Potential Energy & Renewable Resource Mapping - PERRM™
One important planning approach for sustainable living is how to locate and integrate the natural and man-made attributes of the land to configure a low-carbon site for large scale development. Steven Kellenberg’s, Urban Land Green article, "Ten Keys to a Low-Carbon Community", http://www.uli.org/ResearchAndPublications/Magazines/UrbanLandGreen.aspx offers an excellent primer on the symbiotic relationship between a variety of planning and design principles that provide measurable solutions for sustainable growth.
Online Land Planning http://www.onlinelandplanning.com has deepened the analytical process of qualifying low-carbon sites through an integrated strategy for sustainable site development called Potential Energy & Renewable Resource Mapping, or PERRM™.
PERRM™ assists property owners identify and document the inherent surface and subsurface resources available on their land to create synergy and an energy efficient infrastructure between the natural and man-made environment to provide an affordable strategy for low carbon development. Our goal is to save energy costs for the property owner, the inhabitants and the planet by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and promoting a carbon neutral environment. The objectives are to leverage financial incentives, create steady, ancillary revenue sources and foster entrepreneurial cooperation based on a framework of low carbon development and energy efficiency.
In the past developers often ignored potential energy & renewable resources or left them independent. The data collected by civil and geotechnical engineers was primarily used to identify build /no build areas or close gaps in the traditional infrastructure owned by public utilities. Today, property owners have found PERRM™ to be valuable for establishing energy usage and efficiency criteria required to for new community development, renewable energy tax credits, revenue negotiations, formation of municipal utility districts, lease strategies, partnering with emerging technology companies, energy legislation and jurisdictional approvals and new federal and state incentive programs,. Also, PERRM™ is useful to communicate the ‘uniqueness of the land’ as a branding opportunity, since the process and results are inherently interesting to the public.
PERRM™ identifies and explores the potential for integrated strategies between crude oil, natural gas, landfill, wastewater treatment, hydro, solar, wind, geothermal, water wells, rain harvesting, conventional power grids CH&P, desalinization, biomass agriculture, bioremediation and potential for loop optimization to fulfill a variety of outcomes.
For instance, a slope analysis study, often used only to identify buildable areas are being reexamined using PERRM™ as locations for thermal radiation collection based on solar and surface geothermal (GHPs) potential.
PERRM™ may not make sense everywhere. Scale is important and large properties benefit. Some of the overlapping tasks that need to be performed in a PERRM™ study include:
1. Preparation of a 1:1000 base map and aerial photo by civil & geotechnical experts.
2. Agree on the purpose and goals for the PERRM™.
3. Complete the PERRM™ Energy Questionnaire
4. Compile a first-level PERRM™ based on local knowledge of existing conditions.
5. Locate available public and private data such as specific plan documents and internal technical reports. Plot all relevant information on the first-level map (wastewater and soils, etc).
6. Overlay initial PERRM™ results to determine opportunity and constraints.
7. Evaluate overall energy requirements for the property.
8. Develop second and third-level PERRM™ criteria for collecting data on solar, thermal heat, wind studies, etc.
9. Begin informational meetings with companies that have products and services that rely on renewable resources. Build consensus on overall community energy infrastructure planning, micro grids, SMART Home technology, timing and costs.
10. Begin jurisdictional meetings with state and federal agencies regarding tax credit, application requirements, expediting, costs and public relations.
11. Prepare a cost benefit analysis and infrastructure savings report for negotiations during land sales.
PERRM™ has resulted in a several low carbon development criteria that the property owners once thought were unattainable. First, striving for 80% of peak energy demand with renewable resources is realistic. Second, developers should keep the carbon reduction credits in anticipation of a future cap and trade strategy being initiated by the US government. Finally, while mineral rights are important - so are air rights. Developers should keep the air gap rights above the roof lines on all new structures for future renewable potential which they can use or sell.
PERRM™ studies ultimately leads to a myriad of new questions and scenarios that need to be solved on a case by case basis. The methodology also involves engaging new disciplines and energy experts to cooperate on this breakthrough process. PERRM™ creates a new value proposition from how land planning and development has been approached before in order to create a low carbon environment to help us all.
Rick Abelson, RLA CLARB
Director
Online Land Planning
The Future of the Highway Trust Fund
HTF money should not be used for implementation of non-highway transportation projects at this time.
Instead, we should allocate a portion of the Fund to identify and purchase right-of-way corridors for future transit projects that can be developed over the next twenty years. This thinking was employed during the planning of the Century Freeway (I-105), an important part of the 1960’s master plan prepared by Caltrans for the Southern California freeway system, which didn’t open until 1993. Today, the median serves at the main rail corridor for the Metro Green Line that links the airport and downtown Los Angeles. It took time, but it was done once and it was done right.
Therefore, until we know what non-highway transportation projects have the most impact, make the most fiscal sense and can be replicated nationally, we should be prepared for the following:
1. Diminished fuel tax revenues due to decreased driving that continue to hamper the HTF budget in the short term.
2. The HTF allocations should be used to maintain existing highways and bridges while mandating results on efficient roadway construction methods and materials that reduce the effects of vehicle weight and weather.
3. Alternative fuels eventually become readily available that reduce emissions by at least 30% and give the public confidence that driving is affordable and environmentally ‘under control’.
4. All fuels become taxed at the same rate to stabilize the HTF budget.
5. By 2025, the majority of the Boomer Generation is too old to drive and demand alternative non-highway transportation projects to be implemented.
6. Right-of-way corridors that were purchased twenty years earlier using the HTF finally become ‘necessary’ and reduce the impact on the traditional highway system.
7. Younger generations, who made the shift away from driving years before, already live within relative walking distances to fit their lifestyles as telecommuting increases throughout the nation.
Rick Abelson, Director
www.onlinelandplanning.com
www.onlineurbanplanning.com
The Hornery Institute & Inner-Urban Suburbs
On a recent business trip to Australia, I had the opportunity to visit with an interesting group of social planners called The Hornery Institute. Specifically, their charter is "to assist communities in becoming better places to live, learn, work and play." The Hornery Institute http://www.horneryinstitute.com/hornery/home/Default.aspx was established in November 2000, in recognition of Lend Lease’s Chairman, Stuart Hornery and his commitment to community and people. To mark his retirement, the shareholders and employees of this great company formed a not-for-profit organization that allowed Hornery and his dedicated, hand-picked staff to continue working on independent projects to make communities more fulfilling. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/money/story/0,26860,24379922-5015795,00.htm
The Hornery Institute’s (THI) office is located in a wonderful success story they helped create called the Kelvin Grove Urban Village. Situated within short walking distance of Brisbane’s CBD, the Village is a 16 hectare (40 acre) public/private master planned community anchored by the campus of Queensland University of Technology, the adaptive reuse of the Gona Army Barracks and Parade Grounds and supported by the Government of Queensland Department of Housing. The project brings together residential, educational, retail, health, recreational, business and creative industry uses, while respecting the site and its history. The Parade Grounds serve as urban plazas and the Turrbal people, who were the traditional owners of the land had input into landscaping and public art features throughout. For both visitors and residents, the planning and design of the Village feels both fluid and inviting from almost every direction. http://www.kgurbanvillage.com.au/
THI characterizes the Kelvin Grove Urban Village as being different from other ‘inner-urban suburbs’. This unique term is not part of the planning vocabulary used in the United States and appears to be authentically Australian. Also, this community type appears to blur divergent lifestyles and land uses in a new way. According to Delfin, Lend Lease’s community development division, inner-urban suburbs fulfill a niche based on research that shows "people looking for an inner urban lifestyle, but are deterred by limited housing choice, lack of privacy and the hassles which come with city living."
The formal written goals for the Kelvin Grove Urban Village go beyond Delfin’s definition by creating a broader appeal to the inner-urban suburb model by:
• engendering a strong sense of community and a safe environment;
• being a visually interesting and attractive place, with its own distinct character, different from other inner-urban suburbs;
• integrating a range of uses together into one exciting environment, rather than separating them out into different land use precincts;
• blending with the existing and evolving Kelvin Grove neighborhood, and allow growth and change over time;
• redefining relationships between the university and the community, including businesses; and
• demonstrating greater physical, social and economic sustainability.
Besides the planning efforts that created the Kelvin Grove Urban Village, I was very impressed by the some of the wonderful people that keep it on track. Stuart Hornery, Kate Meyrick and Jennifer Michelmore are just a few of THI’s social planners that do much more than conduct research and write reports. They roll up their sleeves and are passionate and confident stewards who participate in its real daily life by getting coffee and cake each morning, strolling through QUT classrooms, talking with seniors at the new indoor community pool, engaging students about their day, creating evening seminars programs, shopping at the neighborhood butcher shop and making sure the entire precinct continues to thrive.
I suspect that they do this for several reasons. First and foremost, it’s clear that they love what they helped create and want to see it succeed. Second, by living this social experiment each day, they can recognize what works and respond quickly to what needs adjustment. Third, the Village is about healthy experiences and relationships - where seniors and preschoolers, college students and researchers, merchants and patrons rely on each other. By nurturing the community, THI can reinforce and learn that this prudent way of life truly works by enriching each generation and social class. Finally, it’s a platform for urban success that can be replicated from scratch or merely fine-tuned in areas which may be lacking only a few key ingredients.
The Hornery Institute has proven that planners and architects need to go beyond admiring their finished work from a distance and actually participate in its daily life by becoming part of the communities that they help create.
Rick Abelson
Director of Online Land Planning
www.onlinelandplanning.com
www.onlineurbanplanning.com
How Slumdogs Can Influence Millionaires
About ten year ago, while in Mumbai for a large urban planning assignment, my client’s car was about to round the bend on an elevated road along the outskirts of the city. It was getting near sunset. He told me to prepare myself to see "the largest shanty town in the world." I didn’t have enough time. As we turned, I was transfixed by the brilliant sunlight glistening off an endless sea of corrugated metal and tarp roofs almost to the horizon line. The sight was breathtaking. I felt exhilaration in the sheer magnitude and at the same time an overwhelming helplessness that trying to rid the world of poverty was futile. There was no way that something this vast could be mitigated.
Then a strange feeling came over me. I wanted to go down there and walk inside. My interest was from an urban planning perspective. How do so many people live together in such an informal manner? What sort of social and physical order exists? Is there a main street? Can you ‘buy’ rice from a corner store? Is cooking done communally? How is this place lit at night? Why is the roof form maintained at such a consistent height? Was the flooring just mud? How is solid waste handled? Are there districts and neighborhoods? Can families move and ‘sell’ their space to others?
I imagine the dusty tarps being lifted off and daylight streaming in for the first time. Looking down at an organic maze, I think about the lessons urban designers can gather from this stripped down, but complex environment that barely supports the necessities of life.
I asked my client if the Indian government or nearby universities had ever documented shanty town ethnocentric patterns and what research were available. Having been told studies do exist, I have never been able to find anything comprehensive.
Obviously, places like this are very dangerous. A cavalier journey with digital camera and notepad would most certainly invite serious health problems and bodily harm. Yet, I always remember this slum with fascination rather than disdain or sympathy. They need to be eradicated, but they have also have a sustainable purpose. By studying the physical manifestation of squalor, we might actually help improve the way we all live.
Retrofit Neighborhoods – Not Just Infill
While the Government stimulus package calls for massive upgrades and retrofits to make hundreds of thousands of buildings more energy efficient, we should take time to look out these windows before loosening the frames to add a triple glaze.
Surely, our viewshed needs to clear out. For instance, it’s fortunate that the credit crunch has stopped the proliferation of soulless commercial strip centers. They will continue to ruin the visual quality of our communities for years to come. Poor designs and lack of enforcement have left neighborhoods with inferior building colors and materials, cluttered storefronts, overt signage and lighting, inadequate parking and retail redundancies of coffee, fast food and drugstores.
The shift towards urban infill allows us to forget our mistakes in the suburbs and the lure of TOD and affordable housing are questionable right now. Los Angeles is a good example. Inexpensive land is a motivator, but there is virtually no environmental mitigation that can be crafted for the cumulative effects on people regarding summer heat, urban glare, wind, shadow and noise. Or on social issues with the lack of urban recreation (other than private gyms), availability of healthcare and school choices, concern for personal safety, garden space and owning a pet. You either accept it or you don’t.
Look out an airplane window and see the quiet solitude of people living throughout the land that are already untethered - but connected. To preserve and enhance this choice, now is the time to retrofit suburban communities that we’ve already built - not abandon them. New ones, age-in-place ones, ethnic ones, wealthy ones, underprivileged ones - you name it. To start, there needs to be neighborhood based micro-economies for home offices, small businesses and telecommuters so they can centralize locally, share services and connect through today’s ubiquitous technology. This will immediately reduce transportation demand.
Second, we need to retrofit existing neighborhoods so people can get access to affordable primary health care, health insurance and a variety of nearby school choices for all types of learning within walking distance from where they live today. We pay for this by having developers, homebuilders, insurance companies, schools and our government work together by:
• Building affordable SMART homes and passing the energy savings on to homeowners;
• Using a portion of the first-time home buyer tax credit to purchase health savings accounts;
• Creating a ‘quality of life retail mix’ based on health, business and education;
• Limiting unnecessary earth moving, grading and infrastructure to design with nature
• Living within our means for a decade or so and realizing that ‘small is the new big’;
It’s time that planners, developers, home builders and community agencies peek out of their own business silos to think about how to retrofit neighborhoods so people can incubate, launch innovation and stay healthy - all with a few steps of their front door.
RICK ABELSON
is a Director at Online Land Planning, LLC and a ULI Council Member
Charter Schools - A Worthy Tenant for Empty Department Stores
With the 2008 – 2009 demise and eventual transition of several anchor department stores in large regional shopping centers, it was interesting to have a conversation with Dr. Chris Jones, an administrator with the Wiseburn School District in Los Angeles County, California who asked me whether I thought these spaces would make good sites for charter schools and did I know of any precedent that was worth investigating. We both agreed that as bricks and mortar retailing was poised for a decline, that charter schools were an interesting project type that has all sorts of possibilities. The idea makes a lot of sense because like Charter Schools are very business plan oriented - something that mall developers will appreciate.
Charter Schools
Charter Schools are basically a school of choice and are free from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. Charter Schools tend to be small with a median enrollment is 250 students compared to 550 in traditional public schools and serve different communities with a wide variety of curriculum and instructional practices. Charters are granted for a particular period of time, usually for 3-5 years, which are renewed after the end of the term. Charters do not charge tuition, and are funded according to enrollment. They also do not receive capital funds for facilities – so renovation opportunities make sense. Federal legislation provides grants to help charters with start-up costs. In this way, Charters are fit the retail tenant profile pretty well. They function like a business and are beholden to their granting entity under a performance contract that is similar to a business plan. Like any business, they are under constant pressure to perform well, both financially and academically under the terms of the charter contract.
Shopping Malls
Shopping Malls are generally centrally located with good transit connections and often serve as the hub for social and cultural activity in most American cities. Sensing that malls and schools have common features, some architects have used the commercial aesthetics of shopping malls as inspiration for new secondary school designs to provide spaces for young people to be together, to talk, to play, to socialize and to exercise some independence. http://www.edutopia.org/mall-architecture-school-design.
Several years ago, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design held a Dead Mall Competition that challenged designers to rethink underperforming shopping centers and reassess the role these structures play in civic life with the possibility of converting them into other uses to invigorate communities across America. Unfortunately, like many design competitions, the final results steered from the pragmatic and schools missed the cut with the judges. http://retailtrafficmag.com/development/renovation/retail_visions_future/.
Since 1998, The Simon Youth Foundation, started by the shopping center developer, Simon Group of Companies has taken a lead to provide a variety of alternative classroom spaces in their projects to help disadvantaged youth get the opportunity to learn in small groups, alternative settings and hopefully graduate. Many of the programs are affiliated with local school districts and Simon provides scholarships to worthy students trying to make the grade. http://www.edutopia.org/mall-school.
Economic Stimulus and Accountability
But Dr, Jones’ point is understandable. There is not enough precedent yet since the predicament of the empty department store- the anchor- is hard for mall developers to fathom. It will take vision to adjust and change traditional retail models and reassess lease agreements, hours of operation, maintenance, adjacencies and security. But the future will be better if it works. The new Administration promises a federal stimulus package to help create choice and to hold business, educators and government accountable for their actions to insure a prosperous next generation and beyond. This might be one opportunity for mall developers to help a worthy tenant succeed.
Written by Rick Abelson, Director
Online Land Planning, LLC
http://www.onlinelandplanning.com
Clustered Neighborhood Home Offices (NHO)
Between the Home and the Office According to author and syndicated columnist, Ilyce Glink, today about 20 percent of Americans work from home and that number is expected to double very shortly. http://www.thinkglink.com/How_Home_Offices_Affect_A_Neighborhood.htm. In fact, I think we are already there. With workplace transformations takes place all over America, millions of workers who are either laid off, retire or decide to create their own ‘4-hour work week’ now rely on home offices more than ever. Yet, home office aesthetics are coffee table book fodder and the dynamics of working from home have been dissected at length on demographics, productivity, efficiency, security, technology, travel time and even dress code. If we lifted the roofs off these homes, we would peer in to see aspiring entrepreneurs cramped onto kitchen counters and dining room tables, in spare bedrooms, backyard sheds and chilly garages.
And we are not connecting with our most valuable source of new business – our own neighborhood. Face to face business meetings are rarely held in one’s home, in fact they are avoided. Starbucks, FedEx, Kinko’s, local internet providers have become the binding infrastructure. CNN, Fox and C-Span are links to the global economy, news and events. We know this is a huge market. Politicians at all levels campaign on the importance of the small business entrepreneur, promising them tax breaks and incentives to keep going. Real estate developers, merchant home builders, architects, interior designers and retailers respond by making home office improvements a multi -billion dollar industry that continues to grow exponentially.
It Can All Be Yours - At No Extra Cost
One social, sustainable and physical planning strategy being discussed for new communities is the creation of detached neighborhood home offices (NHOs) that are clustered remotely from each individual’s property but are still privately owned as part of your home mortgage. Essentially you own your home along with a typical 250 square foot detached home office that is located within walking distance in a designated neighborhood business compound. By clustering NHOs a number of benefits arise immediately. Technology, services and resources can be shared and costs saved. Collectively, neighborhood business people and their families interact to form a unique collaborative environment, without compromising the spirit and individuality of why home offices exist in the first place.
Green design and business practices flourish through appropriate NHO structures that are solar oriented and clustered. Recycled construction materials, community gardens, greenhouses, alternative energy practices, renewable technologies and waste loop optimization reduce costs and foster community pride.
Local business support services found in town also find a new sources of revenue and a concentrated point of purchase by offering routine deliveries to NHOs that respond to the exact needs of each NHO cluster, while reducing vehicle trips.
Moving On
Homeowner deciding to sell their homes, they are obligated to leave the HNO to the next buyer as part of the sale. Subleasing is not allowed and design guidelines offer enough flexibility to foster innovate, but maintain the overall integrity of the NHO environment to eliminate creating storage units and vacancies.
By Rick Abelson, Director
Online Land Planning
www.onlinelandplanning.com
Online Land Planning Wins Top Honors in Business Competition under Most Innovative Category
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Dalan Garcia, Brand Management
Online Land Planning, LLC
001 (909) 6311
garcia@onlinelandplanning.com
StartupNation Honors Nation’s Top Home-Based Businesses
Online Land Planning Wins Top Honors in Business Competition under Most Innovative Category
DECEMBER 2, 2008 - REDONDO BEACH, CALIFORNIA - Online Land Planning, LLC has been recognized by StartupNation www.startupnation.com as one of the top businesses in its annual Home Based 100 competition under the category of Most Innovative.
http://www.startupnation.com/homebased100/honorary/1339/index.php
The thousands of submissions to the StartupNation Home-Based 100 Competition reveal that many business owners are bucking the current economic downturn and finding business success in these tight times. Historically, some of today’s most well known businesses started in a downturn, including Microsoft and General Electric.
"The 2008 rankings show that the home-based business is more relevant than ever. The current resecession has spurred a new wave of home based businesses as a response to loss of jobs, the need for supplemental income and the sheer passion for blazing your own trail and running your own show," said Rich Sloan, co-founder of StartupNation.com, one of the leading small business networking and advice websites. "Home based businesses are the biggest block of all businesses in existence and we expect numbers to grow ever greater as extra bedrooms, kitchen tables, basements and garages become host to the innovative thinking and pursuit of success by millions of Americans."
"We are building the next great land planning business not only for the 21st Century, but the 22nd as well. We are talking quantum leaps forward in the way real estate development is done. We are using the home office and the internet in a unique way to reduce the inefficiencies and lower the costs of land planning, while allowing for flexibility in the future," stated Rick Abelson, Director of Online Land Planning.
"This has never been the approach of the architecture and urban planning professions in the past. We accept the challenge. For example, big planning firms usually have expensive office space in downtown areas and are disconnected from most land owners, who are remote and have limited time, finances or personnel to make informed decisions about their property.
"Online Land Planning broadens the opportunity for land owners, developers, communities, businesses and government agencies throughout the world to take advantage of our network of renowned planning experts for advice on urban design, sustainability renewable energy and even disaster relief that can be assembled quickly, without costing a fortune and put proven results to their hands in three weeks. We are revolutionizing both the land planning delivery system and the real estate industry at the same time by making it available and affordable for everyone."
The StartupNation Home-Based 100 highlights an interesting category list making it not just your ordinary business ranking. From the wackiest, to the most innovative, to the best financial performers – this unique and diverse list highlights that home-based businesses play a vital role in the economy today. The ten categories for 2008 include:
• Best Financial Performers
• Most Innovative
• Boomers Back in Business
• Greenest
• Yummiest
• Wackiest
• Grungiest
• Recession Busters
• Most Slacker-Friendly
• Most Glamorous
In addition to StartupNation staff, judges for this year’s Home-Based 100 ranking included Adam Lowry co-founder of Method Products, Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks North America, John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, Mel Robbins, host of Make It Happen radio show.
About Online Land Planning, LLC – Revolutionizing the Land Planning Industry
Incorporated in 2008, OLP specializes in reaching out to provide expert advice and affordable solutions on sustainable design and urban planning issues to stakeholders that limited access to professional services. In many cases, our initial concept planning booklets become the catalyst for civic revitalization and our early participation and strategic forward-thinking can add immediate financial value to properties seeking optimum land definition..http://www.onlinelandplanning.com
About The StartupNation Founders – The Sloan Brothers
StartupNation co-founders and ‘chief stratupologists," Rich and Jeff Sloan, are two of the country’s leading small business experts and ran their business from home for eight years. The Sloan brothers speak frequently at entrepreneurial forums and act as sources for top media venues nationwide. They are authors of StartupNation: Open for Business, published by Doubleday, and provide their insight online at www.startupnation.com. The Sloan brothers are regularly quoted and featured in media such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune Small Business, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX News and many others.
An Optimistic Future for New Homes
Next round for home builders. The land development industry was one of the first to feel the effects of the
Once automakers get their bailout, home builders will be asking next. Whether they get help or not, home builders should rethink their business model and offering. Like the auto industry, they need to retool. Now is the time to transform the production home to include the necessary, affordable technologies and innovations based on the way families aspire to live. Home builders need to start fresh and break their long-held sourcing relationships that have precluded more efficient and lower cost products and services from getting through the door. If they do get federal money, here’s how to use it:
Home builders should embrace everyday technology. Amazon sells unlimited music downloads for a monthly fee. Apple rents videos the same way. BASF markets their ‘hybrid home.’ Google builds community faster than any city government. Microsoft’s HealthVault sends secure data from home medical devices to doctors and insurers. GE offers home energy technologies and maintains them. IBM is able to transform, store and deliver information with infinite capabilities that can be customized and managed to link homes and neighborhoods together.
A new set of standard home features. On many levels, the retooling of the production home should be pretty easy. Smart homes around the country showcase and demonstrate pre-wired, affordable solutions for energy demand reduction, health monitoring, business services, school curriculum, remote security and more. All of this can now be included as part of any basic home.
Rick Abelson
Director - Online Land Planning, LLC.
www.onlinelandplanning.com
Lessons on Sustainability from Samso Island’s Energy Academy
In such downtrodden times, we find ourselves at a confluence of daily headlines on energy and economy. But for now, this information just seems to flow by and barely touch. I have been wondering how we can merge them into a meaningful and proven way to create a positive change to uplift and rally our communities. And now, I have found the right precedent to consider.
Just as every town needs its fire station and library, we also need a new and relevant type of community land use - an Energy Academy and Park. I first saw the manifestation of this idea on Samso Island, Denmark (set in the Kattegat Strait) about two years ago. I was struck by its simplicity and also the unique story behind it. In 1997, Soren Hermansen, now Director of the Energy Academy realized that the summer tourist destination where he and his family lived full time was dead most of the frozen year. The local economy didn’t amount to much and the farmlands and powerful winds that wrapped the island had more potential if they somehow could be harnessed in a symbiotic way. His definition of sustainability for Samso’s future was not merely about energy efficiency, but also self sufficiency. So after reading about a contest sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy, he mobilized his neighbors to enter.
Over the next ten years, Samso Island residents banded together on evenings and weekends, brought baked cookies and pies to community meetings, watched instructional films, invited sustainability experts, filled out forms, invested their own money, studied prototypes, applied for government grants, had ground breakings and supported each other through many very cold nights, all the while learning about renewable energy, especially wind, solar and biofuel – of which they had plenty. You’ll have to do your own research to learn all the intricacies of how it happened, but the conclusion to the story is that Samso Island now receives international recognition for leading the world in sustainable alternative energy, producing 10% more than its 6,000 residents use each year and became carbon neutral in 2007. They export wind power to Norway and have created a variety of new jobs for themselves. Some residents even travel the world to help erect wind turbines and large solar installations based on what they have learned. Basically, they went from nothing to everything.
The Samso Island Energy Academy is the pinnacle of their efforts. The roughly 640 square meter building designed by Copenhagen’s Arkitema Architects, functions as the Island’s symbolic hub. It’s Samso’s unofficial international visitor center, meeting hall and a research office for six dedicated staff. Learn more about it at http://www.energiakademiet.dk/front_uk.asp?id=35
But the most interesting thing that Mr. Hermansen said came at the end our day together. As the sun began to set on a frosty day in February, he told us that of the many countries that have sent research teams from around the world to visit and learn from Samso’s sustainable success story – that my colleague and I were the only Americans to have actually visited (except for one reporter from the New Yorker a few months earlier). I felt a bit embarrassed. Luckily though, others have discovered what’s happening and Soren is getting the recognition he deserves by being named a TIME Magazine 2008 Hero of the Environment.
Here’s my point. What Soren did seems simple. We should use Samso as a case study of what we can do right here for ourselves – but only in reverse. We can start by building hundreds of Energy Academies throughout our country as a catalyst to meet and educate ourselves about sustainable lifestyles. Americans are receptive to making a positive change for themselves and their environment. The Academies can serve as job centers for training and placement, where relevant information and civic opportunities can be shared. Like Samso, our communities need to find and hire experts like Mr. Hermansen, of which there are plenty in the United States.
Organizers with heart, passion and desire to interpret each community’s unique surroundings, draw out its essence and motivate others to get involved. And we need inspiring simple structures like the Samso’s Energy Academy to symbolize a respite, foster the inspiration, demonstrate possibilities and provide a visual icon that reminds us that change is worth having. Adding a complimentary Energy Park is my idea. The prototype is planned for a similar project in La Plata, Missouri. All told, it takes about an acre and a half and surrounds the Energy Academy. When finished, I’ll leave it up to the community to build consensus about what should be put in it.
For more on how Online Land Planning can provide sustainable solutions for you visit our sites at www.OnlineLandPlanning.com or www.OnlineUrbanPlanning.com.
Written by:
Rick Abelson
Director
Online Land Planning