Green Building Gaining More Converts

by Jim Welte, Marin IJ reporter
Wednesday, May 04, 2005

It's a project some think might have a chance in Marin County. How about a sprawling ecological theme park showcasing the environment, sustainable living, energy efficiency and hip technologies?

Fairfax entrepreneur Greg Snowden thinks that's just the ticket if Marin hopes to be a hub for an emerging business niche - the green, eco-friendly building trade.

The Marin Economic Commission, charged with recommending economic policies, has picked green building as one of the three industry sectors, or clusters, it hopes to target for future growth.

David Swope of Sausalito (left), with the help of Green Fusion Design employee Nathan Houchin (right), looks at options for replacing his kitchen floors at the Green Fusion Design showroom in San Anselmo. Special to the IJ/Erin Lubin

"If Marin really wanted to be at the top of the green building game, they would build a demonstration facility that would be off the charts - eco hotels, future technologies, a gigantic theme park for green building," said Snowden, founder of the Green Fusion Design Center in San Anselmo, which sells eco-friendly building products. "Something like a Buck Center for Sustainable Living."

The idea is not new.

In 1979, as the county debated the need for a commercial airport at Hamilton Field, Sausalito architect Sim Van der Ryn and others pushed for a sustainable "Solar Village" there instead. Both the airport and solar village plans were rejected by voters who rebelled when faced by an alphabet soup of competing ballot measures.

In 1991, Oakland architect Eugene Tsui helped design a gigantic ecological theme park on 680 acres in Brisbane for a Taiwanese corporation. The idea was to use the park to teach the public about the environment, but the project never got off the ground.

Tsui said he would love to see Marin find a place to put a similar development.

"It would be a global project and it would in a sense put Marin County on the map," Tsui said. "It would definitely become a global attraction."

But even if visions of a sustainable living ecological park rising from, say, Marin Town and Country Club in Fairfax or the St. Vincent's-Silveira tract in San Rafael seem remote, business leaders say green building is here to stay.

That's because green building is the fastest-growing niche in the construction business, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, and is becoming the economical - as well as environmentally conscious - choice of developers.

Green building covers a range of environmentally friendly and healthy building practices, such as using alternative energy sources like solar power, organic building products and non-toxic materials.

Previously, both commercial and residential developers, as well as homeowners looking to remodel, avoided building green, primarily because the cost of developing green buildings was 5 to 10 percent higher than traditional construction. But the green premium has narrowed in recent years, and green building is winning converts.

More than 30 federal, state and local agencies have adopted the energy-efficient and environment-friendly standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council, which certifies buildings as green under its three-year-old Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

And the county's Community Development Agency has converted as well, offering lower permit fees and faster permit processing for projects that meet certain green building standards. The county also waives the design review process and reduces permit fees for the installation of solar photovoltaic panels.

Even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is on board. The governor's plan to invest $2 billion in rooftop photovoltaic systems through state rebates and incentives was approved by a state Senate energy committee last week.

Local contractors are starting to take notice. Last month, 24 North Bay contractors and public officials completed the second certification seminar in San Rafael by the Bay Area chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. The program intends to standardize what a green building is, and the Bay Area chapter has certified more than 300 in the past few years.

Snowden and John Shurtz of Green Builders of Marin, which has eight green-certified contractors, have formed the North Bay Green Remodelers Guild to raise awareness.

"And it's a great marketing tool," said Shurtz.

Shurtz changed the name of his 20-year-old construction firm four years ago, and doesn't regret it. "I get tons of calls now because people Google 'green building' and they find me," he said.

Business is also booming at places like San Rafael's Sun Power & Geothermal Energy Co., which installs solar photovoltaic panels, according to its sales manager Brendan Neagle. He said the company's revenues have grown by 50 percent every year since it started in 2001.

"Sun Power is installing more residential solar systems now than we ever have," he said.

While the green building business appears headed for a boom, some Marin environmental sages are skeptical about Marin's place in the movement.

Van der Ryn, for one, said county government should be praised for promoting green building and energy efficiency, but added that Marin is a long way from being able to call itself a home for sustainable, environmentally friendly living.

"Since consumption co-relates with income, Marin doesn't have a lot to be proud of," he said. "We're just a big leaky bucket."

He said Marin can contribute financial capital and some innovative thinking to the green building business, but little else. "I don't think we'll be making much here," he said.

Fellow Sausalito resident Paul Hawken, co-founder of gardening supply chain Smith & Hawken and one of the nation's leading green business advocates, called it "curious" that Marin has been sluggish in this regard.

"Marin is odd because it can certainly afford to be environmentally conscious but it can also afford not to be," he said. "There is no economic imperative for people to change their behavior. You would think it would be a leader in the country but it's not. There are plenty of other places that are way ahead of where Marin is.

"Marin is bringing up the rear."

Hawken pointed to the lack of green building supply stores or environmentally oriented shops in towns like Sausalito, Corte Madera, Larkspur and Mill Valley.

"I travel all around the country and I come back and sort of marvel at Marin," he said. "There is a kind of complacency, and it's reinforced by the fact that we live in such a beautiful, pure, green and clean area."

Hawken, a 27-year resident of Sausalito, wants to help change that. His latest company, the Pax Group, is a collection of alternative energy and applied engineering companies that hopes to expand in Sausalito.

"We will be the largest taxpayer in Sausalito, and we will create amazing jobs here," he said.

But if he is unable to get his proposal for a two-story office building headquarters approved in Sausalito, he said he won't hesitate to move the firm south. "San Francisco is trying to get us (down) there," he said.

Snowden, the San Anselmo green products entrepreneur, holds out hope for the green building industry in Marin. He launched his firm in January 2004 to showcase green building products that consumers typically first find out about online.

"It's a way to get some significant players in here," he said. "I hope we can be the place people come to learn more about green building."