25 January 2012

Better Than Bitcoin!

There's a new currency insinuating itself into our economy.   Bitcoin is an experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world.  Well, I can do better.

Right now I'm working with a College that has built up an inventory of the routine consumables - paper towels, liquid soap, floor cleaning solvent, and - yes - lots of toilet paper.

They have plans on transferring the responsibility of owning the inventory to their housekeeping contractor's account, and don't want to inventory all their current stock.  What to do?  Here's the proposal: The College will make payment to the contractor in materials as they are used, in lieu of monetary compensation.  Value will be set at "fair market".

Toilet paper is now monetized.  Think of it as large rolls of tear-off bills.  Better than Bitcoin.


08 January 2012

Is LEED bloated?

This past week, I have been working furiously to complete and report the mandated hours of continuing education to maintain my LEED AP credentials.

In my readings, course work & exams, I was struck by the extent to which trade organizations have gone to offer alternatives for certification.  A notable one is the relatively new National Green Building Standard,  The Whirlpool Corporation, in some continuing education course material, describes it as "the first ANSI (American National Standards Institute) consensus standard on sustainable Green Building for residential construction. A collaborative effort between the ICC (International Code Council) and NAHB (National Association of Home Builders), the Standard provides the ‘green’ practices that can be incorporated into new homes including multi-family buildings, home remodeling and additions, hotels and motels and the site upon which the green homes are located."

Why?

The NAHB has published a comparison of green home rating systems (http://www.nahbgreen.org/Content/pdf/GreenHomeRatingComparison.pdf).  There's a very telling passage in the Executive Summary of that document.  They state the cost for the first level of compliance in LEED-H (“Certified”) was calculated at roughly three times as much as the NAHB Model Green Building Guidelines or the National Green Building Standard equivalent levels (“Bronze”) overall for this sample chosen.   Other comparisons were similar.

Even the Department of Defense is apparently reconsidering its commitment to LEED, according to a recent blog by The Builders Counsel (http://www.builderscounsel.com/2012/01/no-more-leed-gold-or-platinum-for-department-of-defense-maybe-not/).

Are we moving on?