Carbon Footprint
That’s right people! I am the proud owner of a new Honda Ruckus Scooter. Why a scooter, you say? Style, fuel economy, convenient urban transportation and the same feeling of freedom you get from anything else with two wheels.
Quick specs- $2149 MSRP. 43 MPH top speed (not for long). 85 MPG.
85 MPG! If that isn’t impressive enough for you there are several internet claims of people getting over 100 MPG! Talk about reducing your carbon footprint. Also, it’s only April but you can feel the gas prices starting to creep up. My prediction is that by summer we’ll be paying some high gas prices again. This scooter has enabled me to become completely indifferent about the price of gasoline and it’s environmental impact is barely measurable.
A lot of people asked me why I didn’t get a motorcycle instead of a scooter and it’s a legitimate question. The answer is simple. This year called for something new. I have always ridden motorcycles so being on two wheels wasn’t news to me. In the past there have been some times when the only vehicle to my name was a motorcycle. Every day I would ride, rain or shine, and I’ve pretty much done everything you can do on a motorcycle short of race on a track. Also, if you have been following along, you know that I only live a couple miles from the office. The Ruckus is really going to be about commuting back and forth to work and buzzing around the city. It’s the epitome of convenience. I drive it right in the door and park it in my office!
Don’t forget about the aftermarket. YOU MUST MOD. There is an entire scene devoted to this particular model with endless customizing options. Engines, exhausts, variators, frame extensions, rims and accessories galore. You can be sure I’m going to drop some cash to make my scoot look cooler and go faster. There’s something highly satisfying about tightening the last bolt on a brand new upgrade. So far, I made my number plates and decals here at work and hacked off some useless plastic. This will hold me over until I can get some real parts lined up.
The Ruckus has enabled me to further enjoy the satisfaction of cruising on two wheels. I have freed myself from the tyranny of the gas pump and I have a new toy to customize.
That’s about it. I’m currently accepting applications to join my scooter posse if you think you have what it takes. Other than that, if you see me out around town don’t be surprised if you get a "beep beep!"
Now that we have our commute to work sorted out, we can focus on what happens upon arrival. I want to start with our building. Zone 5 recently moved from the suburbs to downtown Albany. There were several strategic reasons for moving, but a big one was that we were out of space. We had literally outgrown our office. The boss looked at several buildings around the Capital District and a lot of them had potential. There was even some thought given to building a new structure. In the end we landed at 25 Monroe St.
First, how about a little background. The structure itself is a 3 story concrete building supported by concrete pillars. It’s about 30,000 sq. ft. According to the Albany County Clerk's office it was originally constructed in 1925 and owned by a magazine and book distributor named American News Co. Inc. There is speculation that it could be even older than that. Either way, it’s stood the test of time.
The angle I want to focus on is the fact that our building was already standing. Refurbishing an existing structure can be more environmentally friendly than constructing a new building from scratch. The amount of energy and effort it would have taken to build a structure equivalent to our building would have been much greater than repairing an already existing structure. As a result the carbon footprint of our office would have been bigger.
We know that our cars have carbon footprints but of course buildings have them as well. Specifically, let’s talk about “embodied carbon” and “operational carbon”. Embodied carbon is a measure of the amount of greenhouse gases that were emitted during the manufacturing of any given material. Operational carbon refers to the amount of CO2 an item (in our case a structure) creates during it’s day to day existence after it’s already been manufactured. Common examples for a building are heating and cooling. So let’s review. The total carbon footprint of a building is the combination of the CO2 emitted from manufacturing the building materials, the construction process, and the daily operational greenhouse gas emissions, among other things.
Anytime you make a conscious effort to reduce any or all of the emissions sources associated with your office you are thinking green. What could be better than reducing one of them by avoiding most of the structural construction? We were able to find a building that had been mostly maintained and was in functioning order. It needed some minor exterior repairs and a paint job, accompanied by an interior makeover. What it didn’t need(and here is the green part) was earth moving equipment for the plot, followed by cement mixers for the thousands of pounds of concrete that would need to be poured, followed by cranes to assemble the whole thing and on and on. The result was us being able to meet our needs while avoiding creating any more greenhouse gases than we absolutely had to.
One other thing. There's the idea that we helped make a positive impact on our new neighborhood by restoring a major structure. The Capital District has many vacant/abandoned buildings. Our building was occupied but there are multiple vacant buildings surrounding us. This has always bothered me because everything they represent is negative. Neglect, indifference, mistakes and worst of all, failure. However, overhauls are beginning on two separate vacant office buildings next to ours. I know for a fact that one of them was influenced by the success of our venture. This leads back to the other concept on my mind a lot lately- improving the quality of our lives. These refurbishing projects will directly improve the quality of life in our neighborhood. Business will increase. Crime will decrease. Services that local government provide like road repair crews and plows might be more inclined to pay attention to our section of town. New businesses will move in and property values will increase. All of these things should help our company, and that will improve my life and the lives of my coworkers and neighbors.
So we restored an existing building to meet our needs. We contained our carbon footprint along the way and breathed some new life into our new neighborhood. Next I’ll describe some of the sustainable materials we used on our interior makeover. As always, everything better all the time.
Recently my winter car broke down. It made some noises I’ve never heard a car make before and then died. This led me to believe it was potentially fatal and expensive to repair. While under the hood trying to find the culprit something occurred to me. What if I don't repair it at all? (Frankly I must finally be growing up because I’m getting a little bored with cars, especially broken ones.) I got out my smart phone and looked up the local bus route. Sure enough there is a CDTA bus that runs near my house and drops me off a few blocks from the office. Sweet! That is, until I mentioned it to anyone.
Several people I talked to thought that taking the city bus on a routine basis was a terrible idea. I'll certainly be lucky to avoid getting mugged, and furthermore, how will I cart home truckloads of supplies from my local discount-club store? My neighbors saw me walking and asked why. After explaining that I was going to catch the bus they pleaded with me to let them give me a ride. Anything but the bus. Even crazier was the idea of not having a car at all. Peoples’ minds were blown. There was so much dissent that I started second-guessing the whole thing.
I decided to follow through with my plan of at least trying to ride the bus, but all the negative feedback had me concerned. Clearly some preparation was in order because it was obviously going to be intense. According to all the hype, I would have to harden up if I was going to survive a city bus ride. First, pushups and bicep curls to look stronger. Next, a high & tight military haircut, followed by shaving my traditional beard into a more sinister looking goatee. I queued up Vulgar Display of Power on my Ipod, grabbed my black leather motorcycle jacket and my meanest looking pair of sunglasses and headed out the door. Here is what I found.
The bus was exactly on time. When the door opened the driver smiled and described the bus route. There were plenty of seats and even though this particular bus wasn't new, it was surprisingly clean. As far as my preparation for war was concerned I can sum it up in one word. Ridiculous. There were mothers with their children, men in suits, and of course, girls chatting on their cell phones. Best of all, there wasn't a hooligan in sight, except for me.
Riding the Albany city bus has been a perfectly acceptable experience and I bet it's similar in other cities. Finding my route and being on foot turned the normally mundane task of getting to work into an adventure. Getting the scenic architecture tour of downtown and letting someone else do the driving almost made the whole thing dare I say, fun. All I did was combine equal parts awareness and common sense and the result was success. Maybe we need to reevaluate how we think about public transportation, specifically the bus. Not only is it environmentally friendly and inexpensive, there is the added bonus of getting a little exercise. If you have considered taking the bus in the past but didn’t for whatever reason it’s worth another look.
Here is a summary of benefits-
1) I postponed towing and repairing my broken-down beater car which temporarily saved me unknown hundreds of dollars.
2) I switched my car insurance to “Withdrawn From Use” which saved me 75% of my insurance costs while allowing me to keep my plates on the car. I don’t have to deal with the DMV or any zoning laws regarding unregistered vehicles, and If something happens to the car while parked it’s still covered.
3) I further lessened my carbon footprint by .3 tons(based on the mileage of my new commute from Nov 1st - April 1st. I plan on putting my real car back on the road in the spring.)
4) I don’t have to buy gasoline this winter saving me an additional $92.37
5) There is another parking space available in our already crowded downtown parking lot. This is important in the winter because the snow banks always eat up a couple of spaces.
6) My total walk round trip is 2.2 miles which helps me burn an extra 200 calories a day and is generally believed to be good for my heart.
Next I’ll introduce you to our building and explain how we were able to positively influence our carbon footprint as a company. Happy New Year and welcome to 2010. I love fresh starts. Let’s do something good.
Hello and welcome to our Green Zone. I'm creating a new section of our blog designed to let the world know what we've been up to regarding our company's impact on the environment and what we're doing to help. You can expect bi-weekly installments, links, pictures, definitions, personal observations and stories about what positive things we did, what we’re doing, what we hope to do in the future and why.
As any company should, Zone 5 has taken some common green approaches and applied them to our daily lives. There have also been some complicated problems that required solving and I want to share these stories with you for a few reasons. First, being environmentally aware should be considered standard business practice. It's becoming obvious that indifference isn't an option anymore. Second, in business not only do you have to actually do something positive, you have to let the world know what you did and why it was good. Third, I intend to remind everyone how easy being environmentally conscious actually is. Some of the green alternatives we implemented were even easier and CHEAPER than traditional methods. So easy in fact, that several of our goals were achieved by either a single phone call or a double click of the mouse.
So what exactly does “green” mean? The dictionary says “environmentally sound or beneficial” but everyone has their own personalized version. The more I learn the more it feels like a checklist of what not to do, but here at Zone 5 we aren’t interested in doing nothing, not to mention doing nothing doesn’t make for a very entertaining blog post. So this blog will focus on what we did instead. Also, we’ve heard the buzz words – sustainability, post-consumer content, carbon footprint etc. I'm going to take these concepts and explain how they apply to Zone 5 and what they mean to us.
Since this is our first introduction I want to let everyone know where I'm coming from. I'm not Al Gore. Not everything I do is green. I don’t drive a Prius (although my relative does) nor am I a forest ranger. That said, the older I get the more I find myself caring about the environment and the easier it feels to come up with environmentally friendly solutions in my personal and professional life.
In summary, what is the point of this blog? What is the point of life? Simple. Make everything better all the time. Improve your health, your environmental impact, your career, your relationships. Learn more about whatever you are into. Get better at it. Everything better than it was before. Check back in a couple weeks for my next installment. Hope to see you then, thanks.
