Internal Environmental Quality.

By Jesse Herman from Asbestos.com

What fills your lungs inside your home may be worse that what you’re breathing outside!

For decades, the word “pollution” has been on the docket of every politician campaigning for one office or another. Cleaning up our air, our water, and our overall outdoor environment has been a huge priority since the 1960s, when the word “air pollution” first came into vogue. We’ve fought for emission laws, battled against companies that empty hazardous chemicals into our streams, and have made numerous other attempts to reduce the carbon footprint stamped on our outside world.

But what about the world inside our homes and offices? Surely, aside from a few germs and bacteria spread by family members and co-workers, our interior domains – for the most part – keep us safe and healthy, don’t they?

Not really. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), known health effects of indoor pollutants include asthma; cancer; developmental defects and delays, including effects on vision, hearing, growth, intelligence, and learning; and effects on the cardiovascular system.” (Source: Healthy Buildings, Healthy People: A Vision for the 21^st Century) And when you consider that the average American spends 90 percent of his/her time indoors, it’s easy to understand why cancer rates and the number of people affected by other environmental diseases are through the roof!

Hazards of Old Homes and Workplaces

Indoor environmental contaminants weren’t much of an issue when America was involved in the post-World War II building frenzy. The biggest concern was providing homes for all those growing baby boomer families, so houses went up quickly. Builders like William Levitt – famous for his many “Levittown” developments – constructed thousands upon thousands of homes in just a few years time, enticing homebuyers to the suburbs of America’s great cities where they could buy mass-produced homes cheaply.

Of course, not ever quickly-built, inexpensively-priced home of yesteryear was toxic, but many probably contained one of the biggest hazards of the 20^th century – asbestos. Little or no thought was given to the use of this naturally-mined mineral; everyone was impressed by its heat- and fire-resistant qualities, and because it was readily available, it was cheap and easy to obtain.

However, during the last 30 years, asbestos has emerged as the poster child for indoor environmental toxins, sickening not only those who worked in the construction industry of that era but also homeowners and do-it-yourselfers who came in contact with toxic forms of the mineral.

While bundled, intact asbestos generally causes no release of toxins and may merely require containment, damaged or old asbestos in both homes and commercial buildings can be a real stinker. “Friable” asbestos – the old stuff that crumbles and flakes off – is easily inhaled and absorbed into the lungs, where it wreaks havoc with pulmonary function. While not everyone who inhales asbestos develops asbestos-related diseases, the risk is very real, especially when asbestos is disturbed during renovation or demolition projects. Asbestos was used in various sorts of insulation and could also be found in floor tiles, “popcorn” ceilings, drywall glue, and myriad other building products. It’s often encountered during remodeling, much to the surprise of many homeowners.

And because most asbestos diseases, such as the cancer mesothelioma, remain latent for 30-40 years, many individuals who were unaware of the dangers of working with asbestos – including both homeowners and construction workers – are just learning that they’re battling this dreaded disease. Currently, there are no mesothelioma treatments that result in a cure.

New Homes?

Of course, the building boom continues in America, despite economic woes, and we no longer have to worry about asbestos and other similar toxins, do we?

Ever walk through a poshly-decorated sample home and take a deep whiff of that “new home” smell? Aah…doesn’t it smell marvelous? Fresh paint, new carpets…all those things you’d want in your brand new abode. Nothing to worry about here. No asbestos, no lead paint. Just a safe and clean place to live, free from all the contaminants found in old homes that were built before toxins were a concern, right?

Wrong! Various scientific studies have shown that our tightly sealed homes of the 21^st century are full of toxins. Remember that “new home” smell? That’s just a plethora of cancer-causing vapors drifting through your home, cleverly disguised as those “fresh and clean” smells that are expected in new construction. These petro-chemical concoctions from products such as synthetic carpets, toxic paints, particle board, and OSB (a.k.a. wafer board) are slowly sickening the inhabitants of newer homes and offices and most Americans simply don’t realize this is the case.

So, what’s the answer? Green building experts will tell you it all has to do with reducing what they like to call VOCs – volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde – at the source. These compounds cause cancer, skin ailments, and any number of other diseases, like asthma, which is at an all-time high among the nation’s children.

Asbestos may be a thing of the past, but today’s widely-used inexpensive building materials are destined to be the new asbestos. Formaldehyde, for example, is everywhere. You’ll find it in pressed wood cabinets and furniture, paints, glues, draperies, and in fuel-burning appliances. Eliminating formaldehyde at the source by choosing eco-friendly building products significantly reduces exposure to toxins and increases the internal environmental quality of a home or office.

Building green has never made so much sense and more and more green builders are emerging. Buyers of new homes and renovators of old ones, however, must be willing to go the extra mile and spend the extra dollar on building products that make sense. The quality of our indoor spaces – in a time when Americans spend way too much time indoors – is an issue which must be addressed with ongoing fervor – a fervor necessary in order to avoid another asbestos-like environmental catastrophe.

The Emerging Massachusetts Sustainability Model.

The Commonwealth is an interesting place to see through the prism of sustainability. The densely populated East is home to the emerging players in the Eco-Tech Field with Spire in Bedford and Konarka in Lowell making strides in photovoltaics. Framingham is home to Ameresco which could play a very valuable role here in waste water treatment conversion I'll describe in more detail below. Gloucester faces the sea well with hydrokinetic turbines at Free Flow and organic soil enhancement from Neptune's Harvest.

And as for wind, there are clusters of wind works in the South Coast and Cape including Aerostar in Plymouth, Aeronautica in Westport and Turning Mill Energy in Sandwich. Two others are in the Boston urban core, Second Wind, in Somerville and the brand new Wind Pole in Lexington.

There are many more in a growing array of fields and it looks to be the earliest break of a new manufacturing wave that well fits the area's legacy infrastructure. And this reborn manufacturing base should be here to stay as the cost of container shipment from the Far East rises with the cost of fuel.

The Eastern Half is correspondingly more problematic and Massachusetts Smart Growth published some findings for major improvement areas in conjunction with a report by the Brookings Institute.The following italicized segments are from that paper by Smart Growth Executive Director Andre Leroux.

"The Brookings report quantifies the most significant sources of carbon emitted by the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas in 2000 and 2005. Those sources are fuels burned by vehicles (personal and freight) and the energy used in residential buildings. The per capita figures for metro residents do not include emissions from commercial buildings and industry."

"In recent years, state and local governments have taken steps to improve energy efficiency and curb carbon emissions. The federal government, however, has been slower-moving, the Brookings report contends. Federal funding formulas favor highway construction over rapid transit and federal policy fails to promote energy efficiency in its housing policies."

“While many metro areas are taking the lead on climate action, they will be hard pressed to shrink their carbon footprints in the absence of supportive federal policies,” added Mark Muro, policy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program and the co-author of a forthcoming Brookings policy agenda to be issued as part of the institution’s Blueprint for American Prosperity, a multi-year initiative to promote metro-friendly federal policy stances."

“Metros can’t go it alone in solving as vast a problem as global climate change,” Muro said.

The more rural West is home to the more advanced inroads to sustainability and grassroots sustainability organizing. It will increasingly see the rebirth of farming and food production and its housing stock has less of a footprint than the vast urban messes of the East. There is substantially more room to decentralize waste and energy streams and also it has sleeping potential to see its own manufacturing restoration.

Housing Stock Retrofitting.

This may well be the most urgent and rewarding endeavor to get the Commonwealth in condition to minimize exposure to peak oil impacts and it is long overdue. The vast inventory of urban legacy rental property, the hundreds of triple deckers and multi unit residences built before World War Two, are often major energy burners.

Because the heating and cooling costs are traditionally passed along to tenants, the property owners rarely have the inclination or incentive to make sufficient efficiency upgrades, The long standing depreciation allowance elements of the tax codes probably further exacerbate the situation. The recent spate of condo conversion during the housing bubble had a useful role in upgrading the impacted properties so some efficiency churning is underway.

But with the collapse of the housing market, the rental sector rises in importance without any corresponding improvement in quality.

"Making our homes more energy efficient, André added, can also have a huge positive impact. Our older housing stock and long winters put Massachusetts cities near the bottom in terms of carbon emissions from residential fuel use."

"The Legislature should complete its work on comprehensive energy legislation before the end of the session and include strong provisions to help homeowners make the state’s older housing stock more energy efficient."

I haven't yet discovered any Eastern Mass. equivalent to the Center for Ecological Technology with offices in Pittsfield and Northampton. It also maintains affiliation with the ReStore in Springfield.

Transportation.

The Boston Metro area within the 495 donut is poorly served by a transit system focused on Boston while seemingly oblivious to the vast population, fully half of the Commonwealth, that doesn't live or work in Boston. It is a wheel without a rim. And within the urban core there has been a significant increase in bicycle use that will only continue without much corresponding accommodation for this bike load on menacing motor congested streets.

The city of Cambridge has taken some baby steps toward addressing the bike load. Certain arterial streets are marked with white lined bike lanes that put bicyclists in across fire between street traffic and the ever present hazard of the parked car door openers. And, from repeated direct observation, it is fairly clear that significant numbers of motorists are fairly oblivious or indifferent to the presence of these white lines.

It could be noted that few of the emerging manufacturers mentioned above are located in the urban core. Few of the conventional manufacturers, retail centers and service sector employers that drive the Commonwealths economy are located in the urban core. Some of the high potential South Coast cities such as Fall River and New Bedford utterly lack robust and cost effective public transportation links to Boston despite an avid interest in promoting these areas for future development.

"According to the Boston Indicators Project coordinated by the Boston Foundation in partnership with the City of Boston and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (www.tbf.org/indicators2004), the number of registered cars rose by 29.7% in Metro Boston, and by 37.4% in Massachusetts between 1990 and 2004. Furthermore, growth in vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) in Metro Boston and statewide has continued to increase faster than the growth in population."

"We need to maintain existing transportation infrastructure and increase investment in expanding transportation choices. The goal is to improve mobility, not restrict it, and increase our options for getting around, such as walking to a park or a school, making it possible to take a bike to work, and offering bus and rail service that is pleasant, clean and reliable."

Source Reduction and Biomethane.

The high public infrastructure costs of the Metro Region form a significant barrier to entry for many start ups. The MWRA is a substantial cost element of locating within its jurisdiction. While significant strides have been made in water use efficiency and source reduction there is room for improvement. Perhaps a reason why water efficiency exceeds energy efficiency in legacy rental property is that property owners traditionally pay the water bill and they are impacted by cost spikes.

The MWRA could readily become a net energy producer by making its sprawl of water treatment facilities into biomethane production facilities. This could be a significant cost offset and contribute to source reduction.

Food and Farming.

This element of the Commonwealth's sustainability potential finds its principle home in Western Massachusetts where bottom up grass roots ventures have much lower barriers to entry and where some of the very finest soil rests on a vast glacial lake bed that extends from Northern Connecticut to Southern Vermont and New Hampshire. The regions many other watersheds often hold extensive pockets of quality farm soil.

The region also has reliable water from seasonal weather patterns that are unlikely to change to arid as climate change drifts where it will. This is a valuable contrast from many regions of the country with depleting water resources.

The Local Harvest Massachusetts search page cites 419 listed entities with a significant grouping in Western and Central Mass. The Berkshires have a dedicated entity in Berkshire Grown.

NESAWG and The New England Small Farm Institute both have a robust presence in the Connecticut Valley and the Central Connecticut River Valley Institute in Shelburne Falls has the proliferation of sustainable farming as its core mission. Touchstone Eco Village is an example of a sustainable farm community in Easthampton.

Eastern Massachusetts hasn't as much room for sustainable farming but Essex County and the South Coast are significant growth areas. The glacial lake soil that first supported farming in the Concord River watershed still carries a few farms and they are likely to be increasingly valuable community assets in days ahead.

This concludes an introductory overview of some of the salient elements that contribute to the Green sector of the Commonwealths economy. Over time I will provide research in detail for a number of these facets and they will become themes in the ongoing run of scribblings.

May it also be a useful exercise in other biomes as much of the transformation to sustainability will see displacement of ponderous fossil fuel Multi Nationals with the more subtle place specific mosiac of Multi Locals.

Inelasticity Meets Home Retrofitting.

The Oil Drum featured an essential paper on the relations between gasoline and heating oil prices and the role that demand destruction plays in each.

Gasoline prices can be impacted by use reduction by motorists as they cut back on driving. This is called 'elastic' demand.

A significant part of oil demand is 'inelastic'. Essential operations of oil fueled power plants or home heating have less room for demand reduction and need to be offset by efficiency enhancements or alternative fuel swaps.

In the colder populous old regions of the US such as New England, there is still a vast energy loss from legacy housing stock, particularly in urban areas where thousands of structures remain uninsulated.

This suggests an urgent need to identify housing stock that still isn't up to 21st century potentials and follow with a crash program of subsidy and tax incentive to reach readily attainable efficiencies.

The other side of addressing inelastic demand turns on swap outs and switch overs to post fossil fuels. The city of San Antonio, Texas is an early adopter of using methane capture technology to substantially augment it's fuel mix in a closed loop utilization of its waste water plant.

The movement out of the fossil fuel past wants a mosaic of coordinated efficiencies swap outs to substitute for the expedience of running systems on an unrenewable and increasingly costly option.