Tag Archives: green

Capitol Hill’s Bullitt Center becomes world’s first ‘living’ office building

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(Image: CHS)

One day, thinking robots will deeply challenge our notion of what constitutes a living thing. Thinking buildings that completely sustain themselves may do the same and E Madison’s Bullitt Center is evidently leading the way.

Billed as the greenest commercial building in the world, the Bullitt Center was recently awarded the Living Building Certification. It’s the first office building to get the designation, considered the most rigorous sustainability certification in the world. CHS wrote about the Bullitt’s nomination last year. We were also there when it opened to much applause and greater expectations in April 2013.

The Living Building certification is awarded to buildings that essentially operate as living organisms — one that is self-sufficent for water and energy and actively promotes the health of its occupants and surrounding environment.

Solar panels atop the 15th and Madison building produce an excess amount of energy sold back to Seattle City Light, human waste is composted, graywater is treated onsite, and the estimated 1,000 different building materials and products used to build the center are devoid of hundreds of typical toxic chemicals.

Running it all is the building’s “brain,” which automatically adjusts systems to optimize for the for the time of day, time of year, the number of people in the building, CO2 levels, and weather.

“We think of this building as a living thing,” said Bullitt spokesperson Brad Kahn. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill crowd-funded solar project ready for sign-ups

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Capitol Hill Project Details Single site project 25.92 kW Made-in Washington Itek modules & inverters A "ballasted" system on the flat roof of the Holiday Apartments, located at 1001 E. John Street on Capitol Hill After system ownership passes to CHH, the electricity it generates will lower the operating costs for the Holiday Apartments and other CHH properties, directly benefitting low-income tenants.

Capitol Hill Project Details
Single site project
25.92 kW
Made-in Washington Itek modules & inverters
A “ballasted” system on the flat roof of the Holiday Apartments, located at 1001 E. John Street on Capitol Hill
After system ownership passes to CHH, the electricity it generates will lower the operating costs for the Holiday Apartments and other CHH properties, directly benefitting low-income tenants.

That Capitol Hill Ecodistrict project we told you about to create crowd-funded solar generation?

Capitol Hill Housing recently solidified plans to install community funded solar panels at its Holiday Apartments property at 10th and E John by the end of October.

It’s ready for you:

Seattle City Light has two projects in which customers can participate in the fall of 2014. Each has a limited number of units, and the paybacks are very similar, so whichever you choose (or if you choose both!) you’ll be helping bring new, clean, renewable energy to our electric grid while benefitting both yourself and an organization that is dedicated to conservation, sustainability and community. As with our previous Community Solar projects, the upfront costs will be paid by Seattle City Light, but ultimately the cost of the project will be paid for by customers who enroll in the program and participate by buying one or more solar units. These customers will in turn be paid back as they receive Washington State production incentives and City Light “virtual net metering” payments that currently total $1.16 per kilowatt hour of electricity generated by a community solar project. As City Light’s rates rise (very slightly) over time, the total payment will also rise as that increased rate is reflected in your payment.

City Light customers can sign up here to buy a unit here:

Starting at $150, anyone with a Seattle City Light account can participate in the Capitol Hill Community Solar program. Made possible by the state’s Renewable Energy Cost Recovery Incentive Payment Program, participants will receive reimbursement for their contribution as a credit on their electric bills through June 2020. Those credits should pay back the cost of a participant’s original investment and then some.

Are your new Capitol Hill streetlights too bright? At least they’re not ‘zombie blue’

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19th Ave E, illuminated (Image: CHS)

19th Ave E, illuminated (Image: CHS)

Screen Shot 2014-08-29 at 11.24.42 AM

In an initiative born after pilot tests right here on Capitol Hill, Seattle has been replacing its streetlights with new LED bulbs over the past five years.

This summer, the southern segment of Zone 3 got the treatment with the installation of the new “48 to 62 percent lower energy consumption”-achieving bulbs across the single-family home neighborhoods of North Capitol Hill.

CHS guesstimates we’ve seen a resulting “48 to 62 percent” uptick in complaints emailed to us that the new bulbs are “too bright.”

“It’s like the moon is parked outside our house,” one reader complains.

Seattle City Light spokesperson Scott Thomsen said moonlight was the idea:

The most obvious change with the new lights is the color. The new lights are similar to moonlight while the old high-pressure sodium lights had a warmer, amber tone to them. When you first experience the change, it is very noticeable and can draw your attention to the light. When you look directly at it, you get a greater feeling of brightness. After a few weeks, the color becomes more familiar, draws less attention and generates fewer complaints.

Capitol Hill residents, Thomsen reminds, were partly responsible for the new moonlight stretching across the city. During the pilot tests of new lights around the Hill, Thomsen said one bulb variant stood out as being a “no way” option

“The biggest complaints were reserved for test lights that were even cooler in color, that some in Capitol Hill referred to as ‘zombie blue,'” he tells us. “We listened to them and chose the moonlight color they preferred.”

Overall, Thomsen says City Light has had complaints on less than 4% of the LED streetlight installations.

“If a customer is experiencing a problem, they can contact us,” Thomsen said. “Our streetlight team will visit the location to review the situation and put together a plan for any corrections that might be needed.”

You can learn more and report issues here.

City Light Rate Increases
Thursday at 6 PM at the Yesler Community Center, Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant is hosting a public forum on proposed City Light rate increases:

Come discuss Seattle City Light’s proposed rate increases. Help build a movement to reduce rates for working families and people on fixed incomes, while making corporations and the super-wealthy pay their fair share.

 

Capitol Hill: land of special bathrooms — Toilet tour planned for Saturday

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Take a tour of bathrooms on Saturday with the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict folks. You won’t be touring the familiar Capitol Hill bar/food establishment bathrooms, though. The Capitol Hill EcoDistrict Bathroom Tour offers “a neighborhood exploration of water conservation, gender identity, and homelessness.”  Stops include the Bullitt Center, Seattle University, and Urban Rest Stop, and is end-capped with a happy hour discussion and conversation at a location to be determined during the tour. It’s likely to have a very special bathroom, also.

CH-EcoDistrict-flyer-bathroom

CHS Pics | Capitol Hill ecodistrict pedals to a start — And where it’s going next

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IMG_0539Joel Sisolak’s reign as czar of the Capitol Hill ecodistrict began Thursday with a forced bike ride. In the rain. Soon, green jackboot thugs will come for your unsustainable niece.

We kid. Thursday’s bike tour of the sites and opportunities for creating a district measuring and incentivizing green development and infrastructure improvements around Capitol Hill was 100% voluntary. And Sisolak doesn’t see his role in the greenest job on Capitol Hill in terms of forcing behaviors or being the sustainability police.

Right now, the job is about metrics.

“We’re trying to find out what is measurable,” Sisolak said in a conversation with CHS about the role he’s filled for a month with Capitol Hill Housing, the organization selected to shepherd sorting out exactly how the framework for creating the ecodistrict will work. Continue reading →