The fifth San Diego EarthWorks GreenBuilt Tour, a self-guided visit to homes and businesses featuring environmentally sensitive construction, is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 15 and 16.
The tour includes visits to 14 buildings located across San Diego County from Ocean Beach to Jamul, were constructed with several sustainable practices and technologies, including active and passive solar power, nontoxic and recycled materials, and bamboo flooring.
The tour will feature an Ocean Beach cottage, Ocean Beach People’s Organic Foods Market and Sun Harbor Marina in Point Loma.
Tour development director David Cohen said he expects several hundred people to take part, adding that about one-third of the attendees say they plan to build or remodel with these technologies in mind.
The growth of environmentally safe practices has yielded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. Buildings must be in compliance with stringent material and construction standards before they can attain LEED certification. There are currently only five LEED-certified projects in San Diego. Two of them “” Sun Harbor Marina and TKG Consulting Engineers in Mira Mesa “” are featured on the tour. Only 15 projects throughout the nation have received the platinum rating, LEED’s highest.
Nothing out of the ordinary so far “” until you consider that much of the tour’s moral support comes from a source not typically associated with all things green.
Cohen noted that state government “” which harbors an odd mix of environmental promotion and traditional development practices “” has markedly advanced sustainability and is leading by example through its Green Building Initiative.
The executive order, signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2004, sets a goal of 20 percent energy use reduction in state buildings by 2015.
The order notes that state buildings consume $500 million in electricity annually. It further states that California’s commercial buildings use 36 percent of the state’s electricity and account for a large percentage of greenhouse gas emissions, raw materials use and waste.
“Government in California has taken the lead in this area,” Cohen said. “Whatever else you may think of Governor Schwarzenegger, he’s very good at this.”
Admission is $12; proceeds go to San Diego EarthWorks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of environmental issues. It hosts the annual EarthFair in Balboa Park and the EARTH Awards.
Tickets and more information about the tour, including its schedule of public forums, are available at www.GreenBuilt-SanDiego.org or 858-272-7370.