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A quarterly newsletter of WEI’s network of members and partners

WEI Update Archives

Winter, 2003/2004 Newsletter

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Winter 2003/2004 Table of Contents

 

A Greener Shade of Building for Wisconsin

Jeff Rosenberg and David Simon

On June 3, 2003 the Green Built Home program doubled the number of homes it will certify as Green Built for 2004.

This very significant program development was the result of Don Simon Homes and Midland Builders, Dane County’s two largest homebuilders, merging to form Veridian Homes. Don Simon Homes President, David Simon, referred to the deal as an "eco-merger."

The new company, named for a shade of green, will build all of its future homes to Green Built Home and Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Home standards. Veridian Home’s sales projections for 2004 are approximately $143 million, with more than 640 home closings.

WEI Executive Director, John Imes, referred to this commitment to the Green Built Home program as "a greener shade of building" for Wisconsin. "We’ve been working with Don Simon for years," he said. "We’ve been impressed with their investment in green building technology, practice, and mindset."

Since June 1, 2001 all Don Simon Homes have been Green Built. Since 2002 Don Simon Homes has been an Industry Leader level sponsor. Jeff Simon, Executive Vice President of Operations, is also a member of the WEI Board of Directors as well as the Madison Area Builders Association Green Built Committee. Don Simon Homes has also taken an active role in marketing and promoting the Green Built Home program.

In addition to their commitment to Green Built Home and Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Home, Veridian Homes has also made a commitment to specialize in neighborhood developments that retain and highlight environmental characteristics of an area and maximize land use with a blend of housing styles, community centers, and recreation areas.

"Being a Green Built Home certified builder lets us provide value and satisfaction to our homeowners and be a service to the community," Jeff Simon Explains. "We’ve only been involved with Green Built Home for a year and a half. There’s still a lot more we can do with the way we build and the products we use."

"Veridian is important not just in terms of the number of homes they bring to the program," says Green Built Home Program Director Nathan Engstrom, "but more for what they represent to the future of green building in Wisconsin. If a production builder of this size can commit all their homes to the program there’s no reason every builder in the state can’t as well."

Veridian Homes also represents an opportunity to significantly impact the supply chain of green building materials available in Dane County and beyond. A builder with their buying power, clout, and leverage could easily get local suppliers to stock green building materials that are not currently readily available. Also, their ability to purchase products such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified lumber could not only help encourage local suppliers to stock these materials, but make them available to the general public at competitive prices as well.

Veridian Homes is also positioned to lead by example with such initiatives as a comprehensive construction waste management and recycling program. They are currently piloting the on-site grinding of construction lumber waste and working with local authorities to utilize the material for erosion control.

Efforts such as these can demonstrate the feasibility of environmentally appropriate construction methods to builders across the state and show how easy it is to do well financially by doing good environmentally. Veridian Homes, the Madison Area Builders association, the Green Built home program, and all our builder and sponsor members will work together in 2004 and beyond to promote a greener shade of building across Wisconsin.

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Director's View

The renewed focus on regulatory reform in Wisconsin need not turn into another tired debate over "economic growth" versus "environmental protection." We need not ignite another "Green War" that will hurt our ability to achieve the healthy business climate and environmental quality every Wisconsinite deserves.

There is a better way.

The Dec. 15th Environmental Policy Forum, sponsored by the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative, will bring together leaders from business and industry, state agencies, the Legislature and environmental groups to reach an understanding on the need for both regulatory reform and environmental quality. Forum participants will be challenged to look beyond the top-down, prescriptive solutions of the past and to examine innovative strategies and policies that can lead to positive environmental results and a more productive business climate. Fortunately, environmental goals, performance-based strategies and new directions in environmental governance offer a great place to start.

One such example – to be described at the Dec. 15th Forum -- is the effort to clean-up the Charles River in Boston. In 1995, the regional EPA administrator declared that the long-contaminated Lower Charles River (running for 80 miles) between Cambridge and Boston Harbor would be clean enough for swimming by 2005. This was quite a pronouncement given the river’s water quality supported swimming only 19 percent of the time.

However, through stakeholder collaboration and a creative mix of permit enforcement, incentives, effective and frequent progress measurement (involving 37 sample points along the river) plus unique public education and information tools, the river’s water quality has improved so that it now supports swimming over 70 percent of the time.

Imagine Wisconsin developing similar projects that bring business and community stakeholders together, establish time-specific environmental goals, measure progress and then work to make resources such as the Milwaukee River, Lake Michigan beaches or Lake Wingra clean enough for swimming all of the time?

There are many opportunities for environment-focused, performance-based strategies to add environmental and economic benefit:

Clean energy goals:
The WEI Energy Forum working group recommended setting a statewide goal of new clean megawatts (or negawatts) of power to help spur development of newer and cleaner energy technologies. State and local energy task forces should consider setting a clean energy portfolio standard so that the total amount of new investment in conservation, energy efficiency, renewable technologies, green building and distributed generation would accommodate the projected 2 to 3 percent (250-400 Megawatts) growth in energy demand each year. Sound unreasonable? A recent market study by Orion Energy Systems shows that more robust energy efficiency initiatives alone could deliver more than 1,500 MW of reduced power consumption in Wisconsin. This strategy, coupled with the replacement of old, inefficient power plants with new, vastly more efficient ones, would dramatically reduce air pollution and other effects while providing more jobs and a safe, reliable and affordable energy supply.

Green smart growth:
Opportunities abound for environmentally-focused smart growth and development. One idea is to do green developments as demonstration projects involving proactive area developers and builders working with regulators from Dane County and the Department of Natural Resources. The developments would utilize low-impact design, Green Built Home criteria and practices to protect waterways and other natural features while avoiding or significantly reducing environmental impacts. Projects like these would receive fast-track permitting, one-point regulatory approvals, lower fees and other incentives not available for typical developments. The resulting lower carrying costs and reduced risk would offer real competitive advantage for developers and builders investing in green building and low-impact development. Similar opportunities can be extended to Wisconsin’s dairy industries to reward innovative use of technology, practice and mindset, and reduce the environmental impacts and conflicts associated with livestock operations.

Green Tier for Wisconsin business:
 Wisconsin needs to pass meaningful Green Tier legislation to get cooperation from reluctant industries, DNR staff and environmental groups to try something different to achieve economic and environmental goals. Green Tier represents the next generation of environmental management with an emphasis on environmental performance, flexible compliance, legal accountability, management systems and other incentives.

We can end the "Green Wars" -- through stakeholder collaboration, setting environment focused – performance based goals, and emphasizing flexibility and accountability for environmental and economic outcomes, we can also achieve our aspirations for an improved environment and a healthy business climate in Wisconsin.

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Striking the Balance for 2003 and Beyond

Tom Still and distinguished panelists at the event

A sluggish economy and the announcement of projected budget deficits over the next two-year budget cycle makes it clear that very tough choices will have to be made when it comes to setting environmental priorities. Given the problem of shrinking resources and complex environmental issues, improved environmental protection will depend on the ability of lawmakers and agency staff to effectively focus limited resources.

WEI’s Environmental Policy Forum: Striking a Balance for 2003 and Beyond, brought together state leaders from the legislature and the Doyle administration to share ideas on how to focus limited resources to ensure that state environmental goals continue to be met, while over 125 audience members representing the broad spectrum of business, environmental and citizen groups weighed in with their own environmental priorities.

A distinguished panel moderated by Tom Still, President of the Wisconsin Technology Council and including Scott Hassett, Secretary, Department of Natural Resources; Rod Nilsestuen, Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection; Senator Neal Kedzie, Chair, Environment and Natural Resources Committee; Senator Rob Cowles, Chair, Energy and Utilities Committee; Representative Mark Miller, Assembly Natural Resources Committee; and Peter Bock, Administrator, Division of Energy identified: 1) their top environmental priorities over the next four years and 2) their ideas for addressing those priorities given the need to improve Wisconsin’s economy while tackling a $3.2 billion dollar budget deficit.

The panel discussion and audience surveys revealed many priorities held in common by both policymakers and representatives of non-profit, business and government groups. In particular, the passage of the proposed Green Tier bill was identified as key in promoting environmental responsibility among businesses. If passed, Green Tier would allow companies with superior environmental performance to opt out of more burdensome oversight. Such an approach, said Secretary Hassett, would allow agencies like the DNR to rely less on a "command and control" posture with respect to environmental regulation and offer the kind of innovation and flexibility that would attract more businesses to the state. Secretary Hassett touched on another oft-mentioned issue—groundwater use and protection—stating that he’d like to see Wisconsin on the cutting edge of water policies with "proactive, not reactive policies.

Campaign finance reform was also cited as a priority, with Senator Cowles stressing the significant role soft money plays in environmental policymaking. He cited Alliant Energy’s recent decision to pull out of the soft money business as an important step, and hoped that other utilities would follow suit. Senator Cowles also emphasized the importance of distributed power generation, and incentives for locating power plants within brownfield redevelopments.

Land use was another primary concern of many attendees, with Secretary Nilsestuen commenting on the rapid conversion of prime farmland into suburban developments. The apparent backlash against Smart Growth initiatives was also discussed, with Senator Cowles stating that any setbacks to Smart Growth would be "tragic." Responses from over 100 attendees yielded many suggestions for addressing environmental priorities:

  • Improve efficiency and effectiveness through better cooperation between state agencies (DNR, Commerce, DATCP, DOT and Tourism) with emphasis on removing redundancies, prioritizing activities and potentially privatizing some functions in order to better allocate funds for results.
     
  • Provide flexibility and simplify permitting and compliance requirements for model businesses and developments. Offer incentives to catalyze improved business environmental performance, such as reduced fees and permit review timelines.
     
  • Develop effective collaborations between environmental groups, business and government to leverage funds and matching grants for natural resource acquisition (e.g. Stewardship Fund) and additional environmental initiatives.
     
  • Keep agriculture profitable and environmentally sound by cultivating widespread social and financial support for Wisconsin farmers, while working to understand and address the potentially negative impacts of agriculture. The Wisconsin Agricultural Stewardship Initiative was cited as an effective way to balance the environmental and economic impacts of agriculture.
     
  • Emphasize Smart Growth to reduce costs and environmental impacts of sprawling developments. One audience member suggested incorporating density factors into the shared revenue formula which would reward communities that grow in a more compact manner.
     
  • Secure Wisconsin’s energy future in a way that benefits businesses, consumers and the environment. Emphasize greater investment in energy efficiency, emission reductions, and reliability enhancements. One survey response recommended an "energy efficiency portfolio standard" which requires verified investments in energy efficiency as a supply-side requirement for utilities.
     
  • Focus on protection of groundwater quality and supply and managing non-point pollution and in-state water usage.

The March 17th dialogue is an example of how WEI’s Environmental Policy Forum can be a valuable tool for increasing communication and collaboration among diverse stakeholders. To ensure that these collaborations are continued, WEI has launched an online discussion board at http://www.wi-ei.org. Use the discussion board to give feedback and continue the dialogue about emerging environmental policy issues and ideas. Moreover, WEI is planning future policy forum events and initiatives which will engage stakeholders in action-oriented, outcome-driven discussions and help find innovative ways to enhance Wisconsin’s environment and economy.

Finally, WEI wishes to thank the League of Conservation Voters, Wisconsin DNR, DeWitt, Ross & Stevens, Boldt Construction, Madison Gas & Electric, WisBusiness.com, the Wisconsin Realtors Association and the Wisconsin Technology Council for their generous contributions that made this event possible.

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The Art of Collaboration
Guest column by Kay Plantes, PhD

Regulatory solutions that advance both Wisconsin's economic health and its environmental health are possible. Without collaboration, however, we are unlikely to find the answers.

Despite its importance in helping groups identify advantageous solutions for all sides, most people do not understand collaboration. Frequently used as a synonym for agreed-to-compromises, collaboration is far different. Collaboration emerges when two-sides to a conflict agree to change how they do things to achieve a shared goal. Collaborative efforts also involve communications that build trust rather than damage relationships. Collaboration unearths win-win solutions, solutions that are far better than compromises that attempt to minimize loss to each side of a conflict.

Whenever a higher level shared goal exists, a collaborative solution is possible. Here are five ground rules for attempting to resolve conflicts collaboratively:
  1. Always remember that no one person or group has the whole answer. Communicate freely and openly but not to argue. Rather, focus on the need to share perspectives and to understand. Each person has expertise needed in the mix to find a break-through solution. We must depend on and trust one another in order to find an optimal solution.
     
  2. Search for common ground. It is very easy to find all the areas of disagreement and to pick at one another's perspectives. Better to first search for common understandings and the insights that can serve as a foundation for discussion. Progress is made by listening carefully, separating out critical patterns in the data, and working together to find a higher level goal.
     
  3. Use conflict constructively. Differences are inevitable -- including differences in basic values and understandings. It is important to respect disagreements rather than try to hide them. Accept the tensions and use the differences to expand our thinking. The most important skill in making constructive use of conflicts is being able to level with another person without attacking, blaming, or demolishing self-esteem. Working with conflicts is a critical part of learning. Without constructive conflict, little true collaboration can occur.
     
  4.  Freeze negative assumptions. All too easily we can believe we understand motives and intentions with little or no evidence, encouraging, in an inadvertent way, misunderstandings and mistrust. If we opt to believe in these negative assumptions about another's motives, then it is our responsibility to share them with the people they are about, and to provide feedback about the behaviors which trigger our feelings. To communicate at this level requires the capacity to take the risk to display personal concerns and insecurities in an open, sincere, "authentic" manner.
     
  5. Consciously build trust -- Ask for feedback. None of us knows ourselves so well we cannot benefit from the perspectives of others about how we are coming across. We need to know what behaviors cause others to feel negatively and doubt our integrity. When conflicts involve mistrust and create a major drag on progress, it is time to find out about what we are doing that contradicts the values, such as honesty and forthrightness, that we say are important. Discovering these blind spots, the opportunities and means to improving relationships become apparent.
    6.

    *Oestreich and Plantes

Kay Plantes is a corporate strategist and senior leadership team coach. She is founding partner of WHY!, a strategy consulting organization that asks deeper questions in order to arrive at better results for client organizations and their communities. You can reach Kay at kay@whystrategy.com 608-233-8519

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Calendar of Events

December

11: Practical Energy Management-Secure Savings in a Changing Economy, Green Bay, WI: Energy Center of Wisconsin, 608-238-4601, www.ecw.org

15: Environmental Policy Forum-Ensuring Environmental Quality through Regulatory Reform and Innovation, Madison, WI: Wisconsin Environmental Initiative, 608-280-0360, www.wi-ei.org

17: Clean Energy for a Brighter Future Conference, Madison, WI: Sierra Club, 608-257-4994

January

8-11: Home Builders Expo, Milwaukee, WI: Metropolitan Builders Association, (262) 436-1111, www.mbaonline.org

29-30: 4Th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment, Washington, D.C: National Council for Science and the Environment, (202) 530-5810, www.ncseonline.org

February

18-19: Better Buildings: Better Business, Green Bay, WI: Energy Center of Wisconsin, 800-466-4631, www.ecw.org/betterbuildings

March

1-3: Power-Gen Renewable Energy Conference, Las Vegas, NV, 888-299-8016

5-7: Home Products Show, Madison, WI: Madison Area Builders Association, (608) 288-1133 x2, www.maba.org

14-16: National Green Building Conference, Austin, TX: National Association of Home Builders, 800-368-5242 x8338. www.nahb.org

17-18: Seventh Annual Sustainable Enterprise Summit, Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute, (202) 729-7600

18-20: Greenprints 2004, Atlanta, GA: Southface Energy Institute, (404) 872-3549, www.southface.org

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In Brief/Coming Soon...

Owning Waterfront Property—updated for 2003
A new edition of the WEI brochure Owning Waterfront Property: A Checklist is now available. Updated for 2003, the brochure offers ways to protect your investment while also preserving much-needed natural habitat. Topics covered include lawn and garden care, building and remodeling and wildlife habitat and aquatic plant protection. Also included is a list of links to current state and county information about shoreland habitat regulation and protection. You may view the updated brochure online at www.wi-ei.org, or call us at (608) 280-0360 to receive a copy by mail.

Energy Policy and Global Climate Change – A Path Forward
About 250 people attended a conference addressing energy policy and global climate change sponsored by Alliant Energy, the Natural Resources Defense Council and nine other organizations involved in the future of energy and the environment. Executive Director John Imes helped moderate the event which featured speakers and participants from around the world who joined in a dialogue focused on finding consensus in taking action to address global climate change. For more on the conference, please visit: www.alliantenergy.com/environmentalconference.

Energy Watch Forum: If not in my backyard….where & how?
In another energy related forum, WEI participated on a panel which helped define "the public good" on issues related to the siting & construction of power plants and transmission facilities. For more on the forum, please visit www.energywatchwi.com/forum/summary.asp

DNR Innovation Stakeholder Committee
WEI is participating on this committee and related sub-committees in order to explore cooperative ways of protecting the environment. Its 50 participants represent legal, business, advocacy, academic and local government perspectives and competencies. Secretary Hassett chairs the committee and encourages it to help DNR craft an agenda for change.

Mayor’s Energy Task Force
Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz invited WEI to serve on the Energy Task Force to help develop and implement strategies on energy efficiency, conservation and green building design, and develop a long-term energy generation and distribution plan for the city.

Green Built Home welcomes new sponsors and builders
Green Built Home welcomes its new sponsors and new participating builders. New sponsors include Applied Ecological Services, a landscape design and consulting firm; Duerst Energy Consulting and Insulation, distributors of NuWool cellulose insulation; City Wide Insulation, distributors of Johns Manville formaldehyde free fiberglass insulation; Park Towne Development Corporation, local real estate developers; Superior Wood Systems, manufacturers of engineered wood products and insulated headers; TemTek, distributors of RenewAire heat recovery ventilators; and Weather Shield Windows and Doors. New builders include Scherrer Construction of Burlington; Bonk Building Company, LLC of Janesville; Fredenberg Construction and Silverstone Construction, both of Cottage Grove; Gilbert Construction of McFarland; and Timberstone LLC of Columbus. Learn more about these program participants online at http://www.greenbuilthome.org.

Green Built Home web site redesigned

Green Built Home is pleased to announce the launch of a redesigned website at http://www.greenbuilthome.org. The new site design has been developed for increased ease of accessibility and use, with links for homebuyers, building professionals and sponsors. The site will showcase participating builders and sponsors and offer access to program resources such as the Green Built Home Checklist, the Buyer's Guide and the Green Built Home Product Directory. Program participants will also be able to download all necessary forms from the site. Take a look--we welcome your feedback!

Coming soon...

The 2004 Green Built Home Checklist will be available by January 1st. Look for an entirely redesigned Checklist, with new sections, increased point values for certain Checklist items, and a reorganized and consolidated format that will be easier to use and understand. Green Built Home is also excited to introduce the Green Guide label. Similar to the familiar yellow "Energy Guide" label found on appliances, the Green Guide Label will graphically illustrate how many points each certified home has earned.

 

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