David Gottfried, father of the green global building movement, discusses the extreme drought in California and adaptation/mitigation strategies for residents of the state.
TRANSCRIPT
Speaker 1:Method to the madness
Speaker 2:is next. You are listening to meditation,
Speaker 3:the madness behind weekly public affairs show on k l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay area innovators. I'm Lisa Kiefer and today I'm interviewing David Gottfried, father of the Global Green building movement. Today we'll be talking about adaptation and mitigation strategies for the Severe [00:00:30] California drought. Welcome to the program, David.
Speaker 4:So great to be here. There's so much we have to address and we have such an extreme problem. It's really an emergency and our governor declared that which is right on, but I think we can do so much more. It's interesting when you look at water in general and certainly in our state, uh, the tiering is, is interesting. The, the highest [00:01:00] water uses in agriculture about 77%. Then you have an industrial about 22%
Speaker 1:isn't fracking in there too somewhere?
Speaker 4:Well, fracking is growing. It's two to 10 million gallons per well in fracking and that's a huge problem. The second you use it, it's no good. You can't recycle that water. But there's so much we can do in agriculture, industrial in our production and manufacturing as well as at home. Uh, one of the greatest things [00:01:30] that we haven't addressed well at all specifically in California is rainwater capture. When every drop of rain should be caught on our roofs and then filtered down into rain sisters, whether they're just big garbage cans with hoses on them, and that water should be used for our toilets. It should be used for our landscaping and the water we don't capture should not hit the street. It should go through porous pavers, get rid of all this asphalt [00:02:00] and go down to recharge the aquifers. We've just drained so many aquifers are at their lowest levels ever equivalent, almost over the last hundred plus years to draining Lake Tahoe.
Speaker 1:Wow. I know, I saw one, I'm a recent trip. We stopped in Kern county miracle hot springs. I mean probably 50 years ago. It looked like it was just this amazing place. Now there's a small pool of hot water. I mean in graffiti everywhere else on the rocks, [00:02:30] there's no water left. Yeah,
Speaker 4:Central Valley is the worst and it's agriculture that's drain unit, but it's, it's bad everywhere. And you see, not only that, we just didn't get the rain this year. We didn't get the snow pack. We're at about 12 to 20% of the snow pack. And you and I recently were at rivers and just a week ago I was, uh, at the Sacramento River and taking a look at Mount Shasta and the Shasta Reservoir and walking in the McCloud and it was [00:03:00] less than half of what it was, uh, two years ago. Last year it was extreme. Uh, 2013 was our worst year registered for water ever in about 500 years. Wow. Okay. So I just read some scientific reports that people were questioning, saying that California has always had this kind of variability and is there not the evidence that says climate change has something to do with this? Absolutely. Climate change is part of it and it's increasing and there is [00:03:30] not evidence of a drought like we've just had, the last three years in California had been horrific, but it's not just California.
Speaker 4:Uh, I travel a lot, toss failure. They almost ran out of water. Atlanta had trouble. Um, there's so many areas that are underwater, uh, or wish they war. China's makes California look light in terms of water problems. They've ruined 80% of the rivers and polluted them and they're projected to be way over in about 15 [00:04:00] years. The, the demand for water will exceed the, the availability by about 25%. So, um, I read that El Nino is maybe going to happen this year, which will mean more rainfall and California potentially. I don't know a lot about that, but I, I wouldn't plan on it. I think we have to take emergency measures now and much more extreme than what we're doing. I know the governor declared a water emergency in January of 2014 he [00:04:30] then allowed about six, 700 million for water measures. There are dozens of, if not almost a hundred counties and cities in California with ordinances for water.
Speaker 4:And they're pretty good. They have dozens of measures they try to reduce such as lawn watering and flushing of toilets, washing of cars, washing of pavement. And all those measures, but the problem is the regulatory backbone, the fines and the measures just really aren't there. They're [00:05:00] more voluntary, they're not that enforceable. And we're starting to get smart water meters. We have smart net metering for solar electric. We have smart gas meters, but we don't have super intelligent water meters yet. A where it's you just have one meter going into the home where the building in general, and we need to know it almost on a device basis, almost on a per person basis, like a ration. Some of these ordinances are quite good. They have water rations [00:05:30] per meter. Some of them are per person such as 60 gallons per day, but w we really have to get per meter and some of them do that with a 500% penalty at one level and a thousand at another.
Speaker 4:But we need that everywhere and we have to drill it through so that every building owner, every tenant, every homeowner, even your kids have a water budget. I think you should have almost a code at the tap or the shower per in the house so you can understand where the water's going [00:06:00] as well as capture, capture your gray water. You can do your black water from the toilets and treat it on site. That's proven. It's cost effective. Waterless urinals, composting toilets, all of that. And the regulations have to ease up. Gray water should be allowed everywhere. It shouldn't be difficult in California to be able to capture your tubs or your sink and yeah.
Speaker 1:What is the restraint you're talking about with some of the cities don't allow gray water at all because of bacteria or [00:06:30] what?
Speaker 4:Yeah, they're afraid of bacteria and even that dogs will drink the water and get sick and locally you can get gray water. But at one point you had to bury your tube into your landscaping by seven inches. I think they lowered that, but you can't capture the rainwater and treat it on site and put it in the toilets. And even in California, we're not as progressive as we could be in recapture and reuse who is progressive in these areas. Australia because they almost ran [00:07:00] out of water in Queensland. They, they went way extreme where car washing was outlawed lawns, even bathing. You had to capture your water. I remember being in the hotel and Sydney and Brisbane and they had a little like egg beater timer of three minutes on the shower. So you had had a sense that a shower should be three minutes. Uh, so Australia in the Queensland area is a great case study. They, they were gonna run out of water in three years and they turned it around significantly. [00:07:30] I also read that Singapore uses 30% recycled water and Israel has always been great in terms of water because they didn't have it and they invented the drip water irrigation and even desalinization using solar thermal so we could learn from Israel as well.
Speaker 1:So I, I just read an article that less showers actually can boost your immune system. So maybe, yeah. And you know, we don't need to bathe as much, we don't need to wash our hair as much.
Speaker 4:I just came from a campaign trip where I didn't shower for four, [00:08:00] four days. Yeah, I did go in the river and that helped a bit and my wife told me just not using the shampoo everyday was good for my hair. We're going to have to relook at our ways. Even the toilets. You could have the dual flush toilets, but we're, the average person is using 12 gallons of water a day just with the toilets and you don't need to do that. The number ones don't necessarily need to be flushed and you can have a dual flush and then even better one of these waterless urinals.
Speaker 1:Well somebody like you and who [00:08:30] knows what we should be doing. How do you translate that to the regular everyday person in Berkeley who maybe owns a house in a small yard or is renting house and what practically can they do that won't cost them an arm and a leg?
Speaker 4:There's a lot of things you can do around the house. First, Alameda County waste authority will give you almost free rain water barrels you can put around your house. I think I paid $40 each. They have a hose on it and you can get your downspout to run into [00:09:00] that and then use the hose to use that water for your landscaping or even washing your car. You can change the air Raiders on your faucets, on your showers, around the house. You can change out your toilets to low flow. A lot of these old toilets use three and a half gallons per flush up to five. The new good ones on a number one are about one gallon or less. Those rebatable from the water? Yeah, East Bay mud. We'll give you a water rebate [00:09:30] for your toilets. It'll give you rebates for efficient dishwashers and a washer dryers as well.
Speaker 4:They have water rebates, which is quite great. You can get efficient appliances. When you buy new, they can be quiet and save water. You can get rid of your lawn. One of the best things you could do, you can only go to car washes that have reclaimed water. You can ask them about that and you can look into gray water where you could capture your sink [00:10:00] or your top of your shower water. Ask Your plumber about that and then reuse that as well. So they're pretty simple measures. Look to the East Bay mud for rebates and guidance and education in terms of watering your plants. They don't want you watering them during the day at all. You should do it at night, only a couple times a week, if at all. Why is that? That's because, um, during the day you have a much higher evaporation of the water.
Speaker 4:It's not as effective. Even better, get [00:10:30] rid of your plant material that needs water and go to your local species of plants and pursue what we call a zero scaping strategy in Berkeley up in the hills of Tilden, there's a nursery. You can buy indigenous plants and they will, you can look up where you live and the climatic bio region there and get specific plants that used to grow there that don't need a potable water. And that's one of the best things. You could do. Documents, [00:11:00] cactuses, you can use more rocks, which are in boulders and more, uh, granted. And then when you're putting in a new sidewalk or a new driveway, make sure that it's porous. That means that the rainwater that hits it, it goes down into the aquifer to recharge it. Otherwise it just runs into the street. And then we have to treat it.
Speaker 4:And when we treat that water, it uses an enormous energy. And often we just send that water back to the bay and it's just wasted every drop [00:11:30] of water that hits your property first should be used and then captured. And then if you don't do that, let it recharge the Aquifer. So this is a ton of things you could do around your house. You could educate your kids, don't leave the faucet on when you're brushing your teeth. And that water is not free. Water's way too cheap. It's a precious resource. Without water, we die. And even us as adults, uh, even the green people, we forget. It's just too convenient. It's too cheap and we're used to it and we need to change our ways. [00:12:00] I was just thinking about agriculture and I was reading that, uh, there's different water signatures, certainly for the beef. We eat.
Speaker 4:So if you eat chicken, it's about a quarter of the water per pound of beef. Wheat is less and vegetables, even less than that. So going from your lots of meat towards a vegetarian diet is a good water strategy. What do you think's gonna happen with agriculture? You know, we've got billions and billions of dollars invested in this California agricultural market. [00:12:30] Yeah. And they are, they're pushing back hard. They're, they're trying to be more water efficient, but the fact that they're 77% is enormous. And when you look at the statistics like almonds, we're the biggest almond supplier in the world. It's not being used in California. And same for Alfalfa. And the water tonnage for that is extreme. There's also these ratios of water such as the beef versus the weed or the vegetables. And I think we're going to have to have water labels on our food. [00:13:00] Or You buy something, you have a sense of the gallons it took for the pound.
Speaker 4:But even more, I'm interested in the gallons per protein. Water is a luxury right now on earth and and we just can't grow everything as equal and it isn't and we have to understand not only the water impact and requirement for the food, but also the carbon footprint of what we're eating and when you look at meat or water treatment, [00:13:30] the carbon footprint needs to be there as well. So it's the overall ecological footprint, but not all food is the same in terms of water and we need to wake up to it and the best way to wake up to it as when you purchase it, you see that water label. We're looking for the labeling but mostly on the health side, but water is about health of the planet and our future.
Speaker 3:If you're just tuning in, you're listening to method to the madness. A biweekly public affairs show on k a l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay [00:14:00] area innovators. Today I'm interviewing David Godfrey, the father of the global green building movement. Today he's discussing the California drought and adaptation and mitigation strategies for residents of the state.
Speaker 4:The other interesting thing in, in my water research is the amount of water on earth is mostly salty. Uh, about 97% 2% [00:14:30] is in the melting glaciers and so the potable water we have access to is only 1% of the water here on earth. Now that pushes you towards desalinization program and in California we've got two big ones going on. There's one in San Diego that's $1 billion investment at a de sal because San Diego is one of the two cities running out of water. San Jose's getting hit hard along with silicon valley. The Bay area eight utilities of water got together and they're investing in about 200 million [00:15:00] in a water project as well. Yes, is on the forefront, but that's so expensive. The smartest thing we can do is conserve, capture, reuse and re and that would be enough. We wouldn't need diesel or we do, we need it all.
Speaker 4:Diesel is later. It's kind of like solar energy to save our energy, a hog attitude. It's not the first measure. The first measure that's the most cost effective is conserving energy. Amory 11th taught us [00:15:30] the Negawatt, which is a watt conserved as a watt saved. Same in water gallon conserved as a gallon. We don't need to diesel. So why spend so much money on an energy on diesel? It's very expensive that I think we can say 50% of the water in our homes and our buildings, agriculture can get more efficient, but we're going to have to start looking at the requirements for, for certain ag and either assess higher fines [00:16:00] or greater penalties or they're going to have to get into rainwater capture and other methods other than just depleting the aquifers. What are you working on right now? Well, I've always been obsessed with energy and water and equally water and since energy has so many cheerleaders these days, although we're not doing that great now that we cross 400 particles per million, but water doesn't have enough cheerleaders and as a a backpacker and just a person of the earth, [00:16:30] I've been worried about water and hoping we would wake up.
Speaker 4:And so it's always been a passion to elevate the importance of water without which we die. And this is not a major focus of mine, but it's always been a hobby in terms of new things. I'm working on my book explosion green just released and it's our 20 year story of the Green Building Movement in the world and how we have probably saved more carbon and CO2 [00:17:00] from hitting the atmosphere than any other organizations with the u s Green Building Council of our lead rating system. And then I took it overseas with the World Green Building Council and we just crossed a hundred countries with green building council's congratulations. Incredible story. That explosion green, uh, tries to get out there. And one of the most important parts is the, is the end where we look at why us, what were our ingredients for transformation, what did we do to take on the world's largest [00:17:30] industry? And how can other industries apply those techniques, whether it's a rating tool or a nonprofit coalition.
Speaker 4:Read all your books and I feel like you spent a lifetime toward this and we don't have that kind of time anymore. So early 20 years. And it does seem like a lot of, with all the pressures we have now in this, in the time of history, it's nothing. It's a blink button. The time of climate change problems and water shortage problems and even health [00:18:00] in our homes and our buildings, 20 years is a long time. Yeah. The scientists are saying, we've got about 15 years to get at climate change, right. And steering that ship in a different direction, fast, much more radical and explosive than we've ever done. But what's happening is these other countries that are creating councils, they're studying the u s GBC and lead. They're studying some of the other more progressive advanced countries like Canada and Australia [00:18:30] and Germany and England who have green building council's.
Speaker 4:So they're accelerating the greening of their building stock in their countries. But we do need to go much faster. We're playing right now in the realm of less bad. Are you doing 30% better than the code for energy? Are you 30% better in water? Or even our executive order for water is calling for a 20% more efficient. And that's just not enough. Not Enough. We don't even 50% is phenomenal, [00:19:00] but still not enough. The Earth needs beyond sustainability, which is neutral. We need regenerative. Everything I look at is for quantum leaps in performance that are regenerative. And that's your philosophy. Tikun Olam and Tikun Olam. Tell me Moon in Hebrew means to heal, to restore and Olam is the world and this is a Kabbalists comes out of the 17th century with this idea that at one point [00:19:30] there was a divine vessel of light and it broke and it dispersed into the world.
Speaker 4:And our job is to gather the divine light back into the vessel, which I think is really each of us and strive towards becoming whole and divine again and to heal the world, to heal our souls in the process we all should be working at Tikun Olam, which is to meet your regeneration philosophy. Yeah. To regenerate really starts at home and to start at home, it actually starts [00:20:00] in your, in your soul and you got to look at the toxicity at the food you're eating, at the beverages, at your movement, and in your mind what you think and how you think. And that as you get more whole will emanate in the products and services that you're making and and everything we have to do has to heal in a regenerative basis and then we can start getting to Tikun. Olam just seems like that's such a luxury for most [00:20:30] of the planet.
Speaker 4:There are certain areas of the world that we think about these things, other areas of the world, they're just trying to make a living. They're trying to find the next meal. How are we going to do this as a planet? It's, it's a huge challenge. It's a great observation because it's easy to sit here and Berkeley talk about Tikun and even water efficiency where many of us can just go buy new water efficient measures and there's about 1.2 billion people on earth who don't have clean water. There's several million [00:21:00] a year dying from water disease. There's a billion who have to walk a mile to get water and so I need to get off my high horse a bit and embrace your question and we're talking about water efficiency, but we're the highest water user in the world by 200% and the ratio over a place like Somalia is 50 x.
Speaker 4:We're 50 times and some of these places have HIV problems. They have war, they have famine, they don't have shelter, they have illiteracy. [00:21:30] It starts with education. I interviewed Paul Hawkin recently for a conference I'm doing called explosion green. You can go to explosion green.com and check it out. It's a free global conference with 40 Gurus I interviewed. He said one of his measures he studied in his newest book that brings the greatest energy efficiency is education. I was looking for the new gadget and he said, no, it's education. If we can educate people around the world including water efficiency, that's [00:22:00] the greatest conservation measure. I think we can learn from a lot of people in places like Somalia because they don't have water. I remember giving a keynote in Japan to the welcome that Japan Green Building Council 98 on Earth Day and I had taken a tour of some of their older structures and some of the monasteries and everything was like 500 years old and it was still standing.
Speaker 4:They had overhangs on their structure about eight feet and had no nails. Everything was local [00:22:30] and tongue and groove and just this incredible natural ventilation pouring through these windows that didn't have direct sun even though it was about a hundred degrees and I just sat on the floor there staring around at the construction and thought, why am I here? They have it. They just have to get on the tour bus that I did go see the old structures and learn about local and long lifecycles and and durability and about natural ventilation [00:23:00] and understanding the sun. I've almost never seen in the u s a building that had the right overhang for the exposure and it drives me nuts when we build new homes, new buildings, and the heat is just beating up on the window and pulling that heat into the building. So it has to have cooling.
Speaker 4:Uh, we have better windows, but it's, it's best to understand the nature from which we come. And these older societies are much more local in their water footprint. Their energy signature is lower as well as their obesity. [00:23:30] They walk, they use bicycles, and then we're exporting a lot of ideas. And in China, I've seen this, I used to love when I went there in 2000 everyone seemed to be biking. And then a few years later that motorbikes that were spitting pollution in the air, and later years, everyone's getting cars and soon the bikers aren't on the road and then they're getting fat and they're just going in the wrong direction. And we're to blame for a lot of that. We need to go back to those indigenous and learn from them. What were you doing [00:24:00] in Mount Shasta? Most of this, their water supply is in great danger. Yeah, the water was so low in the upper Sacramento, it was a quarter of what it used to be. You could weight across the McCloud river or the upper Sacramento with without even deep pools. And I remember 20 years ago I could barely cross the river and their points, you couldn't do that. The current would be so great, it would just pull you in as a fly fisherman. It was hard to even find where the fish, cause there weren't pockets of water
Speaker 1:and [00:24:30] we were on the Colorado used to flow so fast. Now it's so low and it's kind of still, and people who spend much time in there often leave with river rot in between their toes or you know, I mean that never happened before.
Speaker 4:And [inaudible] they do say it's linked to climate change and you know, we need to wake up, we need to wake up that the things we take for granted, our air, our water, our soil, our energy, they're all limited. And there's a, an impact of overusing, [00:25:00] certainly over polluting. And those externalities are really part of us that we need to own them.
Speaker 1:How do we create an environment where I understand what you're saying and I know it's all true and I should do this and I should do that. But the truth is if I pay enough money, I can get as much water out of the faucet as I want. A student here at UC Berkeley doesn't have to worry about that when they're running the shower. What realistically is not going to happen until we absolutely don't have any water? Is that when we're going to change? How [00:25:30] do we make that lead? That's the challenge. I think
Speaker 4:I went to the men's room on the way here for the interview and I could have run as much water as I wanted to do. The UC Berkeley saying it's easy to pass it on. It starts with education, so we all need to understand the state of the world of water. We need to wake up to some of these statistics we've talked about, but then we have to go further. I think technology can help a lot. I think water sensors where we have a sense of how much water we each [00:26:00] use every day as well as how much carbon and that we're liable for going over our water. By do you mean like a fine a fine penalty in our homes? In our dorm rooms, every student, every household, every business should be having a water budget. And when you go over there should be significant fines. I think with these sensor technologies, we are going to have unique ips with our phones that could be linked to our water budget [00:26:30] and you might have to put in a code your code or your some kind of computer bar code. That's your water. It's like your social security is linked to your, either by
Speaker 1:and you need to be rewarded, find and rewarded. But that's policy issue.
Speaker 4:It's a policy. But local government can do a lot. They're already doing a lot. I'd like to see them go further. I Read About Alameda County's ordinance in this crisis and they recommend a 20% reduction. But if you violate it, they say they'll [00:27:00] knock on your door. If you violate it again, you get a second warning and at some point maybe they can shut off your water. But are we really doing that? I don't think so. So I think with sensor technology was smart water meters with individual accountability with fines is great. But how about at the back end incentives? We could have the water awards and I agree with the, I think if you're a water steward you should be recognized. Maybe you get certain benefits. Maybe you get new appliances for free for your [00:27:30] home from the water utility. I think frankly all homes certainly in Berkeley should be retrofit immediately with new toilets, with new air Raiders.
Speaker 4:And I don't think it should be voluntary with rebates. I think they should just show up with the new water corps and paid by the utilities. But who's going to come up with that? Money is, I mean the city has to come up with the money to retrofit every, I think we should issue California state and even city bonds that fund water [00:28:00] retrofit and the savings of the water and not having to do billion dollar diesel like we do in San Diego or the 200 million went out here. The cost of future water supply is going to approach $1 trillion in the world and Gosh, we could have hundreds of billions of that here in California. So we need to wake up. And I believe that smart investment bankers partnering with Private Equity With cities and bonding capability [00:28:30] and even tax credits could all come together to create water investment funds.
Speaker 4:And that money should be putting a new toilets, waterless urinals everywhere, composting toilets, rainwater capture barrels. And I think you could hire a million people to go through California and do it. So there are jobs and we need to wake up. We need to do it now. And 50% should be our target for savings. I'm very passionate about this. We're at a crossroads of whether our species [00:29:00] will be here. The billionaires of the future need to be those who help water be regenerative, health, energy signature go down there. They're not only doing something great, they're doing something good. It's more about the life journey and looking deeper at why are we here? What are you supposed to do with your time? Once you learn how to make a living, that's great, but then what? What's your legacy? And so I'm kind of obsessed with legacy and stewardship and it is immersed in this concept [00:29:30] of Tikun Olam of what's the legacy you left behind and did you plant seeds for change that will continue to grow when you're not here. So David, you have a, you can tell our listeners want to know more about you and your work. Yeah, so my main site right now for the book and my new free conferences explosion, green.com if you want to go deeper into my background, it's d got free.com it's d, g o t t f R, I e d.com. [00:30:00] It's always nice to hear what you're doing. Thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 3:You've been listening to method to the madness. If you have questions or comments about this show, go to the calyx website, find a method to the madness and drop us a line. Tune in again in two weeks at the same time, have a great weekend.
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