Jackson County Democrats

Can a proposed Portland tower combat global warming, point the way to energy independence, and spur economic development?  Futuristic "net-zero" design  would slash electric and water requirements to on-site resources only.

To paraphrase Ben Franklin: Waste is money. Whether we're talking energy, materials or labor, why pay for valuables twice? When our waste also imperils the long-term livability of our planet, it's not only emptying our wallets–it's reckless to boot.

Just how much are we wasting?  How much can be saved?

The Oregon Sustainability Center set to break ground in Portland next year should provide revolutionary answers to such questions. It's a demonstration project designed to put America far in the forefront of green building technology. Its designers plan to blow away the "reasonable" expectations of even the incurably wild-eyed optimists. 

What we expect and what's reasonable often differ wildly.  Our expectations are based on personal experience.  What's reasonable is based on facts.  Facts are subject to change.  In the midst of technological revolution, it can be hard to keep up.

The amount of energy we waste boggles the mind.  Take oil, for instance.  America now consumes a cubic-mile of this non-renewable commodity each and every year.  Imagine pacing off its four-mile perimeter on the morning of January 1, then tilting your head WAY back to take in that mile-high cube of glistening black gold.  Then, poof!  It's gone forever.   Somehow, we've fast-forwarded to Dec. 31, and find ourselves shelling out for yet another cubic-mile.  Ouch.

What stings more is that MOST of that energy is wasted.  We can, with some critical investments now, live just as well, indeed better, without waste!  As energy policy strategist Amory Lovins delights in saying, "the beer in the fridge would still be cold, and your shower would still be hot."  Not only that, our troops would be safer and some hostile powers on whom we now depend would be poorer.

Sound too good to believe?  The designers of the Oregon Sustainability Center intend to redefine the state-of-the-art.  They're not out to build a modest "off the grid" home in the countryside.  They're pushing to build a new 200-foot tower on Montgomery Street in downtown Portland that will rock the architectural world's preconceived notions.

The Oregon Sustainability Center would be a first-of-its-kind designed to meet a daunting "living building" challenge.  The Center will:

• Meet all energy needs from the sun, including natural lighting, passive heating, and solar cell generated electricity
• Catch all water used from rainfall.
• Use and reuse that water; then, before returning it to the local ecosystem, leave it clean enough to run down a storm drain into the Willamette.
• Use no materials from beyond a 500-mile radius, minimizing the energy of construction.
• Share with nature all resources gathered on-site, sustaining a canopy of trees and other vegetation, and enhancing the building's environs inside and out.
  

The real trick is scaling back waste.  All these goals are possible because the Oregon Sustainability Center will require so little energy–a staggering 70 percent less–when compared to standard office towers of similar square-footage.

Electricity is a critical factor.  It will be generated from a photovoltaic roof canopy as well as smaller canopies along the south side of the building, which serve a dual purpose as both shades and solar cells.  Computer models show that the Center, though connected to Portland's power grid, will truly be "net-zero." On an annual basis, it would pull no more power from the grid than it ultimately returns during its peak generation periods.

It's true that net-zero buildings have higher initial costs, but with no big utility bills to pay, they eventually pay back that investment.  After that, it's like sitting back and collecting dividends.  Economists have long since demonstrated that energy-conserving communities build a sustainable prosperity.  They weather economic recessions better than communities that waste.  No mystery there!

Waste is money.  Money that we don't spend on natural gas, stove oil or electricity is money that families and businesses can bank for a rainy day–or put to urgent needs today. We can choose to continue to finance hostile oil-rich dictatorships. Or we can decide to pay ourselves first.

There's an even bigger payout, however.  By investing in the technology of tomorrow, the various partners in this project (Portland Development Commission, Portland Community College, the Portland State University Center for Sustainability Studies, the City of Portland, the State of Oregon, and the various design and engineering firms) are cutting themselves a slice of the pie in future green building development.  Ultimately, that means lessons learned and contracts and jobs.  That's money too.