The Green Garage

Friday lunch recap 11/8/2013: What About A Detroit Alley District?

Last month in Model D Claire Nelson and Francis Grunow wrote a piece entitled "What If Dally Was Daily?", making the case for an alley district in Detroit utilizing the existing infrastructure to encourage a more walkable community. This past Friday Francis and Claire described their vision at our Friday meeting, followed by an alley tour at 4pm. Some of their points included:

• A discussion of Sanborn Maps, drawn up for fire insurance purposes, detailing buildings, streets and alleyways from the 1800's.
• A view of a pedestrian-only district supported by an alley infrastructure as a new way of living in the city.
• The Alley District having a foundation where the current Dally in the Alley takes place, and spreading south and east.
• A discussion of scalability, with the dimensions of an alley walk as often more comfortable and intimate than our outsized streets.

 

Francis Grunow at the Friday lunch.

 

Later that afternoon, Francis and Claire took us on a tour of this imagined future Alley District, about a 1-hour walk. For many of us, used to moving through the city via car or walking or biking the major streets, the walk opened our eyes to the small, interesting sights that the alleys provide. Great architecture, many old garages (some dating back to the horse and buggy era), apartment buildings' back yards and courtyards, beautiful trees growing in surprisingly tight spots....it's like seeing Detroit for the first time. This is an idea that could take hold.

 

Francis leading the alley tour Friday afternoon.

View the presentation here:

Alley District from matthewpiper

 

Friday lunch recap 10/18/13: Designing a treehouse

Let's say you're designing a treehouse. What would you like to see in it? Are there any features you remember from a favorite childhood treehouse you'd like to see included (or updated)? How would you design it so that it could fill multiple purposes for multiple kinds of people (kids and grown-ups alike)?

We were considering questions like this during our Friday lunch community design session on 10/18 lead by designer-in-residence Kevin Gardner. Kevin's working on the design of a treehouse that we're thinking about building on the site of the El Moore, our residential project down the street from the Green Garage. (For more info on the El Moore, visit our wiki and check in the bottom left corner of the homepage.)

 

Kevin's early in the design phase and wanted to turn to the community for input, as we have on many occasions at the GG. He gave a bit of background on the project, then asked for suggestions and sketched as we talked. Given the opportunity to think like kids again, the community's ideas flowed freely. They included:

• Make it bi-level: create at least two distinct spaces inside the treehouse.
• Expand the space with fabric and light -- create a tent formation in the trees above the house accessible by a ladder.
• Add skylights for more natural light.
• Since the site is very close to the sidewalk/street, connect the house to the street somehow. Create a swing out of reused materials, for instance, that reaches down almost to ground level.
• Create some lookout spots for kids to be "sneaky" and spy on the neighborhood goings-on. Install a periscope? 
• Build in bookshelves and invite kids in the neighborhood to contribute to the book collection.
• Keep simple toys inside that inspire creativity: wooden blocks, for instance. Encourage them to use the blocks to design and build their own mini-buildings.
• Build some of the walls in such a way that they can be drawn or painted on.
• Plant more trees on the site so that eventually, it'll be more of a hideaway, nestled in greenery.
• Encourage kids to bring blankets and sticks so that they can make temporary treehouses in the trees above and around the built structure, making it a temporary treehouse village.

Who's ready to move in?

 

Friday lunch recap 10/4/12: Solar thermal panel seasonal prep

The subject of Friday, 10/4's lunchtime presentation was solar panels. More specifically, the Green Garage's solar thermal panels, which we've recently turned on in preparation for the coming cool weather.

Joe Gallagher, who did construction design and management for the Green Garage (and is currently doing the same work for our residential project, the El Moore),  is responsible for keeping an eye on the GG's panels. He gave us a quick introduction to the GG's solar thermal heating system, which includes an array of ten panels on the roof that heat 5,000 gallons' worth of water. When the temperature drops and the building starts requiring heat, the water is pumped through tubes in our floor, providing radiant heating.

Joe walked us through the process by which the tanks start heating the water, which started on September 2nd. By September 3rd, we saw an increase in the water temperature in the tanks of 20.8 degrees.

Joe's goal around this time of year for the past couple years has been to get the water in the tanks to a temperature of 160 degrees. Are we there yet this year? Joe thinks so (an external sensor suggests the temperature recently hit 155, and since it's just outside the tank, he thinks the water is in fact hotter), but our sustainability labs are going to get a firmer answer today, actually, with the use of a very long thermometer.

Whether we get to 160 or not, though, we're optimistic that we'll be able to comfortably heat our historic, 12,500 square foot building all winter with free energy we're harnessing from the sun. (But we'll get to 160.)

 

Friday lunch recap 9/27/13: Getting ready for winter

The last two Friday lunch presentations had to do with the approach of winter. September 27th's, by retired engineer and Green Garage welcome desk volunteer Tom Besemer, was about some basic steps that every homeowner can take to get ready for the colder weather. October 4th's was by Joe Gallagher, who manages the Green Garage's energy systems, and offered a look at the solar thermal panels that are an integral component of the GG's heating system. We'll briefly recap both presentations, starting today with domestic winter prep and continuing next week with the solar panel talk. 

Preparing the Home for Winter

Tom Besemer broke down the steps we can all take to prepare our homes for winter into three categories: the furance, living area, and insluation. Here are some of his thoughts on each:

Furnace

• Turn it on -- now! Don't wait until it's cold enough to need it and then find out there's a problem. Turn it on, let it work for a few minutes, and see if it's in good working order. The earlier you notice there's trouble, the less time you'll have to wait for the repair folks, who get inundated after the first really chilly night.
• Now's the perfect time to replace your furnace filter, which should usually be done once a season (depending on the filter) -- a dirty filter can cause furnace performance problems.
• Make sure you know where both your supply registers and return air registers are in your house. Double-check to make sure all are clear of obstructions, such as furniture, rugs, etc.
• Thermostat setbacks: now's a great time to start thinking about the thermostat setpoints you use to reduce hot air output when you're away from the house or asleep at night.

Living Area

• Take a few minutes to consciously observe points of air infiltration (drafts). Where does it frequently get chilly? Try to determine where the cool air is coming from. If from windows, make sure they're closed all the way and locked. If still drafty, think about recaulking them or adding plastic covers.
• For doors, does your weather stripping need replacing? If you're thinking about making an investment in an energy saving tool, one of the best would be a storm door, if you don't have one. This creates a "threshold seal" that helps reduce the amount of cold air entering the building. 

 Insulation

• Insulate, insulate, insulate! How's the insulation in your attic? Your basement? Between the joists in the basement? Between your basement blocks and wood? How about empty rooms that don't get used much? Can those be better insulated? Again, now's a great time to be asking these questions.

We're all intimately connected to seasonal change in this part of the world. As Tom made clear, learning to live more sustainably includes learning to observe, understand, and adequately prepare for the distinct energy demands of each season. At the Green Garage, we designed our building to respond directly to seasonal flux by installing a solar thermal heating system; check back here next week for a closer look at how it's working!

Friday lunch: introduction to permaculture

Last Friday, Matt Sitek of Pill Pouch, a family business-in-residence at the Green Garage, presented an introduction to permaculture.

Matt's been interested in the subject of permaculture for some time. Recently, he attended a nine-day permaculture workshop in Wisconsin, and he's started facilitating an open, informal weekly lunchtime discussion group at the Green Garage about permaculture's 12 principles and their application in the GG's rooftop farm. (Tuesdays at noon.)

Matt started his presentation with definitions and a history. Permaculture ("permanent" + "agriculture," later "permanent" + "culture," too) is a way of designing systems based on natural processes and relationships. It's "ecosystem mimicry," in Matt's words. He briefly outlined its origins, after Australian naturalist Bill Mollison's years of ecosystem observation and seminal observation that "nature needs no external inputs."

Permaculture's roots are in agriculture, in designing agricultural systems based on observation of ecosystems in which all of the elements achieve a mutually supportive balance. Over time, it's evolved to include designing systems of all kinds, Matt noted, including buildings and landscapes.

Permaculture is a pair of glasses, Matt said, "lenses through which you see the world."

A copy of Matt's presentation is below. For more information on permaculture, he recommends checking out Permacultureprinciples.com or joining the lunchtime conversation group.

Friday lunch: the life in the soil

Last Friday, our resident rooftop farmer Kirsten Lyons spent a few minutes disussing the microbial life in the soil around us.

Kirsten, who manages the Green Garage's urban rooftop farm, has been playing in and learning about Michigan soil for decades as a gardener, farmer, and landscape designer. Some years ago, her passion for soil brought her into contact with the work of Elaine Ingham, a soil biologist who advocates for an ecological approach to soil management. 

Rather than relying on chemicals and tilling to nourish healthy soils, Ingham's approach consists in learning about the astonishing abundance and diversity of microbial life that calls the soil its home, then naturally creating the conditions in which that life can thrive. A thoughtfully balanced microbial ecosystem should yield an abundance of productive, healthy crops, a hypothesis that Ingham's practice confirms repeatedly.

Kirsten discussed her own love of the soil and explained the basics of Ingham's work while showing a serires of microsope videos taken by her, Helen Bradley, and Caroline Peterson, two other Green Garagers who've been heavily involved in the rooftop farm. The short videos offer a remarkable glimpse of our microscopic relatives that thrive in the vast, teeming world beneath our feet. Here are two of them:

 

 

 

Incubating a pet business

When we first started incubating businesses here at the Green Garage, we never thought we'd be delving into the pet business, and yet for the past few months we have been working with Adrienne Wisok on incubating her emerging animal-related enterprise. Adirenne, who works as a veterinary assistant, entered into the process thinking that she wanted to open a sustainable pet retail shop. Working through 4 weeks of collaborative design and a summer of seed design (defining the core of the business), a new business idea has emerged that better reflects her passion: a human/animal companion therapy business. She has moved from products to a service-based business. Here is Adrienne's description:

I create the conditions in which animals and humans – each unique – can teach each other to be better companions. My practice is rooted in animal ethics, informed by the latest research, and based on the belief that wholeness and joy are possible in every relationship.

Today Adrienne gathered the collaborative design group together again for an update on the progress of her work. She reviewed the previous work the group had done and talked about the connections she had made over the summer. She began consulting with The Humane Society, gathering information she needed for her business plan. She learned that:

• 60% of all pets are returned to the Humane Society after adoption.
• 85% of those are returned due to one or more behavioral problems.
• 32% of animals that come to the Humane Society are euthanized.
• Encouragingly, 94% of human companions who received individualized training had a successful outcome with their animal.

Adrienne has also been in contact with people at Monash University in Australia, who work quite a bit in animal/human interactions, and they emphasized the need for more work in this area. Her research connected her to a grad student at Purdue who is researching personality matching of animals and humans.

In the near future, she'll be doing pro-bono work on the Humane Society's behavioral hotline, which will help build the beginning of her database. She'll continue her work with Purdue, and has scheduled a visit to The Center for Humans and Nature in Chicago. She has one more summary meeting with the Green Garage collaboration group next week, and later will have one final debriefing meeting before launching the business.

Adrienne, in green, and some of the collaboration design group at the Green Garage.

 

Spirit of Detroit

At today's Friday lunch conversation Tom asked the group to describe the current spirit of Detroit. The contributions included:

• Detroit is a mecca for art, music and manufacturing. It's an uplifting place, a forerunner.
• Detroit currently specializes in human technology - people drive everything. Human capital is what makes it roll.
• Look at the D:Hive theme: Detroit is for doers.
• Detroit is a charitable city - people give what they can to help others.
• There is an unparallelled level of volunteerism.
• There is a great deal of collaboration.
• One person used the analogy of 'breaking down silos.' Elsewhere, people and businesses can tend to center inward, in essence building their silo, but in Detroit we see more building of bridges, a greater openness to working across comfort zones. A tendency toward cross-pollination.

Thanks, everyone. This discussion was a great start to Labor Day weekend.

Measuring Performance

It's one thing to renovate a building to make it highly energy efficient. It's another to measure the performance of the building and its occupants over time to see if your goals have been met. We have begun a series of measurement pages on our wesite that measure our water use, waste output and energy efficiency. We have enough data to look our water and waste numbers for a year and see trends. We began measuring our energy 4 months ago.

Here's an example of a chart measuring our water usage from July 2012 to July 2013. Notice the bump in October in 2012. This was due to a toilet that ran all weekend.

We compare our water usage per person per month to the industry standard for office buildings, and here's how the comparison looks for the same time frame.

Our numbers are a fraction of the typical office building due largely to our efficient bathroom and kitchen fixtures, our conservation measures, and the use of rainwater for watering our outdoor plants.

Our waste numbers are similarly small compared with the industry standard per person per month, as in the chart below.

In looking at the numbers for July of 2013, however, we found that our waste output had doubled from the previous month. We're thinking that a couple of refrigerator clean-outs may have bumped the numbers, so a reminder e-mail was sent to the community to remind them to take their stuff home.

We have just recently started measuring our energy numbers (in kilowat hours), separating the HVAC numbers from the 'other' category (lighting, computers, refrigerator, etc). Here's how these charts look.

 

It's helpful to measure costs, especially in energy. We measure our HVAC-related and 'other' costs per month per person. The HVAC costs per person per month chart is below.

We'll continue to update the measurement pages each month, so please take a look and see how we're doing.

Friday lunch: the buzz about bees

Well, hello there! After more than a year away, we've decided that it's time to dust off the old blog, in part to extend the reach of our Friday lunch conversations.

If you've never attended a Friday lunch, we hold them every single Friday (except major holidays) at noon. Everyone brings a lunch and introduces themselves, then we introduce the work that goes on at the Green Garage and host a brief presentation, either about our work in sustainability or the work of one of our businesses-in-residence. (After lunch, starting a few minutes past 1:00, we give a tour of our building.) 

From here on out, we're going to do our best to recap all the presentations here on the Green Garage blog so that folks who can't make it to lunch can still connect with the material & the people presenting it.

Last week, we invited Rich Wieskie, an avid local beekeeper, to talk a bit about beekeeping in Detroit. We met Rich in June when we interviewed him for a beekeeping-themed entry in Green City Diaries, our monthly sustainability series.

We changed our presentation format this time, hosting a Q & A between Matt Piper, the author of Green City Diaries, and Rich. Joan Mandell, Rich's partner in life and bees, was also in attendance and chimed in to help answer a few of the questions.

Rich & Joan in the Green Alley

We touched on a lot in a brief conversation: the history of beekeeping in Detroit, its current state, the ecological significance of the honeybee, the meditative personal dimension of beekeeping, as well as the life cycle of these fascinating creatures. A great insight from Rich was how relatively healthy urban bees have remained during the recent decades' honeybee crises, compared to bees that live near large agricultural sites. The diversity of urban flora (a diversity that is, in fact, promoted by bees) and smaller-scale use of pesticides in cities has helped urban honeybees stay safe. Fascinating.