the program manager for the flood protection program at the City of Austin’s Watershed Protection Department for seven years before relocating to Charlottesville in 2014. She served as Director of the Charlottesville Waldorf School before joining C3 in September 2019.
Claire Habel
Claire Habel, C3’s Commercial Program Manager, grew up in Minnesota exploring the natural world. At C3’ she is running the Better Business Challenge as well as our Green Schools network. She graduated from DePaul University cum laude with a Bachelors in Intercultural Communication and earned her master’s degree in Environmental Communications & Advocacy from James Madison University. Most recently Claire worked with the City of Charlottesville’s Environmental Sustainability Division and Office of Communications. Claire is passionate about engaging businesses to promote sustainable practices.
Lunch will be provided
Fee: $10 for members and $20 for nonmembers.
Lunch will be served, Register Here
Our meeting space is generously donated by the City of Charlottesville.
Did you know that almost a third of the solid waste stream can be recycled through composting? This presentation will give an overview of composting and why it is important. We’ll review what can be composted and best practices for implementing a composting program at an office. The product produced by composting, finished compost has beneficial characteristics that improve soil health and retain moisture making it an invaluable tool for stormwater management when developing sites. Learn how to consider composting programs and the use of the finished product in your upcoming projects.
Speaker:
Eric Walter is the founder and Chief Composting Officer of Black Bear Composting. Black Bear is an organics recycling company in the Charlottesville area focused on capturing food waste and other compostables. Eric is a member of the US Composting Council and licensed by the Commonwealth of Virginia as Waste Management Facility Operator. Eric is a recovered technology entrepreneur and currently lives in Crozet with his wife and three kids.
Fee: $10 for members and $20 for nonmembers.
Lunch will be served, Register Here
Our meeting space is generously donated by the City of Charlottesville.
Attached Greenhouse
Just a few blocks from Crozet’s downtown district is a little one acre parcel of land that was once the home to part of a much larger apple orchard. A few of the old apple trees remain and a tenacious grove of bamboo has colonized the stream bank. Today this plot is completely surrounded by houses, has public water, sewer and electricity, and is an easy walk from coffee shops, post office, a new Library, restaurants, stores and loads of small town charm.
The concept for this one acre parcel just north of the intersection of Jarman’s Gap Rd and Orchard Dr (two lots) in Crozet is to build two houses that have attached accessory units that even though they are attached, feel like their own completely separate houses. This is done by clever house and window placement, utilizing the existing topography as an advantage. The houses are designed to be net-zero ready, using such
Entrance from Orchard Dr
little energy that a few solar panels on the roof or mounted remotely can power them while providing superior indoor air quality and comfort for the residents. The houses are placed on the site to capture their outdoor spaces, making them comfortable and loved. The grounds will be planted with native plants as well as non-invasive food producing orchard trees. The existing street will be lined with shade trees and rain gardens. The houses are also designed to fit in with the existing neighborhood’s one and two story ranches in scale, color and texture.
See the full designs here and contact me if you would like to buy one or design something like this for somewhere else!
There are two types of technology change: Incremental and Disruptive. As a designer, disruptive is way more fun.
Incremental: How do we get more with less? For showers, building codes limit their consumption to 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) while green building rating systems are pushing manufacturers to get more with less; down to 1.5 gpm. The problem is that at a certain point there is a physical limit to the incremental change and efficiency gains will level off. My gut says that for shower heads this point is somewhere around 1.2 gpm. Any 50% reduction is something to be proud of, but it has taken a long time.
Disruptive: What if we ask a different question altogether: “Is there a better way to take a shower?” A couple startups are trying to answer this question with what they call a cloud shower. Previously only available as a luxury shower add-on, the technology is similar to a type of commercial humidifier. They claim that their technology not only uses 75% less water, but also provides a much more luxurious showering experience: providing more even coverage and rinsing more effectively. We now have a sudden 75% drop in water consumption, which also results in a major drop in the amount of water that needs to be heated, which in turn saves a lot of money. All this by simply swapping out a shower head! Brilliant!
Crozet, Virginia is becoming a vibrant, bustling, livable and walkable center. Within walking distance of all the amenities that this growing town has to offer in the heart of an existing neighborhood is the possibility of yet another community that shifts the focus away from the personal automobile to personal interaction. Click here to see the full design.
If you want to live here, invest in the concept, or help make it a reality please contact us.
Join us on October 11th for the Green Building Luncheon in downtown Charlottesville:
In honor of Energy Action Month, USGBC Greater Virginia is pleased to welcome Susan Elliott from the City of Charlottesville and Nate McFarland of Generation 180. Our speakers will present on energy actions and moving people to action, including trends seen in the local Energize!Charlottesville campaign and our local community and region, as well as efforts and methods to shift everyday people to make clean energy choices.
For additional information: City of Charlottesville, Climate Protection Program (www.charlottesville.org/emissions & energizecville.org) and Generation180
This luncheon will be held at City Space, 100 5th St. NE, on the Downtown Mall, Charlottesville, VA. Doors open at 11:45 and the Seminar begins at 12:00. Luncheons are open to the public. Lunch is provided, attendance is free for GVGBC members and $10 for non members. Register Here:
Crozet, Virginia is becoming a vibrant, bustling, livable and walkable center. Within walking distance of all the amenities that this growing town has to offer in the heart of an existing neighborhood is the possibility of a community that shifts the focus away from the personal automobile to personal interaction. Click here to see the full design.
If you want to live here, invest in the concept, or help make it a reality please contact us.
Natural swimming pools are somewhat of a magical unicorn in the United States. Luckily that is beginning to change as people begin to re-evaluate the chemical processes that we have become accustomed to.
Here is upworthy’s article on this great swimming pool project that is challenging the industrial swimming pool.
I wonder how this is the first of its kind, and it seems like there are very few professionals who understand this type of plant based system. If you’re wondering what to study in college, it is plant based alternatives to industrial processes and mechanical systems (yes, conventional swimming pools are an industrial process).
Here’s a great little article telling of the financial incentives of making your existing place more energy efficient. In a lot of cases, payback on energy improvement renovation investment is just a few years!
The Housing Lab 