This past Tuesday, February 5th, Sacramento Habitat for Humanity Construction Site Supervisor Scott Higgins discovered that his site, 1017 Frienza Avenue, had been vandalized and over $2,800 in tools were missing. The tools were being kept in a locked storage container located on site behind a locked fence.  Suspects broke the lock which was concealed inside a metal chamber located on the exterior front of the storage container and removed the construction tools inside which included a Yellow 6000W Generator on wheels (valued $2,100), a skill saw, a cordless drill set, and various other miscellaneous building items totaling $2,800 in losses for Sacramento Habitat. Frienza Avenue is one o

Sacramento, CA)  Sacramento Habitat for Humanity’s newest homeowners, Chula Yang and Mai Kao Thao, will receive the keys to their new home this Saturday, February 16th, 2013 at 10:00 a.m thanks to a full home sponsorship by JPMorgan Chase. The Thao/Yang Family came to the United States from Thailand in November of 2004 in hopes for a better quality of life.  “In Thailand,” explains Mai Kao, “there is no way to better your life.  No way to get work.  We moved here to give our children a future.” Upon coming to the United States the Thao/Yang’s initially settled in Georgia with relatives.  Mai Kao recalls, “I felt we must have made a mistake.  In Georgia, we found ourselves in more poverty

Sacramento Habitat for Humanity joined the US Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2009 and has since built 16 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified homes.  With 8 Gold and 8 Platinum Habitat homes under his belt, Dan Wilson, the Director of Construction for Sacramento Habitat and the pioneer of SHFH’s green building efforts says, “It’s the first tie I have ever liked.” In 2010, SHFH led by Wilson was awarded “Achievement in Excellence” by the US Green Building Council for the LEED program.  In 2011 and once again  this year in 2012, SHFH finished as a top 3 finalist in the nation for the USGBC.   Wilson believes, “For a small time affiliate with a limited budget,

Sacramento International Airport’s new Terminal B received LEED Silver certification, airport officials announced Tuesday. The terminal is the largest in the United States to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, according to a press release. “Achieving LEED Silver certification on two buildings this large, with such intense daily public use, speaks to the vision and collaboration of the airport and its partners,” said G. Hardy Acree, director of airports for the Sacramento County Airport System. Nicknamed “The Big Build,” the $1.1 billion project was completed in October. Throughout the building process, officials

     The Sacramento County Airport System has received a $150,000 rebate from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) for energy efficiencies built into the design and construction of Terminal B at Sacramento International Airport. SMUD director Rob Kerth (Ward 5) will present the SMUD Savings By Design Program check to the Board of Supervisors at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 10, at 700 H St.     According to SMUD energy advisers, measures in place at Terminal B would yield a greenhouse gas reduction of 793 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of planting more than 33,000 trees or removing 165 cars from the road.      The airport’s Big Build design team worked clo

The Winn Center on the Cosumnes River College (CRC) campus will be unique as one of the few instructional buildings with LEED certification on California community campuses. Completion of the Winn Center for Architecture and Construction Technology is scheduled for fall 2013. Its 24,000 square feet will serve as a gathering place for construction and architecture professionals, provide classroom space and laboratories. It will also be home to  photography and pharmacy programs. The $13.7 million center will be funded by local bond money and private donations, the largest contributed by brothers Mike, Tom and Pete Winn. Theirs is the largest private gift in the history of CRC. The Winn f

What: The Greenest Building Documentary Film, followed by a panel discussion on the connections between historic preservation, green building and economic sustainability. When: Monday, July 25 at 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Movie 7:00 PM, discussion panel 8:00 PM) Where: The Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street, Sacramento How Much: Free! Over the next 20 years, Americans will demolish one third of our existing building stock (over 82 billion square feet) in order to replace seemingly inefficient buildings with energy efficient “green” structures. Is demolition in the name of sustainability really the best use of natural, social, and economic resources? Or, like the urban renewal programs of the 1960’s, i

Please join us on Wednesday evening, May 25th beginning at 5:45pm at the AIA Central Valley Chapter office for the this month’s 4th Wednesday Design Dialogue (4WDD). Gus Fischer, Architect and Partner with Dreyfuss & Blackford Architects will present their project, The California Independent System Operator (CA ISO) Headquarters facility. Gus will discuss how they are achieving LEED Platinum and its impact on the culture and community. This secure 275,000 SF complex on a 27 acre site is a consolidation of the organization’s operations, offices and public education components and just completed construction. The event is FREE and open to anyone. Refreshments provided. Please RSVP to info@

How can we design ‘greener’ landscapes in Sacramento?  With the growing focus on water conservation, responsible use of resources, and the impacts of the built environment on human health and well-being, the conversation about what makes a site design ‘green’ is being elevated to a higher level. From pre-design and planning through construction and operations, a new rating system, dubbed ‘SITES’, has been developed which sets the bar for what we can do to design more sustainable places.  Developed to be incorporated into future versions of the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, SITES is currently in its pilot project phase.  Please join us on Wed

Sacramento City Unified School District is getting some national help to renovate and make some of its more than 80 campuses more eco-friendly. A full-time sustainability officer will help schools meet LEED standards as part of a program through the U.S. Green Building Council, said Rachel Gutter, director of the Center for Green Schools, which is based in Washington, D.C. “(We) were impressed by your community’s enormous undertaking to become the greenest region in the country,” Gutter said, adding that beginning districtwide sustainability measures takes a large amount of time and money. The Green Schools Fellowship Program aims to help improve school sites to make them more environme

Hot Italian, having just been awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), held an open house on Saturday and welcomed guests to a self-guided tour. The self-guided tour was held in order for guests to come by and see, touch and feel the green features at Hot Italian. Sacramento Municipal Utility District had several representatives to answer questions regarding energy efficiency and business services. SMUD representatives that were there spent much of their time helping customer and answering questions. One of them indicated why they were there, “We’re here to talk to people about energy efficiency. We are also here to educate people to see what they can do to conse

Nearly two years after opening, Hot Italian received the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification. The Midtown pizza parlor is the first restaurant in the city to achieve the high-ranking environmental designation from the U.S. Green Building Council. Mayor Kevin Johnson joined owners Andrea Lepore and Fabrizio Cercatore at Hot Italian Tuesday to announce the LEED Silver status. Johnson praised Hot Italian for its environmental efforts. “This is about pro-business, pro-environment and pro-pizza,” Johnson said. Co-owner Andrea Lepore pointed out the restaurant’s sleek black-and-white color scheme, saying that it was environmentally friendly but not the co

Sacramento State students won’t be disappointed with their investment. The WELL officially opened Thursday in front of a crowd of 250 students, faculty, staff and community members. The University’s new 151,000 square-foot recreation and wellness center was paid for by a student fee approved by students in a campus-wide referendum. “Today is a historic day for Sacramento State,” said Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez. “I especially want to congratulate the students, because you are the ones who came to me and told me this is what you wanted, and you worked very hard to make it happen.” “I know for many, many years you’ve been looking forward to this day, and what a day it is

Sacramentans driving past Sixth and Q streets might be wondering what the towering building is that resembles a nuclear cooling tower mated with a jungle gym. If they say it’s “cool,” they’d be on the right track. The multistory tower is part of the state of California’s rebuilt Central Plant, which provides heating and air conditioning to all 23 state buildings in the city. “It’s all for heating and cooling the state buildings,” said Project Director Joel Griffith of California’s Department of General Services. “We serve three functions: steam, chilled water and compressed air. It’s all sent through underground piping.” Most functions are currently on line, but some final tests need t

Visiting the Sacramento County animal shelter used to be so depressing. Dogs were in small, dirty kennels with a chain-link fence on every side, and concrete above and below. The cats fared no better, in crates that resembled cat carriers. It was hard to find a happy feline among the bunch. Horses were in small holding stables and had to be covered with blankets in the winter to protect them from the cold. With the opening of the shelter’s new facility in October 2009, things improved greatly for furry guests. The main building takes up five acres, so the facility has a lot more to offer. “It has habitat rooms in the front area; you can see cats in what we call their natural habitat, lou

This Tuesday, clean tech players from around the region will gather to discuss the latest industry buzz at CleanStart’s PowerSurge networking mixer at McClellan Park. The event includes a tour of Technikon’s Renewable Energy Testing Center (RETC) as well as several other clean tech businesses located in McClellan Park. Featured speakers include Robert Weisenmiller,  who was recently appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger as one of the five commissioners for the California Energy Commission (CEC) and Kristine Mazzei, partner at Valley Vision, a nonprofit association working to secure the social, environmental and economic health of the Sacramento Region. "The Sacramento Region's clean techn

On Saturday, over 30 Democrats and friends helped build a house for a Sacramento family. When the team arrived, they found an empty lot, with only a concrete foundation and piles of lumber that would soon become the walls of a home. By the end of the day, the structure of a home had replaced the empty lot. Event organizer, James Schwab said, "We helped to build a house but we also built friendships and relationships that will help us build a better Sacramento in the future." The cold, foggy morning did not dampen the volunteers' spirits. After touring a recently completed nearby home, the team received instructions from site supervisor, Terry Hardin and set to work building a new, LEED ce

The good news is that sustainable or "green" home construction and remodeling -- and the businesses making it possible -- have been growing in Sacramento. The bad news is that the recession and other factors are making it hard for those businesses to stay afloat. Fledgling businesses that have taken off only within the last few years during a recent green building movement are being threatened by the virtual shutdown of housing projects and a lack of widespread support for ecologically friendly building materials. Businesses like Green Sacramento and GreenBuilt Construction also are suffering due to other types of income loss. "The economy is just taking its toll," said Green Sacramento

The new retail/restaurant concept, Hot Italian, on the corner of Q and 16th Streets, is embracing green ideology in its entirety, completely renovating an old, vacated retail space with a sleek new design that Mother Nature would be proud of. Andrea Lepore, co-owner of Hot Italian, had the environment in the front of her mind when she first had the idea for Hot Italian. The reason is simple. "I think the environment is important to everyone,” she says. “Especially when you're in a space where you're eating, drinking, and relaxing. We wanted to create a restaurant that offered healthy food, but was also healthy to be in." Lepore decided to pursue a Leaders in Energy and Environmental Desi