2004 Western Conference

Pre-Conference Workshops

Workshop #4: Building Sustainability Into Business

Workshop fee: $100 Guild members, $125 non-members.

A daylong workshop to show how to put sustainability into practice on a daily level, both in the environment you work in and the product you are raising. Leaders within the timber frame industry and the sustainability movement will share what they have learned about greening their businesses.

We'll begin with WHY this is an essential next step in the evolution of business and why you will benefit by differentiating your business. The HOW TO section will follow, with advice from successful proponents of sustainable business, including the nuts and bolts of incorporating green materials into your practice.

We will wrap up this full-day workshop with an hour-long "Conversation with the Panelists," which will feature innovators who have already adapted their businesses and now benefit from the changes they have made.

Sessions within this workshop include:

This session will share one firm's integration of green practices into every layer of its business practices. It will focus on how the green practices affect the way the firm acts, the work it does and how it markets it business.

This is the story of one firm who has incorporated sustaining practices and principles into their firm's culture. We are Associates III, a Residential Interior Design firm from Denver, Colorado.

We will show how and why we incorporated sustaining practices into our company culture and services, describing how we set about creating goals and principles, and then put them into action.

We apply sustainable practices on numerous levels, in our own facilities and through our purchasing practices, developing a "green" maintenance program. After turning "green" within, we were ready to incorporate sustaining products and practices into our projects.

We will show how we developed sustainable guidelines for Fixed Interior Finish Specifications including our research process for resources and materials, as well as recommended Finish Installation Methods and on-site recycling guidelines. In addition, we will share our sustainable guidelines for Furniture Specifications, and how we worked with our vendors and manufacturers to provide sustainable and environmentally safe products.

Committed to supporting local as well as national initiatives to promote Green Design and Building practices, we are active on many fronts. We have developed a website with a green section listing links and resources, authored papers and articles for green publications, we teach classes on environmental design, and continue to collaborate with our clients, other consultants, contractors and architects. We look forward to sharing our story and hearing from you!

KARI FOSTER is Principal Designer and Owner of Associates III for 30+ years. Kari has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars, including EnvironDesign 4 (2000) and 6 (2002).

ANNETTE STELMACK, Design Director at Associates III, was also a speaker at EnvironDesign 4 and 6. In 2001, she was interviewed for the PBS series, American Architectural Review, regarding Green Design Education. Since 2002, she has chaired the U.S. Green Building Council Colorado Chapter.

DEBBIE HINDMAN is Marketing Coordinator for Associates III. Between 1994-98, and again in 2003-2004 she has been a researcher and co-editor for 4 annual editions of the Sustainable Design Resource Guide for Colorado & the Western Mountain Region, an AIA/ADPSR publication. She was a speaker in 2002 at EnvironDesign 6 and teaches a class on Green Design at Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design.

Associates III is recognized as the premier Green Design firm in Colorado and was named One of the Best Places to Work by Interiors & Sources magazine in 2003.

In this session David Johnston will explain how an integral systems approach is the only way to bring about a real green building market transformation, where market forces take over from intervention strategies. An integral green building program involves everyone-in essence; it manifests a mass movement towards green building necessary to change the industry. More specifically, by educating all of the stakeholders throughout the entire system, my company's methodology effectively encourages quicker adoption of this positive building industry change. This improved efficiency saves everyone involved a significant amount of time and money. It improves the marketing edge for the builder and it redefines the relationship between the builder and the local regulatory authorities who often have a considerable impact on the cost of doing business for a builder. We envision potential for green building programs to inspire, develop, and participate in mutually supportive group efforts that provide long-term benefit to all the stakeholders. Once an integral green building approach inspires homeowners to purchase green homes and products, and generates competition among builders, architects and remodelers to build green, natural market forces will drive the subsequent evolution of the market to the point when public policy support and subsidies are no longer needed to build green.

Bio:

David Johnston has been in the construction industry designing, building, and consulting on environmental construction for 30 years. He was a former builder and founder of Lightworks Construction, Inc. in Bethesda, Maryland. He was named Builder of the Year by the Washington, D.C. chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry and inducted into the Remodeling Magazine Hall of Fame as one of the Top 50 builders in the country.

Johnston has been at the forefront of the Green Building initiative since 1993 when he founded What's Working and became the original designer of the Denver Metro Home Builders Association's Built Green Program (www.builtgreen.org). This is the most successful local program to date, certifying more than 4,000 new homes per year and evolving over the years as experience with green building has matured. David is also the main designer and consultant to the Alameda County Waste Management Authority's program (www.stopwaste.org), which has become the template for all other effective building market transformation programs in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In addition to co-authoring numerous green building programs, Johnston has presented his expertise across the country and internationally to groups including realtors, builders, developers, city/state officials, civic organizations, utilities, universities, and non-profit organizations. David's work has been published in a variety of periodicals, including Professional Builder and Home Energy. He has also written the book Building Green in a Black and White World published by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Press in 2000. The book goes into extensive detail on how to develop green building packages, how to identify what works in a builder's market, and how to market their green homes to buyers. His second book, Green Remodeling: Changing the World One Room at a Time, is due on bookstore shelves in the fall of 2004.

Johnston was awarded the Associate Member of the Year by the Boulder HBA and named the 1996 Environmental Business of the year by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. He was awarded the prestigious Corporate Excellence Award for Sustainable Development by the University of Colorado in 1998. Johnston was named Venture Guild Member of the Year by the State of Colorado Venture Center in 1999. He has been selected to represent the United States at International Energy Agency meetings to develop international research agreements in the area of sustainable construction.

In this session we will explore the history of green building supply in the U.S. and the formation of Environmental Home Center. Environmental Home Center is the oldest green building supply company in the U.S. and is celebrating its 13th year of business.

We will address our "three legged stool" philosophy of environment, economy and social equity and how we support that in our business model as well as in the products we sell. I will discuss how we weed through the green material maze and what criteria we use to determine our resale products. An overview of availability and affordability will be a critical part of this discussion on managing customer expectations in residential building.

The "nuts and bolts" of this session will provide a clear understanding of the healthy benefits of using green materials both in the home and in creating healthy ecosystems and respecting natural resources. An exploration of how to sell this to your clients and differentiate your product from competitors by incorporating sustainability into your practice will be another key focus.

Patti Southard is Director of Contractor Sales and Business Development at Environmental Home Center.